OPINION:
“Who’s here for Prime?” shouted duo KSI and Logan Paul at Bryggetorget at Aker Brygge earlier this week. This is how they create a hyper-commercial community when they advertise their energy drink,” wrote Mathilde Hogsnes.
The program at Aker Brygge consisted of a 15-minute stage performance. As the two arrived on stage, they opened with “Who’s here for Prime?” to the great delight of the audience.
Later, they spoke directly about one of the products “Lemonade, what do you think?”. They specifically looked at someone in the audience and said, “Oh, you got the Limited Edition from LA, how did you get that?”.
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In other words, they have made no secret of the fact that they are there to sell the product.
In 2022 world famous influencers developed a new energy drink, Prime.
Logan Paul is an American influencer with 23.6 million subscribers on YouTube, 26 million followers on Instagram and 17.6 million followers on TikTok.
KSI ranks as the second most influential influencer in the UK with 11.5 million followers on Instagram, 12.8 million on Instagram and 16.2 million subscribers on YouTube.
The fact that this duo, with such high influence, stands behind the product, generates huge worldwide engagement with teenage boys as the target group.
Creating a hyper-commercial community
During the show, influencers engage audience members to, among other things, create content for their own social media channels. They had spectators perform stunts with energy drinks, and encouraged those in attendance to throw empty bottles at them. Content that engages Instagram and TikTok viewers is also documented.
When the stage show was over, I saw a crowd of people running towards the influencers. I observed two elementary-age boys wearing Prime T-shirts and, last but not least, a follower carrying two meter high posters of the event onto the tram.
Young people documented the event with their own professional cameras, most likely creating content for their own social media.
The events and commitments associated with Prime have resulted in a community where followers are directly involved in the commercial world of influencers. As a result, adolescent boys play a central and unconscious role in beverage marketing.
Teenage boys become an integral part of marketing
Influencers Paul and KSI own part of the Prime brand, but primarily the “Congo Brand” is behind the development.
It is common practice for influencers to be part owners of a brand, while there is often a large commercial tool behind it. However, to followers, brands are presented as belonging to influencers, and it is the connection between the influencer and the product being sold that makes engagement so strong.
This is how they create chaos around their brand
Products are marketed through recommendations, experience and/or personal experience.
In a statement at P1 Morgen, Anna-Bertha Heeris Christensen at the Copenhagen Business School stated that the engagement around Prime is not about the soft drink itself, but about the community that has been created around the drink. I support this argument. I also support university lecturer Iben Bergstrøm, who shares interesting insights on scarcity and conformity marketing.
Not only for Prima
The commitment can also indicate that we are moving in a direction where our commercial and social lives are becoming more integrated.
In contrast to our “offline” lives, social media contributes to a system where information, entertainment, outreach, and commerce are always available and interconnected.
Followers are encouraged to take part in the influencer universe by sharing their experiences with the products and services themselves, and influencers create content based on follower engagement.
We also saw an example with a Norwegian influencer. A prime example is Oskar Westerlin’s chocolate bread, which grew into a trend on TikTok where followers create their own content where they test the product.
Obviously for us – but not for everyone
As a result, hyper-commercial communities are formed both on and off social media where customers, in this case influencer followers, play a central role in product marketing.
These developments contribute to challenges regarding commercial transparency where it becomes difficult to distinguish between what is social and what is commercial in our lives. A development that we must follow closely.
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This is an opinion, and expresses the opinion of the author. Do you want to write on KOM24? Send your posts to meninger@kom24.no.
“Freelance bacon fanatic. Amateur internet scholar. Award-winning pop culture fan.”
