Stars can earn a million – just from blatant plugs
THE stars of Love Island can earn £1.5million (€1.7m) a year just from posting sponsored messages on their social media pages, according to brand experts. The contestants, whose antics on the show caused viewing figures to surge, have amassed millions of followers on Instagram. And every follower helps boost their earning potential. In exchange for documenting their daily life online, and posing with, for example, a protein shake, brands can offer them about £2,000 (€2,200) each per post.
For really popular contestants such as Camilla Thurlow, 27, who was once linked to Prince Harry, those rates could climb even higher.
Dumped Love Islanders and power-couple Jess Shears and Dom Lever have already started to cash in on their following, using their social media profiles to promote adverts for everything from teethwhitening products to watches. Celebrities tag their posts with the hashtag ‘sponsored’ to show that they are being paid for the message.
But Ben Jefferies, chief executive of Instagram marketing company Influencer, warns against too much exposure.
‘For our influencers, we recommend limiting themselves to one sponsored post a week and certainly only one product of a similar nature per month. If you promote two different protein powders in one week, your readers will lose trust in your recommendations and unfollow you.’