‘Follow me to’ couple recount how one image changed it all
The creators of some of the most iconic travel images on social media — Murad and
Natalie Osman — took the stage yesterday, explaining how one image on
Instagram changed the world.
Their ‘Follow me to’ project started off with an image of Natalie reaching back to hold her husband’s hand in front of a graffiti wall in Barcelona in 2011. Soon after, they took the same shot in various unique travel destinations around the world and kicked off the project that transformed them into some of social media’s favourite travel influencers worldwide.
“After experiencing the ‘viral effect’ of that one picture, we received 200,000 followers on Instagram. It was not planned,” Murad said, in a casual chat with the audience.
The Russian couple, who said they stumbled on fame by accident, said their projects go further than spreading great photography. “We have kept the identity of our brand and rejected around 90 per cent of proposals for collaborations with brands and only picked those that have a similar philosophy,” Murad said.
He said many brands underestimated the power of social media over eight years ago, while other smaller influencers jumped on the commercial train way too soon.