Quintessentially founder aims to shake up influencer market
THE founder of Quintessentially has launched a venture making it harder for social media “influencers” to trick advertisers with fake follower numbers while also allowing them to generate donations for charity.
Aaron Simpson is leading Kindred, an app which connects influencers to specific brands and charities.
The influencer can pick a product to advocate, receive a link and, when followers buy the products, donate some of their earnings from the sale to charity. Kindred takes a 5% cut from brands which achieve sales through the site.
Influencer marketing has been rocked by mistrust since stars were shown to have inflated follower numbers with fake accounts. Rather than focus on the claimed number of followers, Kindred focuses on sales, giving the corporates data on the stars’ performance.
Simpson said: “A lot of people are genuine but a small minority just see it as a cash grab from marketing directors who are nervous of the whole industry.”
Simpson has signed up 2500 brands including Walmart and Disney, 75,000 charities and 850,000 users.
He added: “People don’t often have time to sit in a bath of baked beans to raise money for charity. This is a simple way to do it.”