Well Someone has Got to Pay Them || Thoughts on Content Creation

I’ve been in the business of Instagram for over 12 years now, and it’s been incredible to watch the dynamics between viewers, creators and the Instagram platform change over and over again. What started off as a platform to share personal photos has become one of the most incredible advertising machines the world has yet to see. A place to showcase your products, your lifestyle and of course your thoroughly exciting life.

I believe that the platform now finds itself at a crossroads; that of commerce and authenticity. Both valid of course, just need better labeling, which is the root cause of this crossroads. In the simplest of terms; we were once conditioned to believe everything we saw, and if it came with a commentary we would invariably believe that too, which is precisely why Instagram was such a potent advertising tool. At the start it was just normal folks sharing their favorites.

Over time these authentic reviews were revealed as the most potent way to promote anything, which is why the terms advertorial content was coined (not to be confused with the more transparent influencer marketing), which is defined as, “a blend of advertising and editorial, designed to promote a product, service, or brand while maintaining the tone and structure of an editorial piece. It aims to engage readers with informative, entertaining, or persuasive content that subtly encourages them to take a specific action, such as making a purchase or exploring a service.”

This seemed like a win-win at the time, with content creators being paid for their service, and companies getting exposure. Disguised as a simple video about how to get dressed for a Friday night date or a recipe which just happens to include three types of dairy from the same manufacturer suddenly became a lucrative transaction. Over the years, Instagram attempted to improve transparency on these matters with flags such as ‘paid partnership’ and ‘collaborators’ but it was difficult to police. Fractures between viewer and content creator emerged due to the lack of clarity on whether or not the recommendation was paid or authentic. Advertising has probably existed in one form or other for centuries now, the disconnect was born out of a lack of transparency.

The viewer has over time, developed a thicker somewhat more cynical skin. This means that the once convincing advertorial content is no longer as effective, to the extent that the hashtag #thisisnotanad has been developed for those who genuinely have a recommendation to share, and wanting to gain credibility for it..

For the past decade or so, the viewer or consumer of content has paid zero dollars for this service. It was a formula that the corporate world came up with to control what the viewer saw. A good parallel is the difference between ‘regular’ tv and Netflix or any other subscription model tv platform, if you don’t pay for the service you are forced to watch endless advertisements squeezed in at the most important segments of the show. I’m sure many of you remember the pre-Shahid era, where we found ourselves navigating the Ramadan tv show through all the advertising.

I believe that content creation in all its forms is one of the most undervalued services. It takes hours of research, curation and execution, and ultimately these content creators need to be duly compensated for their time.

Content creation was never a 9–5 job, it stems from passion, and I often think about these influencers and how their arm is twisted at times to incorporate paid content into their feed, and I ask myself, ‘wouldn’t it make more sense to just have the viewers pay a nominal fee and be rid of paid content’, it could potentially be more lucrative, and also more sustainable for the influencer’s livelihood, as their credibility will no longer be in question. Unlike the Netflix model, this suggestion would see us subscribing to individual influencer pages, which Instagram would then take a commission off.

There is already a subscription model on Instagram, rolled out only to a few countries, and still in its infancy; it is currently being used by content creators to provide more exclusive content to subscribers, and so benefiting from both advertorial partnerships and subscriptions. I believe that as this model becomes more widespread, things will naturally change and subscriptions will replace corporate advertising dollars.

Yet another important downfall of this excessive use of advertising dollars by large companies is that it drowns out the emerging talent that has little to spend in the way of advertising. So our feed is inadvertently flooded with the same large corporation products. Have you ever asked yourself why everybody seems to like the same 10 items, advertising is only one part of the answer. The second half is how Instagram itself monetizes the platform which is of course primarily through sponsored ads. Companies of various sizes and budgets pay as little as $50 a month to ‘sponsor’ an ad, which in layman terms means, have more eyeballs on it. Instagram’s promise to these advertisers is that their post will be seen by as many people within their target audience that their budget allows. The first thing Instagram attempts to control is the amount of time you are on the platform for at any given time. The longer you are on, the more likely you are to see a sponsored ad. And how exactly do they do that you may ask? It’s by showing you more of what you are browsing. The more familiar and relevant items are to you, the more likely you are to keep scrolling. Once they know that they have earned your attention with content that you favor, they can then squeeze in sponsored content that matches what you are interested in.

This makes a lot of sense, if I stop every time I see a video about kittens, then they will give me more of the same, and then perhaps squeeze in a few pet shop sponsored ads. The downside of this is that Instagram, a place where you believe you are ‘exploring’ new content becomes an extremely predictable place, and we often think that everyone is seeing the same content. I was totally shocked to know that not everyone’s explore was made up of dog videos, some people that prefer monkeys, get monkeys. When I found this out I said to my friend, ‘but I didn’t know there were monkeys on Instagram!’ That’s because we only see what we ‘want’ to see. Which rings very true of the Gaza genocide. Those actively promoting awareness see so much Gaza content that that they mistakenly believe that it is just as available to others. Unfortunately, although important, sharing content about Gaza on Instagram feels a lot like preaching to the choir, it doesn’t penetrate those unaware individuals enough.

Circling back to my first paragraph, I believe that Instagram is now at a crossroads and what used to work, won’t work for much longer, and collaborative advertising in general is at a pivotal point.

Already corporate interest in influencers is waning, the all-inclusive trips to hip destinations by e-commerce sites such as Revolve for social media influencers is a thing of the past. This is due to two reasons actually, the decreasing effectiveness of advertorial content and secondly the changing interests of Gen Z and the even younger Gen Alpha that place a high value on sustainable and Earth-friendly practices. This in turn encourages corporates to invest in such activations to gain attention and credibility with these important target markets.

Another change is where we as consumers place our trust, with customer reviews playing a much larger role in influencing our purchases. It is no wonder that we are plagued with prompts encouraging us to leave a review for a discount or store credit.

The third element that is changing is our view of content creators, writers, stylists, artists, comedians, chefs and the list goes on. With an acknowledgement of the time and effort exerted and the need for compensation for this content, which until recently we expected for free. The media world is finally putting their foot down, and providing limited free access to online articles, after which one is required to subscribe to view the full content. Platforms such as Substack have emerged, allowing content creators to monetize their content through a subscription model, in a transparent way.

These are promising changes that come at a poignant time given the incredibly fast-changing content landscape with Ai. As voices are raised on the ethical practices of content collection by Ai, we are forced to take a serious look at human content, and how it is valued. The optimists will say, ‘it’s about time,’ the pessimists will say, ‘too little too late’. Time will have the final answer.