Reykjavík Grapevine - 19.05.2017, Blaðsíða 24

Last year, Guðrún Veiga Guðmunds-
dóttir, one of Iceland’s most promi-
nent ‘Snapchatters’, broadcast her
wedding through Snapchat and 4%
of the nation tuned in to follow the
wedding of a perfect stranger. It was
the royal wedding of a person only fa-
mous for posting ten-second snippets
of her life. She belongs to a new strata
of celebrities, so-called "influenc-
ers", people who through the power of
Snapchat and other apps have gained
momentous access to the public
A couple of years ago I felt old for
the first time. I was reading the news
next to my younger brother—born in
2001—and noticed a headline that
read: “Vine stars cause riot in Kring-
lan shopping mall.” I turned to my
brother and asked, “what is Vine?” He
answered that it was a “thing where
people post six-second videos.” “Do
people become celebrities for that?” I
asked him.
New uploads to Vine have now been
disabled—which makes me feel even
older—but with it a new kind of celeb-
rity was born: People who become fa-
mous by posting videos of themselves
doing something/nothing, for audi-
ences of tens of thousands who de-
votedly tuned in every day. Today, the
platform has changed and Snapchat
has taken over.
Going through the most popular
and influential "Snapchatters" in Ice-
land is, in one word, confusing. I find
it hard to fathom how people going
to the gym, eating food and clean-
ing their homes somehow counts as
entertainment. But the fascinating
thing about it all is the seamless tran-
sition between the mundane lives of
strangers and advertising. Suddenly I
felt a strong urge to buy a dildo, a gym
membership, get my non-existent car
cleaned and have my eyebrows done.

RAPPING THE
BANDWAGON
Erpur Eyvindarson, aka Blaz-
Roca, is the godfather of Icelandic
hip-hop, having brought the scene to
the mainstream almost two decades
ago. Two weeks ago he jumped on the
Snapchat bandwagon and in that short
time gained thousands of followers.
He argues that the medium has al-
lowed individuals to break through the
stranglehold of traditional media.
“There is incredible power in hav-
ing access to the public and through-
out human history there have always
been hyenas that want to control that
access. We know that God doesn’t exist,
but it was an important moment when
people didn’t need to talk to a cape-
wearing pedophile to get in touch with
God,” he says. “Of course there are a lot
of foams on there, but the people I like
are just real shit—guys you’d never see
on TV, because some marketing geek
who studied in London says you can’t
sell it.”
Traditional media like TV stations
operate within a linear programming
model: Content is funnelled to the
viewer, who has no say. But increas-
ingly the way we consume culture is
trending towards self-catering.
“What makes Snapchat amazing is
that if you don’t like what a person is
doing you don’t have to follow them.
I don’t give a shit if somebody wants
to bleach their asshole on Snapchat, if
people want to do that then great—go
nuts,” says BlazRoca. “The other thing
about Snapchat is that everyone gets a
shot—everyone can get their 15 min-
utes of fame. The individual takes con-
trol and can get around all this capital-
ist control bullshit. The smaller units
we have the better.”
Perhaps it is better that today in-
dividuals can utilise new mediums to
grab a piece of a pie that has always
been reserved for ad agencies; that
we can gain direct, unfiltered access
to others. But as those new mediums
grow, marketing departments get sav-
vy about their power.

MONETISING OUR
DAILY LIVES
Logi Karlsson, a marketing specialist
at Íslandsbanki and a doctor of mar-
keting, understands the power of di-
rect contact.
“The power of new mediums—like
Snapchat—is that they can deliver
content cheaply and fast. This evens
out the playing field between large and
small actors,” Logi explains. “The rea-
son why companies want to use popu-
lar ‘Snapchatters' is probably twofold:
They have many followers, which
means good distribution, and second-
ly if the product fits the person then it
will very likely resonate with his fol-
lowers and, therefore, entice them to
buy the product.”
According to Logi, younger con-
sumers are increasingly tuning out
of traditional media. They watch TV
shows on Netflix and want to be in
control of what they consume. The ap-
peal for companies, however, comes
from the possibility of building a two-
way street with customers.
“I think most people agree that
Snapchat will be incredibly important
for marketing in the future,” Logi says.
“But traditional media is adapting to
the changing environment and are
starting to cater advertisements to the
individual consumer.”

HIDDEN ADVERTISEMENT
Running the gauntlet of popular in-
fluencers who now have taken over
my Snapchat feed, I am aware that I
am regularly being marketed to. But,
while an ad in a newspaper is identi-
fied as such, I have to know instinc-
tively that I am watching an ad. A
Snapchat video of somebody drink-
ing Coca-Cola isn’t a slick TV ad, it’s
a sneaky way of reminding me of the
product. And because these are "real"
people we the consumers can identify
with them and, by proxy, the product.
It is interesting that each influencer
I interviewed has either promoted
products, or been offered the opportu-
nity to do so.
Snapchat’s own guidelines state
that ads must be labeled as such, but
this is often not the case. The debate
about the legality of ambiguous Snap-
chat ads has been raised in Iceland,
and last year, the Consumer Agency
released guidelines, which state that
sponsored snaps need to be easily
identifiable.
But then again, hidden ads aren’t
a new thing. For decades movies have
played the same trick James Bond tells
us to buy an Aston Martin, Trans-
formers want us to clench our thirst
with a Bud Light, and it’s questionable
whether Adam Sandler movies are in
fact “movies” and not just 90-minute
ads with fart jokes.

DIRECT CONTACT OR
JUST MIDDLEMEN?
Such is the power of Snapchat that
marketing companies have sprung
up in recent years that specialise in
connecting popular influencers with
brands. One of the more prominent in
Iceland is Eylenda.
“Snapchat is only going to become
bigger,” says María Hólmgrímsdót-
tir, co-founder and owner of Eylenda.
“Most Snapchatters have built up a re-
ally cool follower base and it’s an easy
way to get a message across in a fun
and personal manner.”
When you look at people talking
right into the camera through Snap-
chat you get the feeling that people are
talking directly to you—that the mes-
sage is meant for you and no one else.
This allows ads to seem personal and
even intimate. And this is why compa-
nies hire influencers to promote their
products.
“It varies how much people make—
mainly dependant on your number of
followers. Some take on big assign-
ments and others smaller, some people
do it often, others more infrequently,”
María explains.

HONEST ASSOCIATION
Having recently joined Snapchat, Blaz-
Roca has not use it to promote prod-
ucts, yet. He has, however, advertised
concerts through the medium and
promoted a recent gig solely through
Snapchat, forgoing more traditional
avenues. The result was a packed out
show, accomplished without any mar-
keting budget and ad agency. When it
comes to plugging products, however,
BlazRoca claims that the key phrase is
honest interest.
“Making a living from being an art-
ist is hard work and if people want to
support you then that is always great,”
he says. “But it’s a question of whether
you are advertising something cool.
I’ve received millions of offers to be
connected with this or that brand. But
if somebody would ask me to become
the Breezer buddy, then I’d take that
bottle and smash it in the guy’s face.”

THE PR GENERATION
No matter how confusing I find the
phenomena of influencers, it is prob-
ably logical that the first generation
of internet natives, raised on reality
TV and trained to become their own
PR agencies as their lives were thrust
into the public eye through social me-
dia, would find them interesting. Of
course it’s shallow and vapid, of course
it reeks of narcissism, but this is an
age where reality TV stars can become
leaders of the free world and pretty,
vacuous young models can solve the
world’s problems by drinking Pepsi.
So let’s celebrate the coronation of the
mundane royalty, while I delete all
these influencers from my Snapchat
account.
This allows ads to seem personal and even
intimate. And this is why companies hire
influencers to promote their products.
“I think most people agree that
Snapchat will be incredibly important
for marketing in the future.”
When it comes to plugging products,
BlazRoca claims that the key phrase
is 'honest interest.'
“I don’t give a shit if somebody wants to
bleach their asshole on Snapchat, if people
want to do that then great—go nuts.”