Homefluencers or how influencers reinvent themselves

The coronavirus crisis and the period of containment imposed many challenges on brands and required rapid adaptation of communication channels.

Sales and marketing operations were canceled or postponed en masse. The question then arose: should we continue to communicate, and if so, how?

Confined influencers have become “Homefluencers” and have confronted these problems by reinventing themselves, whether to entertain, mobilize, or initiate social actions. Rapid adaptation and new behaviors that extend beyond confinement.

Influencers have also lived through the crisis

Influencers, like companies, have suffered the effects of the health crisis: cancellation of events, trips, contracts, particularly in the fashion, travel, or luxury goods sectors.

Having become Homefluencers, those who used to share pictures of paradisiacal places had only their home as decor. It soon became clear that we could no longer communicate in the same tone and that everything had changed.

The key was to reinvent yourself. The setting of the confinement also restricted the creative field of many influencers who had to find new ways to communicate. Standing out is harder between four walls, but it’s also a stimulating challenge.

Influencers quickly understood how they could help their communities get through this period. It is worth noting that, if the KOLs did not hesitate to share their daily life, it was always with an optimistic and benevolent tone, far from catastrophism.

Influencers have also discovered a new role: to have influence is to have a social responsibility. We have quickly seen initiatives multiply on the networks, whether they come from influencers or from confined users who have also shared their skills or their daily lives more easily.

We’ve seen an innovative commitment develop, but also new opportunities and a big craze for live formats, online concerts, and video aperitifs.

Homefluencers, between mobilization and entertainment

How have influencers reinvented themselves? With creativity and humor, but also with depth and meaning. That’s the period that wanted it. With creativity, because producing content without landscape and context can require a lot of imagination.

With authenticity, because they tended to go behind the scenes. With closeness, too, because they were more present and both communities and influencers were experiencing the same situation on a day-to-day basis.

These new Homefluencers offered many types of content that brightened up the days of the confined spaces: cooking classes, sports tutorials, live discussions, concerts. Everyone shared a little bit of what they knew how to do best.

From the very beginning of the crisis, influencers have been called upon to mobilize, whether to convince populations to remain confined or to communicate on health actions. We saw it with the OMS’s #SafeHands campaign, which called on numerous personalities to produce music videos on TikTok. With the Spanish Health Minister’s appeal to influencers like Dulceida and the hashtag #QuedateEnCasa.

Or with a video featuring 50 French influencers, including Norman or EnjoyPhoenix, to call for “ResterChezSoi” from the start of the crisis. We will never be able to measure the impact the influencers’ messages had on the morale of the troops, but they undoubtedly contributed to making the containment more acceptable.

Beyond the call for mobilisation, influencers have not hesitated to promote or initiate social initiatives. Like Chiara Ferragni, the Italian influencer who raised 4.3 million euros for a Milanese hospital.

Continuing to communicate in times of crisis with Influencer Marketing

Brands have also faced these challenges: changing their tone, being socially acceptable, and finding ways to connect with customers through digital. An interesting study by Berlin Cameron and the Perksy company underlines that, while the majority of millennials are pessimistic about the crisis, 43% of them believe that brands must continue to communicate and have a role to play.

But it involves innovation, creativity, adaptability, the right tone of voice, and useful initiatives.

Brands such as Coca-Cola, Audi, or Volkswagen, for example, have modified their logos to convey the message of social distance.

Some brands did not hesitate to use influence to communicate during the crisis: Oreo changed its slogan to “Stay Home. Stay Playful”, a campaign that continued with a TikTok challenge combining brand promotion with a socially responsible message. Etam called on its ambassadors to create live sports shows, with aria.official as a yoga teacher on Instagram.

Influencer Marketing has shown that it can be flexible and useful, that it is just as capable of initiating a solidarity movement as it is of entertaining.

In the face of rising web traffic, the boom in e-commerce and digital during containment, influence marketing has allowed brands to continue to communicate by adapting quickly. Influence marketing, therefore, appears to be a powerful strategy in the face of the unexpected, provided it is managed methodically and authentically, and also well-targeted, because in times of crisis it is synonymous with budget optimization.

It is an opportunity to develop quality content and new bonds of trust. We are talking about opportunity, not opportunism. It is therefore a necessary reinvention, both on the side of the brands and on the side of the influencers.

Once the confinement is over, the crisis is still there and we do not know how the influencers will reinvent themselves again. One thing is certain, this period has brought about a return to basics for many individuals and influencers alike. It has also prompted dialogue, exchange and has forged new links between certain influencers and their communities. Many people became Homefluencers during the confinement, trying their hand at live performances behind their cooking or mixing tables. The digital world has been, by necessity, more authentic, and alive.