Quibi: Fame vs Influence and the Power of Equity
Over a year ago, a popular story was about how the #1 dream job for children is to be a Vlogger/YouTuber in America and the UK. This was above being a a professional athlete. This was above being a rock star. This was above being an A list actor. What does it mean?
Here’s my interpretation:
Gen Z grew up watching Youtube more than they watched movies. The same can be said for avid TikTok’ers or Instagram influencers.
Social influencers put up regular content which creates a cadence in the lives of the people they touch. Influencers are part of people’s daily lives and they are the entertainment portion. The same can not be said for traditional celebrities. Watching a movie featuring an actor is a once a year activity.
Top tier stars are distant from their fans. I include top professional athletes, actors and musicians in this list.
Quibi’s demise is in large part of not recognizing this shift. In the mind of Katzenberg and Quibi’s executives, social influencers are D listers or at best B listers who are aspiring to become A listers. What Katzenberg doesn’t recognize is the daily grind of content creation makes social influencers closer to the people.
Fame might make stop stop and pay attention. But it doesn’t make someone trust. It doesn’t make people have a vested interest in your success. That requires influence. Influence takes time and effort that all of the cumulative stars Quibi were not willing or capable of putting in.
This brings me to another point. Being a top tier influencer is not easy. It is demanding and requires lots of creativity and energy to come up with persistent content. Kim Kardashian has likely worked more and harder than the vast majority of the people in the world. The fact that she makes it look easy is even harder.
Many people at this point might bring up: What about Ryan Reynolds and Aviation Gin? Ryan Reynolds owned close to 40% of Aviation Gin at one point. How much of Quibi do the A listers own in Quibi? They were hired guns and Quibi’s management deluded themselves into thinking they would care about something that is only a small part of their lives.
This brings me to another point. Overpaying A listers for endorsements is now an ineffective strategy. Quibi did it indirectly. Others are still doing it. That era is over.
One company did do things a better way. Triller did things the better way. They gave equity to influencers from TikTok (https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2020-07-28/creators-leave-tiktok). This is what Quibi should of done but didn’t.
Triller got the people on the grind and they gave them a stake in the whole pie. This is the underused marketing strategy of the moment. Equity compensation. Companies give it to everyone as an incentive. Everyone except the people they pay to be the faces of the company. This is the new opportunity. How long it lasts will depend on the stubbornness of the old guard.