The barter economy: #sponcon anyone?

By Gonzalo López Martí – Creative director, etc. /    LMMiami.com

• A friend of mine has a son in his teens.
• Mickey (not his real name) is an only child.
• Solid kid.
• Bright.
• Curious.
• Not a jock but fairly athletic.
• A bit of an underachiever at school though.
• When left to his own devices, his grades are not particularly stellar.
• My friend and his wife, aka his parents, have tried all sorts of methods to try and get Mickey to up his academic performance.
• Stick and carrot.
• Unfortunately, a few months back his already lackluster grades took a turn for the worse.
• Time to wield the stick.
• Mickey’s allowance was cut to zero.
• No more cash or credit.
• So long Uber.
• Au revoir Netflix.
• Adiós Spotify premium.
• A few days later, mi friend spots a suspicious post on Instagram: Mickey devouring a towering stack of waffles, piled high with a ½ lb of colorful toppings.
• Plus a ½ gallon açaí berry smoothie on the side.
• That very night mom and dad staged an intervention: how on earth had he paid for that shamefully instagrammed feast of sugary carbs & junkie proteins offset by a healthy beverage full of antioxidants?
• His explanation will surprise you.
• It just so happens that Mickey hangs out with a girl (same age as him, mid teens) who amassed a substantial fan base on Instagram.
• Over 70k followers, apparently.
• This gal has devised a shrewd formula to freeload her way around town big time.
• She goes to restaurants, bars, clothing stores and assorted retailers and asks for a face2face with the manager.
• She produces her mobile device and coldly pitches the following proposition: look, I have 70k plus loyal followers on Instagram who hold my opinions in high regard, my friends and I will consume less some $100 worth of merchandise at your prestigious establishment, if the house is kind enough to foot the tab I’ll upload a very flattering post about your store on my feed.
• Bingo.
• If my Mickey is to be taken on his word, she gets away with it nine out of ten times.
• Yeah, the pitch comes with a whiff of blackmail, as in “acquiesce to my offer and your business will be positively reviewed in front of 70k teenagers who trust my taste, however, should you choose not to, the opposite might happen.”
• Morals of the story?
• #1: the barter economy is here. Or should we call it the blackmail economy?
• #2: this girl is certainly an astute, precocious businesswoman, but she still is an immature person in her teens, what if she believes her own hype and chooses, for instance, to skip college?
• Whatev.
• BTW, according to Federal Trade Commission, influencers who receive money, gifts in exchange from a company or brand in exchange for a positive post or review should disclose it prominently.
• The kosher way to do it is by adding one of the following hashtags: #sponsored #spon #ad #sponcon (as in sponsored content).
• According to LA-based influencer marketing agency Mediakix, 3.7 billion self-admitted #ads were posted on Instagram in 2018, 43% more than the prior year.