With Love Island coming to an end it seems like the whole of Britain has become brainwashed by it. It’s safe to say that Team Cariad is divided over whether it’s good TV or not. (It’s amazing and nobody can tell us otherwise.) All those on the show have suddenly shot to fame and have gained the instant gratification they signed up for, so when they leave the villa they will be seen as celebrities, for a short while anyway.
And because of the power of social media, they will find it simple and easy to excel at famous for being famous and make lots of money. They will make their career as being a social media promoter, basically an influence marketer.
In fact, two of those who have already been voted out have already started doing this. Jess and Tyne-Lexie are now marketing the same teeth whitening products. (For those of you have more of a life than we do, the left picture is @Jessica_Rose_UK and @Tyne_Lexy_Clarson is on the right.) They are even doing the same pose! It seems Mr.BlancTeeth has a very specific brief…
The photos are tightly cropped so you might not even know who they are – maybe that’s part of it and the fact you can only see their teeth is what is supposed to get people talking. Their marketing is working.
This kind of instant gratification helps to make products sell – Jess and Tyne-Lexie are the “It” girls at the moment… but how long will it last Share on XIs instant gratification really as good as it seems?
Whatever our favorite TV programme, we are all victims of instant gratification. We get frustrated when a web page takes the time to load, or when we start a diet and expect to lose 10lbs in the first day. That’s our desire for instant gratification and the contestants from reality shows and the companies that promote them know what we want and tap into our need for instant results.
Reality TV contestants are essentially looking to become influencers. They want to see their social profiles get thousands of new followers because the more followers you have the more money you will receive from companies wanting you to promote their products or services. When you think about it, this is strange as basically the more followers you have, the the less engaged you’re going to be with your audience.
In most of their sponsored posts, the captions will all say something along the lines of “I’ve been using … for the past few weeks now”. The fact that this calls to the reader/viewer’s need for an instant result and the desire to keep up with fashion and trends, is why these posts can be extremely successful.
Alex Bowen and Olivia Buckland from last year’s Love Island now boast over a million Instagram followers each! The website Influence.co reported that a user with 100,000 followers can earn up to £600 per post, so you can imagine why people from reality TV do not get too upset with coming as runners up.
If your customers receive the instant gratification you promise them, they will expect the same from all your future promises, which can be difficult, if not impossible, to maintain. And when you fail to deliver, you will be left with nothing but unsatisfied customers.
When it comes to instant gratification, you can be very successful in the short term, but you must be careful to make longer term plans in order to maintain the continued success of your campaigns.
Social media marketing is a much better way of influencing your customers in the short and long-term.
