The Writing Jing Cast S01E08

It all started with a video by Marlena Stell, CEO of the cosmetic company, Makeup Geek (MUG).
It was uploaded last 27 August 2018 at her own YouTube channel.
“A lot of backstabbing. A lot of social climbing and unfortunately that is the case in the beauty
industry.”
“There’s thousands of beauty influencers that just want to - some of them just want to make a name
for themselves … have something they’re passionate about and support their livelihood by doing
something that they love.”
“Some, unfortunately, are doing it because they just to be famous. They want to have a nice
paycheck. They want to go on trips. They want it for the fame and not really share the love of the
beauty in the industry.”
She tried not to mention any names about the “social climbers”, adding that the year 2017 was a
tough year for Makeup Geek because “we haven’t been supported by influencers because we haven’t
paid the massive amounts of money” adding that her company is “small”. That there should be
“enough margins to where we can actually be profitable”.
In short, Stell said, “We don’t have $60,000.00 to pay someone to do one video”.
What?
Yes.
This was confirmed by Kevin James Bennett.
Alex of Pretty Pastel Please has confirmed this too in her video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJXB9VhK1eM
FameBit - app for influencers to use
Alex quoted one of these influencer platforms, saying:
“So a brand posted a campaign on this influencer platform (that she did not name) and said:
‘We’re looking for influencers to talk about our foundation brush. Our budget is $30,000’.”
Not clear if it’s per influencer or that’s the total campaign budget and any influencer is welcome to
chime in their talents.
Alex continued quoting the post. “We want people to talk about our foundation brush. And we want
people to compare it to this foundation brush [which was from another company]”
Alex described both products as similar with one being cheaper and being compared to the pricier
one - $2 and $30 respectively.
Then, the briefer, according to Alex, explicitly stated that “We [meaning the company] are willing to
pay more if you are willing to say that our product is better than the other one. Or that you
recommend our product over the other one.”
In effect, making the influencer say “Don’t buy from them. Buy from us instead.”
Some clickbait titles would go something like “Fashion Overhaul” and then one of the tags go Fashion
Nova, a brand that Alex said is used for tagging or clickbaiting.
Then that brand would make the influencers say, “Don’t buy from Fashion Nova. Buy from us
instead.”