The Isarta team was at C2 Montréal, the world’s leading creative event, on May 26. Here’s a summary of the discussion between Shopify president Harley Finkelstein and two Canadian “unicorns” – Hyla Nayeri, co-founder of swimwear and sportswear company 437, and Joanna Griffiths, founder of underwear company Knix. Two entrepreneurs who know better than anyone how to use influencers to conquer the North American market. The result: an in-depth discussion on the central role played by content creators in brand development in the age of social marketing.
After introducing her guests, Harley Finkelstein offered a little historical trivia, recalling that the first “shopping mall” was created in 1876 in Philadelphia, by businessman John Wanamaker.
My belief is that, for the last 50 to 100 years, retail has been very boring,” says Harley Finkelstein. We keep coming back to the same thing: bigger stores, water slides, fancy lights… Most of the time, retail has been incredibly one-dimensional.”
And until recently, he adds, the choice came down to buying in-store or online. But, in his view, the tide is turning.
The thing that makes me most optimistic is that the future of retail looks very exciting. There’s a sense now that retail can happen anywhere. You can listen to a song on Spotify and buy the artist’s merchandise directly from their page. You can watch a video on TikTok and buy a product by clicking on a link embedded in the video. There’s an incredible energy in retail and it’s very inspiring.”
Influencers in search of products
The president of Shopify goes one step further, to explain what distinguishes today’s way of marketing services and products.
We have a new category of entrepreneur-creators who get the audience first, and then figure out what to sell them. It’s exactly the opposite of what we’ve known historically.”
Harley Finkelstein recalled that for a Mr Beast, who creates his own chocolate bar and burger banners, there’s an army of influencers who don’t have that ambition, preferring to endorse brands for the quality of their products.
Social commerce didn’t exist just five years ago,” he insists. And by 2025, it will have passed the two-trillion-dollar mark. There’s a lot going on.”
Influencers… too transactional
Is the social shift going to the heads of influencers? That’s what guest entrepreneurs Hyla Nayeri and Joanna Griffiths seem to be telling us, as they both sense a shift in the way influencers interact with brands.
The challenge with influencers right now is that it’s becoming a bit too transactional,” says Hyla Nayeri. We need to bring it back to relationships.
The 437 founder tells us that some TikTokeurs can be paid $50-100,000 a year to give brands exposure.
That’s an employee’s salary,” she says. They’re part of our team. We have to treat them, respect them and collaborate with them as if they were members of our team. And the reverse is also true. But some people communicate via a PR person, without taking the time to have a conversation with us. To explain to us their strategies for achieving our acquisition or brand awareness objectives.”
The message, then, is to bring the notion of “social” back into “social marketing”.
