Introducing GirlBossTown: The Internet’s Agent
DelMonte is an influencer because she is an “everyday ordinary” person “who [has] accumulated a large following” (Abidin, 2015). As she sat on her couch making videos about her favorite celebrities, she soon amassed a large following. As of November 2022, she has 580.6K followers and 65.9M collective likes on her TikTok page. Additionally, DelMonte interacts with her followers in “digital and physical spaces” when she uses TikTok’s interactive features to reply to comments (Abidin, 2015). She also attends formal events where she meets followers. In June 2022, at Hailey Bieber’s skincare launch, DelMonte met Kylie Jenner, who follows her on social media, and asked her for marketing advice. Lastly, DelMonte partners with Amazon to create “advertorials”, or paid promotions, for monetization. Although ordinary TikTok users watch her videos for amusement and entertainment, her content also reaches a professional audience of celebrities, influencers, marketers, and executives who might want to use her tactics to build their brands.
On October 19, 2021, DelMonte posted a one-and-a-half-minute video titled “PR moves I would make if I was on Khloe’s Team” where she describes clever PR tactics for celebrity Khloe Kardashian. As of November 2022, the video has 193.1K likes, 1480 comments, 1949 saves, and 465 shares. The style of the video is casual, informal, and relaxed. She sits on the couch, lounging with a blanket, and holds her phone up to her face. Her speech is casual too as if she were talking to a friend in contrast to the speech in formal, informational marketing campaign advertisements. She proposes four ideas for Khloe. As she moves from idea to idea, she uses a green screen background and screenshots to show the audience what she is envisioning. The first is “a line of cleaning products that are safe for children called ‘The Truth’ (a play on Khloe's daughter’s name True) (GirlBossTown, 2021). Second, she encourages Khloe to make a podcast titled, “Bible” (a common saying of the Kardashians), reminiscent of Khloe’s old radio show that aired in 2010 (GirlBossTown, 2021). Next, she gives advice for Khloe’s jean company, Good American. Good American should collaborate with celebrity Meghan the Stallion and Kylie Jenner’s photographer Amber Ashley to create ads that look like the Baby Phat ads of the early 2000s (GirlBossTown, 2021). Last, she proposes “Khloeos”, a collaboration with Oreos, since she says Khloe “put everyone on the map with Oreos” after showing how she organizes them in her pantry (GirlBossTown, 2021).
The popularity of @girlbosstown’s video can be attributed to the sense of intimacy she fosters between herself and her audience. Intimacy is “how familiar and close followers feel to an influencer” (Abidin, 2015). In the video, DelMonte’s casual speech and demeanor close the gap between her and her fans, showing she is just like them. With her face close to the camera, she looks directly at the audience as if it were a real dialogue. Another big part of her intimacy is her reliability. She doesn’t have a fancy camera or a hefty budget for this video. She sits on her couch, records on her iPhone, and speaks her mind. A fan named Payton Smith says about DelMonte, “She started by making videos on her couch in Boston, sharing PR ideas..., and posting on TikTok. Literally anyone could do that. Now, she’s working with some of the world's leading brands. It's an underdog story that we can all root for” (Smith, 2022).
DelMonte’s video was also successful because she is a master of the TikTok tabloid and its features. The TikTok tabloid is a phenomenon in “which users collectively manufacture and dramatize stories like an investigative gossip reel” (Drenton, 2022).
First, DelMonte uses the feature of temporality through TikTok’s technology (Drenton, 2022). In addition to using hashtags: #kriskardashian and #khloekardashian, she makes her video in response to a fan's comment warning her about giving free advice. DelMonte replies, “This is all a digital resume so Kris [Kardashian] can hire me. Duh!” (GirlBossTown, 2021). Also, the video is stored in both the “PR moves” and “Kardashians” folders at the top of her page so people can have easy access to it, similar to the different sections of a tabloid or newspaper. Moreover, this video serves as “sensationalism and suspense” because she ends the video by asking which celebrity she should do next, piquing people’s interest for more creative content (Drenton, 2022). Shark Tank star Barbara Corcoran commented “Me next?”, asking for an advice video for herself. The idea that her content markets herself adds to the sensationalism and suspense as brands and celebrities clamor for her genius advice.
@girlbosstown’s “PR moves I would make if I was on Khloe’s Team” is well-liked because of the intimacy she creates with her followers and her excellent use of the TikTok tabloid’s features. Despite mastering the TikTok tabloid, it has proven to be harmful to her career. On TikTok, users engage in “social surveillance”, where everyone watches everyone (Drenton, 2022). Social surveillance makes “coolhunting”, or brands appropriating others’ ideas more prevalent (Powers, 2019). Unfortunately, many companies act as “innovators”, even though they are “early adopters”, and use DelMonte’s specific ideas without giving credit (Powers, 2019). Therefore, DelMonte loses money to exploitation, but she is aware of the cost of disclosing her ideas for free. Hopefully, using her creative mind, DelMonte will find a way to halt companies from taking her ideas while still sharing the content she loves with her general audience.
Works Cited
Abidin, C. (2015). Communicative ❤ Intimacies: Influencers and Perceived Interconnectedness. A Journal of Gender, New Media, & Technology, (8). https://adanewmedia.org/2015/11/issue8-abidin/
Drenton, J. (2022). West Elm Caleb and the rise of the TikTok tabloid. The Conversation. Retrieved November 12, 2022, from https://theconversation.com/west-elm-caleb-and-the-rise-of-the-tiktok-tabloid-175485#:~:text=The%20most%20recent%20is%20%E2%80%9C%23WestElmCaleb,aspects%20of%20online%20dating%20culture.
GirlBossTown [@girlbosstown]. (2021, October 19). PR Moves I Would Make If I Was on Khloe's Team: Episode 2 #greenscreen #khloekardashian #krisjenner [Video]. TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRQ1SQP9/
McCourt, C. (2022, August 16). TikTok's @GirlBossTown: How a NH native became "the Internet's agent." Boston.com. Retrieved November 13, 2022, from https://bdc2020.o0bc.com/culture/entertainment/2022/08/16/girlbosstown-tiktok-robyn-Delmonte-marketing-videos/
Powers, D. (2019, October 9). On trend: The business of forecasting the future. ProQuest Ebook Central. Retrieved November 12, 2022, from https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.proxy.library.upenn.edu/lib/upenn-ebooks/reader.action?docID=5968566&ppg=58
Smith, P. (2022, February 16). GirlBossTown: A Branding Genius. P.S. I'm Blogging. Retrieved November 12, 2022, from https://psimblogging.com/culture/girlbosstown
Hi Msangwa! This blog post is awesome––I love Robyn's videos and it was so interesting to think about her content from the COMM-123 perspective. When I was reading your piece, it reminded me of two of our last readings for class: Turner’s Approaching celebrity studies and Is celebrity news, news? I thought about this piece during your discussion of Robyn’s PR moves for Khloe Kardashian. Khloe and the rest of the Kardashian-Jenner clan did not rise to fame in a traditional way. However, the media accepts their influence as they would from any famous actor or musician. However, she still exists in the celebrity ecosystem. In a way, too, Robyn contributes to the celebrity news industry. While she does not report on celebrity news, much of her work benefits from celebrity news. For example, information about Khloe’s kitchen organization, her daughter, and the slang exchanged between her and her siblings would be lesser known without celebrity news and the Internet’s dynamic responses to her every move. Even Robyn, herself, could be considered an Internet celebrity. She was recently listed on Forbes 30 Under 30 List, and she often mentions her career in food service before she started posting videos on Tik Tok. This process speaks to Turner’s idea of the celebrity regime of representation and how not all celebrities fit into the same pre-existing parameters of Los Angeles glamor, mansions, and red carpet events. In summary, Robyn’s career benefits from the celebritization of individuals and modifying the definition of what celebrities and celebrity news can mean. Also, in this process, Robyn also became a celebrity, to some extent.
ReplyDelete-Kate Ratner
Commenter: Annabel Sumardi
ReplyDeleteMsangwa’s comments on Robyn DelMonte’s influencer marketing, noting a double-edged sword of the influencer’s video style. While DelMonte creates a perceived interconnectedness and intimacy with her audience, she is also exploited by the capitalist structure which steals her ideas to gain profit from the marketing tactics that she offers up on her profile. Adorno and Horkheimer’s key concepts about neo-Marxism, in relation to the superstructure and the base, as well as other terms like commodity fetishism and false needs relate to Delmonte’s simultaneous success and exploitability.
The reason her marketing strategies are quick to be stolen by companies without credit is because of their contribution to profit. This is an example of how the superstructure reinforces the base. Her contributions to pop culture through her mass media actually reinforce the economy and relations of production by offering marketing ideas which can benefit company profits. For example, Msangwa mentions how Delmonte offers PR ideas of collaborations with celebrities and companies. By correlating celebrities like the Kardashians with brands like Oreos, the influencer is proposing to utilize the superstructure (Khloe Kardashian’s social and cultural status) to reinforce the base (sales of Oreos and also increased attention to the Kardashian brand). She utilizes the theory of commodity fetishism to market people with high exchange value, even if they’re not of much utility. So while Khloe Kardashian and Oreos are not necessary to survival (for most people), Delmonte is convinced people would buy Oreos by associating them with the cultural phenomenon of the Kardashians.
Her marketing thus relies on creating false needs, hoping consumers will be enticed to buy Oreos because they see that the Kardashians also buy them. Adorno and Horkheimer would call these purchases a form of consumption as compulsion, where audiences may see through the reality stars, but they might still be compelled to buy the product. Delmonte successfully uses marketing tactics of emphasizing the superstructure to reinforce the base, which is an essential component of neo-marxism, a concept pioneered by Adorno and Horkheimer along with many others. Delmonte is simultaneously incorporated into the superstructure, as her following grows on the social media app TikTok. These intricate interactions between the superstructure and the base are what would have contributed to neo-marxist thought, which is why Msangwa’s blog post topic is so intriguing.
Commenter: Shelly Faskha
ReplyDeleteHi Msangwa,
I really enjoyed your blog post with the through explanation of GirlBossTown. She creates PR moves for famous people and posts her ideas into her TikTok account, which made her viral and famous. I have seen her on TikTok not so long ago, and the first thing that came to my mind was how she was dominating the TikTok Tabloid.
You expressed how DelMonte used the TikTok tabloid to her advantage. In addition to the TikTok tablet features that she uses in her videos like temporality, sensationalism and suspense, and the use of hashtags. The one I see most in her videos is the sensationalism and suspense because she asks for people to do next. This makes her followers engage with her content a lot and feel as if she is a normal person just like them because she normally responds or does the most popular comment. This creates a sense of intimacy, as you explained in your blog post. DelMonte’s followers feel close to her because of the way she shows herself on her videos. She appears as a casual person using informal speech to talk about the different PR moves, she would do. I also can relate this topic to the Turner reading about Is Celebrity News, News?. This reading made me realize that the celebrity news is normally for commercial purposes rather than for informational purposes, DelMonte’s work being an example of this. DelMonte must look at a lot of celebrity news so that she is up to date in everything that happens in celebrities’ lives, for then to create PR moves for the celebrities. She relies on celebrity news for her TikTok account/career.
Hi Msangwa,
ReplyDeleteFantastic job on this blog post! I love watching GirlBossTown on TikTok, which drew me to your post. While GirlBossTown is a TikTok influencer, she heavily draws on aspects of the traditional, pre-social media coolhunter that are key to her success. As Gladwell explains in Powers’ book On Trend: The Business of Forecasting the Future, coolhunting is “fast-paced, youthful, and nonlinear” (Gladwell, 2000, as cited in Powers, 2019, p. 59). Delmonte is no academic or expert. Rather than asserting her knowledge as a professional by publishing marketing research or working directly for the influencers she gives marketing suggestions to, she sits casually on her couch and provides a list of genius but non-linear and usually unconnected PR strategies that fit neatly within a maximum three-minute video.
In addition to her “PR Moves” segments, where she gives free, public marketing advice to particular celebrities and brands, she often makes “PR predictions.” Like 1990s coolhunters who prided themselves on understanding and keeping up with the fast-paced nature of “cool” and predicting what will be profitable, Delmonte duets or stitches her prior PR predictions videos when they come true. She uses these videos to prove to viewers that she is a true coolhunter and PR strategist and support her self-appointed title as a “PR genius” (Powers, 2019, p. 59). She further asserts her self-appointed position with her “GBT Stamp of Approval” videos, where she spotlights her favorite PR campaigns and explains why she likes them. She shows she understands edgy, “cool” trends and how to use them to generate economic capital. In this way, she embodies the “niche internet micro celebrity,” or “NIMCEL,” as she has very dedicated fans who comment on all of her videos, and she rarely makes money from her PR suggestions (Lorenz, 2022, p. 1). She instead posts them for fun and to show off her marketing skills.
Delmonte is so unique and popular on TikTok right now because she proves that while coolhunting is rare due to the rise of social media and influencers, it is not dead. She uses the processes and structures thought to kill coolhunting (i.e., social media) to bring this 1990s and 2000s phenomenon back from the margins to the mainstream (Powers, 2019).
Andie Goldmacher
References
Lorenz, T. (2022). What is a niche internet microcelebrity? The Washington Post.
Powers, D. (2019, October 9). On trend: The business of forecasting the future. ProQuest Ebook Central. Retrieved November 12, 2022, from https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.proxy.library.upenn.edu/lib/upenn-ebooks/reader.action?docID=5968566&ppg=58
Commenter: Emmy Keogh
ReplyDeleteMsangwa,
Thank you so much for an exciting read! I, too, am a fan of @girlbosstown, so I was intrigued when I saw your blog post about her. Every time I see her video on my For You Page I have to watch the whole thing through because she never misses. As you discussed, I’m not the only fan– major celebrities like Barabara Corcorona and Hailey Beiber have taken interest in her unique style of creative, free marketing. What I find the most inspirational though as someone who aspires to do what she does (except get paid for it) is that although celebrities don’t directly respond to her marketing advice by commenting or liking her videos, they do usually implement the advice given.
One example I remember is when she gave Emma Chamberlain the idea to market her coffee brand in an early 2000s, paparazzi styled photo shoot walking down the streets of New York. Just a few weeks later, followers were shocked to see an almost identical recreation of her idea. Girlbosstown acknowledged the similarities and said while she did not take part in any official business discussions, she was honored by the idea of Emma taking some inspiration from her idea.
This reminded me of Malcolm Gladwell’s article about Coolhunting. Although the coolhunting Galdwell refers to is pre-social media influencers, there are many commonalities between Girlbosstown and the coolhunters. For example, a coolhunters’ job is to predict trends and identify what will sell and what won’t. Girlbosstown does exactly this, except she just plants the seeds for the influencers to promote the trends. Her intuition about what can work and what doesn’t paired with a genuine creativity is refreshing in an industry with so much standardization in marketing. I hope she has a long, paid career ahead of her!