A blurry image of a blue and purple background.

How Recession Affects Luxury Lifestyle Influencers

Recession is here, we all know it, and luxury content creators can be severely affected by negative criticism from the masses if they don't revisit their narrative, and proof of this was the amount of negative comments that @georginagio received in one of her posts when she bought a new 250,000€ Rolls Royce for her boyfriend Cristiano... but, how can recession affect the content influencers generate? Well, in this article we warn you of what could happen to you if you are a luxury influencer and you don't adapt your narrative to the current recession we are going through.

Recently, journalist Harriet Williamson criticized Lydia Millen, a luxury lifestyle influencer with over 1.2 million followers, for posting a video checking in at The Savoy because her heating broke down. In a time where rising costs of food and electricity are affecting millions of families, some may see this as inappropriate content from a luxury influencer. However, is it fair to criticize Lydia in such a harsh way?

Lydia Millen's followers are interested in her luxury countryside lifestyle. Her partnerships with luxury brands such as Aston Martin, Holland Cooper, and Range Rover demonstrate that these companies see potential customers in her followers. And after creating luxury lifestyle content for years, a portion of her 1.2 million followers can afford the products she normally showcases, so checking into The Savoy during an energy crisis may not be out of the ordinary for some of her fans.

While some may be taken aback by this type of content, and we fully understand that, it is important to note the context and the importance of staying true to the content that Lydia's followers enjoy. Criticism towards luxury influencers during a recession may not be entirely fair, as luxury brands continue to grow and invest in influencer marketing– they are actually some of the companies that grow the most during an economic crisis.

Just like everyone else, luxury influencers need to work and continue producing content for their followers, and they could lose contracts if they suddenly include more affordable brands to their posts and they could lose part of their income if they change "a rolex" for a "casio" like Shakira's famous song, because brands are very picky about what other brands the influencer they work with on a long term basis also partners up with, so in order to avoid the criticism from newspapers while working with luxury brands, we encourage you to find new angles before posting about luxury lifestyle.

A simple "I am very lucky to be able to continue working with X or Y brand, and I am grateful to all of you who support me during the hard times..." can be enough to continue with your luxury posts– people just want influencers to acknowledge that we are in a recession, and this way newspapers can't put you in the spot like they did to Lydia.

If you see yourself in a situation where a luxury brand wants to work with you, you can work with them on how to best communicate to your followers the greatness of their product without hurting anyone's feelings for not being able to afford that, because even if all your followers are HNWIs, a newspaper can use your post to criticise you like it happened to Lydia or Georgina.

It is important for newspapers to have a more subjective point of view when it comes to critiquing luxury influencers, and to consider the potential customers and followers they attract, which continue to boost a country's economy. While newspapers may comment on the narrative of a post, calling influencers "the worst people on earth" may be taking things too far and not fair to the influencer.

So, should luxury influencers stop posting luxury content because we are in the middle of a crisis? Not necessarily. Instead, it is important to understand the context and perspective of the influencer and their followers. As we continue to navigate through challenging times, so it is crucial to remain empathetic and considerate towards one another.

Here is the video explaining everything in detail, in case you missed Lydia's post:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqIbjkooufK/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

And If you'd like us to address a particular problem or would like to be part of our guest interviews, don't hesitate to send me a DM here: https://www.instagram.com/thereelgiga/

Have a lovely day!

Andrea :)
Head Of Community

Subscribe to our newsletter
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.