Speak to any Gen Z, and there’s a good chance they’ll tell you they want to become an Instagram influencer, and then laugh as you experience the five stages of grief over the fact that this is now a job young people want.
Since 85% of Gen Z uses social media to learn about new products, and 40% of teenagers say their favourite YouTuber understands them better than their real friends, brands are increasingly tapping into the influencer market to advertise their products on social media, instead of relying on more traditional ads.
This is where OPPO, a phone company, saw an opportunity. They’ve announced an ‘Influencer Internship‘ that involves travelling around Australia and New Zealand, taking photos with the latest OPPO phone, sharing photos to OPPO’s social media channels, and learning from ‘established influencers’ Milly Bannister, KOTravellers, Nicole Millar and Libby Kay, none of whom I’ve heard of.
The successful intern will travel to somewhere in Australia or New Zealand six times over the course of three months, take photos for Instagram, and update Instagram stories. This sounds a lot less labour-intensive than most internships, but if everyone’s dream is to work as an influencer, maybe this is what work will look like in the future.
While it is a legitimate paid internship, it’s also a fantastic marketing ploy. I hadn’t heard of the brand before this stunt, and now I’m writing about them.
OPPO’s Managing Director told ten daily:
“We can see that in the not so distant future we will employ and train full time influencers, in much the same way you would any employee.”
On the one hand, I’m happy to see interns getting paid, but on the other hand, this has made me very depressed about the state of the world. I might go into more detail in my next thoughtful Instagram caption.