FaintFlex Vol. 2 - Influencer Teams
Influencers are joining forces to build vertical, next gen media businesses.
Kylie Jenner & Kim Kardashian West promoting a KKW x KYLIE collab (via Instagram)
FaintFlex is a newsletter covering new media & personality-driven startups.
There was a lot of chatter about Kylie Jenner becoming the youngest “self-made” billionaire earlier this month through her brand Kylie Cosmetics. While most debated whether she’s actually self-made, influencers are taking note.
Creators are realizing that they too, can build real businesses centered around the communities they serve, and they don’t necessarily need 130M followers to do it.
As more people become influencers, we will start seeing new collectives formed between them to build the next wave of media-driven commerce businesses.
The concept of influencer teams is not new. Jake Paul raised $1M to launch his social media-first company & talent label TeamDom back in 2017, which recently split and is in the process regrouping. Paul and his crew went for a fairly broad audience, one that isn’t necessarily associated with a particular vertical beyond teen comedy and drama.
The next wave of influencer teams I’ll be paying attention to are the ones that are more niche, rooted in a more relatable interest that educate their communities in an entertaining way.
So what could this look like for Generation Z?
One example is Kyra TV, a London-based entertainment network for the digitally native youth, with fashion as the current focus. According to the cofounder’s LinkedIn, they reach 50 million people each month after official launch in 2017.
I originally discovered Kyra after my stylish Latina friend devoted an entire five Instagram Story posts to praise a young female fashion collective called NAYVA. I was intrigued because each one of the four girls was a woman of color, reminiscent of Disney’s early 2000s hit television film The Cheetah Girls.
NAYVA personalities Esama, Angela Moret, Faith Harper, & Jasmine Muller (via Instagram)
After chatting more about my friend’s obsession with the group, I learned that they officially launched 5 months ago as an expansion of Kyra TV’s similar flagship young male fashion group PAQ.
Kyra essentially operates as a content studio & TV network on YouTube, airing new 15 - 20 minute shows every week centered around their personalities completing fashion-related challenges like styling a well-known pop culture figure or recreating early 2000s fits.
Each personality represents a different fashion style and background that members of the audience can relate to. And each one is a mid-tier fashion influencer in their own right.
PAQ personalities Elias Riadi, Shaquille-Aaron Keith, Dexter Black, & Danny Lomas (via Instagram)
The shows are so well produced and such a great discovery source, it’s sometimes hard to tell which brands paid to be included in them. From appearances, everyone involved wins, and I don’t feel like I’m watching an advertisement even though Kyra is transparent about their sponsorships. It’s an unique way for fashion enthusiasts to get inspiration, and for rising creators to build something big without having to solely rely on monetizing their individual audiences.
Kyra wasn’t necessarily founded by digital influencers, but by serial tech entrepreneurs who raised funding to build an in-house production team and host castings to find talent that serve as the show personalities. I’m sure incubating their own fashion lines is something Kyra is considering, however it doesn’t seem to be a priority compared to their sponsored content.
I would not be surprised to see more influencers team up to actually co-found vertical empires like this, but incorporate strong commerce arms & experiential events like Overtime Sports.
The collective model is already common in music (ex: Asian American-centric 88Rising) and gaming (ex: FaZe Clan, which started as a group of gamers performing trickshots on YouTube).
To figure out where the next communities & verticals this business model could make sense for, a good starting point is to unbundle traditional interest-based cable TV networks/shows and identify who could become the modern versions of them.
I’m still looking for the Gen Z BET, but shoutout to Morgan Cooper for reimagining what the The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air would like today.
Thanks for reading! Let me know if this sparked a thought, and please share if you enjoyed it.
- Aaron