This piece could’ve been written to be applied to the fragrance industry at large, but given my ‘area of expertise’ I’ve kept the focus on the ‘influencer’ and content creator aspect that has become a significant part of the (niche) fragrance community.

As will often be the case when I write about topics like this; this is more of a stream of conscious that can be openly discussed, rather than an answer to a question, but I have tried to incorporate some advice from own experiences in the last paragraphs.

MOLOCH

Part of the inspiration for this column is a reference made by Lex Fridman in regards to a worry that Artificial Intelligence companies won’t pause and take enough time to implement safety measures, because their competition will surpass them. He pointed to Liv Boeree’s The Beauty Wars. In the (excellent) video, Liv echoes the sentiment of Moloch to the current beauty industry, beauty filters and social media. There are similar, admittedly less worrisome, trends in the fragrance community that can be viewed through this lens.

For context: Moloch is a term from the Hebrew Bible. Once thought of as a deity, but the updated thinking is that Moloch simply refers to a ‘form of sacrifice’. In the scripture Moloch is warned against, mostly in relation to (child)sacrifices, but the principle can be generalized.

In more recent media, Moloch is the overarching theme of Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’ poem. The poem paints Moloch as the industry at large, governments, media… the ratrace of life. Some lines of the poem:
‘I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness’
‘Moloch who entered my soul early. Moloch in whom I am a consciousness without a body. Moloch who frightened me out of my natural ecstasy.’
‘Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose blood is running money!’
‘Moloch whose soul is electricity and banks!’
‘Moloch the incomprehensible prison!’

CYCLE

The connection to Moloch being that people sacrifice things in order to get ahead. Causing others to follow suit, in order not to get left behind. In doing so, creating a vicious cycle that’s hard to escape, even though we are aware of the negative side effects. It’s like cars playing chicken and everyone is watching the impending crash.

As Liv mentions in her video; we’re seeing quite dramatic effects of these vicious cycles, especially in the mental health of young adults. Again, and luckily, I don’t think the trends I’m seeing in the fragrance community are having effects to that extent. That being said, over the years, I’ve talked to hundreds of enthusiasts and it’s pretty clear that the ongoing ratrace diminishes a lot of the fun and spontaneity of (want to be) influencers and casual enthusiasts alike. Resulting in people losing their passion, quitting the hobby, becoming envious of one another and letting what others do spoil their fun.

Trends

MASS APPEAL

Perhaps the simplest and most influential form of sacrifice made is in favor of mass appeal. The ratrace is very openly measured in views, likes, followers, subscribers… It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that a video about a best-seller fragrance that millions of people own, gets more traffic and engagement, than a video about a fragrance that’s obscure even for die-hard fragrance lovers.

When I had a YouTube channel my most viewed video was about a Guerlain if I remember correctly, while my videos on Hiram Green barely got viewed. I insisted on making the videos on the smaller brands, but to be fair, I had few temptations. None of them got massive amounts of views and there were no money or noticeably more sponsorships involved. What I’ve seen happen over and over again (on Youtube, but also on Instagram), is that once someone reaches a significantly enough increase in audience with a certain video, topic, brand etc., they will try to repeat the magic. Truth is, reaching certain numbers and going back down, can be a hard pill to swallow and not wanting to revert back, might be a bigger motivator to ignore your own preferences, than wanting to grow in the first place.

As a result, certain things that ‘work’, keep growing and newcomers follow the trends. It’s become like a ‘survival of the fittest’ type of selection. And so we end up with top 10 lists, compliment-getters, cheaper alternatives and dupes; spend 1 day watching fragrance videos and you know exactly what I’m talking about.

On Youtube the (click)baiting with sexuality and compliments is a huge trend to draw in a larger audience and I know for a fact that people who don’t believe in it or disagree with it, have succumbed to using it solely for views. On the short form videos (IG, TikTok) dupes and layering have become a hot topic of late.

DIFFERENT STROKES

It’s easy to get caught up in negativity and disdain about those practices; also for me. But realistically, there is very little overlap with their audience and mine. If I’m being really honest with myself, at best I can feel a certain way about their audience and give props to creators who know how to play to them. I wouldn’t; it’s not my thing, but therein lies the solution. Imagine an experimental jazz musician giving up on his music, because Justin Bieber went platinum; that is what’s constantly happening in the fragrance community. We all love music, but we make and enjoy different styles. Critiquing is fine, we’re all adults that can share our opinions. But if you let what others do ruin your passion, you have to look in the mirror and ask yourself what impact they really have on your content and how much is just your own sentiment (for fun, see how often you feel that negative about others with a smaller audience than you, versus the ones with a much larger or faster growing audience than you).

On its own, this trend is quite self explanatory and harmless. What I find disheartening is that a lot of great content creators either abandon their own preferences completely or decide to quit altogether, because the audience for their specific niche is smaller and/or losing ground in a growing field of creators. This is causing smaller niches to get even smaller or disappear completely, when in reality, they could’ve continued on with the same passion and people that were there before.

ALGORITHM

Which brings us to the ever-mysterious algorithm. As mentioned above, I think that mass-appeal is explanatory; it’s in the name. You either play along or you don’t, but it’s part of nature that certain things are more popular than others and therefore the content about those things will also be more popular.

When I think about the influence of the algorithms; I think about (in this case technical) interventions that make certain things more popular than others artificially. The most obvious example in regards to this topic are Instagram Reels, but also YouTube shorts.

Here I see a lot of frustration on both sides of the isle and it’s a good example of the feeling of ‘having to play along to stay relevant’. The people who don’t follow the trend, become stagnant, miss out on opportunities and see others pass them by. To the point where a lot of the photographer/caption crowd on Instagram quit or slowed down their posting and lost their enjoyment once Reels became prevalent.

The people who did follow the trend, despite it not being their preference, tend to shift their focus from getting their enjoyment from the content itself to only the results. Once that fades or hits a roadblock, they are no longer getting enjoyment out of it. When money becomes an incentive, this is increased and I’ve seen people turn their whole style and Instagram page upside down to make what’s probably 50$ a week at most.

With this trend, I never followed it, so perhaps my view is not subjective, but I always felt that a lot of creators lost their passion in doing so (not unlike the ones that only make top 10 YouTube videos, because that gets the numbers). Even though reels are still significantly benefitting from Instagram’s algorithm, it’s been less extreme in 2023 versus 2022 and I already noticed a lot of people revert back to more of their own preference of content.

This behaviour is something that I actively try to reject in myself. It’s part of why I have this website; it’s my place to have content (even if only 3 people read it) and I intend on making content as long as I enjoy making it and enjoy fragrances.

FOLLOW FOR FOLLOW

(The header for this trend is clickbait). I’m not talking about the practice of ‘you wash my back and I’ll wash your back, otherwise I’m not following your content’. In a broader sense, there are certain smaller trends and practices that people follow to stay in the ratrace. I think I played an, at the time controversial, part in this, by doing a livestream with Fragdicted about ‘How to grow your Instagram page’. I personally feel like we added enough nuance in that live stream and appealed to a certain crowd, but when viewed black and white, the overarching theme of that livestream of course goes against some of what I’m expressing today.

Here I’m seeing smaller trends like unboxing videos; often requested by brands in collaborations, but I know that a lot of people don’t like making them. Doing photos with short captions, because people don’t read the longer ones. But also, perhaps more worrying things, like people (mostly women) getting more views when they show more of themselves and what pressure that may place on others that want to reach a bigger audience. Feeling the need to join TikTok or YouTube because ‘that’s what influencers do’. Not everybody has to be a content creator to begin with, not everybody has to be in front of the camera, not everybody has to write long reviews, has to do livestreams, giveaways or buy a professional camera. Do it if you feel like doing it.

I personally like photography and I invest a lot in making and editing photos. Quite often I get questions about that from people who want to know how to achieve the results, without them actually enjoying taking photos. I have to warn them that it takes a lot of time and practice, which they don’t seem to be interested in.

I think we’re going to go see a shift with AI created or edited photography taking over part of Instagram in the coming years; will people like myself feel the need to join in that to have the same fancy looking backgrounds? When you are showing more of yourself, the pressure to add beauty filters from Liv’s Beauty Wars video apply here as well. There’s a never-ending lists of things that are seeing results, more people follow the trend, it plateaus and a new level is created; not always in everyone’s best interest.

Break The Cycle?

People measure their worth in numbers a lot. Especially an influencers’ worth is almost exclusively expressed in numbers; in quantity over quality. I think this is understandable from a brand’s perspective, since it’s nothing more than marketing (aside from the rare exceptions). Either that, or they are asked for a specific task. However, this fundamentally conflicts with the way most influencers view themselves.

If I work at an ad-agency and my job is to create an ad that will reach the most people, I will do that job with that in mind. I will likely be more open to make an ad that’s different from my own taste and the benefit is usually payment. And if I’m a professional photographer and I get paid for a photoshoot; I’m concerned about the outcome of the photos and will likely also be willing to meet the wishes of the client.

However, as an influencer, you are attached to the product (fragrances) that you are working with. Not only that, but in most cases, you’re producing content on your own page or channel, for your own audience and sometimes friends. This means that everything that you do becomes more personal and has an effect on your own account. You make the content, you are the content and you provide the audience, all at once. This is exactly why influencer marketing works so well, but in many cases, it means sacrificing part of your personal preferences in order to be successful.

What may help is to set your expectations according to your niche, your goals and to never make the numbers your only motivation.

WHAT IS YOUR GOAL?

I think the most important advice that I can give people is to reflect on what your goal is. Reflect on it frequently and honestly. If your goal is to become a top 10 influencer and make a living of it, than most of this article does not apply to you. However, most people did not start a fragrance channel or page to do so (and/or realize that it’s not a realistic goal).

Regardless of whether or not that’s your goal; I think a good question to ask yourself is: ‘Am I treating a hobby as a job?’. Are you feeling pressure to reach numbers or to meet a collaborators expectations, when that is not paying your rent? You can say ‘no’. This may seem obvious, but you would be surprised. ‘No’, in general to collaborations that are not worth it for you, but especially, ‘no’ to certain requests, demands or wishes. Don’t like making unboxing videos or reels? Don’t do it just to get a collaboration, unless it’s something that is really worth it for you. When you start out, that threshold might be low, but it’s worth reflecting on whether ‘getting a tobacco fragrance when you already own 8’ is worth feeling like you’re having a job for. I always like to visualize the following: I’m walking down the street and out of nowhere, someone approaches me. They have a fragrance (brand) that I’ve never heard of before (and if I’m honest, it looks pretty cheaply made). They ask me if I want to do an hour (or more) of work in trade for a bottle. I would not be interested in doing the work most cases. Yet, when we’re approached online, it’s somehow more inviting and even flattering at first. That’s not a plea to don’t collaborate; I’ve done hundreds, so I’d be a hypocrite. But I do refuse more offers than I accept. And occasionally I still regret accepting, because I feel my time is more valuable, than another fragrance that is not going to improve what I already have.

INNER-CIRCLE

If you, like most, started posting about fragrances, because you enjoy doing so and because you want to interact with other people that love fragrances as well; keep in mind that having 200 followers or 20.000 followers will not make any meaningful difference to that goal. Given that from your 200 followers at least a handful are actively engaging. In my own experience, in the time my followers went from 1000 to 10.000+, my comments doubled at best and now at 22.000 they are still/back to that same number. My ‘close group of friends’ remained the same size. People who grow through the trends mentioned in the article, likely see an even bigger growth, with an even lower actual engagement, as they reach a ‘one time’ audience that’s not talking about fragrances on a regular basis.

MEASURE SUCCESS

There’s a way of thinking to put numbers into perspective; I forgot where I heard it first. But it’s to think about your online audience as a real-world audience. Your video may ‘only’ reach 50 people, which as mentioned earlier, can be tough when you’re used to higher numbers. Yet, most of us would be elated to talk to just a handful of people in real life about a fragrance that we love. Talking to 50 people might already be intimidating and probably beyond the realm of what you thought possible when you started your hobby. So why is it that online, we so easily feel like what we do isn’t worth doing?

Aside from that, there is (obviously) more than the numbers. If you enjoy fragrances, you can be happy with what curation of fragrances you introduce others to. If you like writing, you can be happy about a good review. I personally shifted towards photography over the years and when I feel like I’ve made a great photo, the amount of views I reach with it, becomes less important (I wish to say not a factor, but I’d be lying).

Basically any intrinsic motivation can work to keep your passion. Are you still into fragrances (and buying them, testing them etc.) when you’re not posting content about it? And are you still making content when your views go down or when the collaborations dry up? If the answer is ‘no’ and it’s not your source of income, then…