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A new form of advertising and reaching customers has proliferated over the past decade or so, and it was mostly fueled by the invention of social network. Social networks allowed for a new form of celebrity, where someone could gain influence not by being in movies or putting out the next hit album, but by entertaining and delivering value through some form of creativity.
This new generation of celebrities are generally referred to as influencers, and they use Instagram and other social networks to spread their message. At the same time, they get “sponsorships” the same way celebrities do.
The Business Model of an Influencer
Think of every Super-Bowl ad you’ve seen where someone who is famous for being a great athlete, musician, or actor appears to be endorsing some product. The goal here is to get you to buy this product because you believe in the brand of said famous person.
The same thing occurs with this social influencer business model. They will do a “shout out” or something of the sort in a post, and point their audience towards a specific product or service. In exchange for the use of their platform, they receive a small fee.
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Leveraging one’s platform has always been a profitable business model, but now it is possible on a much smaller scale. The catch is that the influencers still need to be connected to customers, and need agents for this in the same way agents help set up big deals for actors and athletes.
Big Change that Could Bring Many More Influencers Online
This part of the business model is the part that is most ripe for disruption. Seeing how much money goes towards agents who are doing nothing more than acting as middlemen, there could be a more efficient way to run this part of the process.
Drivers and passengers are connected by Uber, guests and hosts are connected by Airbnb, but why isn’t there a service like this for influencers and advertisers? This would connect huge institutional money with influencers and leave more money in their pockets.
When you’re an influencer and you don’t have an agent taking a large percentage of your earnings as an influencer, you can make more money. But even more importantly, more influencers will be able to earn money because of the lower barriers to entry to earn a living as an influencer.
Understanding the Utility of Blockchain
Blockchain is the technology that is most likely to bring about a solution to intermediating between advertisers and influencers. The ability to create self-managing platforms that work in a decentralized manner to distribute resources will allow for a whole new level of efficiency.
Think of this as the advancement from using a horse drawn carriage to a car. One gets you to the same place, but much faster and without having to feed the horses every day. Blockchain technology will elevate the ease of use and facilitation for influencers, and the result will be a cheap solution that helps both advertisers and influencers.
PATRON is a company who is aiming to capitalize on this technology by creating a platform on top of Ethereum that will solve the influencer intermediation problem. The company is founded by a creative and influencer who know from experience how much better the system can be, and now he is in the process of raising money for it.
PATRON Has a Utility Coin
PAT, or PATRON coin, is being released in an ICO over the next month as PATRON gathers funding for their expansion. The main goal of their ICO is to raise enough money to hire developers for the protocol, expand into San Francisco, and forge partnerships with influencers.
The ICO will open up their pre-ICO on February 14th until the end of the month, and then will do their public sale immediately afterwards. The minimum contribution is 0.1 ETH or 0.01 BTC. PAT can be used for any of the services available on the PATRON platform and will be the currency of exchange between advertisers and influencers.
