The End of the Age of Authenticity?

Authenticity—there has been no word so heavily used in our industry as shorthand for the “right way” of doing things, but what are we really talking about when we talk about authenticity? Authenticity is a function of familiarity. It is defined as being true to oneself, which means the arbiter of whether something is authentic or inauthentic must possess prior knowledge and relationship with the intended audience.

You see an influencer posting about their love for Old Navy, but, because you have prior knowledge of their content and already know that they are more typically posting about The Row, you are able to recognize their Old Navy post as inauthentic. In short, you know when someone you follow is lying because, well, you know them.

Increasingly, in the contemporary paradigm of algorithmically-delivered timelines, we are viewing content from creators who we don’t follow and don’t know. So what happens to authenticity in a world of diminishing familiarity? If we cannot judge a post’s authenticity through prior knowledge of the creator, then believability becomes the most important thing—crafting effective hooks, using persuasive language, and keeping viewers entertained long enough to convince them.

Now, I still believe that genuine passion and love for a brand is the more effective way to perpetuate a point-of-view conducive to the creation of persuasive and effective social content, but we must also realize that the age where authenticity was king is ending. As marketers, we can no longer count on the years of trust an influencer has built with their audience and need to continue to make sure the content influencer partners create for a brand is arresting, resonant, and effective.

PERSONAL CORNER

I needed to do some deep work recently and put on the Burial EP “Rival Dealer ” specifically listening to the track “Come Down To Us ”. I love Burial, who makes lo-fi, ethereal electronic music that feels somehow symphonic and alive, but I love this song especially because I can remember driving home from my first weekend trip with my now wife and playing this song, getting to be with her when she found something new she loved (me and the song)

Let’s stay on Burial, I love watching YouTube breakdowns of his samples. Here is one for Archangel and here is an example of the obscure YouTube videos he will use for his samples and how he turned video game sound effects into filler sound.

I might have some recency bias but it feels like this summer the internet is all about the South of France, last year was a Lake Como summer and the one before that was Positano/Amalfi, what do we think next year’s go-to will be?