App turns Instagram followers into real world freebies
Yonathan
Moya always considered photography a hobby. He became interested in taking
photos as a teenager after leading mission trips across Central Mexico. In
college, he bought a camera and started working for his campus newspaper.
But he
never imagined it would get more serious than that.
Enter
Instagram. Since its 2010 inception, the app has accumulated more than 300 million users
who share more than 70 million photos and videos each day.
Now enter
Popular Pays, an app created in 2013 available to Instagram users with 500 or
more followers. Participating companies and brands give products to these users
who then promise to post a photo in return. Offers range from a cup of coffee
to paid “gigs” from companies like Nike. And they’re all based on
the Instagram user’s number of followers.
Moya, 24,
started seriously using Instagram last year and now has more than 30,000
followers. After discovering Popular Pays, he began working on campaigns for
grassroots companies looking for word-of-mouth endorsements. What Moya
considered a hobby soon transformed into a job. He was suddenly being
reimbursed for simply sharing a photo online.
“Instagram
is becoming intriguing for people like me,” Moya says. “It’s an avenue to
expose your work and socially engage and connect with anyone who will follow
you all over the world. ”
Moya
works as a regional coordinator for Experience Mission, a Christian
organization that lends resources to underdeveloped regions worldwide. His job
sometimes takes him across the country for conferences. When he goes to Chicago
next month, he’ll be staying at the ACME Hotel for free thanks to Popular Pays.
“I’ve
always wanted to go there,” Moya says. “It’s a great experience, and I don’t
have to pay.”
Popular
Pays was conceived at a party in Chicago, according to co-founder Corbett
Drummey.
“THEY
CONTROL THE BUDGETS AND BUSINESS AND THERE’S A LOT OF INERTIA THERE. BUT I
ABSOLUTELY BELIEVE THIS IS THE FUTURE OF ADVERTISING.”
“My
co-founder, Allan Holmes, said, ‘We should throw a party that you can’t get
into unless you have 500 followers on Instagram,’” Drummey says. “I thought it
was cool.”
While the
app was eventually turned down despite popular feedback at an initial “test
drive” event, Drummey and his team didn’t give up on Popular Pays.
“Allan
was taking a Vine of a barista making a drink and we had the idea, ‘What if he
could pay for the drink by posting that to his 500 followers,’ ” Drummey says.
Although
business was slow to boom, the app spread like wildfire once it gained traction
and has reached into parts of New York and California. It is now growing 10%
weekly, according to Drummey.
“The
local businesses love it because we bring customers in the door,” Drummey says.
“Instagrammers share their experience to their followers, they usually buy
something else, bring a friend and come back frequently after that. Larger
brands dig it because it’s the most authentic way of getting your brand seen in
a medium that is so highly coveted.”
Drummey
likens Popular Pays to the bartering system. Since this generation’s social
media presence influence is greater than ever before, these personalized
endorsements mean more for businesses than traditional advertising. To
Drummey, Popular Pays is to advertising as Uber is to taxis, what Airbnb is to
hotels and what Kickstarter is to fundraising.
“Agencies
still rule the world,” Drummey says. “They control the budgets and business and
there’s a lot of inertia there. But I absolutely believe this is the future of
advertising.”
Drummey
compares his app’s growing system to Google AdWords, which assists merchants in
marketing their products and services in the Google search engine and its
affiliate sites.
“[We
want] brands [to] create and manage their own campaign without our input,”
Drummey says. “But in a year we want that experience to connect them with
influencers on Vine, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and Snapchat in addition to
just Instagram.”
For Moya,
the app has revolutionized the way he looks at his smart phone. He’s found a
practical side job that utilizes his passion, which might not have been a
possibility just five years ago.
“I work
closely with the app primarily because I want to think of creativeness in my
daily life and have projects that are going to challenge me and make me grow as
a mobile photographer,” Moya says. “We’re at a starting point of what digital
marketing is going to be in the future. I’m excited to see the future of what
mobile photography will become, and the doors that will open for people who are
so called social influencers.”
Joshua
Cannon is a student at Memphis University and a spring 2015 USA
TODAY Collegiate Correspondent.
