Nicholas Crown: CMOs – Influencer Marketing Is Not ‘Dead’, It’s Just Different.

The role of influencers and the creator economy remains high on every CMO’s ‘To-do’ list going into 2023 and beyond. According to Crunchbase data, funding to venture-backed start-ups focused on content creators so far this year has reached $637 million.

With millions of professional content creators producing hundreds of millions of impressions every day and with more and more entertainment, FinTech, and esports brands topping the charts in revenue growth and beginning public trades, brands are increasingly hoping to leverage influencers’ ability to turn views into real customers.

Who better than to help CMOs understand how they need to think about it than one of its leading creators?

Nicholas Crown’s biography is a fascinating read based on his beginning his post-college career as a fixed income trader through to a growing global profile as the mind behind the viral ‘Rich vs. Really Rich’ TikTok series. Describing himself as taking the “ultimate winding road” Nicholas has a wry take on his Wall Street days and starting out as a pit clerk: “I joined at exactly the wrong time as the market imploded into chaos. I bailed at the height of my career as the youngest director at UBS. Wall Street was my ultimate education – and the ultimate meritocracy, but it wasn’t going to work for me in the long run.”

Crediting this background as also giving him his entrepreneurial bug which led to him going on to found four multimillion-dollar start-ups spanning career tech to marketing automation – until he realised he wanted more than that.

Crown: “I’d ended up creating a number of companies – all of which seemed far-fetched at the time. I had a dollar-amount in my head where all of my dreams would come true. However, when I hit the target, I realized that I didn’t make any room for my growth or peace of mind. It took me a long time to realise I needed to find fulfilment, happiness, financial stability and wake up every day with a smile on my face. So, I did what very few sane people would not do – I started making TikTok’s.”

Often writing, recording, and releasing his video content the same day, fast-forward to today and you are sure to have seen Nicholas’ now viral social media series “Rich vs Really Rich” (yes, he’s that guy!). Nicholas initially applied a Reels-first strategy to his Instagram account in early 2022, gaining over 93M Reels Plays in only six months. Today with over 1.87 million followers and 30 million weekly views he is a bona fide TikTok sensation.

Nicholas believes CMO’s need to realise the creator market has significantly changed over the last few years – as has, critically, the audience’s connection to their content. “Creators started out as beautiful, cool people, hanging out and looking good. That was Instagram culture at the time. However, marketers stopped seeing ROAS from working with these broad-based ‘influencers’ and began to realise there was not a lot of audience affinity underneath the beautiful photos and exotic destinations.

Of course, you can also throw in some of the personality traits of the “rich guy” character from his skits: “’I take the best pictures, I’m special…’. That is passive and outdated in my opinion – as it does not ultimately lead to any lift from a marketing standpoint.”

Nicholas sees having a genuine audience connection, affinity, and niche provision of information as being key to how brands can begin to leverage a creator’s engaged audience and unlock a strategy that can take real advantage of platforms like TikTok.

“For me, the most powerful aspect of what I do is showing my audience if you learn to be like the Really Rich Guy you will become more successful no matter your field. Smile, laugh, be caring, and treat people with respect. Kindness will win – period – as will the people who practice it. That is why my partners have had so much success. The messaging resonates on a deep level.”

Nicholas credits growing his following through creating content that emphasizes how wealth creation can start with humility and open-mindedness. This powerful underlying message is why global brands continue to work with him.

“Where we are today due to TikTok and the ‘interest graph’ as opposed to the ‘social graph’ from Instagram is totally different. The interest graph from TikTok is more ‘what do I like’, rather than ‘what my friends like”—it’s a custom, tailored experience just for you. Now CMOs can find digital creators with a world that is so much more deep and meaningful – there is so much more trust with their audiences.”

Now as an investor diversifying into FinTech and passionate about EV and battery technology Nicholas will no doubt continue to surprise and innovate – including launching his own email newsletter, The Really Rich Journal, to further deepen his engagement with his devoted audience with more financial commentary. Before we closed, he also went into his latest thinking on building a following as an influencer and what the social media platforms need to do to help their creators. Both are conversations for another article (or a book!) for another day.

However, in the meantime, as a final take for CMO’s reading this piece – take careful note of Nicholas’ advice on approaching creators from a collaborative, partnership-led perspective:

“I’ve often heard managing influencers is sometimes like “herding cats”. They are a unique bunch. However, using them is still so powerful when done in the right way. However, CMOs need to realise managing creators is a process and just like anything else, testing, refining and looking structured for a long-term perspective is critical. The influencer is not dead – the environment of ‘I take, take, take’ as a creator is dead.”