I recently watched Soccer Aid 2020, and was left feeling inspired after seeing the impact two influencers made not just on the show but on social media too.

After the Soccer Aid TikTok account served me content from two of my favourite influencers I knew I had to tune in to watch the game on TV. The two influencers I’m talking about here are Yung Filly and Chunkz, two diverse, extremely talented, smart influencers who have both worked tirelessly to get to where they are right now.

It was no surprise to me when Yung Filly and Chunkz completely stole the show despite being part of two huge teams full of celebrities and professional footballers. These two have grown massively over the last five years, from Filly’s famous ‘Sunday Stories’ on Snapchat and Chunkz making rap videos on his YouTube channel to live prime time TV.

So why did this inspire me so much? Their journey to make it to live TV was inspiring enough, but for me, it was mainly the reaction across social media both during and after the game. The immense amount of positive support, reactions, and content reassured me exactly why I work in and believe in influencer marketing. Filly and Chunkz showed me just how impactful emotive connections between influencers and their audiences can be.

The content is still to this day rolling out after the show aired; Filly scoring the equaliser, Chunkz missing the penalty then posting an iconic video that went viral, clips from the game, the embrace after the goal, I could go on. I’m still seeing people say how happy and proud they are of these two. People they’ve never spoken to or met, and honestly, I was proud of them too. If a generation, a culture feeling pride and genuine happiness in people they’ve never met doesn’t show us that emotion in Influencer marketing is so incredibly powerful and impactful, then I don’t know what does.

It’s very clear to me that the authenticity influencers carry themselves with relates with audiences on a different level. Speaking in slang, speaking on subjects that the culture is discussing or going viral, speaking in a tone of voice that we respect truly does build deep and meaningful connections with audiences.

The reason why Filly and Chunkz have become such iconic culturally relevant talent is simple; from the start of their journey, they’ve been unapologetically themselves. For me, that’s why influencers are delivering such high engagement and impact; it’s the tone of voice, the authenticity that comes with people being themselves, filming their personalities and interests. They become our friends and people we grow to care about.

Seeing how powerful these connections have been over the last few weeks has reminded me why I love influencer marketing. It’s built from emotive connections and when done well can offer so much more than ROI for clients. Working with Influencers like Filly and Chunkz, people that are part of the culture, that are authentic to themselves builds relationships between clients and audiences almost subconsciously just by supporting culturally relevant talent. Clients need to try and become part of the culture, look at the incredible work Foot Asylum are doing using Filly and Chunkz on their YouTube account.

For me, this shows the incredible opportunities we have to offer our clients working within influencer marketing, the creative freedom we have by collaboratively working with creators and influencers on content. Content that evokes emotion into audiences we’re trying to speak to. Content that uses the emotive connections influencers have with their audiences to subconsciously build that relationship with our clients too.

My point in this blog is this, Filly and Chunkz showed us how ingrained they are in the culture. They showed us how impactful what some influencers say and do are and how much they’re respected and loved. Most importantly, they showed me why the new age of celebrity delivers far greater impact with Gen Z and Millennials because it’s fuelled by emotion and what’s more powerful than emotion?

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