Jessica Joseph, who runs a British influencer agency with a diverse talent base, says she noticed a change in attitude from advertisers at the height of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. “There was a great period when we worked with brands and they worked with us consistently. They really wanted black voices,” she says.
Now, the contact has stopped. “We don’t even get a response to our emails. Not even the courtesy of a no.
” Influencers are the celebrity class of the social media age and, to many people, appear to have the dream job: foreign travel, flashy clothes, fine dining, rubbing shoulders with old school stars – and all for money. But the benefits are not distributed equally. Long-rumbling concerns about pay inequality within the industry are not being addressed, according to a report this month, with white influencers on average making over 50% more than some of their BAME counterparts.
Joseph, who runs Season25, an influencer agency that promotes diversity in its roster, says interest in her clients has “changed” since BLM peaked in 2020-21. The pay-gap report from the UK-based SevenSix Agency shows that influencers of south-east Asian descent made an average of £700 a sponsored video post on Instagram , 57% less than the average £1,638 for white influencers. South Asian, black and east Asian influencers are also paid lower amounts, with average fees of £1,135, £1,080 and £1,010 respectively.
Influencing, where people with large social media.
