A growing group of luxury consumers operate as both paying clients and comped influencers.Illustration by Salini Perera
Content creator Sofia Baldassarra receives so many free beauty products, she jokes that she has her own “Sof-ora”, a wink to the retail powerhouse Sephora. “Every day, this doorbell is ringing with a million packages of beauty, skincare, even clothing,” she says, speaking from the bedroom of her Toronto home. “I just got a bag today from Moose Knuckles. Brands are very, very generous when it comes to PR.”
But it’s not like Baldassarra needs the freebies. Her family owns Greenpark Group, a residential and commercial real estate and construction company with projects in Canada and the United States. Her posts on Instagram, where she has 64,000 followers, and TikTok, where her audience is around 129,000, offer a peek into her luxurious lifestyle, whether she is sitting courtside at a Toronto Raptors basketball game sporting a Celine shearling bomber jacket and ostrich Birkin or setting a table with Hermès china at her Miami condo.
Baldassarra is part of a group of luxury consumers that operate as both paying clients and comped influencers. The cohort includes former Rich Kids of Beverly Hills stars Dorothy Wang and Morgan Stewart McGraw, Toronto’s Meytal Algranti Shekhter and many of the personalities profiled on the voyeuristic Instagram account Rich People Who Rich Right. Whether it’s because they were born into wealth, work a well-paying job or have other means of support, they don’t need daily swag deliveries or paid partnerships, though they’re still happy to take them. Their audience includes luxury shoppers and those who aspire to be, two groups that are of interest to marketers targeting fashion-obsessed, label-conscious consumers.
“I will never work with a brand just to get a paycheque,” Baldassarra says about her industry relationships. “That’s not what I’m about. I want to stay authentic to my audience, and I want my audience to trust me. So I will only do a brand deal if it feels authentic to me.” She has partnered with Moose Knuckles, Jo Malone, Armani Beauty and the skincare brand Paula’s Choice. But while Baldassarra has been invited to Chanel and Dior shows in Paris, and Fendi in Milan, it’s as a customer, not an influencer. She feels that working with her as both would make more sense because of her unique, deep access. “I’m the type of creator that people go to when they want to buy their first Chanel or luxury handbag,” she says. “They come to see what’s worth the hype, what’s worth the quality.”
In the luxury fashion world, however, clients and content creators often sit on opposite sides of the runway – or may attend different versions of catwalk shows and other events altogether. VIP clients are coddled by sales teams, while influencers work in collaboration with marketers to hit strategic goals. “In Sofia’s case, there is a question of who owns the relationship,” says Baldassarra’s agent Anthony Deluca, CEO of Deluca Media Group. “Because she’s a VIP customer at so many of these top brands, they’re probably treating her better as a customer than they’re treating most influencers. But her goal is not to be treated well. She could get that wherever she goes. Her goal is to get paid and build her own personal brand.”
Sommyyah Awan is familiar with the power of being an influencer with the added credibility of also being a luxury shopper. Her Tiktok video declaring Jacque Marie Mage eyewear “the Birkin of sunglasses” garnered more than two million views, and a host of followers splurging for the frames that sell for upwards of $1,000. “They tell me, ‘I’ve never heard of this brand before, but you convinced me,’” she said from New York Fashion Week in February, where she had been invited by the beauty brand Bobbi Brown. Awan says she’s heard from many followers through tags, direct messages and even when they stop her on the street that they’ve bought the Hermès Mors ring, a horsebit shaped accessory that aids in styling the house’s silk scarves, because of her how-to videos.
Awan admits she isn’t taking full advantage of her clout. With a full-time job in communications for the Ontario civil service, she spends her evenings and weekends planning, filming and editing posts for her audience of 350,000 on Tiktok and 335,000 on Instagram. That leaves little time left over for negotiating and implementing affiliate links and sponsorships, though she does manage about two to three paid partnerships a month. Like Baldassarra, she won’t just promote anything for a buck. And she too is flooded with freebies which, living in a small Toronto condo, she has to limit. “I only say yes to the pieces that I truly love and I know my followers will find interesting,” she says.
At some point, Awan will have to make the decision about whether to give up her day job. She loves the idea of using her fluency in Urdu, understanding of Arabic and degree in international relations toward a career in diplomacy. But expanding her side hustle is tempting. “Luxury shopping creators who have made the jump from their corporate jobs to being full-time content creators tell me it’s the best decision they made,” she says. “They love being their own boss and the influencer industry is super lucrative.”
For these creators, however, it’s not just about swag and income. Awan speaks of how her followers tell her they are motivated by her fearless, “go girl” attitude. Baldassarra gets messages of thanks from women who have been inspired by her confidence, initiative and dedication, especially given her cushy lifestyle. That’s the sort of deeper engagement that marketers chase. But for a creator who can’t easily be bought, luxury brands may need to up the ante on what they’re offering in return.
