THE CORONAVIRUS pandemic is strongly affecting the global economy, and there's almost no industry that will not feel a substantial economic impact. Forty days of quarantine is behind the Croatian citizens: small businesses are closing, employees are being laid off, and the Croatian influencers are also feeling the consequences.
Being an influencer, one of the most desirable jobs among the young generation is stagnating - traveling is banned, production is stopped, and big companies are cutting back marketing budgets.
Index spoke to the top three Croatian influencers, according to their number of followers and their sponsorship deals. Nika Ilcic, Davor Gerbus, and Lorin Nukic told us how the beginning of an economic crisis looks like in the influencers' world.
We asked if she was already feeling the consequences of a 40 days lockdown in Croatia, and Nika Ilcic said that the consequences would follow in the upcoming period.
"To be honest, I will face the consequences in a month or two because, luckily, I still receive money from the campaigns from last year and the beginning of the year. But the coronavirus lockdown will surely make a substantial gap in our incomes," said the most famous Croatian YouTuber.
Still, she said, her sponsors hadn't canceled the campaigns.
"Fortunately, my sponsors haven't canceled anything, but many campaigns are put on hold. We're all waiting for a positive turn of events, we combine and calculate the best way to continue our work because we have to admit that reckless campaigns could be counterproductive. I would even dare to say that the campaigns could be called corona-profiteering. With the easing of measures, some clients called wanting to continue the collaboration, and there are some new clients that I'm really looking forward to," said Nika.
She admits that she will eventually face huge financial losses due to the coronavirus lockdown.
"The loss in the last 40 days will come to around 80 percent, and I dare to say that the negative trend will continue because we're aware that marketing budgets are among the first things businesses are cutting back, as wrong as that might be. So we'll have to slightly modify our prices and adapt to the new situation on the market," said the young influencer.
Nika said that in the future, she wouldn't have a problem with contacting the brands that had previously contacted her first.
"Influencer's job is just like any other job, and, as I have been pointing out on a few occasions, we are putting in a great deal of effort and work hard just like in any other job. Okay, I will not compare us with doctors, teachers, or scientists, but if we want to make a living out of it, we have to work hard, be creative, innovative, responsible, and professional. Nowadays, the Internet offers everyone the same opportunities and everyone can try to be an influencer if they think it's easy and simple. Just turn on your camera, make your content, and post it, but don't give up, not even if no one offers you one dollar for sponsorship after five years. As I've pointed out several times, our "overnight success" lasted at least four to five years. I personally had a positive experience with brands, and usually, they contacted me first, but I think that's going to change, and that I will feel free to remind them of my existence," she admits.
We wanted to know what content the audience was still interested in and offered an opportunity to earn money.
"There are contents, but it's hard to estimate how much they are interesting to our followers. Many have been recycling their old content, posting #TB photographs from their summer and winter holidays, which was interesting in the first few days of the lockdown, but we had to change the content a little and adapted to the situation that is not that quite good, nice and comfortable. Personally, on my Instagram story, I shared all the family farms that had contacted me, and they offered delivery for their local fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, honey, etc."
"I wanted to draw my followers' attention to the importance of supporting small businesses and local farmers, as well as eating healthy and local food. Of course, I didn't make any money out of it because it would be in poor taste to ask for money for these things. Normally, I never ask for money for the well-being of the community, humanitarian causes, and what I consider to be for the benefit of the community," said Nika.
We asked her if she had plan B.
"I've had plan B for the last couple of months, but I haven't put it into action yet. I've been working on a song, I've started to learn more about music, beats, and everything that could become my other path to follow, besides being an influencer," she concluded.
The Croatian influencer Davor Gerbus was stuck in Bali for more than 40 days. Since he is one of the influencers that is making money by posting traveling photographs, many of his jobs are in question.
"The plan was to travel to Istanbul on May 1, to spend summer in Maroko, but none of that is important now - traveling back to my country is now the most important," said Davor, who was waiting for permission to fly to Croatia.
"Some sponsors indeed canceled the deals, but the majority of them only postponed the collaboration for May or June," Davor honestly said and added that he had a financial loss because of the 40 days of quarantine.
"Given that I was used to a certain income, I would say that I have a financial loss of around 65%, and that percentage is growing every day."
Davor Gerbus said he had a "work made for hire" contract and wasn't counting on the state financial aid. We wanted to know if foreign influencers were also threatened.
"I think that the situation is the same for everyone working online. According to what I see from my colleagues from foreign countries, I can conclude that maybe it's easier for them, but I may be wrong," said Davor, who admitted not having plan B, and that he was only thinking about returning home.
Lorin Nakic also said that she was feeling the consequences of the coronavirus quarantine, but her situation was not terrible.
"It's true that some brands are stopping and canceling deals, but that's not the case with me. Some of my deals and contacts ended or nearly ended just as the COVID-19 situation had started, but I hear from my colleagues that many deals are currently canceled. There are no events, and some of them should have taken place," said the influencer.
As Gerbus, she also doesn't count on the state financial aid because she has a "work made for hire" contract, which allows doing business for influencers that didn't start up their own company.
"I think that the majority of people already know how influencer job functions. We can work from anywhere we want, at home, on vacation… We're one type of media that brands use to promote their products to our followers, and that's how they reach their customers. The difference between us and the traditional media is that we as individuals are much closer to our followers - we market the products and the brands that we use ourselves, and we share our experiences with them. The COVID-19 situation stopped me from starting my own business, which I'll do as soon as the situation gets better. I currently have a "work made for hire" contract until I start my own business, which should have already happened, but it is what it is. I don't count on the state financial aid," said Lorin.
Lorin thinks that it's still possible to make good money on YouTube.
"There are still contents that earn money on Instagram and Youtube, even in this situation. There are brands with very well organized online sales, they work normally, and thus continue investing in marketing. I was even surprised to arrange some jobs and campaigns in this situation. There are still job offers in the influencers' world, just not in the same amount as in the pre-corona time," she concluded.
The influencer, who is followed by 76,000 people on Instagram, isn't thinking about traveling.
"As far as traveling goes, I don't mind if it remains banned, I don't plan to travel as soon as they open the borders. I will wait until the situation settles. We aren't going to miss out on anything. My only plan is a vacation on the Adriatic coast. I don't think about plan B for now," she said.