Soon after Emily in Paris Season 3 was released, Netflix ranked the show as one of its most popular series to watch in December. Now, as we ride through January, Emily in Paris is still on the top 10 list, and everyone can’t stop talking about it – but why are we still talking about Emily who is still in Paris?
Why are we still watching Emily in Paris?
“Fake it till you make it,” a phrase that I heard whilst binge-watching all of the seasons for the first time. Yes, I’m a little behind with the series as I, if you want my honest opinion, switched off maybe 20-30 minutes into Season One.
Why was I put off? If I may be quite frank, I thought it to be pretentious, exaggerated, and, well, a budget version of Devil Wears Prada. However, as I watched it from the beginning again and followed it through, I decided to go in with an open mind and it wasn’t too bad – unless it was so bad that it was good?
Emily Cooper the influencer
Before I continue, I must admit, the show did influence me to create the hashtag #AmaninDubai. ‘Influence’ – if we think about the word influence, it’s a pretty strong term. Already, without watching the show, I had created my own hashtag and placed it in my Instagram bio. It wasn’t because I was a huge fan of the show, but just in a short amount of time watching it, I managed to take something away that I may have connected or resonated with.
For those who haven’t yet seen Emily in Paris, let me quickly do a *spoiler alert.* Emily’s manager falls pregnant meaning Emily has to take her place in flying from Chicago to Paris and work as a Marketing Executive for a marketing and advertising agency – Savoir. Although she has a hard time finding her feet with her colleagues and unpleasant new boss Sylvie, Emily Cooper does what she does best – create engaging campaigns and build on client relationships, all whilst looking fashionably quirky from day to night in the series.
We go through this journey with Emily, but of course, there is also love added into the mix (because it’s France and she’s single – of course), drama, adventure, fashion, and a lot of digital media.
Emily in Paris is the perfect series to watch when it comes to explaining what digital creators are. Social media plays a huge part in the show as Emily documents her life in Paris on her Instagram page Emily in Paris. As she grows her following and becomes an “influencer,” Emily is able to reach people through her channel and gain contacts that not even the agency Savoir could reach.
How powerful is it to be an influencer?
As evident as it is in the show, through constantly posting her life in Paris, Emily’s following on Instagram grows from 200 followers to over 200 thousand. Even Emily is surprised at how much her following has grown online as she frequently checks her posts and see how well they do.
Emily even attends an event for influencers just to build a relationship with a potential client. As she stands in the queue to get inside the venue, the lady in front of Emily shows off her dog who has thousands of followers, and gets an extra special gift. When Emily asks for the same gift, the man checks her Instagram and says she is non-eligible for the higher-priced gift and like everyone else, gets a standard freebie bag.
We also see how exaggerated the event is as one influencer creates a video by jumping on the floor and doing the splits to show off the brand.
If you’re wondering whether influencers do that, then let me put that rumor to rest – no, they don’t. Influencers with a following on their social media do have an upper hand in being invited to invite-only events as brands see influencers as an advantage in selling their product or service. What we get from the scene is how competitive the industry is with who they invite and potentially how influencers are ranked of importance which is unrealistic.
What agencies and brands should take into account is not how many followers an influencer has but other factors such as engagement. Nano and micro-influencers may have much more engagement and interaction than those will millions of followers. Wouldn’t you rather book an influencer who reaches all of their followers or influencers who may reach just a small fraction of their millions?
Influencers or Agencies?
Although we see what being an influencer can do for you, Emily does say something in the show that stood out. Because of the video she created on social media, she was able to get a meeting with the client the event was organised for. But once she meets her, Emily tells the client “these people don’t care about you or your brand” implying that the influencers are there for freebies and just to create content.
I can agree with Emily on this and again go back to my point of vetting through who you book for an event. Quality over quantity is done with a bit of research and help from an agency like ITP Live. With an agency, there are so many possibilities of what can be done from who attends to the pr.
Living our creator lives through Emily
Maybe what kept us hooked on the series is being able to follow Emily’s journey with her as an influencer in the middle of one of the world’s biggest fashion cities – Paris. There was something in the show that people could relate to, whether it be moving countries, working in fashion, being an influencer, working in digital media and seeing the power of it, or even meeting friends or falling in love. No matter how cliche it sounds, we all wanted some part, if not all, of Emily’s life in Paris.
We still haven’t answered the question though of what impact Emily in Paris has on influencers or influencer marketing agencies. Or have we?
Emily Cooper makes it fun
Well, for one thing, Emily Cooper sure does make vlogging look fun! Although she may have basically said in the series that influencers don’t care about what they’re promoting, she has put influencers on the map. The good outways the one negative that Emily said and if we actually look into the statement and that scenario, it probably was the right thing to say.
However, the series does show how impactful digital media is and what being an influencer has on people, brands, and especially networking. Being able to network with people you thought you wouldn’t be able to reach is one benefit of being an influencer and growing your following. Networking with other people enables you to diversify your audience, partner with others, and collaborate with brands or other creators.
If you are going through a big change or want to start documenting your life, then don’t think about it, just do it! That’s something else we can learn about from Emily – for every new alien thing she experienced, she posted online and took her followers on a journey with her seeing her followers grow rapidly.
You voted and we concluded
We put a vote out on our Instagram story to see if people thought Emily in Paris pictured influencers in a positive or negative light. After seeing the response, there was a split vote proving that Emily in Paris has impacted us in one way or another. Whether that be in a positive light or negative light is up to you to decide.
What did you think of the show? Have your say by tweeting us @itpliveme and let us know what you think or share your thoughts with us by emailing aman.dhami@itp.com.
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