As I stood in line waiting for my turn to take a photo, I met Julie. Julie is a pilot for Delta, she's worked for them for 10 years and loved her job, so at this point, I started wondering what was she doing here. "I'm not a photographer at all," she told me, I'm just a fan of hers and like her videos. I'm not like you know, a hard-core fan, I just think she's cool". I jokingly replied, "oh no you are, you came all the way here on a weekday, you drank the kool-aid".
I was at Meet up in Manhattan hosted by Samsung. They we're featuring Sorelle Amore, a globetrotting influencer who I've been following on YouTube and Instagram for probably over a year now. Sorelle has been a huge inspiration to me helping me grow and develop my photography. She basically proves that being a travel blogger is a possibility, at least if you're willing to put in the work. She's most known for her advanced selfie style where she elevates the humble selfie to a dramatic and artistic photo.
Just a week before the meet up Sorelle posted a YouTube video and several Instagram posts featuring her use of Samsung's Galaxy S10. In typical Sorelle style, she turned out stunning shots from a sun-kissed desert landscape.
At the meet-up we got to try out the Galaxy S10 and meet Sorelle while take selfies recreating some of her most famous ones. I've seen these influencer and brand partnerships happen more and more over the past few years. They're also bumping up the creativity on getting people together to interact with their products. There are beauty stores that collaborate with influencers to create products just like celebs.
Being in that Samsung store talking about posing for selfies of all things. It felt. I different then s celebrity meet and greet. Fan from social media are willing to go and meet the people they follow online and brands are capitalizing on that and they've been getting positive results.
Why else would a brand like Samsung take on a venture like this. Typically they work with high profile stars. Sorelle mentioned it herself saying "it's so weird being here because they usually only have celebrities on the stage". Now she's on the stage, where she has influence over hundreds of thousands of people that trust and believe in what she says, myself included.
