The Instagram account invites influencers to anonymously share their fees for brand partnerships, in “an open call for transparency”.
“Over the past couple of weeks we have witnessed a lot of discussion surrounding the ways in which black influencers have been treated by agencies and brands.
“Now more than ever it is important to take a solid stance against the disparities in opportunities, pay and visibility between black and non-black influencers,” a post reads.
The series of graphics, shared on Sunday, goes on to ask influencers “across all platforms” and “with varying degrees of following, influence and engagement” to take part in the initiative.
“We specifically call on non-black influencers to use this as an opportunity for transparency. The more access to this information, the easier it is for black influencers especially to hold brands accountable.
“We also welcome former employees at agencies and brands and anyone with insight into the treatment of black influencers/content creators to share with us,” it adds.
Those interested in sharing past brand deals are encouraged to DM the account with information about one of their highest paid ad campaigns, including their race, follow count and payment for the deal.
At the time of writing, over 17 influencers have shared their experiences with brands through the account.
One Black British Ghanian creator wrote that fashion and beauty brands “want to keep their collabs white and never showcase you”.
“I used to get between £100-£200 per blog post but that’s about 7 years ago. [Now] they want to pay me as little as £30 for coverage, I refuse it’s disgusting.
“Now brands just want to gift me, use affiliates when they’ve paid me before and my following is so much higher. I get 20K views on a blog post,” their message reads.
Another Black influencer describes a TikTok brand deal involving creating 10 videos for the company’s account, at a price of £10 per video.
“I have 180 Tiktok followers with one video reaching over 200k the rest 300-1k,” they say.
Meanwhile, a White creator who had 300k YouTube subscribers and 80k Instagram followers at the time of the deal revealed they were paid £15,000 for one dedicated video, a post on Instagram and a tweet.
They added that they were receiving between 100k and 200k views per video at the time.
youtube sponsorship fees have always been a bit of an illusive piece of knowledge – but something tells me if people shared their pricing the racial disparity would be just as present as every other industry currently revealing salaries
— Rowan Ellis (@HeyRowanEllis) June 8, 2020
Elsewhere, Rowan Ellis tweeted that sponsorship fees on YouTube “have always been a bit of an illusive piece of knowledge”.
“Something tells me if people shared their pricing the racial disparity would be just as present as every other industry currently revealing salaries.
“Knowing what to charge/offer as a creator or a brand is honestly one of the most asked questions in this space behind the scenes. It’s honestly wild someone hasn’t done an anon spreadsheet yet that tracks race/genre/gender/platform/fee etc (at least that i know of),” she said.
More information about The Influencer Pay Gap can be found by following their official Instagram account.
For updates follow @TenEightyUK on Twitter or like TenEighty UK on Facebook.
