Why are influencers so excited about the B2C space in auto journalism? Because that’s where all the fun is! It’s like the Las Vegas of professional life. Foreign junkets, cars to drive, two wheelers to ride, vehicles to keep for months and years together for your personal use in the pretext of “long term test drives”, five star press conferences, rich food to eat, gifts, sponsored travel by plane, etc. Influencers realised this early enough and got into the B2C space and carved a niche for themselves. Auto companies had no other choice but to pander to this new breed of professionals.
Mainline auto journalists definitely detest influencers. They conveniently forget that what they are doing is far worse than what influencers are doing. Paid content, paid seminars and symposiums, paid awards, paid articles, paid trips, paid reviews, paid travel…..that’s the norm in mainline publications and television channels.
Pick any powerful mainline publication or television channel. Every other article that is written or a programme aired on television has a monetary value. The auto companies pay up, and the mainline journalists and their companies give them publicity accordingly. At the end of the year, it’s all about awards. That’s the annual jamboree. Everybody is on stage; we have a smiling Minister, a smiling industrialist and some smiling journalists. Car of the year, Bike of the year, Scooter of the year, Technology of the year, EV of the year, etc etc, awards are given by the dozens. Sponsorships follow. Mainline journalists today have doubled up as shrewd marketing guys, procuring lucrative deals for their companies. Like the doctors working in big hospitals, these journalists too are given a “target”.
Though influencers sound greedy and unprofessional, I have realised that they are far bolder and independent that mainline journalists today. The former are individuals without a care in the world, hence they are at the liberty to write or speak anything they feel is right or wrong. Take for example, the ongoing ethanol controversy. You’ll find influencers going hammer and tongs against the government and the Minister behind it. The mainline journalists are in the meantime soft pedaling this issue. That’s where influencers have proved to be far more effective and morally correct than mainline journalists.
But who is the real culprit when it comes to diluting the professional atmosphere in auto journalism? It’s obviously the auto companies. Several decades back, when influencers were yet to be born, the auto companies created little monsters out of journalists from auto magazines and newspapers. As long as they had confined themselves to press conferences and travel without lucrative gifts, the atmosphere would not have been so vitiated. The value of gifts and other favours by auto companies went up excitingly high. When the influencers came in, the very same auto companies created monsters out of them too. Some of these monsters became too big for them to handle. Now the entire field of auto journalism is dominated by monsters of various shapes and sizes.
Now it’s a free for all in the field of auto journalism. Perhaps, rather than banning influencers in this field, it would be a lot better if the mainline journalists and their organisations did a reality check. Take a look in the mirror; the fat ugly monster they are staring at is not the influencer but a journalist from a reputed media house. Things are only going to get worse from here. And don’t blame the influencer for that!