Influencers – How Trends & Creativity Become Contagious

I’m glad to have stumbled upon this video. First the excerpt:

‘INFLUENCERS’ is a short documentary that explores what it means to be an influencer and how trends and creativity become contagious today in music, fashion and entertainment.

The film attempts to understand the essence of influence, what makes a person influential without taking a statistical or metric approach.

Written and Directed by Paul Rojanathara and Davis Johnson, the film is a Polaroid snapshot of New York influential creatives (advertising, design, fashion and entertainment) who are shaping today’s pop culture.

The video has taken a qualitative approach to analyze influence, creativity and trends. As you can see, different individuals have different opinions and explanations. Their views are influenced by their background and experience. I feel lost after watching the documentary but at the same time, I know I have learned something. I guess it’s really hard to define what influence, trends and creativity are because they change with time. Giving them structured definitions would destroy the very beauty of their ambiguity.

Here are some interesting takeaways which I have noted:

1. Influencer: In general, an influencer is a passionate creator. One who is original and is able to turn ideas to mainstream.

2. Action works too: An influencer need not be an articulated person. Living and breathing your passion can influence others too.

3. Trend: Trend gains adoption quickly because it has the initial cool factor. But once it gains mass adoption and loses its cool factor, it dies down quickly. It’s a constant battle deciding whether to be ‘small and cool’ or ‘big and influential’. Facebook seems to balance both really well.

4. Influence is relative: It depends on your personal taste and how you look at things.

5. Branding: Creativity is good but consistency is still the most important in branding. The best brands have unique characteristics which are built over the years. There isn’t any shortcut.

6. Passion: High influence can be found when passionate people gather together. TED is good example.

7. Source: Inspiration starts from your own network. Family is usually the first foundation. But don’t leave it to chance. Network, connect and collaborate.