Authenticity: The Answer to NOT Ruining Everything

Gary Vayanerchuk is an Entrepreneur, Speaker, and Marketer and his youtube video “Gary Vaynerchuk Explains: How Marketing Works” starts with a big claim. He says “Marketers ruin everything”. The title should read “Marketing without authenticity ruins everything.”

TikTok hosts thousands of influencers marketing products every day. The standouts among them? Creators who feel so authentic to their viewership that they instantly gain their respect, their attention, and most importantly their money.

Take food reviewer Keith Lee. With over 8 million followers, Lee has created a platform for tasting foods in small local restaurants in his city of Las Vegas. When Lee finds a mom-and-pop shop struggling to make ends meet or empty on a Friday night, he always asks the question “Is it the food, the service, or the marketing?” When Lee scores a restaurant's food items high and concludes it’s the marketing, an incredible thing happens. The restaurant, without fail, woke up the next day with a line around the block. Lee vocalizes often all he does is help get their business out there for others, that the good food does the rest of the work. He also talks often about his family and his mental health issues. Lee has harnessed his marketing power for good, and not only does it not ruin his platform, but it also grows it. Because viewers trust Lee to be authentic with his reviews and who he is. Followers never comment that Lee has become a Marketer or that he is ruining his brand, it is who he is, and it is honest.