The power of a surname: when the family business is being an 'influencer'

There are legendary sagas of actors, families of writers with overflowing talent, football clans that continue from grandparents to parents and grandchildren and in 2024... families of

influencers

that function as a lucrative commercial brand.

On February 23, Prime Video premiered the second season of

Pombo

, the docuseries that addresses the life of María Pombo, one of the most influential content creators in Spain, and her family.

Because the title already warns.

Pombo

is not only about María, the most in the media, but about her entire clan, from her father (whom she has given some prominence on her Instagram profile, with 3.2 million followers, over the years) to her sisters, husband (who is currently competing on the program

El Desafío

along with other celebrities), brothers-in-law and closest friends.

“This, in the end, is still a profession and a business for the

influencers

who are part of the family because they know it works.

It is a new digital version of what gossip magazines have always represented and the range of commercial brands that can work with different family profiles is very broad,” explains Fátima Martínez, specialist in

marketing

and social networks and author of the book

Influencer Marketing. : Practical course for agencies, influencers and brands

(Ed. Anaya Multimedia).

María Pombo herself worked a few months ago with her father (who is not a content creator) on a campaign for a nail polish brand, creating a story that revolved around the father-daughter relationship, the same one that the businesswoman has nurtured. over the years on their social networks.

Martínez compares the phenomenon of influencer

families

with the usual personalities of couché paper, where it is not uncommon to see nephews, uncles, brothers-in-law, ex-partners... of the famous person in question make headlines: “The children of Isabel Pantoja, Rocío Jurado, [Kiko ] Matamoros, Paz Padilla… Many famous people ended up making the path easier for their loved ones by telling about their family life on television, in gossip magazines and, now, on social networks.”

More information

María Pombo, 'influencer': “Now that everything offends, speaking is now a risky sport”

Maybe it doesn't take a special talent, but it does take a lot of dedication to get the attention of tens of thousands of people and, no matter how much the weight of the last name is, not all family members enjoy the same success: “If they don't have a good

storytelling

, or they do not create interesting content, brands may not want to bet on these profiles,” explains Marisa Oliver, co-founder of the

influencer

marketing

and representation agency

Hamelín, about the key to success in this profession.

A profession that is increasingly present among the employment options of the youngest.

According to research carried out by the Reina Sofía Center on Adolescence and Youth of the FAD Juventud Foundation, one in three young people considers content creation as a possible professional career.

And they start younger and younger, with the dangers and dilemmas that this entails.

From left to right, the entire Pombo clan (Álvaro López Huerta, Lucía Pombo, Pablo Castellano, María Pombo, Teresa Ribó, Víctor Pombo, Gabriela Toral, Marta Pombo and Luis Zamalloa) on the day of the presentation of their docuseries.Europa Press Entertainment (Europa Press via Getty Images)

Another prominent internet personality who has known how to project her influence towards her family is the Italian Chiara Ferragni.

Since her beginnings as a blogger more than a decade ago, the businesswoman has evolved into one of the most powerful content creators in the fashion industry.

With this, she has positioned both her sisters Valentina and Francesca, as well as her mother Marina Di Guardo, within the digital

star system

, who have tens of thousands of followers on her own profiles.

They all appear in the two seasons of the

reality show

The Ferragnez

(a name that responds to the union of Ferragni and Fedez, the stage name of her husband, with whom she is going through a crisis).

The chapters address the family's life in detail, from their marital crises to Fedez's health problems.

What was broadcast on television is not far from what Ferragni shows daily on his social networks.

Her family life with her two young children works as the engine behind this vast machinery that generated eight million dollars in the last year alone, according to

Forbes

.

However, Ferragni's long shadow is also cast over his family when things go wrong.

In recent months, the Italian has faced her biggest reputational crisis to date and she is immersed in a judicial process after being accused of running a campaign for false charitable purposes.

This controversy has caused the businesswoman to lose juicy contracts with brands such as Coca-Cola and the Safilo optical group and has also affected other members of her family: “The case of Chiara and Fedez shows us how a reputational crisis of one of its members can damage the entire framework and each of the others,” points out Martínez in reference to this situation.

The entire Ferragnez family on the day of the presentation of their 'reality docu' in Milan, May 17, 2023.Mondadori Portfolio (Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Im)

The case of the D'Amelio family represents, perhaps, the phenomenon in its greatest splendor.

It all started when in 2019 the American sisters Charli and Dixie D'Amelio, TikTok megastars, began publishing content on the social network when they were just teenagers.

In a matter of months they became internet celebrities and began to make their image their personal brand.

Today, at 19 and 22 years old respectively, they lead a business empire that transcends social networks.

Together with their parents (Marc, a former candidate for senator from Connecticut of the Republican Party, and Heidi, a former model and photographer), they lead countless companies linked to the world of fashion, beauty and lifestyle.

They have launched shoe and cosmetic brands, written books and hosted

podcasts

, and even designed mattresses.

As usually happens when someone excels in the digital universe, they have made the leap to conventional media.

The four members of the family star in

The D'Amelio Show

, a reality television program broadcast on Hulu (in Spain it is on Disney+) that became one of the great hits of the platform within its category.

Heidi D'Amelio, Charli D'Amelio, Marc D'Amelio, and Dixie D'Amelio at the Family Film And TV Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, California, on January 27, 2024. Tiffany Rose (Getty Images for Family Film and)

This particular family business also works thanks to the feedback between the different profiles of the clan, which constantly give visibility to each other.

Each one with its particularities, as a family they have the ability to appeal to a heterogeneous and intergenerational audience and work with an almost unlimited catalog of brands: “With the profile of children, children's products;

male products for the couple.

Products for older people in the case of parents...”, points out Martínez.

Talk about yourself

The common link of this type of accounts is found in the type of content they share, closely linked to their personal life.

Beyond sponsored posts, which are monetized in spades, they offer entertainment in the form of private experiences, something that,

a priori,

does not provide immediate economic benefits, but does help build a loyal audience.

And revealing the intimacy of the home is what really seems to interest the mass public.

In the words of influencer

marketing

expert

Marisa

Oliver: “Sharing the ordinary and everyday allows many people to feel identified, this provides a much more powerful connection than when you deify someone.

People feel closeness and that connects and goes viral much more with the audience.”

Of course, she also clarifies that it is possible to achieve digital star status without having to expose yourself too much: “We have Laura Escanes who hardly shares anything about her family environment and is one of the best-known

influencers

on the national scene, Xuso Jones , Ana Brito, Carolina Iglesias, Inés Hernand, Luc Loren….

They are all mainstream

characters

who base their success on networks on entertaining without exposing their private lives as the main lever for this.”