FOYIN OGUNROMBI: INFLUENCER CLASS OF 2020

Interview: Khensani Mohlatlole

Photography: RTC Studios | Austin Malema

Make-up: Beez Glam Studios | imakeyoubelieve

Hair: Xola Madube

Dress: Keys Fashion

If you haven’t heard of Foyin Ogunrombi, or Foyin Og, then you’ve probably seen someone on your timeline participating in her famous #7days7faces make-up challenge. What started small, as a fun seven-day prompt make-up challenge between Foyin and her followers has now exploded into a huge event that has attracted sponsorships from Essence, HausWine and, now, Netflix.

“#7days was a whirlwind high,” she says. “It’s weird because it wouldn’t have happened without the pandemic but has led to so many great things.” The challenge led to her being tapped by Johnson & Johnson’s for a tear-jerking campaign. “It still brings me emotions when I watch it and it still touches people when they see it. It was also just my first big production as a content creator, as an influencer-- the first time I was being acknowledged and given that type of platform at that level. It was really an exciting, humbling moment for me.”

“It was very personal, conversational and interrogative. They made me cry on camera [which] I was so hacked about because that was a surprise,” she says of the campaign which features a surprise, heartfelt message from Foyin’s best friend. It’s the kind of collaborative, involved work that everyone is always declaring the next step in influencer marketing. With more consumers wising up to the nature of influencer marketing and more influencers entering the market, everything has to be value driven.

“Oftentimes, you want to get a brand involved but you also want to make sure there’s value for the consumer as well - not just me making money,” Foyin says with regards to how she’s incorporated sponsorships into her #7days challenge. “I need to dap Essence because Essence has literally been with me since the beginning of my career. Since it was just product and seeding, now they give me money and then they give me free reign. And #7days was important because that was one of the first times they’ve actually partnered with an influencer for an ad hoc project like that. So it was a very big deal for me, like I had to give them stats and proof to be like, ‘your investment wasn’t wasted.’ And they just wanted to see how it would do, especially on Twitter because that’s a social media platform they don’t pay a lot of attention to.”

“HausWine also partnered with me because they could see the value and they let me run it how I run it and I think that was the most important thing: these brands trusted me to execute it how I wanted to and they just gave me money and product. They were willing to give back.”

However, some brands are still reluctant to allow influencers the same carte blanche Foyin’s been able to enjoy. “There are some brands that I have a really good collaborative relationship with, some brands I’m still trying to get in with, others are quite--I don’t want to say archaic, but they are such heritage, legacy brands that even from their side they don’t have wiggle room. So their influencer relations are obviously tainted by the fact that everything needs to be approved.Their micromanagement is quite hectic because they’re getting pressure from the top down because [upper management] don’t even know what influencers are.”

“There definitely are brands that need to come to the party but I also understand from their point of view that they are limited, they can barely do what they do let alone give more freedom and collaborative efforts, but more people are trying. I think there’s just been a lot of social media backlash lately so people are clutching their pearls a lot more. They’re very scared to do anything and they wanna micro-manage everything but it’s just not sustainable so they’re going to have to let go.”

Speaking of backlash, she speaks a little bit about her own when her followers pointed out to her that L.A Girl had copied her #7days7faces concept with their own derivative #5days5faces challenge. “There’s no such thing as an original idea in the world. I’ve never claimed to own anything or claimed to be the originator of anything. Hell, anytime anyone interviews me about #7days, I always give daps to Kay because even though our challenges are very different, my challenge would not have existed without her challenge. She’s the one who inspired me to create.

“But when a corporation has the financial resources and power to empower young, Black women creators in the country and they have never done so before and then they create a very, very similar challenge around the same time as my challenge with almost identical prompts, similar tone, messaging, look, feel, similar hashtag and they are using it for profit for themselves; there’s a problem. I have had many people DM/message me who say ‘you’ve inspired me to do my own challenge, do you want to participate’ but none of them are leveraging my challenge for profit or business.

“None of them are companies who could have afforded to work with influencers--not even just me--any influencer, they’ve never collaborated with influencers but all of a sudden they’re popping up with this challenge in order to collaborate with their followers and customers.”

“Some people accused me of using that for clout but what clout? What did I gain? This was the worst clout chase ever; I didn’t get a bag, I didn’t get make-up - I got nothing!” But that’s not necessarily true. Many of Foyin’s followers took the initiative to call out the brand on their behalf and demand an apology. “People made the decision to stand up for me because they appreciate my challenge and what I have to offer. And that’s the lesson I took from it: when you’re authentic, people will stand up for you. People will defend your honour. People will care about you and they will support you. That was super humbling and affirming, that I had built a community.”

And she’s built an engaged community. One of the best platforms to find Foyin on are her Twitter and YouTube where she’s best at communicating her insights and thoughts. Her YouTube, beyond the hilarious #FoyanlaFixMyLifeVideos, has digestible, well-articulated videos explaining make-up trends.

“I’ve always said this, and it’s been narcissistic but now I feel like I can actually back it up, but the reason why I started a blog when I was 12 years old was because I believe that people should listen to what I have to say,” she says. “[Everything’s] grown to show that people actually want my voice, they like the way that I articulate certain things and explain certain things. And I can show it in a way that is accessible. Accessibility has been my big thing for 2020.”

The beauty bubble has seemed to have burst, with a greater move away from the colour cosmetics and revolving door of trends that had elevated so many make-up enthusiasts and artists to fame three or four years ago. The beauty industry seems to be shifting to skincare and tutorials just aren’t as popular as they used to be.

“Anytime I do a skincare video, it is an educational video. Not just ‘look at my products’ because you don’t know what my products do, you don’t know why I use those products, you don’t know what combination of hormonal and [ other stuff] that goes into making my skin look the way it does. I think a lot of people don’t understand all those nuances in skincare and it makes it very tricky to pivot from make-up to skincare - as it should. Not everybody can just do whatever and I feel like that’s a very important distinction.

“Where does make-up still fit in? A lot of the huge, international YouTubers are finding their views dipping, a lot of them have had to have ventured into their own businesses and retail which is always kind of a natural next step, but a lot of them seemed to be focused more on relying on that.

“YouTube videos are not as sustainable as they were but, at the same time, as long as there are new brands popping up and products coming out; people need to review those products, people need to showcase those products, people need to promote those products. There will always be a role for the beauty YouTube, you’ll just see us pivoting a lot more content to lifestyle, fashion or true crime.”

Foyin explains that people are buying less into the niche and more into the person. That’s what makes authenticity so important. “A lot of people complain about the SA Youtube space and they say it’s very repetitive, everyone does the same things, everyone just does storytimes and challenges and vlogs and stuff but at the end of the day that’s what people want and that’s what people watch.

“And moreover, it’s a tricky territory when that isn’t the kind of content that you want to produce. So it’s one thing if you do it every once in a while but if you have solidified yourself as that type of creator, you’re going to have to keep finding storytimes or you’re going to have to start living chaotically or you’re gonna start making things up. The pressure to keep building becomes so unsustainable because it’s like that short-lived fame keeps getting shorter and shorter.” If you’re ready to build something, according to Foyin, you need to make it true and make it last.