The Power of Influence

New York Post Online: Saleh is part of a new kind of advertising phenomenon – one that goes beyond more established methods like street-teaming (campaigns orchestrated to look as though they’re “up from the street,” through graffiti or sidewalk chalk scrawls, for example) or stealth marketing (in which corporations hire young, attractive, charismatic people to go into bars and clubs and be “overheard” raving about a brand of alcohol or cigarettes).
“If the right person is wearing the right thing, people want it,” says Kelly Cutrone, founder of the fashion branding firm People’s Revolution. Cutrone gives thousands of dollars worth of free clothes to Saleh and other New Yorkers who aren’t rich or famous, but who run in desirable circles and wield a lot of social influence.
“We call it ‘mainlining,'” she says. “That means we take it out of the industry and put it on people on the street, so that they’re seen.”
Under Their Influence [New York Post Online]