Pro Baker Comes Up With a Pretty Savage Way of Dealing With Influencers Who Are Looking for Free Food
Some people in the food and hospitality industries are getting really sick of influencers asking for freebies. They would rather not be tagged in the social media posts and instead have customers that are actually willing to pay for the food or service provided.
Reshmi Bennett is a pastry chef in London, and her cakes are simply gorgeous. Her shop, Anges de Sucre, is both family run and award winning. She combines her classical French cuisine training with delicious flavors from all over the world to make cakes that are worth every penny.
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
Unfortunately, many influencers have messaged her asking for cake and unwilling to pay even one penny. They refer to the relationship as a “collab,” but Bennett knows that they’re really just asking for a freebie. Her cakes are too expensive and time-consuming to give away for free.
In an effort to deter influencers from contacting her for hand-outs, she posted a flow-chart on Instagram that shows just how influencers can get cake. She explained, “I’m tired of the DMs and emails. So it’s gonna be a straight cut and paste of the link and flowchart in response.”
In addition to the flow chart, Bennett wrote a blog post on her website that explains exactly why she will not give out free cake.
“We get hundreds of requests for cake in exchange of exposure. I would ‘thank you for reaching out’ but I won’t, because I’m not thankful for your ‘opportunity’ to work for free. And it’s also clogging up my DMs and inbox.”
She ended the post by saying that her customers who actually pay for cake have Instagram accounts too and often post pictures of the cakes. That’s the kind of exposure she prefers.
“Our customers pretty much all have Instagram accounts, and nearly always share photos of their cake. Their followers are extremely targeted as it’s their friends, family and colleagues, and we have built our business from getting loyal and repeated referrals. No celeb/influencer/brand following, even in the hundreds of thousands or millions is better than our loyal customers’. I’d rather reward them, than a random.”
Bennett told Bored Panda, “The reaction to my blog post and flowchart has been incredible. So many small businesses and creatives have been in support as they all suffer the same. The general public too, who are sick to the back of their teeth being fed the empty and vacuous #gifted #blessed #sponsored #obsessed content by influencers. I’ve heard from so many people that they are actually put off by the companies themselves who enable these blaggers by gifting them freebies.”
