« 'Listen to Mom': Important Advice for Brands as Well As Kids | Main

Kim Kardashian is...Influential?!

Many of us (perhaps unwillingly) were sucked into the recent news of Kim Kardashian’s divorce. Yes people, after a lavish $10M wedding, our beloved reality starlet announced that she and her husband of 72 whole days, Kris Humphries, were calling it quits. Before we laugh the matter off, let’s face the facts: The media went nuts. Within a short while, Kim K-themed hashtags like #ThingsLongerThanKimsMarriage and #Kimkmarriagewasshorter were trending on Twitter and anyone and everyone in social media felt the need to add some kind of personal commentary on the situation.

Some of my personal favorites?

Grouptweets
I digress. As much amusement as I got from “listening” to the people’s opinions on this matter, the madness got me thinking about another recent Kim K phenomenon that I had observed as Cymfony’s resident Pharma and Healthcare Analyst.

In July of this year, Kim was diagnosed with Psoriasis, an autoimmune disease which currently affects about 7.5 million Americans. Now, I understand the hoopla behind a failed celebrity marriage … the controversy, the intrigue, the allegations. But the same interest extended to Kim’s state of health?

Behold:

KK Chart 2

(click the chart to enlarge it)

In the days after Kim’s announcement, discussion about psoriasis increased more than 3-fold! I’ll say that again. 3-fold - proving, perhaps definitively, that Kim’s influence is not to be laughed off.

If we put our analytical hats on, the finding begs the following questions:

  • Does Kim’s psoriasis announcement and the resulting social media frenzy have a significant and lasting impact on awareness of psoriasis as a condition?
  • How does one value such a market event? Is the value greater than an unbranded campaign backed by a pharmaceutical company?

  • How can brands invested in the psoriasis market reap benefits from events of this nature?

Friends, this one is up for discussion. Are we giving Kim Kardashian less value than she deserves?

 

Posted by Michelle Bernardini on November 11, 2011 at 03:37 PM | Email this post Permalink

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341cdcdc53ef015436ce256d970c

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Kim Kardashian is...Influential?!:

Comments

The comments to this entry are closed.