#LiveAuthentic

The hashtag: #LiveAuthentic has created an epidemic across our social landscape.

An article I read here explores its typical use on the social media platform – Instagram. It’s a an amusing, ironic commentary from a disgruntled instagrammer – fed up with a mass movement of self-promoting “lifestylers”.

Using the quaintly nicknamed “Socality Barbie” doll, the blogger tries to mimic the incriminating posts, with some cringe-worthy but beautifully scenic examples that would appear alongside a typical user’s #LiveAuthentic hashtag. Socality Barbie now even has her own live dedicated Instagram feed.

Socality Barbie has been created as a reaction to a lifestyle trend, which in the blogger’s opinion, has left us with a bland an uninventive flavor of Instagram posts; all of them looking the same, ironically lacking the creativity despite purporting to be original.

Importantly, however, the popularity and now satirical use of this hashtag indicates an important trend in our social behavior. Have nature, health & lifestyle now become a pivotal attribute of our social hierarchy?

From a brand perspective it has created some fertile ground– who can capitalize on this epidemic? What brands are harnessing it?

Wholefoods is a prime example of a brand built on organic healthy life styles. Its brand stance is based on “living authentically” and has healthy and organic lifestyles as its main calling card above all other major food outlets. It’s riding the wave created by this new movement and doing phenomenally well out of it. By spreading its brand awareness through rapid expansion in its store network, it has made a perfectly timed move to soak up all the new interest sparked by this lifestyle trend. It has solidified itself as a the main accessible organic food outlet to the the mass population and is reaping the rewards with some impressive growth figures. Read more here

In a different market spectrum, the clothing brand RCVA have latched onto the purist lifestyle and outdoors adventure as the basis for all of its branding. It strives to mold different subcultures and personalities through facilitating adventure and creating beautiful content across its website and social media platforms. Through this it stays ahead of the lifestyle trend and uses it as a weapon to sell huge volumes of clothing year on year – growing from $0 to $50 million dollars in revenue since it started 8 years ago. Read more here

#LiveAuthentic underpins a new social movement & some brands have learned to harness its powers significantly. Now the question is will it last? Bloggers have clearly cottoned on to its popularity and it seems to be getting a bit stale as a talking point on social media. Lifestyle and healthy living will always be something for us all to strive for, so the real question is how will brands use this conversation piece to evolve and stay relevant?

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