Vedomosti: Morgenstern’s advertising revenue dropped by 80% over the year

Incomes of rapper Alisher Morgenstern (announced by the Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent) from advertising integrations in 2022 decreased by 80%, to 24.9 million rubles, they write Vedomosti with reference to a study by the Association of Bloggers and Agencies (ABA). In 2021, the musician earned 126 million rubles from integrations.

The ABA clarified that the study was carried out on the basis of counting visible advertising placements on YouTube, Instagram (owned by Meta – recognized as an extremist organization and banned in Russia) and Telegram among popular bloggers who were previously recognized as foreign agents. Hidden types of advertising (sponsorship, product placement) were not taken into account. The study included ten popular foreign agent bloggers whose rates were available for analysis.

So, in 2022, Mr. Morgenstern posted 39 videos on YouTube (five more than in 2021), but the number of advertising integrations on the channel decreased from 12 to 2 over the same period. On Instagram, the rapper posted 77 posts against 96 in 2021- m, the number of advertising integrations decreased from 3 to 1. In the Telegram channel, the musician (since March 2022) has posted 395 posts and 3 advertising integrations.

The researchers recorded a drop in income from advertising integrations for three more bloggers-foreign agents: Tatyana Lazareva (recognized by the Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent in July 2022) – by 58%, to 500 thousand rubles, Evgeny Ponasenkov (recognized by the Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent in April 2022- th) – by 50%, up to 1.7 million rubles, and Ekaterina Shulman (recognized by the Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent in April 2022) – by 28.5%, up to 9 million rubles.

At the same time, six bloggers-foreign agents increased their income from integrations. Analysts recorded an increase in income from Ekaterina Gordeeva (recognized by the Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent in September 2022) – by 2.7 times, up to 25.5 million rubles, Anton Dolin (recognized by the Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent in April 2022) – by 91% , up to 13 million rubles, Yuri Dudya (recognized by the Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent in April 2022) – by 75%, up to 139.2 million rubles, Mikhail Shats (recognized by the Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent in September 2022) – by 44% , up to 8.2 million rubles, Maxim Katz (recognized by the Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent in July 2022) – by 24%, up to 72.7 million rubles, and Alexei Pivovarov (recognized by the Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent in June 2022) – by 12.7%, up to 267.3 million rubles.

The most noticeable factor that influenced the dynamics of the income of bloggers-foreign agents was the ban on Instagram in Russia. The total income of the first ten bloggers-foreign agents in this social network decreased by 66%, to 16.2 million rubles. At the same time, the entire influencer marketing market for 2022 fell by approximately 2.5 times, to RUB 4–6 billion.

The interlocutors of the publication note that advertisers are still ready to work with foreign agents. Such bloggers are often approached by international companies, for which the financing of foreign agents does not bode well in Russia.

December 29, 2022 Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law clarifying the articles of the Criminal Code on foreign agents. According to the document, criminal liability is provided for the second violation of the obligations of a foreign agent in a year.

Read more about the impact of legislation on foreign agents on freedom of creativity in modern Russia in the material “Kommersant FM” “A foreign agent means a bad person”.

Grigory Leiba