Ranking of German influencers: rich thanks to reach

Leonie Hanne throws a silver glitter handbag over her shoulder that goes perfectly with her skirt and her backless top.

Then she goes through a white double door to a window with a view of the Eiffel Tower, steps out onto the balcony and poses by the window.

There are more than 84,000 likes for it within 14 hours, and the doorbell rings for her in the cash register: The little film is an advertisement for a hotel.

Julia Anton

Editor in the Society department at FAZ.NET

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Now you can smile at how young women like Hanne in particular earn their money with beautifully staged selfies.

A study by the strategy consultancy Batten & Company and the market research company Appinio now shows how great the potential of the brands that the most influential German influencers have built around them.

For this purpose, the 25 most successful influencers were first determined based on the number of followers and engagement rates and their target group perception and financial values ​​were calculated using a specially developed model.

Brand value of more than 10 million euros

The brand value of Leonie Hanne therefore amounts to around 10.9 million euros.

This sum would have to be invested in order to be able to use a similarly strong brand.

Hanne, who follows 3.9 million users on Instagram, is the most valuable German influencer.

Fitness star Pamela Reif follows in second place with a brand value of 10.4 million euros, Caro Daur takes third place with eight million euros.

However, the gap in the top 25 identified by the study is enormous.

The fourth-placed, Farina Opoku (known as “Novalanalove”), with 5.4 million euros, only achieved half of the brand value of Leonie Hanne.

For the Youtuber Simon Desue, who completes the current ranking in the study, it is only 100,000 euros.

It is noticeable that it is mainly women who have built a successful business here.

Among the ten most valuable is only one man, the Youtuber Julien Bam (7th place, 4.4 million euros brand value).

Overall, more than half of the influencers in the ranking are female.

The Tiktok platform, which is particularly popular with young people, is by no means a guarantee of success; the vast majority use YouTube or Instagram as the main medium.

Success with beauty, fashion and fitness

But what is the secret of the top runners' success? There are also indications of this in the study. In this way, the fields of beauty, fashion and fitness, which are served by Hanne, Reif and Daur, can be monetized particularly well. "Advertising is a natural part of the content in this area," write the authors. For men, on the other hand, the focus is on sometimes rather unusual interests. The Youtuber Felix von der Laden (16th place with 1.7 million euros in brand value) entertains his fans with computer games and motorsport.

Above all, however, the authenticity of the top three is decisive despite all advertising cooperations, the study continues. For example, the women only entered into advertising deals that matched their image. With a lot of personal content from their everyday life, they created closeness so that the fans could identify particularly well with the accounts. The clear brand core results in performance promises that are kept by the influencers: Pamela Reif has work-out videos and nutrition tips, Leonie Hanne and Caro Daur provide insights into trends and a luxury world that is unattainable for many. A “consistent look and feel” rounds off the appearances.

Doesn't that sound so difficult?

Success cannot be copied overnight.

According to the authors, the top 25 have been in business for an average of 8.6 years.

Bianca Claßen, who ranks sixth with an estimated brand value of 5.2 million euros, started her YouTube channel “Bibis Beauty Palace” in 2012, Leonie Hannes blog “Ohh Couture” went online in 2014.

The shortest in business is TikToker Younes Zarou, who built up his brand value of 3.4 million euros within five years through tricky short videos.

However, the success seems to be finite: So the YouTube veterans Gronkh, Simon Desue and Sami Slimani, who have been in the business for more than twelve years, occupy the bottom positions.