From Get Beauty to Frak: 15 Years Watching Influence Evolve

Ten years ago, I created Get Beauty Paris, the largest event dedicated to lifestyle influencers. Even Beautycon wanted to acquire us, true story.

Ten thousand fans in a single day. The promise of meeting your favorite YouTubers, provided you were patient enough to wait in line for three hours.

I look at the photos today, and what strikes me isn’t what changed. It’s what hasn’t changed at all.

The beginning of the meet-up craze

Back then, influence was described as a “phenomenon” by the media, who saw it as nothing more than a passing fad.

Yet they were all there, trying to understand this new trend that was already shaping the habits of an entire generation. It was quite telling: covering the event while announcing it wouldn’t last.

Before they were called “influencers,” they were primarily YouTubers and, more broadly, content creators, which they still are. For an entire generation, they were stars. Accessible, authentic stars people could relate to. They still are.

Brands were curious. Some had already understood that these new icons would become an integral part of their marketing strategy.

What those three-hour lines were already saying

Looking back, that is the detail I find most telling.

Ten thousand people waited three hours to meet someone they could watch for free, in high definition, from their couch, at any time.

Why? Not for the content: they already had that. For the relationship. To verify that the person behind the screen was truly who they imagined. To turn consumption into a connection.

The entire story of influence was already in that line. What carries value isn’t reach, it’s the relationship. And fifteen years later, that is exactly the conclusion the market is returning to, after a long detour chasing follower counts.

The long detour

Because there was a detour, and I took part in it.

Initially focused on influencers with millions of followers, brands gradually shifted toward micro- and nano-influencers: smaller communities, but more engaged, resulting in better ROI.

And as influencers became brand ambassadors, resembling traditional celebrities, consumer trust eroded.

This is the core paradox of this industry: success degrades the asset. The more creators succeed, the more they collaborate, the more they resemble an ad network, and the less weight their word carries. We spent fifteen years trying to resolve this paradox by moving down one tier each time: macro, micro, nano, UGC.

Without ever asking whether the answer lay outside the scale altogether.

What I do today, and why it’s the same thing

With Frak, I continue supporting brands by championing a vision of influence that is authentic, scalable, and profitable.

Influence is evolving. After putting stars in the spotlight, today I am democratizing it.

In practical terms: empowering everyone (loyal customer or creator) to play a real role in the growth of the brands they love, and to be rewarded for it.

Influence is no longer reserved for an elite.

This isn’t a pivot from Get Beauty, it’s the logical next step. In 2015, we created a physical space to make visible a relationship that already existed online. In 2026, we are building an infrastructure to make measurable a recommendation that already exists in real life.

Same move, different scale: taking seriously something the market doesn’t see yet.

The three things fifteen years taught me

1. “Passing fads” never are. Influence was a fad. Live shopping was a Chinese gimmick. The creator economy was a hobby for YouTubers. Every time, the behavior existed before the industry believed in it. The useful question is never “will it last,” but “what are people already doing without being prompted?”

2. What becomes professionalized loses value. Any form of influence loses credibility as it turns into a profession. This is not a critique of creators, it’s a structural mechanic. It means you must constantly seek trust one step closer to reality.

3. Trust cannot be bought. It is the one thing advertising has never managed to acquire, despite colossal budgets. It is built through relationships, and it belongs to the person who built it, not the one renting it.

Long live influence

Influence isn’t dying. It’s changing hands.

From brand ambassadors to creators, from creators to customers. At each step, we move a little closer to the original conversation: someone telling someone else, “I use this, and honestly, it works.”

And if you want my opinion: this is where it stops. Because beyond the real customer, there is nothing more credible left to find.

For what comes next, see The Recommendation Economy: The Next Acquisition Channel.

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I’m Virginie Maire, co-founder of Frak Labs, turning your customers into a scalable, profitable, and authentic acquisition channel. A committed entrepreneur and mother of two, I’ve spent 20 years navigating media, social networks, influence, and e-commerce… and I’m still having just as much fun!