On the latest episode Adam explores the world of digital marketing and social media. In addition to being helped by Wolt’s marketing manager, Marjolaine de Bonnafos, and Daniel Eischen, the founder and owner of marketing agency Concept Factory, Adam is joined by the real-life character behind one of Luxembourg’s best known instagram meme accounts... notclaireinluxembourg.

“There is no such thing as a free lunch”, I have no idea who came up with this phrase, but its message is universally accepted. There is a modern version of it too: “If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.”
 
I have searched on the internet and asked ChatGPT but can’t find who originally said it either. In the corridors of Silicon Valley, it is also accepted to be true. 
 
We think we use Google and Facebook’s services for free. In reality, some advertiser somewhere is paying for your data or the insights about your profile. Google and Facebook’s owners, Alphabet and Meta have built their businesses by turning you into the product. 
 
One platform I use regularly is YouTube. I enjoy watching the F1 highlights or football tactics shows. YouTube gives me an option. I can either pay, and consume the product of sports videos from their platform, or I can use the free version, and sell my attention to whatever advertiser has chosen to target me, which nearly always seems to be Wolt.  
 
So I invited Wolt’s marketing manager and marketing specialist, Daniel Eischen and Marjolaine de Bonnafos, onto this week’s episode of Office Hours. They help me to understand how digital marketing works. 
 
Also on this week’s episode is the creative force behind notclaireinluxembourg, my favourite meme account. I really enjoy the memes. They hit the right balance of poking fun at Luxembourg, whilst also reminding me of why I love living here.

RTL

© marketing manager and marketing specialist, Daniel Eischen and Marjolaine de Bonnafos

I don’t follow many people on Instagram. I used to scroll down the entries from my favourite accounts, with a few paid posts included, then reach a ‘tick’ that informed me I was up to date.  
 
They have now removed that tick. That tick would tell me to stop scrolling and go and do something more constructive. Without that tick I scroll for longer. 
 
Without that tick, my attention is being unconsciously harvested for longer and sold by Meta to advertisers. 
 
I’d pay to see those memes, but Instagram doesn’t give me the option. I can’t pay for the product of the notclaireinluxembourg memes. The only option is for me to be the product. 
 
I checked the screen time. I was being someone else’s product for over three hours a week. That is not a deal I am prepared to be part of.  
 
So instead, I have updated my profile picture on Instagram. My photo has been replaced with the words “ON A BREAK FROM INSTA”. 
 
And I have deleted Instagram from my phone.

S3 E5: Digital marketing