The market value of a rose
A while ago, I did a guest post for my coworker. Heidi has a blog where one of the sub-topics is the Bachelor and Bachelorette tv shows. For my guest post, I watched the show for the first time and wrote out my thoughts. Since then my girlfriend has been addicted to the show, so I’ve been forced to watch every episode. That’s my on the record answer, because I get to write the record. I’ll pretend I’m not the one who has the airtime memorized. If I had to guess, total shot in the dark, I’d say eight PM on Mondays. But again, I’m not interested. I’m only watching because Maddie wants me to watch with her.
Anyways, a major component of the show is roses. If you do well, you get roses. Get enough roses and you earn the right to divorce the show’s protagonist two months after the finale. In addition to the sale value of the engagement ring, which is paid for by ABC, the rose hunters also snag Instagram followers. That’s where the real value comes from. Apparently there’s a real profession where all you do is post photos on Instagram. It’s called an “influencer”.
Back in my day, “influencers” were called “role models”. The role models back then were down-to-earth people who could inspire you or help improve your life.
Kid today: “Do you follow Kyrie Irving? Not to brag, but I’ve gone into a few hundred dollars of debt to buy all his sneakers.”
Kid me: “No, I have a flip phone. The internet takes too long to load.”
Kid today: “Well then who do you follow? You need at least one person to model your life after. I don’t see how you do that if you don’t have access to the most extreme example.”
Kid me: “I guess I follow my dad. He’s the smartest person I’ve ever met. And my mom. She’s the kindest person I’ve ever met. They seem like pretty good role models.”
Kid today: “It’s called an influencer. You should say pretty good influencers.”
Kid me: “Oh sure, whatever. I’m going to find some better kid friends now.”
The Bachelor / Bachelorette shows beg the question: how many Instagram followers is a rose worth? The next question: how much cold-hard cash is each Instagram follower worth? I did the research and found the answer!
Methodology
I’m using an Instagram account called BachelorData. The account measures the increase in Instagram followers for each contestant from start to finish. I’m simply going to add the increase in followers and divide that sum by the number of roses given out to get an average at each stage. Then I’ll multiply that by how much each Instagram follower is worth. I’m going to use Matt James’s season, the most recently completed season.
To calculate how much a single Instagram follower is worth, I’m using an article from MarketWatch and an article from Petal. These were the first linked websites from a quick Google search. Maybe that’s lazy data collection, but the amount of effort I’m putting into this thought experiment is directly correlated to how much I’m getting paid for the post. I’m not getting paid.
None of my calculations have been peer reviewed. For anyone interested, my data is available upon request.
Assumptions
After painstakingly entering ten weeks worth of Instagram follower counts, I found that during the show, the rose getters increased in followers by about 2.6 million total.
Using a linear trendline, with an R^2 value of 0.9021, I found that 1,000 followers is worth $1.7 per post.
The typical influencer posts 2 to 3 times a week, so I’m using a value of 2.5.
I’m assuming an influencer works 48 weeks of the year and has a lifetime of 5 years
Results
The average value of a rose is worth… $68,683.
The roses increase in value as the show goes on:
In conclusion, if you see a rose from the tv show the Bachelor or Bachelorette, grab it! Fight and claw whoever might else be trying to get the rose because it’s worth a full year’s salary. The roses might be valued so highly that you lie to get them. Maybe pretend to be falling in love with someone to make it happen.
