Tesla vehicles delivered

As influencer marketing spending has grown, Tesla deliveries have grown, a correlation of 0.984 that connects the attention economy to the electric vehicle economy with the marketing precision of an Elon Musk tweet that accidentally promotes both. The influencer posts, the Tesla delivers, and both trends climb because the same digital economy funds both content and cars. Tesla famously spends zero on traditional advertising, which makes this correlation about the marketing that replaced it.

Influencer spending grew from about 1.7 billion to over 16 billion dollars between 2016 and 2023. Tesla deliveries grew from about 76,000 to over 1.8 million. Both are exponential growth curves powered by the same digital economy: Tesla grew partly through organic social media advocacy (the most effective form of influencer marketing), and the influencer industry grew partly because Tesla proved that social media buzz could replace traditional advertising. The connection is less spurious than most.

Eight years of influencer spending and Tesla is a correlation with a real mechanism hidden inside: Tesla's growth proved the influencer marketing thesis—that social media advocacy outperforms traditional ads—which attracted the investment that grew the influencer industry. The car is the ad, the ad is the car, and the correlation contains a feedback loop that the chart accidentally documents.