Everyone In New York Is a Moving Influencer Now

Video: Jessica Wang, Jutamat Ketkaew, Piece of Cake Moving, Roadway Moving, Winnie Harlow

Last year, when the influencer Harry Hill was planning for his move to Greenwich Village, he reached out to Roadway Moving to collaborate. “Hey, I’d love to partner with you to make content around my move,” he told the company. With Hill’s 83,000 Instagram and 34,000 TikTok followers, Roadway was happy to oblige. His entire move, including packing services, were free. In return, Hill made a mini vlog of his moving day, narrating the process in the style of Carrie Bradshaw: “I couldn’t help but wonder,” he typed on his MacBook while the movers packed his boxes behind him, “Isn’t that what New York City is? A bunch of people stacked in apartments like boxes?” When it was over, all Hill had to do was tip the movers and post.

Over the past five years or so, the moving-day “partnership” video has become endemic among the set of niche influencers, content creators, Instagram chefs, and reality stars. Remi Bader has done it. New York Nico has too. So have Nara Smith and Arielle Charnas. These aren’t one-offs. “We don’t like to say no to anyone,” Najah Ayoub, Piece of Cake moving company’s chief marketing officer tells me. The company created its influencer marketing program in 2019 with the idea that moving, though unglamorous, it might benefit from the same kind of spon-con that makes beauty products and fast fashion go viral. Over the last two years, according to Ayoub, it’s grown exponentially, especially in New York, as Gen Z and millennials have moved to the city in droves. (Over three-quarters of new arrivals in 2021 and 2022 were in those age groups.)

Even if an influencer only has a few thousand Instagram followers, Piece of Cake will try to knock off a few hundred dollars if they’re willing to post about their experience. Meanwhile, an influencer with tens of thousands of followers is likely to get a white-glove, full-service move entirely covered. Roadway, another company that created an influencer marketing program around the same time as Piece of Cake (it’s unclear exactly who came first), seems to be slightly more discerning and requires its influencers to apply via a special password-protected site rather than an open form. The company has more recognizable names with higher follower counts in its stable like Julianne Hough, Winnie Harlow, and Danielle Bernstein. (Still: Both companies are “partnered” with New York sports teams. Piece of Cake is the “official mover” of the Knicks; Roadway has the Yankees.)

Once an influencer gets approved for Piece of Cake, they are told exactly what to post and how to post it via a memo, down to exactly how many Reels (one, and it must be a collaboration), posts (one front-facing testimonial), and how the post should look (for instance, if you take a selfie with the truck, make sure to flip it so the logo reads correctly). If the influencers don’t send their deliverables within 48 hours the company reserves the right to charge their card on file with the full amount of their move. Piece of Cake forbids shots with “messy” backgrounds and prefers images of boxes being sealed and carried, so the moves appear surreally seamless.

Sarah Kouadio, a fashion micro-influencer (15,000 followers on Instagram) moving into an East Village apartment from Fidi, got her $700 move comped by Piece of Cake last month; both of her new roommates had done it too. “I think it definitely crossed my mind like, Oh, is this gonna fit the feed?” Kouadio says about when she considered posting. On moving day she recorded herself in a pink matching workout set dancing in front of the movers, watching them box up her clothes and furniture, and accompanying them to her storage unit. During Kouadio’s move there were two other people moving out and filming content in the building for Piece of Cake. (Some of the other movers clowned around a bit in her videos, but not her own crew, who were shy. Eventually she got them to give her a honk as they pulled away. Ayoub told me that movers are briefed when they are doing an influencer move, and though they are not required to participate, “most are up for it.”)

With armies of influencers moving for free, one wonders how all of these comped and discounted services are impacting the company’s bottom line. “It’s such a volume business,” Ayoub says. As long as every influencer brings in a handful of other moves, it’s worth it. Plus, the moving companies see the content as extra valuable marketing. “Moving is a life moment. Moving is emotional. Them talking about moving is far more engaging than, I don’t know, a face cream.” It’s true that most influencers who post a moving vlog share it as a dramatic event in their New York journey, a chance to play their own Carrie Bradshaw: “My time in the dorms is over and it’s time to live out my NYC fashion-tech-CEO era,” one Columbia grad said in a recent Reel. “While I was tweaking and crashing out in my Uber and processing my emotions, the guys unpacked everything in my new apartment.” Another video by a fashion influencer uses a British man’s voice for the voiceover as if her vlog were a movie trailer: “This isn’t an ending. It’s a pause, a layover between versions of herself.” She thanks the moving crew for “making space for her to feel in the moment.”

Unfortunately for the influencers, we may be nearing an oversupply in the market. “At this point I think I’ve influenced more influencers to move than I have influenced normal, like, civilians,” says Hill. Before Kouadio worked with Piece of Cake, she applied to collaborate with Roadway and was asked to send over her ideas for content. In her memo, she described how her vlog would touch on the fact that, as someone with most of her family overseas, she has had to rely on herself in the city. “I am going to reunite with my family after 3 years apart so definitely will incorporate lots of storytelling & nostalgia to tug on those heart strings!” she wrote.

Roadway responded with a six-paragraph rejection letter. “After careful consideration we have decided to respectfully decline the collaboration opportunity at this time,” it said. The letter didn’t give a reason except that the company had “certain strategic priorities and commitments that we need to adhere to at this juncture.” “I think they’re a little up their own ass,” Kouadio told me. She’s glad she ended up with Piece of Cake. “Like, why am I storyboarding for you? You are a moving company.”