PR AGENCY DIARIES: FIVE REASONS WE GIVE INFLUENCERS SUCH A HARD TIME

Hating on influencers has almost become as much of a national pastime these days as complaining about the rain or hashing out the weekend’s rugby results.

Entire blogs and Instagram accounts are dedicated to less-than-favourable reviews, comments and gossipy take-downs made by “anons” who are – to paraphrase – sick of influencers’ sh*t.

But why do us common folk give them such a hard time? Let us count the ways…

Globally, eight in 10 users report that social media platforms alert them to and inform them about new products and services. For startups, it can take years to build a solid following, but partnering with the right influencers can speed the process and build brand awareness faster.

A recommendation from a creator that you like goes a long way. Two thirds of consumers trust the product recommendations they get from influencers (conversely, only one in three trust branded social media content). Based on case studies, influencer campaigns generate 11x greater return on investment (ROI) than any other digital advertising channel.

The best thing? It’s among the most easily measurable of the marketing disciplines, with valuable reach, impression and engagement insights available virtually days after a campaign goes live, allowing marketers to double down immediately on what’s working. Add in discount codes and swipe-to-shop, and you have very solid data on a strategy’s efficacy, and learnings you can tweak and apply to your next campaign.

As any comms specialist worth their salt will tell you, social media marketing (alongside owned, earned and paid media) is a crucial element of any integrated marketing campaign. From health to horticulture, it would be remiss of any expert marketer to exclude the role of influencers in developing a holistic strategy that is going to meet objectives for most campaigns these days.

So, acknowledging that influencer marketing is an extremely valid component in bringing a product or service to market, why is it exactly that people find influencers so cringe?

#1 We think it’s an easy job

Most people think that being an influencer is a doddle. Post a booty-pop at your F-45 session; share your day-on-a-plate; dress the kids in all-beige; organise your pantry to within an inch of its life - whack it all on your feed and watch the #sponsored dollars roll in.

But brands will put an influencer through their paces before deciding whether or not to work with them in any capacity, let alone pay for posts. Beyond having a cohesive, captivating stable of content, you have to have a strong NZ following, an engaged audience, a significant reach with the right demographic for the brand, and nothing on your feed that doesn’t align with their company values.

If you make it that far and land a paid job, then you get The Brief. This has usually been written by the brand’s marketing department and has down-to-the-letter detail about what you can and cannot post, often leaving little room for creativity (shout out to those giving their agency’s or inhouse operators scope for open briefs, picking off niches and changing the tide here!). Then there are the rounds of concept approvals and client feedback and image edits. Sometimes a reshoot at your own time and expense. Then you have to deliver the results.

If you want to be successful at it, being an influencer involves strategy, hustle, and grind, just like any other legit job.

#2 We think influencers are disingenuous and just being paid to plug

A common complaint about influencers seems to be that they only promote products because they’re being paid to. Um, welcome to the world of media?

We hate to break it to you, but the “10 THINGS WE LOVE RIGHT NOW” column in the eDM you get on Fridays are more often than not home to at least three things the editors loved getting paid to write about. When the editorial team in your favourite glossy recommends you their “products of the month,” a lot of the time the advertising dollars that paid for space in their publication - for those “recommended” products - went into their monthly pay. People being paid to promote stuff is nothing new – it’s just that the context is.

Successful influencers are very selective about the campaigns they take on much like the smart publications, because (just as brands do) they want to foster partnerships with businesses that have values which align with their own. And advocate for products they truly believe in, trust and use.

They also understand their audience is savvy and will smell a janky collagen powder a mile off.

Maintaining authenticity and integrity is a non-negotiable for an influencer who respects that their hard-earned community places trust in their recommendations.

#3 We think influencers are trying to pull the wool over our eyes

Along with our rabidly-consumerist culture, the worldwide Ozempic shortage and global warming, we blame the Kardashians for this. In the early days of social media, we’d see them innocently spruiking slimming teas, waist trainers and various other brands that it would later transpire they just so happened to have a 90% stake in.

But influencers can’t do this anymore. In what we believe was a very heavy handed and fundamentally problematic effort to effect transparency across NZ’s social media marketing industry, the Advertising Standards Authority issued best practice guidelines for influencers in 2021.

Very strict (and overly simplified) rules were put into place for content creators around the declaration of business interests, paid campaigns and gifted items, which opened the door for a litany of complaints by anyone (from bored Botany housewives to members of warring influencer factions. IYKYK).

These directives can see influencers pulled up for review and a very public name-and-shame by the ASA if they don’t comply, which can affect future relationships with brands. They are subject to as many – if not more – conditions and regulations as magazine editors and writers, TV producers and radio hosts in having to declare relationships.

Which means they have to slap #AD on virtually everything that appears on their feed, regardless of value or whether they’ve been paid to promote. We’re not saying guidelines shouldn’t be in place and do advocate for #AD on ‘paid for’ content, but when it’s simply been #gifted and the creator liked it enough to post about it, that should speak for itself, right? If not, is the logical next step that the same standards need to apply for every media story a PR person plays a hand in. Fair’s fair and all that?

#4 We see too much brand-hopping and not enough brand-stanning

It’s a hard graft making it as an influencer full time, especially in NZ. At the end of the day, being on the distribution list for all the coolest unboxings is not going to pay your rent. The number of content creators who are able to live purely off their social media income here would be a couple of dozen at most. 

In NZ, most brands simply don’t have the marketing budgets to support the cost of long-term, exclusive relationships such as ambassador positions or ongoing partnerships that build sustained equity (like we see in the US).

But like traditional advertising, one billboard or full page ad isn’t going to move the dial. As a general rule of thumb, only 5% of your audience is actually looking to buy when they see any form of your brand marketing, so how marketers build the other 95% of intention is through repeat exposure.

Too often we are seeing brands applying a social media strategy of “one-and-done” campaigns, and the result is content creators working with multiple brands and businesses, rather than cementing relationships with just a few.  We would never call influencers “victims”, but this approach does mean that, like us as consumers, influencers do need to shop around from time to time and (shock horror) do use more than one mascara, undies brand, cleaning product etc. So - if they find a better product and it’s explained authentically to their audience as to the switch or addition to their household, we reckon we should give them the benefit of the doubt.

#5 We’re a little bit jealous

We said what we said.

The haters can keep on hating, but social media marketing is only ever going to continue to make its presence felt on our feeds. As platforms, algorithms and consumer-awareness all evolve, so must marketers and content creators themselves to ensure their #influence is adding value to - and not annoying - their audiences.

Whether some social media users are fed up with the behaviour of influencers or not, brands only want to know one thing: are influencers still a good investment? And the answer to that is a resolute “yes.” If you’re keen to find out how influencers can add value to your brand, come and talk to us.