Under the Influence?
Influencer Marketing + Transparency
If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump too? Honestly, maybe, yeah. People don’t typically just jump off bridges for no reason. Maybe they know something I don’t.
If our favorite content creator uses, makes, or promotes a product, will you buy it? What if it’s something you’ll never actually use? What if it’s something you “think” you’ll use, but actually you’re pretty sure you never will? Also probably yes – even if you think the answer is no.
“Gen Z is more open to discovering new products than previous generations. Many members will purchase products simply because a creator they trust has recommended them.” – Anna Peck, Content Marketing Manager at Clutch.
Before you say it’s just those youngsters, “More than 3 in 10 baby boomers said they are open to buying from an influencer after a first encounter,” according to PYMNTS. Even if the influencer isn’t the only source consulted before purchase, the majority of the population says they’re one of the sources.
We’ve all bought things that we look at now + wonder why we thought we needed them so badly. We thought it was fully our decision to buy it, but maybe the seed was planted by someone else well before we clicked “view product.”
Maybe you saw someone doing a hobby + thought you know, I should get into that + bought all the stuff for it, only to let it sit untouched after a single attempt. (I’m thinking coloring, crochet, air-dry clay… You know, cozy hobby vibes.) If you have used it, that’s great! Good for you. You were still influenced to start, though.
I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing, but it’s definitely something I think we should all be aware of. From trying snacks to buying clothes + home goods, our buying decisions are being influenced every day. Some influencers even partner with therapy + vitamin/supplement companies. That’s your literal health being influenced.
Even if they don’t have a partnership with them, vloggers tend to show all the things they eat + use throughout the day – that’s sort of the point of vlogging, actually. One YouTuber I watch isn’t sponsored by Alani Nu, but she’s basically always drinking one just because she likes them, meaning that they’re almost always featured in her videos. She never partnered with Starbucks, but for a while, she had a special drink order that her followers would order too – it even had a name (not from Starbucks, but in her online community).
Not long ago, there was uproar online when viewers discovered influencers weren’t making it clear when things were paid ads versus just a product or service they liked. Since then, many influencers have opted to make it abundantly clear when something they’re saying or showing is a paid sponsorship, but often follow it up by clarifying they’d use it even if they weren’t being paid.
Companies can use influencer marketing as a powerful tool – as long as it’s authentic + real feeling. Viewers can sniff out a disingenuous ad read from a mile away. The best influencer marketing campaigns are the ones that make sense. Where the company aligns with the influencer’s personal brand. For example, a lot of book content creators have videos sponsored by Book of the Month, a monthly book subscription service. That makes perfect sense. A perfectly reasonable partnership. It would make a lot less sense if, say, Mr. Beast was sponsored by Book of the Month.
My point here is not that we should stop believing influencers + never make another influencer-approved purchase, but that we should try to be realistic with ourselves about if we actually want what they’re promoting or selling + if we truly believe *they* like + use it in their normal lives when the camera is off. There’s no harm in taking an influencer’s buying advice like a friend’s, but there is a problem with mindlessly buying things because a stranger on the internet has convinced you that you need them.
