Page 8 - Strategic Marketing Complete

GLOBAL WRAP
LETTER

from America

The end of an influencer’s influence?

Unilever’s own brands would no Second, he asked whether followers
longer buy followers; and Unilever actually trust what influencers
would prioritise partners who say. A survey by Shareable found
increase transparency and help that, in total, only 38% of followers
eradicate bad practices throughout trusted what influencers told them.
the digital ecosystem. This last The ratio increased to 55% for
commitment included avoiding 18-24-year-olds, but drops to 37%
any platform that incites hate, for 25-34-year-olds.
spreads division, or fails to protect
children. Essentially, Weed called Lastly, Ritson echoes Facebook’s
for “responsible content, responsible questioning of whether so-called
platforms, and responsible influencers really have influence.
infrastructure”. As strategic marketers know, real
As strategic marketers know, real

eith Weed, Unilever’s CMO, influence means behaviour change.
got everyone’s attention on
the first day of the Cannes Brands have not been the only influence means behaviour change,
Lions International Festival of stakeholders raising concerns. which in the digital ecosystem has
Creativity, with his call to fight “fake Facebook’s Head of Agencies in been measured by click-through
followers, bots, fraud, and dishonest Asia Pacific, Neil Stewart, recently rates. Recent data suggests an
business models in the digital challenged a panel he was average of 2% of reach does so.
marketing ecosystem”. Specifically, participating in: “To be an influencer
he attacked the breakdown of trust you need to have influenced So, taking Ritson’s three
within influencer marketing. something. I don’t necessarily think considerations into account, an
that’s true for a lot of influencers.” influencer with 100 000 followers
When the head of marketing for Caroline Issa, the CEO of Tank may only have about 80 000
a business with media spend of magazine, even suggested that real followers. Of these, probably
over $9-billion a year speaks, “the influencer bubble will totally 30 400 trust what the influencer
the industry takes note. Although collapse in the next 12 months if says. Importantly, of the 80 000
it is estimated that over 75% of people aren’t very careful about the real followers, one could expect
marketers currently use influencer money being thrown around”. approximately 1 600 to be
marketing, the New York Times influenced. Until Unilever’s advocacy
recently exposed widespread buying In response, Dr. Mark Ritson from the forces the digital ecosystem to be
of followers and the use of bots Melbourne Business School raised more responsible, marketers can
to increase engagement. Another three important considerations for use Ritson’s general rule of thumb
recent study by Points North found marketers hoping to regain trust to increase the transparency of
that 78% of the followers of the Ritz- and increase transparency in their influencer marketing.
Carlton hotel group’s sponsored digital ecosystem – especially while
Instagram posts were fake, while the no independent auditor exists to
rate for P&G’s Pampers brand was confirm everyone’s level of honesty. ichael Goldman is an
32% and Unilever’s Magnum brand First, he questioned how many Associate Professor
was 20%. followers are real. In addition to at the University of
the Points North data, a Hypetap San Francisco in the USA
Weed made three commitments analysis of 10 000 influencers and a Senior Lecturer at the
in his June comments. As part of a identified 16% of them as being University of Pretoria’s Gordon
call to action around transparency, fake. One could therefore expect Institute of Business Science
Unilever would no longer work with approximately 20% of followers of
influencers who buy followers; most influencers to be fake. (GIBS) in Johannesburg.

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