In a provocative op-ed recently published in WWD, PMG’s Angela Seits talks about how this year we saw influencers effectively yield the unique and opinionated POVs that gained them huge followings in pursuit of sponsorship dollars and prestige, and what she predicts and wants to see influencer marketing in 2020.
In her piece, she wrote that “2019 could be described as the year that influencers oversaturated our feeds with branded distribution.” That ‘natural, authentic’ video you just watched? It was likely manufactured by a prescriptive brand brief, at least three rounds of edits and a $50,000 price tag. It doesn’t seem quite fair to call it a “collaboration.”
She warned that “consumers are engaging less with content that feels manufactured, and there is a growing fatigue with inauthentic, aspirational influencer clichés.” In 2020, savvy marketers would be wise to keep in mind that “influencers know how to create content that audiences love” but they can “no longer accept blanket statements like ‘You need to trust the creator’ at face value.'”
Read the full article to get Angela’s unique insights that are valuable regardless of whether you see influencer marketing being a branding play, or an increasingly measurable and performance-driven approach.