The influencer industry must continue evolve alongside societal changes and challenges
When I started my advertising career, ‘digital first’ was the hottest buzzword. Now, digital, is all grown up and rapidly growing facial hair. We’ve gone from laughing at ‘Fenton!’ running away from his owner, to crying when ‘Noodles the pug’ had his last ‘bones day’. We’ve seen the fall of influencers, and the rise of creators. And now, post-Covid-19, with a global cost-of-living crisis, it’s about to all change. Again.
Over the past five years, the market has increased by more than 50% across popular platforms like Instagram Tik Tok and YouTube and was recently valued at a whopping $21 billion.
You don't have to look far to find influencer success stories of those who have made their millions - both in terms of profits and followers. Influencers such as Joe Wicks, Mikayla Nogueira, Emma Hill, and Hand Luggage Only have made their mark in the fitness, beauty, fashion, and travel spheres - from keeping a nation moving via gym lessons during Covid-19, to world-class tips teaching us how to bake our face.
Influencers now exist in every space and cater to every niche and interest from sustainability, interiors, parenting, wellness, gardening, and lesbian-bread-tok, to name just a few. It's a full-time job for many, and the numbers speaks for themselves.
But it's fair to say that society has faced its fair share of challenges in the last few years; consumers are traversing challenging times and people are looking for brands to chime with that. Financial difficulties, as a hangover from the pandemic and the overarching cost-of-living crisis means more consumers than ever are facing economic hardship and aren't in a position to spend like they could previously.
With purse strings tightening, and consumers having to be savvier than ever with their finances, the question has to be asked: have brands, and indeed influencers, kept up with this change in temperature and tempered their approach? We at Accenture Song wanted to find out. We spoke to two thousand consumers, as well as 100 senior marketers at consumer-facing brands to gauge their views...
Our research finds that flashy and unattainable influencer content is losing its grip on consumers.
Almost a quarter (24%) of respondents aged 25-34 years old and nearly a fifth (19%) aged 16-24 said they have unfollowed accounts they felt presented a lifestyle not relatable to them.
Vix Jagger, Executive Creative Director at Accenture Song
Almost a quarter (24%) of respondents aged 25-34 years old and nearly a fifth (19%) aged 16-24 said they have unfollowed accounts they felt presented a lifestyle not relatable to them. With aspirational content no longer having the desired effect with younger generations - the very target audience for a considerable proportion of influencer marketing - we must question whether brands need to portray relatability and greater authenticity instead.
This shift in consumer attitudes is also apparent in the fact that 20% of consumers are likely to skip past ad content from influencers, and nearly one in five (16%) stated they were less likely to watch influencer content during the higher cost of living crisis. And it's not just a case of disengaging - influencers' influence is waning, too. In fact, a fifth (21%) of people are less likely to be swayed by influencer content and recommendations, showing how consumers are increasingly scrutinising and, in some cases, turning away from this content.
Despite shifting consumer attitudes towards influencer content, our research also indicates that two thirds (65%) of senior marketers say they’ve spent more on the medium over the last 12 months – with a fifth (20%) investing significantly more. However, with this rise in spend, nearly two-fifths (39%) of marketers surveyed favour the shift to authenticity and ‘real talk’ - believing influencers need to stop being so flashy with money, as people increasingly engage with more relatable content. This goes to show that some marketers are taking note of changing times and adjusting their tone accordingly.
With a raft of influencers out there encouraging consumers to spend, a new form of influencer is encouraging consumers to do the very opposite – and it is gaining traction. ‘Deinfluencers’ - who call brands and influencers into question and encourage consumers not to purchase unnecessary products or services, is cutting through the noise. Our research finds nearly a quarter (22%) of consumers have engaged with deinfluencer content since the start of the cost-of-living crisis – making it a consumer trend that marketers should take note of.
Among the key target market of 16-24-year-olds, this figure rose to 33% and, critically, 64% of this age group decided not to spend with a brand as a direct result of engaging with deinfluencer content. This again highlights that not only are consumers being more discerning with their spending, but deinfluencers are having an impact too.
And brands seem to be up to speed on this. More than half (51%) of the marketers we spoke to expressed concerns about how deinfluencing could impact their brand – and a similar number (53%) have altered plans or campaign activity as a result.
While influencers and creators will continue to be a successful marketing tool in swaying consumers’ purchasing decisions, the onus is on brands to ensure they strike the right balance with the content they put out there. Brands who fail to reevaluate their marketing techniques in line with the tougher economic climate run the risk of appearing out of touch by promoting aspirational content that isn’t relatable to their audience.
Prior to joining Accenture Song, Vix was with Anomaly London where she led the global re-brand of Unilever, as well as launching their ‘Every U does good’ campaign across 20 markets. Prior to that, Vix worked at both DDB and BBH. While at BBH she created the successful viral film #WhatIReallyReallyWant to support the UN’s Global Goals and to improve conditions for women in developing countries. The film received over 150 million views worldwide and made headlines across the globe. Passionate about the role tech can play in creativity, Vix is part of the GenAI team that looks at how we can use AI to help make our best work.
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