The American Marketing Association places spending on influencer marketing at $8.5 billion for 2019 – so it’s little surprise that researcher Cheq caused a stir this year when it reported that brands are losing $1.3 billion to fraudulent influencer activity each year. Following the announcement, the terms “influencer fraud” and “finfluencer” hit peak buzzword status. Fraudulent influencer activity – which ranges anywhere from said influencers purchasing fake followers to using automated services to gain followers – throws a wrench in logistics for marketers and market researchers alike.
At the Influencer Fraudnomics Summit in New York, marketing industry leaders gathered to discuss the growing problem, and Casey DePalma McCartney, director, PR and digital engagement, at Unilever North America, highlighted brands’ increasing need for transparency in order to combat the issue and create a new precedent for social media platforms and their respective influencers. I connected with Casey after the summit to delve deeper into this idea of transparency – including how brands might implement their own transparency initiatives and what this effort would look like.
What is Unilever doing to increase transparency at a brand level?
In Cannes, we committed to three areas:
- transparency from influencers – we want to make sure we’re working with influencers and creators who are committed to delivering authentic activity;
- transparency from brands – we of course do not want our brands or other brands to engage in inauthentic activity; and
- transparency from platforms, which is consistent in our efforts to work with partners committed to improving the digital ecosystem.
This activity all ladders up to our Responsibility Framework that we launched last year to help clean up the digital ecosystem through responsible platforms, responsible content and responsible infrastructure. The work we are doing to progress transparency in influencer marketing is a natural extension of this work.
We’ve developed a tiered approach to help us mitigate fraud – it’s a mix of external and internal tools that we use pre-campaign and then ongoing throughout the duration of a campaign.
We’re also working with our platform partners who are making progress in this space – we know that more than a billion fake accounts have been removed since we made our announcements last year, and there is still much work to be done. The influencer space continues to mature and with it, transparency and the ability to show impact need to improve.
How can brands themselves translate this message into their own marketing research work and marketing development plan?
With any “new” media channel, there are opportunities and challenges. It’s important for all brands to push for greater transparency to combat fraud in the digital ecosystem and create better experiences for consumers.
I think one of the most important things we learned is that there is no silver bullet. There is no single solution that can ensure an influencer campaign will be free of any level of bot/fraudulent activity.
How should the effectiveness of influencer marketing be measured and how does influencer fraud play into/complicate this? Ideally, what will the future of transparent influencer marketing look like?
The ability for brands to truly measure the impact of their influencer work is limited without third party verification of the data provided by the platforms or viable options to measure impact through branded research studies.
Third party verification and authentication are extremely important for the long-term viability of influencer marketing. Five years ago, we were talking about how difficult it would be to get to agreed viewability terms and vendors – we’ve made tremendous progress in that space and we need to get on a similar path in the influencer space.
How can companies/people within the industry work together and rally to fix this problem? What will that entail?
We’re working with our platform partners who are making progress in this space – we know that more than a billion fake accounts have been removed since we made our announcements last year – and there is still much work to be done. The influencer space continues to mature and with it, transparency and ability to show impact need to improve.
With the social media landscape so quickly transforming, how do companies and brands create solutions that stick?
Think holistically and long term – social influencers are just one piece of the influencer ecosystem. It’s important for brands to think about all their partners, advocates, etc. with “influence” and how they work together as a strong and ongoing network of ambassadors for a brand.