Hot Take

Most brands in influencer marketing don’t know what they are buying...

...and end up with expensive banner ads.

Here’s why

1/ Control

Marketers want the control of an Instagram ad, with the authenticity of
influencer marketing.

This is an oxymoron.

2/ This Brand Control....

• Sterile IG Captions
• Robotic Ad Reads
• 2 Brand hashtags

...Undercuts the very authenticity you are buying.

3/ Getting to Authenticity

You realize influencer marketing is about the creator & their community.

Not you & your brand.

You are buying this connection. Lean into the authenticity.

4/ Transactional vs. Relational ads

Smart brands realize influencer is relational advertising.

The rest are just buying expensive banner ads.

4/ I made the same mistake.

Our guidelines used to look like this...till @DavidDobrik refused.

He wanted to talk about supporting his mission to get World Series Tickets for his bf ...not our deal score

6/ This ad shifted our influencer strategy from transactional to relational

6/ This shift blew our previous results out of the water...

And it makes sense...

Once you insert brand speak, you destroy the power of influencer marketing.