The flipping sides of influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is a relatively new trend in digital marketing and advertising, but it is not a new marketing communication strategy when it comes to outdoor marketing and advertising in Ghana.

Influencer marketing is one of the effective marketing communication tools by which companies and even political parties use celebrities and respected public figures to advertise and promote their brands or political parties. In Ghana, the use of influencer marketing via outdoor publicity is as old as three
decades or even more.

But with the advent of digital technology and social media, this trend of
Advertising has become huge across the world, and it is speedily growing in Ghana too. Statistics show that the amount of funds pumped into influencer marketing has more than doubled since 2019, standing at an estimated 21.1 billion US dollars in 2023. According to statistics on influencer marketing conducted by HubSpot, 25% of marketers and advertisers work with influencers to promote their goods, services, and brands.

The study found that 69% of consumers stated that they trust a brand or product when an influencer recommends it. This trend is rapidly making influencer marketing one of the most effective and powerful marketing communication channels to watch, and this is likely to escalate shortly.

Influencer advertising has surely become an effective channel to give product brands and services strong exposure to both existing and potential consumers or customers. Partnering with the different levels of influencers—nano influencers (those with 1k to 10k followers), micro-influencers (with 10k to 100k followers), macro-influencers (with 100k to 1 million followers), or mega influencers (with 1 million+ followers)—has proven to be increasingly efficient, especially on digital platforms.

The following are some of the reasons why influencers have become effective marketing channels themselves:

They Create Good Content and Visual appeal:

Influencers come from diverse backgrounds: movies, music, socialites, media, politics, etc. Since they have come to understand the power of the number of followers they have, they engage professional photographers, cinematographers, and publicists to enrich the images and comments they post online.

The powerful images and controversial issues they post attract followers. Advertisers and marketing communication experts hire them to make posts about their brands, products, or services and/or produce attractive images in relation to the brand these influencers are hired to promote.

They give advertisers access to their followers:

Hiring an influencer means gaining unrestricted access to their followers, audience, and viewers. This also means that the attributes of the product, service, or brand being promoted must align with the kind of influencer the advertiser engages. The endorsements, posts, and messaging are directly targeted at the influencer’s online followers. But that influence even transcends their online followers to the general public if the advertiser uses other channels such as outdoor, radio, TV, or print.

These benefits of influencer marketing notwithstanding, there are potentially negative consequences that advertising practitioners should be aware of.

Effects of damning scandals involving the influencer:

Influencers are real-life or digital media socialites who have private lives and human weaknesses. They surely will give your brand access to the target audience or eyeballs you desire, but their personal lives, values, and beliefs cannot easily be controlled by the organizations that hire them or their services. If
your target audience loves the influencer but is not aware of their personal weaknesses, the danger is that when a scandal breaks out about them, the same people they influence could turn against them and anything they are associated with, including the brands, products, or services they have endorsed.

There are times when the personal and private values of the influencer can spark problems for the brand they represent. A recent example is the case of Bud light, a top beer brand in the United States. The sales of the product and its mother company plummeted badly when American conservatives boycotted the product beginning in April 2023. The boycott was in response to an advertising campaign in which the company used an actress and TikTok personality, Dylan Mulvaney, who is also a publicly-known transgender activist.

Influencer posts that conflict with the brand and product values:

Every brand or product has some intended values that are attached to it. Those values are the bright sides of the product that attract customers within the intended category. If the influencer makes a post or says things that conflict with the values of the brand and those it appeals to, there will certainly be a
problem. For instance, if an influencer of a product that attracts Gen Zs posts or says things that attack the values and belief system of Gen Zs, then you are sure to see a massive boycott from that target group.

Managing the Ego of an Influencer:

Most influencers have big egos, just like most superstars. They are aware of their influence and the impact they wield on their followers and the public. That kind of ego is difficult to manage. Such influencers will not want to be dictated to by brand owners, advertising practitioners, or marketing
managers. They may have signed a contract with the advertising organization, but they frown on their personal lives being micro-managed, especially when they know the kind of value they bring to the brand that hired them.

Concluding thoughts:

I will recommend influencer marketing any day, especially in today’s digital and social media environment which has become a busy marketplace that touches every aspect of life. Even for traditional media like TV, radio, print, and outdoor, influencer advertising is a huge thing. Perhaps, advertising agencies and the organizations that own the brands or products will have to weigh the commercial value and impact of using a particular influencer they choose so they can opt for providing special publicists, personal brand managers, or PR experts to manage them. This is so because there is a critical mass of consumers and clients that are swayed positively, more personally, and more effectively through influencer marketing communication than by any other means.

The writer, Mr. Isaac Cudjoe, is the Executive Director of the Advertising Association of Ghana. The Advertising Association of Ghana is the professional body and institution that represents and leads the advertising and marketing communications industry in Ghana. It represents the advertising and marketing communications industry to all government institutions and international bodies.