“Authenticity” is a word that has only recently entered the marketing dictionary – although we hear it everywhere today, very few people can accurately describe it. It means naturalness, the ability to be yourself, to “be real”. It is in the context of influencers that the word authenticity has become more and more common.
Last year at Influcon we asked one key question during a panel discussion: “What do people see as the biggest problem in influencer marketing?” And one of the answers was: “The loss of authenticity in influencer marketing.”But if you think about it, wasn’t influencer marketing built on authenticity in the first place? And wasn’t that exactly what made it different from other forms of advertising? It all started with influencers sharing their real lives, building up loyal audiences, and then recommending products they actually used and liked. That’s what we’d now call authenticity. Brands saw the potential and started paying for it, either through barter or proper deals, and it became the ideal win-win situation. That’s how influencer marketing worked in the beginning. So maybe the real question is: shouldn’t we try to keep some of that spirit alive today?
We asked a few people from our agency, and it’s clear that opinions vary even within our team. So where exactly did that famous authenticity go, and why do we at WOO think it’s so important? According to our Marketing Manager Pavlína Stejskalová, authenticity often fades in influencer campaigns when the collaboration feels forced – for example, when the brand and influencer are not aligned, the content feels too templated, or when the brand’s attempt to control the message down to the smallest detail becomes too obvious.
According to Pavlína, followers today are very sensitive to when a recommendation feels forced or lacks genuine experience. And that often ties back to how the content is created. Our influencer specialist Anna Šindelářová has found that the biggest problem arises when the client gets too involved in the creation of the content and doesn’t leave enough room for the influencer’s creativity. Even though at WOO we understand that the client has specific goals and it’s important for the final video to communicate a clear message or certain points, when we dictate every word the influencer has to say, without giving them the freedom to adapt, we end up with something like this:
“Yes, this xxx cream is absolutely brilliant, it’s all-natural and it contains vanilla and the vanilla comes from Madagascar, it’s fair trade and you can buy it in all xxx drugstores and it really lasts for decades, you’ll look ten years younger and you’ll have to change your year on your ID because nobody will believe your age…”
This is exactly how the most valuable thing is lost – authenticity and naturalness. Often the influencer will then try to modify the output to at least partially match their style, but the result is not as strong. And in Anna Šindelářová’s experience, the audience quickly notices that the content is not “theirs”, and thus the video has less impact, less engagement with viewers, and overall poorer performance.
We shouldn’t blame influencers for the loss of authenticity without first looking at ourselves to see if we’ve ever turned them into nothing more than walking billboards. If we don’t give them space to be themselves, we can’t be surprised when the true power and purpose of influencer marketing fades away.
Interested in learning more about how and why influencer marketing really works? Check out our article “Psychology in Influencer Marketing.”
Then our CEO, Petr Srna, completely changed the game. He says authenticity isn’t even necessary in campaigns. 🙂 We treat influencers as a form of media space with added credibility. But what’s really credible? The content itself or the influencer behind it? The answer is B — the influencer. We’ve seen campaigns with very inauthentic content perform exceptionally well. Why? Because followers are used to influencers promoting lots of products. It’s not about whether they use the product every day. It’s about the fact that they’ve tried it, it works, and they’re sharing that experience. Instead of chasing after authenticity, we might actually need to focus more on talking about the products properly. Explaining how they work and how they can help.
The bigger question is: Do we even give influencers enough time to truly experience the products we want them to promote? Definitely something to discuss. Join us at Influcon, or reach out and stop by WOO.
