Many Brands Can Thrive Without Influencers

Tom Daly and Max Vallot are not interested in paying people to promote their brand. As the co-founders of District Vision, a sportswear hub that was once a digital bulletin board for community runs and meditations in New York, the duo is confident that investing in high-quality products and customer relationships is the best marketing you can buy. “The world of social media is more about scale, but we’ve always wanted to go deeper with a smaller group of people,” said Daly, who leaves his email address on every District Vision package to offer replacements and recommendations to consumers directly. “District Vision truly serves a community of athletes, and we have to prove that service all the time.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by District Vision (@districtvision) As evidenced by numerous marketers' insistence that brands must befriend influencers, Daly’s approach is not a trendy one. The main justification for companies developing an affiliate network usually lies in the innate desire for humans to mimic those they trust, but some marketers argue that certain types of paid partnerships do not align with their brand’s values. While brand leaders have been conditioned to view influencer marketing as an essential business strategy, younger generations are also reconsidering social media usage and working to develop more individualized preferences beyond influencer recommendations. As a result, some marketers contend that automatically banking on digital touch points and the praise of affiliates can be a shortsighted strategy. “So many brands operate out of fear,” said Madison Utendahl, co-founder and chief creative officer of design studio Utendahl Creative. “They are worried about being irrelevant, but it’s ultimately the brands that don’t participate in many of these trends that have this allure and mystique that people are attracted to.” Rethinking platform reliance Gen Zers are more likely than other generations to cite negative feelings about social media, according to a recent study from McKinsey Health Institute, which poses a clear challenge for brands that attribute these platforms with their fame. In 2021, Lush famously deactivated its Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok accounts, citing concerns for its consumers’ mental health. According to Christian Brown, co-founder and chief marketing officer of influencer marketing platform Glewee, scoring a reservation at a “TikTok-famous restaurant” is not a universally appealing accomplishment, and social media buzz does not carry inherent appeal and respect. https://www.tiktok.com/@lush/video/7034816790685371649?lang=en “If [a consumer] breaks up with TikTok, are they also breaking up with all the experiences and connections that they made on the platform?” Brown said. “At what point does the overbearingness of the tech push you away from everything?” While the modern definition of influencer marketing is inextricably tied to social media, Brown stressed that a social-heavy strategy does come with challenges. “When reactions and feelings towards products are constantly divulged on social, people no longer expect surprise,” said Brown, who found in a Glewee study that 50% of consumers like to discover brands on their own, a result that reflects their desire to maintain "some level of independent psychological ownership over the products they find.” Defining partnership purpose Erifili Gounari, founder and CEO of Gen Z-led social media agency The Z Link, said she does not recommend that all her clients work with influencers. When strategizing for a small nonprofit, she failed to identify an influencer that would give them “useful brand awareness” that reached the right audiences. “We usually advise brands to do some organic social media content creation at first and stick to growing an organic community,” she said. “If a brand can’t find influencers that genuinely resonate, the collaboration won’t be effective or make sense.” Katie Rie, svp of creator marketing at communications agency Zeno Group, said influencer marketing is simply “allowing people to communicate peer to peer, instead of brand to peer.” She explained that this strategy, which includes leading with employee ambassadors, is universally effective when individualized. “Look at what Peloton has done with each of their instructors, who are really now their own brands,” said Rie, who believes the webinars and roundtables she’s helped her b-to-b clients host fall under the sphere of influencer marketing. “A content creator or an influencer can come from anywhere. It’s just a matter of understanding the brand’s needs and offering a customized strategy.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dr. Chelsea Jackson Roberts (@chelsealovesyoga) Suddenly investing heavily in social media and influencers can ultimately damage a brand’s long-term growth, warned Utendahl. Back when Facebook was a “utility-focused platform” that housed relationship statuses and birthdays, she identified an opportunity to use social media to get people offline again. Utendahl praised The London Lonely Girls Club, a Facebook group that helps its more than 37,000 members form in-person relationships, an approach she said should be adopted by brands. “There’s this idea of using social media for utility and encouraging people to gather in person to build brand awareness, which I think is really smart,” said Utendahl, adding that marketers should honor the influence and connections that exist beyond platforms. Letting the product market itself According to Coltrane Curtis, founder and managing partner at creative agency Team Epiphany, the best way to “credit-check influence” is to consider whether it would exist if social media suddenly dissipated. Bottega Veneta’s decision to delete its Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts in 2021 ultimately became a testament to its relevance: The masses have continued to share product drops, reviews and runway commentary under the hashtag #NewBottega. https://www.tiktok.com/@taylorwjc/video/7154167695804534021 For Daly at District Vision, strengthening internal development over forming affiliate relationships is the best way to keep people around for the long run. “When you find a brand that invests in its product disproportionally, you feel a sense of loyalty,” he said. “The best marketing in the world is not an ad or an influencer but an amazing product, and I think we’ve lost sight of that.” This story is part of Adweek’s The Creatorverse digital features package, which spotlights the creator economy: the people who make up the industry’s new content royalty, and the marketers and agencies that collaborate with them to drive next-level engagement for their brands.

The Creatorverse

Many Brands Can Thrive Without Influencers

For some marketers, banking on digital touch points and affiliate praise is a shortsighted strategy

Emmy Liederman

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Emmy Liederman