Study Reveals Significant Influencer Marketing Pay Gap

The influencer marketing industry has been on the rise in the past few years and is expected to pass $3 billion in spend in the U.S. alone this year. Despite the level of money flowing through the sector, it has also found itself in need of bridging the racial pay gap. A survey by one communications group dives deep into the pay gap and lack of transparency around influencer pay for Black and Black, Indigenous and People of Color-identified (BIPOC) influencers, underlining a need for a change. To open up the conversation and create solutions around pay inequalities among marginalized influencers, MSL Group, a global PR firm owned by Publicis, in partnership with The Influencer League has released a study titled “Time to Face the Influencer Pay Gap." It uncovers a racial divide in influencer marketing for those getting paid for brand deals, revealing a difference of almost one-third (29%) between white and BIPOC influencers. The gap between white and Black influencers is even wider, reaching 35%. With the survey now live, MSL is continuing to dive deep into the racial pay gap by recommending solutions and actions that brands and agencies can start taking now. To lead industry change, the business has created three principles as a guide for agencies and brands to follow. Those principles include implementing a call to action for BIPOC influencers to self-identify with a universally recognized hashtag #diversecreator and drive advocacy for BIPOC influencers by supporting them. Along with action, transparency will be another vital part for brands and agencies to help solve the pay gap as it can start by having open conversations about it. "After George Floyd's murder we were as sad and outraged as everyone else, but we really wanted to think about what we could do aside from making commitments that everyone started to make," Diana Littman, MSL U.S. CEO, told Adweek. "We thought about how we could actually affect industry change in a bigger way," she added, citing an internal platform named "Fluency" that helped guide the creation of its subsequent recommendations to improve representation within influencer marketing. Influence and impact With no previous data surrounding the pay gap among influencers, MSL went into the research with an open mind and a willingness to uncover the realities. Along with the data, the agency created a space for influencers to also talk about their experiences with brand deals and their pay, continuing to push the agenda around a standard rate and the importance transparency plays in bridging that gap. "We want to convene agencies, brands and influencers themselves to have an open dialogue about pay," Littman explains. "There was no data around the pay gap before so we had no idea what we were going to find and we purposefully chose not to make an assumption. We wanted to uncover the reality." She adds that it was more important to find answers in order to "educate ourselves, our clients and the marketplace" to enable the creation of "real meaningful change." To continue creating a long-lasting change, Littman emphasizes the need for everyone to participate in transparency as part of the study shows the lack of metrics of knowing exactly how brands and agencies pay their influencers. The metrics used for influencer pay are usually based on the follower count. 77% of Black influencers were found to have under 50 thousand followers, falling into what's known as "micro-influencer tiers" where compensation from brands averaged $27,000 annually. In contrast, the metrics found that the 59% of white influencers in the same tier group earned more than their Black counterparts, although the report did not provide an exact figure. To bridge the lack of transparency and industry metrics, MSL will aim to become the driving force behind the development of an Influencer Pay Index to determine and track all influencer pay through Fluency. MSL aims to ultimately propose that the index become the benchmark for industry principles. "It can become an advocacy platform and that for us is incredibly exciting and motivating for the industry... we really felt that this is our responsibility as an industry to create this change. It felt like the better thing was to create a roadmap that others could join us on because this is not just about us, it's about the industry," Littman concluded. "Time to Face the Influencer Pay Gap” is a follow-up to MSL’s 2020 commitments to drive diversity, equity and inclusion in influencer marketing. It also builds on the agency’s established partnership with The Influencer League, an organization focused on educating, equipping and empowering influencers to grow followers and to monetize content. Influencer Marketing Is Especially Vulnerable to Racism. What's Being Done About It?

Influencers & Creators

Study Reveals a Significant Racial Pay Gap in Influencer Marketing

The research from MSL has been conducted to outline the continued need for change

Natalie Venegas

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Natalie Venegas