We all know social media brought with it an entire cultural shift, the ability to share news you’re proud of coupled with the inability to remain private in just about any regard. Schools and jobs now having a peek at your personal time, and random people living their lives suddenly became sought after and coveted. When production on movies and tv shows came to a halt in 2020 due to the pandemic those online also became our entertainment.
Suddenly with social media, anybody could acquire a following and have influence over those who watch them.
Brands took notice and a whole new form of marketing was born and grew. Influencer marketing. This title was added into big name budgets and budgets of brands we would have otherwise thought of as unreliable and obsolete.
The problem with that, it was hard to differentiate between products these people we looked up to were actually using and which they were promoting for a pay day. Once fans found out they spent tons of their own money on products their favorite influencer “swears by” yet the seal was never even broken, not only was there a loss of interest in the brand, but loss of trust in the influencer.
And it’s hard to come back from inauthenticity.
Influencer marketing in employment terms is the use of an online personality to promote or sell a product or service. Online personalities create content featuring the product or service in return for monetary and gift compensation.
There’s glaring downfalls with this style of marketing. Brands need to know and trust who they are supporting to promote their products. Influencers are “canceled” for statements all the time and subsequently so are the brands they’re affiliated with.
This causes the brands to take a hit to their own authenticity, claim credibility, and ethos causing an even more major hit to their revenue.
The newest generation of consumers isn’t having it.
Fake isn’t cool.
Gen Z (ages 23 and younger) are immensely aware of product placement and sales tactics, they are over the curated feeds and perfection advertising. They hold businesses accountable for their claims. They crave a unique and real view of what’s going on in a company and influencers are majority anything but real and unique.
That’s why we don’t use Influencers.
We took an oath to never pay influencers to promote our products (there are other ways to spread the word that Dip has the best conditioner bar on the market).
We love hearing from people who love us, we love seeing people recommend us, and we love supporting creatives, but you can be sure that anything you see or hear about Dip will be un-coerced and entirely authentic.
