‘Trust runs both ways’: Has influencer marketing become more transparent?
The mainstream use of Gen AI is just one reason brands and regulators must remain vigilant in a booming creator economy.
In 2018 Unilever’s then marketing and communications officer, Keith Weed, made headlines with a scathing attack on bad practice in the influencer marketing ecosystem.
Flagging fake followers, bots, fraud and “dishonest business models”, Weed committed the FMCG giant to purge of any partnerships that lacked transparency – and urged other brands to do the same.
Six years later, on an individual level brands are taking their own steps to integrate due diligence into their influencer marketing strategies.
“We do due diligence before working with any influencer or talent – a mixture of desk research, audience analysis and may we engage an agency [such as influencer agency CORQ] to assess brand fit and potential reputational damage if we have concerns,” says Katie Nelson, head of influencer at Sky.
