I’m not a fan of Porta dos Fundos, but the channel recently released a really interesting video about digital influencers, yet another fad of recent years. The video satirizes the reasons so many people follow digital influencers and questions what exactly makes these people appealing enough to be considered influential.
It is becoming increasingly common to find agencies and marketing teams suggesting digital influencers for brand campaigns, to reach more customers and increase sales. What’s interesting here is to consider how far this really works. Personally, I ran a few experiments in the past and I can say with certainty: ZERO ROI. Yes, even when following some “basic little rules,” such as analyzing engagement by number of fans, the return is still nil. And after the “fan factories” discovered in Southeast Asia, I invite everyone who uses this kind of strategy to reflect on the subject. Every marketer looks for shortcuts to guarantee a good result, at a lower cost, with greater campaign reach and greater engagement, but do we get that from these so-called digital influencers? In this article by Shareen Pathak, the digital media executive says that “we threw too much money at them,” and it’s true. Companies and agencies created this bubble of overvaluing this kind of activity and, at the end of the line, what is the most depressing result? Teenagers who dream of becoming digital influencers as a profession. Give me a break! This culture of spectacle leads to events like the recent tragedy in which a couple decided to record a video in which the woman shoots at a book against her boyfriend’s chest to get more viewers. The idea ended up killing the man on a live stream and sending the pregnant woman to prison. Is this the kind of digital influence we are looking for? The society of the spectacle, already analyzed by Guy Debord since 1931, has never been as evident as it is today with digital influencers. The body has become spectacle, and so have speech, routine, and the most banal events. Far more dangerous than that: the relentless pursuit of spectacle brings disastrous results, for society and for campaigns. These little social media stars may get your brand seen by more people, but that visibility won’t necessarily be positive. Most of the time, brands don’t know how much to pay, and the influencer doesn’t know how much to charge and has no idea about budgets. The usually high cost of being mentioned by a digital influencer could be turned into much smarter digital marketing investments, actions that generate real results. Well, I’ve been a fan of ROI since 1999, when I started advertising on the web, and as a pioneer in measuring digital marketing metrics, I wasn’t bitten by this fad. Yes, I tested it. The results were awful, and I left it to the adventurers less determined to make their marketing budgets pay off. We can already predict that digital influencers will lose their power over time. But how long will it take for people and brands to realize that their follower count means nothing more than a number?
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