{"id":7381,"date":"2018-10-01T19:28:39","date_gmt":"2018-10-01T19:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scraawl.com\/product\/?p=7381"},"modified":"2022-05-02T22:58:54","modified_gmt":"2022-05-02T22:58:54","slug":"influencer-brand-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/10.19.3.33\/product\/2018\/10\/01\/influencer-brand-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Influencer Blow Up Affecting Your Brand? Vice Versa? Here’s How to Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]According to a recent report by Reuters, global spend on digital marketing has now reach an estimated total of almost $100 billion<\/a>. The rise in spending has been partially attributed to industry concerns about brand safety. Social platforms have struggled to give full visibility into ad placement. Demands for influencer ad transparency have increased. Accusations of fraud and confusion about true return on investment (ROI) abound. In response, major companies like Unilever are bringing marketing and analytics in house in order to increase transparency in influencer partnerships, to better monitor ad placement on social, and to fully track ROI. In our previous blog, we touched on How to Detect Social Bots for Brand Monitoring<\/a>. In this blog, we’ll take a look at balancing the many benefits of influencer marketing with greater transparency.<\/p>\n

The oft cited advice for brands when working with influencers goes like this: make sure you vet thoroughly before you work with someone. This is not a very helpful brand safety strategy for incidents after the fact. The truth is, even when a brand has done its due diligence, there is still the chance that something may come up. Or as has been the case for the beauty industry, the whole community of influencers may go through a scandal.<\/p>\n

For context, in August of 2018,\u00a0viewers saw a dizzying array of Tell-All videos from YouTube beauty influencers. It all started out with Makeup Geek founder Marlene Stell<\/a> talking about the amount that influencers are paid. And equally dizzying, there have also been reports of how influencers are paid to bash other brands, a reported amount of up to $75,000<\/a>. Questions of disclosure, questions of payscales, and questions of integrity are now circling the beauty influencer community. And there have been effects on the brands associated with these YouTube personalities.<\/p>\n

We took a look at a few different brands and influencers to see how they handled brand safety strategy. We found that there are effectively three routes that can be taken if a public relations snafu occurs or, as they say, “tea” has been spilt:<\/p>\n

1. Cut ties immediately<\/h3>\n

Around the same time Marlene Stell spoke about influencer payments, there were also reports of beauty influencer Laura Lee and past racist tweets. It was estimated that she lost half a million YouTube subscribers and that her current number of followers now falls just below 4.5 million. Citing\u00a0Polygon’s calculations, Vox notes that a loss of 200,000 followers could cost Lee about $25,000 per year<\/a>. Vox reported that with those numbers in mind, “Lee’s nosedive could mean a loss of approximately $65,000 per year,” just from the loss of subscribers alone.<\/p>\n

To calculate the loss of potential brand deals is a different matter. According to Allure<\/a>, Laura Lee was also removed from a number of beauty brand websites including Ulta,\u00a0ColourPopCosmetics, and BoxyCharm. According to the article and to the Makeup Geek video, each one of those brand partnerships was potentially worth $50k to $65k per post. Therefore, Laura Lee may have lost about $195,000 in partnership deals in total. We can only speculate from the outside, as the cost of influencer partnerships do vary widely according to reach and according metrics set by each unique partnership. With each of the brands listed above, it would seem they went for the cut-ties approach to managing a partnership snafu on social media.<\/p>\n

2. Work with the influencer to rehabilitate the image<\/h3>\n
What do Jeffree Star and Elon Musk have in common?<\/em><\/h5>\n

While cutting ties with an influencer may be option for some brands, it is worth noting that the likelihood that a brand will either cut or support an influencer very much depends on how closely intertwined the two are. When similar accusations of racism were leveled at another beauty influencer Jeffree Star, as the head and also the face of his makeup company, there was very little speculation as to whether he would step down. Again, it is dependent on the visibility and the connection of these influencers to their respective brands.<\/p>\n

And while seemingly an unlikely comparison, much of the same can also be said\u00a0about Tesla founder Elon Musk. In some ways he too is a social media influencer, riling up fans and foes alike through his Twitter account, often leaving his companies to deal with the fall out. Most recently Musk tweeted that he would take Tesla private and had the funding “secured”. He was then fined by the SEC and forced to step down as chairman but remains CEO.\u00a0<\/a>While Musk has not fully stepped away from Tesla, there will no doubt be a strong PR push to rehabilitate his image, especially since his own personal brand is so synonymous with Tesla, Hyperloop, SpaceX, etc.<\/p>\n

For Jeffree Star, he released a video where he addressed his past racist remarks and also participated in a four part documentary series by another YouTuber known as\u00a0 Shane. Shane’s interviews with Star, in which Star opens up about his past and what happened, appeared to have helped to change public opinion about the controversial makeup guru.<\/p>\n

The tweets of these social celebrities and company founders have profound effects on their respective industries. Jeffree Star and Elon Musk are two founders that are too entwined with their brands to ever fully be cut off. A brand must balance partner relations and decide when, and how to cut ties. If not, the option is to rehabilitate that image over time or to lean into the controversy.<\/p>\n

3. Lean in and dig deep<\/h3>\n
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Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything. #JustDoIt<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/SRWkMIDdaO<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) September 3, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n