Pay Attention as Hulu Paves the Way with Influencer Marketing Transparency

Influencer marketing isn’t just a passing fad. In fact, over recent years it has evolved into an important element of marketers’ strategy for targeting digital audiences.

The increased focus on influencer-based campaigns makes sense considering the marketing sector’s response to consumer demand for trustworthy, personalized content that engages in real-time.

What better way to target today’s social media-obsessed consumers, who are ever-more immune to traditional forms of advertising, than by using the celebrities and social media figures they choose to follow and interact with online?

However, as more organizations explore this fast-rising, promising form of social media marketing, we’re already starting to note signs of an oversaturated market and overexposed audiences. So I would argue that most key trends we’re seeing in influencer marketing Opens a new window are tied to the concept of authenticity.

If you follow me on Toolbox, you’ll know I’ve been focused lately on authenticity in social media marketing.Opens a new window I’ve even written a post Opens a new window specifically on why that characteristic is vital specifically to every influencer marketing campaign.

Now I want to dig deeper into a specific aspect – transparency – which is becoming increasingly important as regulators step up efforts to police the vast universe of sponsored social media content.

Hulu takes ‘transparency’ to the next level

Hulu recently released its “Hulu Sellouts” ad campaign promoting a new, live-television streaming service. The commercials feature NBA stars Damian Lillard, Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo advertising Hulu’s latest offer of live sportsOpens a new window . In the commercials, the basketball players are extremely open about their motivation for promoting Hulu: “Money.”

While this may seem just a tad blatant to some marketers, I believe it shows Hulu’s understanding that influencer marketing must travel a certain direction in order to stay relevant to digital consumers.

It’s no longer an option to try to sneak paid influencer relationships under the radar. By now, most marketers – and influencers – are aware that to comply with regulations, sponsored posts must include tags like ‘#ad,’ ‘#sponsored,’ or ‘#sp’.

However, as Liz Gottbrecht, vice president of marketing at influencer marketing company Mavrck, told the Wall Street Journal, “The majority [of marketers] don’t put it so overtly in front. They bury it at the end of the caption, in the middle of the caption, or five comments down.”

Plus, according to a 2018 survey of 113 influencers conducted by marketing company Mavrck, 40% said that sponsors do not bother to follow up consistently with them about adhering to government regulations regarding endorsement disclosures; 16% even said that they had been asked at least once by a sponsor to skip the disclosures altogether.

In large part, fiascos like the now-infamous Fyre Festival Opens a new window have forced us all – consumers, regulators and marketers alike – to be much more aware (and wary) of sponsored content on social media. Fyre Festival organizers were able to lure people into buying extremely expensive tickets based purely on promotional videos backed by social media posts from influencers such as Kendall Jenner – posts that were paid for but not tagged as ads.

This “back-alley” approach to disclosing paid partnerships just doesn’t work anymore. Audiences tend to frown on this type of practice as they’re increasingly aware that influencers are paid to endorse and advocate certain brands and products.

As such, we’re now at a point that nearly half of all customers are fed up with the inauthentic and repetitive content influencers are sharing with their followers, according to a 2018 study from digital marketing company BazaarvoiceOpens a new window . And in large part it’s because these posts, instead of being engaging and authentic, come off as promotional and ‘sales-y’.

When I go online to research “transparency in influencer marketing,” I see a lot of similar advice crop up, and most of it has to do with making sure you use the right hashtags or partner with the right influencers.

And while this may be true, I believe that the future of transparency isn’t simply about using the right hashtags to comply with Federal Trade Commission regulations and to avoid sanctions. Marketers who want to build back trust and reduce skepticism that audiences have developed towards outdated influencer marketing strategies will never succeed by paying for predictable social media content.

Indeed, the ROI on sponsored posts that simply serve as makeshift ads will be minimal at best. Instead, brands must be bold.

That said, compliance doesn’t have to be boring. Online consumers aren’t against being marketed to – they just don’t want to feel like sales marks. As Andrew Arnold wrote for Forbes, “Many just disapprove of the manufactured nature and lack of genuine connection associated with certain sponsored campaigns.”

That’s why marketers must find new ways to engage people online without breaking the rules.

So I say: Be more like Hulu and find new ways to do the same thing…but differently.