Influencer marketing has become a weapon of choice for brands. One single post shared by the right person can put a product straight on the map or start a trend that sends purchases and brand recognition sky-high. Seem like a no-brainer, no? However, this strategy does not always work that smoothly. For every success story, behind it are 100s of failed ones, so influencer marketing is not exactly a sure bet.

The cost of influencer marketing can take a huge dip from unsuccessful partnerships to PR disasters when it goes wrong. However, those failures come with important lessons for any willing brand. This blog takes a look at some of the most widely criticized influencer marketing misfires, discusses the reasons behind them, and shares tips you can put into practice to pave the way for success with your influencer partnerships.

The Reason Why Influencer Marketing Fails

But before we delve into the big tutus, here are the main reasons influencer marketing goes wrong. Grasping these pratfalls is the first step to having a successful game plan.

Lack of Authentic Alignment

Aligning your brand with an incompatible influencer can be a disaster. Many influencers are the unique voice of their niche, and if their persona does not align with your brand or values, the promotion may be forced or ineffectively ingenuine to their audience. To understand how to align effectively, check out this guide on the importance and success of influencer marketing.

Example Fail:
A high-end designer collaborates with a fitness influencer whose fans are more budget-focused and practicality-based. This type of collaborative activity often confuses the followers and lowers the brand credibility as well.

Overlooking Audience Insights

Having millions of followers would not translate to reach for your brand, just because the influencer is popular. When marketers focus on follower count instead of relevance to the audience, they end up wasting marketing dollars.

Example Fail:
A skincare line collaborates with a gamer influencer who has a significant follower demographic, but is largely male. A new advertisement for the brand’s latest anti-aging cream falls flat because it doesn’t connect to the audience.

Ignoring Due Diligence

Not assessing an influence for past behavior or public statements can incur irreparable damage to a brand. In short, influencers are human — and if they make poor choices in the past, it can come back to haunt you and, by association, your brand.

Establishing Unrealistic Expectations

Brands can sometimes expect influencer campaigns to pay off with earth-shattering return the first time up. Expectations, however, are also a double-edged sword, as they often become unreasonable, because you believe the person you have idolized can do no wrong. Execution does matter and there are always campaign timing, audience sentiment, or an influencer doing a less than stellar job at positioning the brand which can play a role in performance.

Overly Scripted Campaigns

What people love about influencers is their authenticity and creativity. As a cumulative effect, you end up with content that sounds inauthentic or too promotional when overly scripted or inflexible brand guidelines take over to snuff out these attributes.

Notorious Failures of Influencer Marketing Makeovers

The Fyre Festival Fiasco

A case of the worst examples of influencer marketing done bad, the Fyre Festival is a class of experiences that were over-hyped and massively under-delivered.

What Happened:
A luxury music festival on a private island, Fyre Festival was backed by mega-influencers including Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid. What they found though instead were FEMA tents, horrible food, and absolute disorganization.

The Fallout:
When it became a complete dumpster fire, the affair turned into an international punchline, while influencers who helped promote the fraudulent gathering got blasted for putting their lock on a train wreck they supposedly didn’t know was so busted.

The Lesson:
Shenanigans while partnering with other events or campaigns, do your homework before. The product or event you promote or support fails to live up to its promises therefore damaging your brand reputation.

Pepsi and Kendall Jenner

A well-known example is Pepsi’s 2017 ad with Kendall Jenner that targeted a youth-adult, activist-conscious demographic. What it actually did was prompt a massive backlash for diluting meaningful social justice movements.

What Went Wrong:
This ad was tone-deaf, badly conceived. The militarized policing of a feminist message and the choice to partner with an influencer completely removed from activism alienated audiences further.

The Lesson:
Cultural sensitivity and appropriateness are very important in influencer marketing. Messages misfire when they are not viewed from different perspectives in campaigns, so be sure to review yours with a diverse eye.

The Dublin Hotel and Elle Darby

YouTuber Elle Darby was met with backlash when she asked a Dublin hotel for a free stay in exchange for exposure and the establishment went public with her request and their response. Thus, turned into controversy which created public dispute and negative public opinion to both parties.

What Went Wrong:
That was a pretty entitled pitch from Darby, and an even more untactful response from the hotel. The public spat tarnished the image of both sides.

The Lesson:
Everything from communication to mutual respect between brands and influencers should be clear and professional. Collaborate with caution to ensure professionalism and tone are aligned.

Successful Influencer Marketing Tips

Having looked at how things can go wrong, let us see how to make sure that your influencer campaigns are successful.

Choose the Right Influencer

It’s not about how much followers they have. Target influencers that match your brand values and speak to the proper demographic. Take micro-influencers, for instance; they usually have better engagement and niche authority.

Pro Tip:
Find using tools like Aspire or Upfluence that help you identify influencers that have a similar audience to those you’re trying to reach

Prioritize Authenticity

Allow influencers to be creative, and make their content look real. Influencers have a specific voice in the market which the audience trusts – hence do not be too on their neck about how the narrative should be shaped.

Conduct Thorough Research

Look into how an influencer behaves, what brands they have engaged with, and how they create connection with their audience. Do not create controversies that could be detrimental to your kaftan.

Set Clear Goals and KPIs

Define what you want to achieve before you run a campaign. What is your goal — brand awareness, sales, or engagement? Establish KPIs (clicks, conversions, reach, etc.) in order to appropriately measure success

Monitor Campaigns Closely

Monitor your campaign activities and stay flexible. Be prepared to modify your strategy live if something is not working.

Foster Long-Term Partnerships

One-time campaigns are less effective than developing long-term relationships with influencers. You can bank on the fact that audiences will be more attuned to familiar collaborations they trust.

Best Influencer Strategy to Take Advantage of

No doubt about it, influencer marketing is a strong growth tool, but it comes with a web of intricacies so you need to map it out carefully. Although poorly executed campaigns can be a source of embarrassment for brands, partnerships based on trust, authenticity and shared values deliver impressive results.

Your brand can steer clear of the many pitfalls that plague influencer marketing campaigns by taking the lessons of past failures into account and utilizing comfortable strategies to make a difference.

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When Influencer Marketing Fails