Back in day, well-known celebrities brought sales for brands. Their brand value served as the most powerful marketing tool in the business of influencing. Celebrity endorsed products and services were considered a sure fire way to skyrocket sales. Skip to 2019, brands are slowly moving focus away from larger than life personalities and exploring brand ambassadors found largely on social platforms – micro and macro influencers are now actively becoming the voice for brands. While there has been an ongoing debate between the value of celebrity and influencer endorsements, the effect of the latter cannot be denied.  

The digital marketing industry has had its share of backlash and criticism for its spurious claims of their products and services, marketed through renowned celebrities. Remember the time when Disha Patani committed one of the biggest advertising blunders? She was slammed for copy-pasting the instructions she had received from the ad agency without proofreading her Instagram caption, as part of a sponsored brand series she was signed on for. The infamous Kendall Jenner 2017 Pepsi ad that promoted peace, love, and unity, proved to be counterproductive because the ad was based on minority stereotypes. There are many such marketing blunders that revealed the ugly truth about brands; that they were more concerned about selling than maintaining relationships. 

While people had high regards for celebrities, they wanted them to be true towards what they stood for. People realising that celebrities promoted brands for the money was perhaps the turning point in the digital marketing industry. Brands had to lean more towards their audience than their products because authenticity didn’t come easy. The only way they could form a trust-worthy relationship with their audience was by connecting with them through real people with a substantial number of highly engaged followers who really listened to what they had to say. 

What celebrities couldn’t do (or won’t possibly be able to do), micro and macro influencers managed to do. These influencers connected with their audience better because of content segregation based on niche and their very own personal influence. Their target audience wasn’t spread all over the place. Over time, they’ve built their audience based on their personalised content, which makes their following loyal to their brand value. Marketers have tapped into this market as a way to spread their brand message to highly targeted audiences. 

Influencer marketing has grown to be highly trustworthy because when you get influencers to promote brand products and services, there is going to be engagements. People follow celebrities because they’re famous and celebrated. On the other hand, people follow micro and macro influencers to build their know-how on specific fields. Authenticity lies in connecting with your audience on a deeper level without faking it all and influencer marketing has been the way to go. Even if influencers promoted products or services that were sponsored, it was negated because their authenticity and high-quality content gained the palm.

The increase in influencer marketing over the past few years has been succeeding in creating real conversations with real people. It’s become a trusted tool of marketing and it’s clearly here to stay. Celebrity endorsements had its share of fun. Now, influencer marketing has paved way to a better, more conversationalist way of reaching a larger audience.