Is Influencer Marketing Killing Culture?

Where they can many marketers also try to use influencers to ride cultural waves hoping it will lead to relevance By doing so they run the risk of seeming inauthentic to consumers or looking like they39re trying to coopt the cultural wave for their own benefitThe toxic mix of increased spending lack of relevance and lowlevel influencers are harming culture as a whole It39s even possible that influencer marketing could be killing cultureNavigating CultureThe word quotculturequot while commonly used is just as widely misunderstood Culture39s ambiguity derives from the fact that it takes on a different meaning based on the context It is entirely possible to recognize that culture is essential while also struggling with defining and pinning down access to it Brands exist within at least two cultural realities internal culture ie how they operate and provide meaning to their staff and external culture ie how they navigate the broader world in which they existCulture is complex and ultimately it is the complexity problem that data attempts to solve But the complexity inherent with culture is precisely why that data so often fails Expecting data to drive what are actually cultural issues comes with its pitfalls for example the reliance on data to produce measurable and replicable results particularly in influencer marketing has flattened the culture conversation A once vibrant cultural backdrop has become a monoculture which was originally an agricultural term referring to the practice of planting one crop at a time within an ecological system The repeated exercise would eventually weaken future generations of the harvest and destroy the valuable topsoil necessary for a healthy environment The prevailing influencer marketing practices encourage monoculture resulting in an overall weakening of the cultural ecosystem potentially creating a cultural dustbowlThat brands are riskaverse is no secret Accessing culture is high risk and high reward To manage the inherent risk that is part of any cultureled conversation brands have increasingly turned to influencers They provide a bridge to audiences that a brand might not otherwise be able to speak to authenticallyBut risk aversion leads to monoculture Ads are designed less with creative in mind and more with serving algorithms that aim to fit snugly into programmatic initiatives Influencer posts are wordsmithed and created with the intention of quotgoing viralquot The more similar everything is the more comfortable brands might feel but it also makes their efforts less likely to succeed The stifling quotsamenessquot across influencer marketing is not only becoming fodder for satire but also adversely affects marketing reachInfluencer marketing is ripe for a severe shift in focus and reevaluation of its efficacy Change readiness is vital so it39s essential to create a matrix that will help you understand where your organization and its goals sit within that construct amp160On the XAxis is the organizational quotWillingness to Changequot and along the YAxis is quotLots to LosequotMany organizations are clustered in either quotStubborn Resistancequot or quotThoughtless Adoptionquot They are either convinced that their current strategies are working or they are so rudderless they will try anything and everything with little underlying strategy Both are failing positions just within different operating environments Expert curation is either devalued or ignored because the AI is going to do the heavy lifting of explaining who brands should be partnering with and what those partnerships should look like Monoculture thrives in these environmentsHappy AccidentsIt is not all doom and gloom however Culture is robust and will likely quotfind a wayquot even in a challenging environment that favors a monoculture Organizations that resist the urge to do business as usual and commit to a radical renewal are the ones that will winCulture defies measurement and brands need to seek more accidents actively What do I mean by quotaccidentsquot They are the serendipitous connections that are only possible in the radical renewal quadrant Brands have to reconcile their riskaverse nature with the riskiness of culture Instead of avoiding risk brands have to embrace it and understand there will be losses Not every activation will work but the willingness to experiment and fail is part of any relevant creative processThe yearning for certainty is antithetical to the uncertain nature of culture Pushing back on monoculture is going to take intuition accidents and yes a bit of magic The potential rewards far outstrip the risk and the culture demands that we fight for itClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Is Influencer Marketing Killing Culture?

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Philip McKenzie

"About That" with Carl Mayer: Corinne Casagrande (Episode 8: Consumer Spending) - By Carl Mayer

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