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CREATORS > INFLUENCERS. 

According to a new TikTok trend #deinfluencing influencer marketing is no longer working. This hashtag alone has over 41 million views right now. And #deinfluencer has another 5 million views. 

This might be confusing for some, as the whole internet (Shopify, Amazon, Meta) and other companies releasing their reports and articles on how influencer marketing will grow drastically in 2023. We'll I can tell you now that of-course these platforms say this, they want you to spend more money on their platforms and keep their creators happy. I am currently part of the millions of people on TikTok that no longer believe influencer marketing is special nor that it works. This trend is a great show to why you should listen to your consumers right now much more closely.

These hashtag users (#deinfluencing; #deinfluencer) are your customers, and they are tired of influencers trying to sell them products. These people are telling you everything you need to know, and they're making it clear that they're not interested in this type of advertising. I truly believe that researching this trend will benefit you more than any other article you'll read right now.

This was before the whole Michaela and L'Oréal mascara saga or Tarte's extravagant trip(which you can learn all about below in this newsletter). As much as that demonstrates how influencer marketing can sometimes result in major backlash, not only for the influencer but also for the brands, this trend existed long before those videos. Creators of this trend are warning people not to buy that mascara or those mini Uggs they keep seeing everywhere because they have discovered that influencers are attempting to sell them those products instead of recommending.

People are reconsidering everything they bought and consumed since 2020, questioning why they needed these products in the first place and why they bought them at all. And these people are desperate right now to find brands that offer authenticity, creators that offer authenticity, which is why Alix Earl popped up and blew up all of a sudden, because she offers this sense of authenticity.

Learning lesson: Focus on your brand, understanding your customers and what their needs and desires are.

Read the room

Audiences continue to seek creators who are profoundly relatable and show themselves living lives not unlike their own.

This will particularly affect TikTok and Instagram, where audiences value unpolished, relatable content that invites them to connect around shared experiences and values. There’s still space for aspirational creators and celebrity-level influencers, but brands will invest in micro-to-mid-tier influencers/creators as they strive to prioritize engagement from ambassadors who look, act, and, importantly, live like their target consumers.

For example, checking into the Savoy London when your heating is shot at home isn’t the vibe while some are choosing between heating and eating.

Hyper-personalized audiences

Audiences are looking to invest in creators who work a 9-to-5 like they do. They want creators who they perceive to be producing content as a side project. It’s a tall order because these creators need to produce quality content while feeling accessible to their audience, and living in the real world.

Niche it down

We’ll see more professionals creating content, whether that’s a junior doctor documenting their training, or an engineer or hairstylist sharing tips. Consumers look to influencers as voices of authority over their fields. We’ll see brands embrace them as key opinion leaders.

People trust real people. Influencers and creators continue to nurture audiences invested in both them and their niche topic and will be rewarded with communities who deeply value and trust their perspectives.

One of the most relevant spaces right now is ‘fin-fluencers’. Recent years have seen an emergence of influencers specializing in financial advice, from mortgages to general money-saving tips. Astoundingly, 71% of Gen Z and millennials say that they prioritize “getting advice from someone like me”.

Macro creators are still relevant

We know macro influencers/larger creatorrs set cultural trends, whether that’s YouTube creator Mr Beast launching the sell-out Beast Burger in the US or Logan Paul & KSI causing chaos in the aisles with PRIME energy drink (a team of fans has created a Prime drink tracker account). Influencer tiering, meanwhile, has become far more nuanced. 

US brand Tarte Cosmetics took a group of influencers to Dubai this week on a lavish all-expenses-paid trip. In the midst of an economic downturn, public opinion is polarised.

Tarte flew 50 beauty influencers and their plus-ones to Dubai for an extravagant 3-day trip. As content poured in across TikTok from stars like Alix Earle, Monet McMichael and Meredith Duxbury, backlash bubbled up. Is the midst of a cost-of-living crisis the best time to flaunt a lavish vacation?

Some users were excited about the trip and its high-profile attendees. But others felt an opulent trip to Dubai was inappropriate when the US and Europe are facing an economic downturn. “Am I the only one who thinks this is a really weird marketing move from Tarte?” asked TikTok creator Lindsay Borow, who has over 21,000 followers. “I kind of feel they’re being a little tone-deaf. In this economy, it’s so unrelatable.”

Tarte trip, flew guests on Emirates business class from across the US and Europe. The influencers are staying in private villas filled to the brim with Tarte makeup, plus gifts and goodies from other brands. 

“Every day, brands make decisions about how to spend their marketing budgets. For some companies, that means a huge Super Bowl commercial or a multi-million-dollar contract with a famous athlete or musician,” says Tarte founder and CEO Maureen Kelly. “We’ve never done traditional advertising, and instead, we invest in building relationships and building up communities. We hope that as people see what we’re doing together and what we’re all about, they’ll understand and have a stronger connection with Tarte.”

Tarte is not paying for posts about the trip, it confirms, and most of the guests have posted multiple videos already. Alix Earle, one of the talents, is one of TikTok’s fastest-growing beauty influencers (her following has surged from just under 900,000 followers in November to 3.9 million). She posted nine TikToks of the trip as of Friday, with a combined total of 33 million views. A post from any of the influencers on the trip would normally cost in excess of $100,000, Cifcili estimates.

• TikTok: Longer descriptions HELPS? (Wishu)
• Consumer watchdog calls on public to report social media influencers failing to disclose posts as ads. (The Guardian)
• Wait – you don’t use the ‘schedule send’ button? (Wishu)
• SoundCloud does a bunch of stuff we didn’t know it did. (Wishu)
• Media layoffs are hitting companies from Spotify to NBCUniversal — here are 21 that have cut staff. (Business Insider)
• TikTok is laying off employees from its talent acquisition team. (Business Insider)
• How a new mom is trying content creation on IG and TikTok to pay the bills. (Business Insider)
• The schedule an employment lawyer uses to balance making TikToks with running her own law firm. (Business Insider)
• Here’s how sweeping legal changes will affect content creators in 2023. (Tubefilter)