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Article published in El Español on January 24, 2024

Influencers and brand ambassadors have become a top-rated marketing tool in recent years. It is no wonder that the algorithm constantly prioritizes user content based on relevance in conjunction with our browsing, consumption, and geolocation habits on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

Influencers have developed a digital audience by constantly disseminating content on a specific topic. Their popularity allows them to generate credibility among their followers, making them interesting brand prescribers. For their part, brand ambassadors (brand ambassadors) are people who, without necessarily being influencers, represent a brand in an active and committed way. They can be employees of the brand, loyal customers, or simply people who share their values and philosophy.

According to a study by Luis Miguel Romero Rodríguez and Bárbara Castillo Abdul, the use of influencers and brand ambassadors in marketing strategies increases the visibility of products and services, allows reaching a wider audience, generally young segments, improves the brand image, making it more positive, attractive, and humanizing it, and, above all, generates engagement, that is, emotional bonding, as the credibility in its audience is used to create a link with the product or service promoted.

However, the improper use of these actors can entail risks that brands, advisors, consultants, and agencies usually consider. One is the risk of future reputation problems that the prescriber could have, which will inevitably be linked to the brand image. Just remember recent scandals in which several of these influencers have been involved, such as Mr. Granbomba, Forfast, GangstaZomber, or Borja Escalona.

The research by José Daniel Barquero Cabrero, Bárbara Castillo Abdul, Juan Andrés Talamás, and Luis Miguel Romero Rodríguez reveals two other problems that can go hand in hand with the choice of these digital prescribers, such as inconsistency in communication and fraud.

Inconsistency in communication is a phenomenon that occurs when it is decided to hire the services of an influencer only to have a greater reach. Still, the audience that makes up the majority of their followers is not taken into account (for example, if they are in Spain or abroad, if they belong to the brand segment, or if the tone and values that the influencer has are aligned with those of the brand).

In addition, cases of fraud in influencer marketing have been detected in recent years, such as the purchase of followers, views, and interactions on social media, which can generate particular interest in the brand in its promotion strategy but which may be nothing more than an illusion generated by bots, or by click and like farms in countries in South Asia.

Advertising agencies and digital marketing consultants are fully aware of the above. Still, many SMEs usually deal directly with prescribers and need to understand the dilemma beyond each platform’s numbers. Approaching the hiring of these services without intermediaries reduces the costs of campaigns. Still, it can also cause problems in the future, as SMEs and start-ups, especially in sectors such as catering, hospitality, and fashion, are usually the ones that most bet on these tactics on social media.

Another critical issue that must be addressed when betting on a prescriber is related to their style. Just like in conventional advertising in the press, radio, or television, the choice of the personality of the prescriber must be aligned with the brand’s personality. The same happens with influencers or brand ambassadors who, in addition, usually have much more isolated and specialized segments.

For example, only in the field of food and restauration, there are influencers specialized in Chinese food (such as mad4yu), typical dishes from various regions of Spain (such as sezarblue), hamburgers (such as joeburgerchallenge), Madrid bars (such as cocituber), high-end restaurants (such as estrellasinmichelin), gastronomic critics (such as cenandoconpablo), wines, craft beers, and liquors. That is, for the same sector, there is a gigantic range of personalities, but each one is in a specialized micro-segment with a distinctive tone.