Social influencers can make – or break – a company’s reputation – Orange County Register

When Nathan Apodaca posted a TikTok Videos it shows how he craves when drinking Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry juice and singing along to Fleetwood Mac’s song “Dreams”, it’s simply endless revelry.

Usually, those types of videos blend in with the millions of other videos that pop up on social media. But this piece caught fire, eventually garnering more than 80 million views and nearly 13 million likes.

Chris Ferzli, Ocean Spray’s global director of corporate affairs, said in a 2020 interview with CNBC: “It’s a chord. That “chord” drove sales for the Massachusetts-based company.

Apodaca is one of many social influencers who earn money or privilege by influencing consumers’ purchasing habits. In Apadaca’s case, Ocean Spray gave him a new van and took him and his fiance for a ride in a pay van.

But it doesn’t end there. Money also poured in from online viewers who knew he was living in an RV. He used the money to buy a $320,000, 5-bedroom, 3-bathroom home in Idaho for his family.

It’s clearly a win-win.

Plane

But the impact of social influencers can cut both ways, according to Doug Bania, an intellectual property valuation and libel-compensation specialist with Nevium.

“They need to be aware that when social influencers engage in bad behavior that makes a company front page, the company can quickly lose face with customers and lose money,” he said. “A brand that takes years to build can be ruined.”

That is the case of Jared Fogel, the once famous pitcher for the Subway sandwich chain.

After losing significant weight by eating Subway sandwiches, Fogle appeared in the company’s advertising campaigns from 2000 to 2015, performing many television commercials and making in-store appearances to promote the product. company products.

The partnership suddenly fell apart when he was found guilty of traveling to pay for sex with a minor and possessing child pornography. He was eventually sentenced to more than 15 years in prison.

Needless to say, Subway’s reputation has been a hit.

Ready to gamble

However, more and more companies are willing to take the gamble. In fact, the influencer marketing industry is predicted to grow to $10 billion within the next 5 years.

“It became very popular,” said Bania. “Companies are realizing that social influencers have huge followings on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and other platforms. That’s a huge audience. ”

When businesses weigh the cost to shift some of their advertising dollars away from traditional marketing channels to less expensive social media advertising, this strategy often makes sense, Bania said.

“The other thing about social media is that you can be very specific about the audience,” he says. “It can go straight to your target market.”

In the coming years, Bania hopes the Federal Trade Commission will impose more guidelines on social media advertising, as well as penalties if those guidelines are not followed.

“It can be very risky to associate your brand with someone’s personality because we are all human,” warns Bania. “Some people do good and some people do bad, so it’s a risk. What is difficult to determine is whether the risk is worth the potential reward.”

It’s part of what’s known as the “Attention Economy”. Consumers are spending more time and attention on social media platforms and where brands want to be noticed.

Bania simply said:

“You might be the older brand,” he says, “but how do you reach out to a more trendy younger group?”