In a COVID-19 world, brands found they needed to change their messaging and ethos to be more sensitive and in-tune to the current socio-political climate, creating their own social voice and taking a side on contentious issues. This created more of a need to move away from the ‘hard sell’ into emotive or purpose-based messaging, and starting a conversation with their consumer. Many companies are doing this now by partnering with authentic content creators who are experts in their category, as a way to open more of a ‘two way street’ of information exchange between brands and consumers. The influencers that brands choose to align with become part of that brand’s identity, so they need to choose wisely.

Using content creators is a fast-track to building trust for brands, as they are able to take advantage of what Dr Kapitan calls a ‘parasocial relationship’ between influencer and customer. As Dr Sommer explains, “parasocial intimacy is a friendship-like experience, where if we can see this person’s thoughts and we know about their life, and because it’s in our daily news feed and so it becomes part of our daily lives, it becomes that feeling that it’s someone you know…and then the recommendations they make really hit home. It’s a lot closer to what happens when you talk to friends, versus when you talk to brands.”

This is an area where Jess Quinn, one of New Zealand’s best creators has first hand experience – “it’s one thing for me to list the things a brand says is powerful for them, but if I can talk about how it’s actually affecting my life and show that I am genuinely using the product, it comes through a lot more naturally. If I can integrate it with things I’m already talking about in my life like my health or my family, it resonates so much better with my followers. So brands integrating with an influencer’s storytelling is really powerful.”

Dr Kapitan touched on Nielsen’s research around trust metrics in media, “we trust people over brands. And influencers slot between those two, because they’re both people and they’re brands! The more personable they are, the closer people feel to them, you’re choosing someone who has curated their own products that they value. When influencers show they value products, that’s what turns it on and off for consumers. It’s a sense of that internal motivation versus external motivation, so if you can tell that there’s opinions, feelings and internal motivations related to a brand from who you’re listening to, rather than if they are clearly just reading a script of what the brand wants and their motivation is purely monetary, it just feels really different. That’s what I’m picking up on in my studies – the feeling of a true content creator versus just a paid promoter.

When it’s obvious that someone is a content creator, the fact that they made the content in their own style feels a lot different than when they are just parroting the brand words.”

Each panellist discussed the importance of influencers/content creators being able to keep their own style/edge in paid content, because that’s what got them their followers in the first place and therefore will resonate best with that same audience. Brands that trust their influencers to do this tend to see better results from their paid content. If they are not afraid of an honest review of their product and can hand over the reins to a trusted content creator, this means the content will come across as more believable and authentic – and therefore a better sell.