Most brands are known for their use of influencers especially on social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. Alix Earle, a lifestyle and beauty influencer, was the face of the Queso Crunch Burger and a few other Carl’s Jr. campaigns. However, some feedback suggests that her public figure did not align with the brand she was promoting. It has become extremely common to see big-name influencers promoting products even when there seems to be no correlation between the two.

I asked our PR & growth experts: Can collaborations with influencers be more effective than traditional advertising? How important is it that the brand aligns with the influencer promoting it?

Here are the experts' insights.

• Select an influencer who is actually using your product before the campaign
• The influencer needs a sincere affinity to the values of the brand
• Influencers need a real and transferable authority
• Alignment earns ROI
• Partnerships created through common values create repeat business

Select an influencer who is actually using your product before the campaign

Emily Reynolds-Bergh, Owner at R Public Relations

"The best way to make influencer campaigns more effective than traditional advertising is to select an influencer who is actually using your product and interacting with your brand before the campaign. Bonus points if they have highlighted your product or service organically before the paid campaign. This guarantees authenticity and buy-in from the influencer’s audience."

The influencer needs a sincere affinity to the values of the brand

Liam Derbyshire, CEO & Founder at Influize

"When the affiliation is sincere, influencer collaborations can improve on standard advertisements. At Influize, we have seen those events attain 45 percent more success when the influencer has a sincere affinity to the values and audience of the brand. Where most brands fail is in the insistence on follower counts instead of relevance. There is more conversion and trust in the smaller creator who uses his product. The true power of influencer marketing is in the credibility and not the visibility, and here again is where the need of alignment becomes evident."

Influencers need a real and transferable authority

Brian Gunterman, Founder at DDR BBQ Supply

"I have created my brand in a segment where credible is achieved by practical application as opposed to celebrity associations. My clientele is not concerned about who is holding the product; it is more concerned about whether the product will stand up when the pressure is to be put in place.

I also have experimented with collaborating with influencers, but only those ones who live the lifestyle and are aware of the gears. A backyard griller who had 10,000 followers liking his page sent more qualified traffic than any celebrity athlete had ever sent. Misalignment wastage consumes finances and destroys credibility. People know when the face does not correspond to the flavor. They scroll past. They stop listening.

Influencers can only be effective when they have a real and transferable authority. It has nothing to do with the size of the following. It is concerning the weight of the recommendation. When it is perceived to be artificial, it scalds the brand."

Alignment earns ROI

Brian Futral, Founder & Head of Content at The Marketing Heaven

"I’d argue influencer marketing beats traditional ads... but only when the match feels real. I mean, if the vibe doesn’t make sense in the first two seconds, the viewer mentally checks out before the caption loads. You can’t plug someone into a campaign just because they’ve got reach. It feels like the audience is getting tricked into a sale, and you can watch the comment section turn cold in real time. I tend to think people will forgive product pushes, but they won’t forget when a promo smells like a paycheck.

To be honest, the best collaborations happen when the influencer could’ve bought the product on their own without flinching. That’s the energy that lands. There’s a chance a well-shot ad with 5 million views gets ignored, while a 12-second TikTok from someone whose lifestyle actually mirrors the product pulls 20% engagement. What I’m getting at is, reach is rented... but alignment earns ROI. When the fit feels off, even the best creative can’t save it."

Partnerships created through common values create repeat business

Adam Bushell, Director & Electrician at AB Electrical & Communications

"Influencer relationships are better than the traditional advertising in cases where there is real representation of the brand values and lifestyle by the influencer. Credibility is maintained by the association with the audience and messenger. When the brand chooses an influencer solely because of reach, the message becomes unnatural and the campaign does not work but, on the contrary, the perception is usually ruined.

The size of the audience must never precede brand alignment. In reality, smaller influencers are better at engaging and retaining customers when paired with smaller but more authentic campaigns. Their readers accept the endorsements as sincere suggestions and not written advertisements. The partnerships created through common values tend to create better inquiries and repeat business, especially when it comes to service-based businesses such as our own and it proves that relevancy is more influential than visibility itself."

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