Why Influencer Marketing is the Future
This fall I’ve been teaching the Influencer Marketing course at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management for the first time.
It has been terrific fun, from preparing to teach the material to assembling the slides, to working the students and welcoming some amazing guest speakers.
One of the big takeaways from the class is that influencer marketing is likely the future of brand building.
The Data
The numbers behind influencer marketing are incredible.
A remarkable 86% of companies are using influencer marketing in 2025, and 71% of companies will be increasing spending in this area. Overall spending on influencer marketing is up by 55% vs prior year.
Unilever, for example, has committed to dramatically expanding its focus on influencer marketing. CEO Fernando Fernandez recently said, “Today, brands – by definition and by default – are met with skepticism when their messages come directly from corporations. Creating marketing activity systems where others can speak for your brand at scale is incredibly important. Influencers, celebrities, TikTokers – these are the voices that matter.”
The Forces
There are three factors driving the growth of influencer marketing.
The first factor is a basic truth: almost everyone has a smart phone. There are about 8 billion people in the world, and 5.8 billion have a smart phone. Virtually all of these people are on social media platforms.
Second, people pay attention to social media. We live in a world of information and clutter, so getting people to pay attention to anything is an enormous challenge.
One trend is clear: fewer people pay attention to traditional TV. Viewership statistics are dramatically down. The trends are similar for all the old media platforms: magazines, radio stations, movies and newspapers.
What do people pay attention to? Social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. If you are a marketer, you have to follow your audience. If people are devoting their attention to social networks, that is where you have to be.
Social media is undergoing a fascinating shift. It is now less about following friends and family and more about watching engaging content. TikTok, for example, is an entertainment platform with millions of creators, most of which viewers don’t personally know.
Finally, there is trust, or lack of trust. People are skeptical, and reluctant to trust. Traditional experts no longer have the impact that they did previously. People are skeptical of politicians, doctors, insurance executives and marketers.
Remarkably, people trust the creators they see on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. While there isn’t a personal connection, people feel like they can relate to influencers. The authentic content of a creator has a significant impact.
The Implication
The combination of factors leads to just one possible conclusion. Influencer marketing is going to become more and more important.
This means that marketers are going to have to learn new skills, because influencer campaigns are dramatically different than traditional advertising efforts.
A marketer explained just one difference to me last week. In a traditional ad campaign, a company might develop two or three advertisements. Each one is tested and polished. In an influencer campaign, a company might engage 40 influencers, with each one creating three pieces of content. Instead of two or three spots, the company now has perhaps 120 spots of wildly varying quality.
Companies that understand influencer marketing can drive growth and new product adoption. Firms that are late to this world will miss out on opportunities and are vulnerable to disruption by innovative new entrants.
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