“They need to be aware that when social influencers engage in bad behavior that makes the front pages, the company can quickly lose face with customers and lose money,” he said. “A brand that took years to build can be ruined.”After attributing significant weight loss to eating Subway sandwiches, Fogle appeared in the company’s advertising campaigns from 2000 to 2015, doing numerous TV ads and in-store appearances to promote the company’s prodcuts.
The partnership abruptly collapsed when he was convicted for traveling to pay for sex with minors and for possessing child pornography. He was ultimately sentenced to more than 15 years in prison.Still, a growing number of companies are willing to take the gamble. In fact, the influencer marketing industry is predicted to grow by as much as $10 billion over the next five years.
“It’s become very common,” Bania said. “Companies are realizing that social influencers have very large followings on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and other other platforms. It’s a big audience.” When businesses weigh the cost of shifting some of their advertising dollars away from traditional marketing channels into less costly social media advertising, the strategy often makes sense, Bania said.
“The other thing about social media is that you can be very audience-specific,” he said. “It can go right to your target market.”