• by Dave Morgan , Featured Contributor, 3 hours ago

I think most influencer platforms today are yet another impression-generating machine -- likely not more effective or durable than a bubble machine at a neighborhood kid's birthday party. It’s fun to watch in the moment, but the bubbles all burst in seconds, and there’s nothing left over once you stop feeding the machine soapy water.

I know, it's blasphemous to publicly call into question a hot trend in the ad industry, particularly one that so many of the “top” CMOs across the land are throwing accolades at in trade and business press articles or on industry event stages, desperate to be perceived as all-in on the latest hot trend.

And it’s doubly blasphemous to surface this criticism in a piece written in New York City during our venerable Advertising Week.

Let it be known: I am a double blasphemer. I believe folks selling influencers by the tens of thousands are actually best at  separating brands and agencies from their dollars. They really don’t care about driving customer growth.

I do believe strong, credible endorsers can make a big difference for brands. Just look at what Michael Jordan did for Nike, and what Cindy Crawford did for Pepsi. I also believe that made-up characters “endorsing” or talking about your brand can be very powerful. Just look at Mikey for Life cereal, Mr. Whipple for Charmin or the actress Clara Peller for Wendy’s in “Where’s the beef?” And I certainly understand the extraordinary power we have seen more recently with the Kardashians and Mr. Beast.

But is taking lots of small creators/influencers, paying them money to promote your products or services, anything akin to real brand-building or real promotion?

My sense is that the vast majority of a multihundred-thousand army of influencers are only saying what they say for money, not passion, preference or principle. They will be hard to control, and will switch to competitors at the drop of a hat. The chances that they will fully comply with government regulations, truth in advertising, or state and local laws will be low.

And, in this area of agentic AI, the fact that they are increasingly likely to be bots, not people, is super-high. Which is why I ask: Aren’t these just impression machines, not unlike all the automated websites that gamed search advertising for impression arbitration until they got shut down?

What do you think? Are you all in on a creator/influencer economy as real brand-building, or just the latest impression factories?