Problem
Most of us have watched an influencer promote a product and thought it didn’t feel authentic. While 88% of consumers want authenticity from the influencers they follow, nearly 50% of influencers are seen as inauthentic. Marketing agencies including Ogilvy have responded by refusing to work with influencers they consider fake. Nobody had mapped where the problem starts.
Science
We interviewed 185 people across four groups: 42 consumers, 48 influencers, 56 brand managers and 39 influencer marketing agency representatives. Interviews lasted between 43 and 96 minutes. A further 270 survey participants answered questions about influencer authenticity. The team coded all responses systematically, grouping them into patterns across five properties: expertise, connectedness, integrity, originality and transparency.
Outcome
The research found that authenticity isn't something an influencer either has or doesn't have. It breaks down when brands, influencers and audiences don't line up. Consumers place high priority on integrity, wanting influencers to be genuinely motivated. Brand managers place low priority on it. Brands also push for scripted content; consumers and influencers prize originality. One brand manager described their key metric simply: "The key metric we have relied on is number of followers. That's it." The research also found that influencers who openly admit to the commercial nature of a partnership can build trust rather than lose it. When rapper Tyler the Creator stated he wore a brand's shoes simply because they paid him, engagement rose and sales followed.
Change
We call on brands to give influencers creative freedom within clear briefs, and to actively encourage honest reviews including negative ones. Agencies should look beyond follower counts and assess the depth of conversations influencers have with their audiences. Most brands currently select influencers based on surface metrics. Those metrics measure the outcome of authenticity, not its cause. Brands that select based on genuine audience connection and shared values are more likely to build partnerships that last.
Barbara Duffek, Georgia State University; Andreas B. Eisingerich and Omar Merlo, ³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Business School; Guan Lee, Unilever. Published in the Journal of Marketing, 2025.