Bite-Sized Insights: Influencers are Not Impressing Parents

Bite-Sized Insights: Influencers are Not Impressing Parents
For this week’s bite-sized insights topic, we were interested to find out about parents and influencer advertising. Take a quick read of this week’s bite-sized insights to find out what parents are saying about influencers.
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We asked our Insights panel of parents to tell us what best describes their thoughts on influencers and products you see them advertise. Here’s how they answered:

We also asked “Any other thoughts on influencers and advertising?” Comments from parents included:
“Feel less confident in recent times in what they are promoting, is it a genuine review or based on monetary income. I will check more reviews before purchasing an item recommended.“
“I really dislike it when brands use celebrities and influencers to endorse products. I feel like they are just saying they like it because they are being paid to. Much better to get ordinary people onboard. I loved the Aldi swop and save campaign when they showcased real families rather than celebs. I know they were paid for their time, but it felt more genuine and I would be more likely to trust the messaging.”
“For me, where people are experts in their field and suggest a brand for a particular purpose, can be trusted (so long as they confirm if they are being paid to promote the brand). On the other hand, people who promote themselves as influencers often are only doing so for likes and free services or goods from a business. I don’t trust that process. I feel that being an ‘influencer’ is an excuse to not engage in other creative work (which can include making and creating digital content) or not to get a real job. Perhaps I’m old fashioned in that respect.”
“They might make me think about the product more especially if it’s an influencer I like but this doesn’t mean I’d buy it.”
“I don’t mind influencers who have a genuine interest in a product and seem to give it a fair review. Some are very false and fake.”
“They are everywhere! People spend too much time taking notice of what they say and sometimes they can have the incorrect information but if they have a specific qualification in the field they are advertising it’s helpful sometimes.”
“Influencers are great to get the name of the product out there but I have no faith that their opinions are honest.”
“Not a huge fan of influencers in general although there are a couple that I follow and like, because they’ve been paid to show the product I feel it’s not quite as genuine as if they’d just recommended it.”

Actionable Insights for Brands
- If you are spending on influencer advertising, it might be time for a rethink. Reconsider influencer ad budget as this may not be hitting the mark in terms of activating parents.
- Influencer marketing can be helpful for building awareness for your product but don’t consider it as a sales driver as parents told us they rarely buy based on seeing an influencer promote a product.
- Parents told us that offers can help encourage them to try new products, so look at how your influencer marketing can use offer codes positioned with messaging around If you’ve never tried this product, here’s a code to give it a go.
- Want to find out exactly what it is parents want? We can help! Contact us to start your parents insights journey