What’s in and out for influencer marketing in 2024

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Much of our TikTok and Instagram feeds push products in some way or another, whether it’s paid ads or organic “I’m not sponsored to say this” recommendations. Tired of it? So is everyone else.

Coming out of 2023, both brands and users are feeling the influencer fatigue, says Julianne Fraser, founder of influencer agency Dialogue New York. “The industry is becoming increasingly more competitive and the social landscape cluttered with paid influencer content,” she says. Audiences now are more discerning about ads and sponcon. “Consumers are becoming more aware of influencer marketing and consequently more sceptical.”

Despite this fatigue, paid spend in influencer marketing is on the up for 2024. The creator economy is booming, expected to approach half a trillion dollars by 2027, according to Goldman Sachs Research, which expects influencer marketing spend to grow 15.9 per cent in 2024. On average, Dialogue clients’ monthly budgets have increased from 50 to 100 per cent year-on-year, the agency reports. Brands can still see big results — so long as they invest in longevity, Fraser says. 2024 is due for a shift.

This year, Ted Raad, founder and CEO of talent management agency Trend Management anticipates a focus on the dollars and the cents. “As measurement gets more advanced, we will see brands put more pressure on creators to drive the bottom line.” He notes that brands have already started to move away from basic measurements like views and likes, towards conversion and sales-based metrics. “This will accelerate in 2024,” he says.

Vogue Business spoke to influencer agencies and brands about their top trends and plans for how to drive that bottom line.

What’s in

Video is king

“In 2024, authentic video content will continue to rise and become even more critical to reaching and engaging audiences,” Raad says. The shift away from still photos accelerated in 2023, but in 2024, follower growth without video will be impossible, Raad predicts — thanks to the rise of TikTok and Reels. It circles back to that desire for authenticity, he says. “People want to feel like they are living their lives alongside their favourite creator and this feeling is hard to achieve in other content formats.”

Intimates brand Cou Cou, for instance, invests in long-form video formats that are lo-fi, unpolished and authentic, founder Rose Colcord says. “In our experience, this drives higher engagement and long-term brand building.”

Genuine authenticity

What does authenticity look like in 2024, and can influencers actually achieve it? “Creators will need to promote products that they actually use and the burden of proof will be on them to show their audience that this is something they truly love,” Raad says. More often than not audiences can immediately sense when an influencer is pushing a product they don’t use.

At beauty brand Refy, this is top of mind for the year ahead. “Authenticity has been such a buzzword in the creator space but it’s so important as the audience are really wise to content that doesn’t feel true to the influencer,” Refy CEO and co-founder Jenna Meek told Vogue Business. “This is why nano and micro influencers are so impactful, as their authenticity cuts through with their audience and gives them real credibility, especially on TikTok where anyone can gain traction regardless of their follower count.”

To this end, in 2024, brands will need to pivot to give influencers more creative freedom. “In 2023, many marketers tried to control the messaging and delivery of influencer partnerships, and results fell flat as a result,” Fraser says. “Especially given the ballooning industry, brands must trust that influencers know their audience best and are able to determine what campaign approach will resonate most.” For Maison Kitsuné’s Miami Art Basel pop-up at The Webster, Dialogue invited local influencers (including Valentina Romero) to stop in for a coffee at Cafe Kitsuné, style the new collection on the streets of Miami and engage their community.

The long game

With influencer marketing in full swing, brands will focus on long-term strategies, experts agree. “We expect a shift towards more sustainable and long-term partnerships between brands and influencers, prioritising quality content over quantity,” says Eileen Flynn, chief strategy officer at youth agency Archrival. “Audiences see through transactional content pieces.” Cou Cou’s Colcord is aware of this: “It’s about long-term relationships and brand community, rather than one-off partnerships and product photos with a tag,” she says.

Dialogue’s Fraser predicts that influencer collaborations will be seen just as important for building a brand’s reputation and awareness, as they are for driving revenue. “In recent years, influencer marketing has been considered a performance-marketing tactic, which I always felt was short sighted as it doesn’t represent the full impact these collaborations can drive,” she says. In 2024, she expects brand creator partnerships to become a means of differentiation.

Offline wins

In 2024, Dialogue is doubling down on its “anti-influencer” strategy for 2024, which involves aligning with creators who have amassed followings offline as well as on, and catering to their niche communities. For instance, for its client Ghia: Laura Reilly of fashion newsletter Magasin hosted a dinner party with her creative community, and florist Ryan Norville created Ghia-inspired floral bouquets for NYC delivery. Ghia leveraged content from both across its owned channels.

There’s value in offline interactions, Colcord says of the influencers the brand gifts products to. “They might not tell their five million followers about it in a tagged story, but they might end up telling 20 of their closest friends, who will each tell their closest friends and so on and so forth.”

That said, the influencer trip is expected to dwindle. “We expect to see less influencer trips in 2024, given that they can often be perceived as inauthentic, with little return,” Fraser says.

AI’s amp-up

Raad expects brands and creators to harness AI and understand what type of content drives the most engagement. “It will help them create more of it, more efficiently than ever,” he says. Influencer marketing agency Billion Dollar Boy recently conducted research about the industry’s opinions on generative AI in the creator economy. The results support its prediction that generative AI will be utilised more in creator content for its ability to cut through busy feeds and drive engagement, says Permele Doyle, co-founder and president of Billion Dollar Boy.

According to the research, three in five consumers (60 per cent) prefer creator content designed using generative AI. And over four in five (81 per cent) creators reported more favourable audience engagement for content designed using the technology. “The results show just how much generative AI creator content stands out in feeds and is getting cut through,” Doyle says. “Leveraging emerging technologies, after thoroughly testing and analysing them, can help avoid consumer fatigue.”

But experts warn that brands and creators need to be wary, as AI risks undermining one of 2024’s main ‘ins’: authenticity. “If used incorrectly this will be a threat to the authenticity of content,” Raad says. “So it will need to be used wisely.”

What’s out

Straightforward sponcon

Gone are the days of straightforward transactions, insiders say. “In the coming year, influencers and brands are likely to invest in content that adds genuine value — focusing on education, entertainment, or inspiration — rather than straightforward promotion,” Flynn says. “There will be a push for more interactive and engaging formats, such as live streams and interactive polls, to re-engage audiences.”

In this vein, Cou Cou has just launched “Cou Cou Talks”, a series of conversations with Cou Cou girls (what the brand calls its influencers). “Its format — a self-directed video and interview by a Cou Cou girl — is also native for TikTok, which is an essential part of our product and brand storytelling,” Colcord says.

Blind trend grabbing

In 2024, brands will need to figure out how to embrace — and when to skip — micro-trends. In 2023, social media-driven trends moved faster than ever, and brands were quick to jump on board, from tomato girl summer to Barbiecore. This year, brands need to be more strategic, Doyle says.

“The trend cycle is continually fleeting and can either help or hurt brands that participate. They’re also often hard to time accurately alongside year-long strategies. A really interesting debate this year will be on how brands best identify with, or create, trends.”

One-size-fits-all strategies

Gone are the days of “one-size-fits-all” strategies, Flynn says. “2024 will also demand a more strategic, platform-specific approach.” Each platform commands unique content styles and audience engagement methods, she flags.

Yu Oppel, co-founder and CMO of social-first clothing brand Cider, flags the difference between platform strategies: Instagram’s is more polished than TikTok, for instance, especially for fashion content, she says. That said, brands can adapt trend content across these platforms, she flags. “For example, we saw the cherry red trend everywhere on both platforms in November/December, though the specific content pieces looked different between the two. Our strategy focuses on collaborating with creators who are deeply integrated into each specific platform, leveraging their unique strengths and reach.”

Archrival also expects brands to look beyond social-first influencer marketing strategies altogether. Creator Tinx recently said on her podcast that the platforms she’s most energised by aren’t socials like Instagram and TikTok, but creative outlets like podcasts and writing, Flynn notes. “There’s a huge opportunity for brands to collaborate with influencers in those spaces to produce high-quality content.”

Correction: Updated to reflect that Permele Doyle is president of Billion Dollar Boy, not CEO as previously reported.

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