2017 was less than super for influencers

Influencer campaigns are a pillar of contemporary marketing; the tomato to our advertising BLT. Connecting with young audiences and people who have reserved trust in conventional media platforms is important for agencies and brands as choice flourishes and belts tighten.

However, relying on influencers to attract Generation-Zs and millennials has its dangers. Barely two weeks into 2018 and we’ve already seen a global influencer blunder/disaster. A popular YouTuber and general online prankster, Logan Paul, went super viral in early January after he shared a video of his reaction to a suicide victim in Japan. Brands flocked away from Paul while the internet brewed a typhoon of hate and criticism.

An extreme case, this influencer blunder falls into the pool of other personalities and marketing regimes which didn’t do so well. Here are some of 2017’s influencers and campaigns that went down like the Hindenburg.

CoverGirl’s cover boy covers self

James Charles made headlines in 2016 after makeup brand CoverGirl announced he would be their first male star model and ambassador. Things went well for the first few months, and the teenager’s collaboration with CoverGirl was heralded as a win for diversity.

February 2017 came around and Jimmy tweeted that he was worried about contracting Ebola during a school trip to South Africa, a suggestion which many deemed racist, ignorant and a sackable offence. He apologised unreservedly, promised to learn from the incident, and stayed on as CoverGirl’s ambassador.

Social media users then turned to CoverGirl to explain why Charles hadn’t been fired. CoverGirl responded with a tweet and picture of Charles hugging a biracial model, which also immediately went sideways. Twitter users couldn’t believe CoverGirl had defended an ambassador’s actions by repeating the common faux pas: someone with black friends can’t be racist.

For some, Charles’s age was enough to excuse him from further shame, but if there’s one thing we can all agree on it’s that Twitter never forgets.

Influencers burned by Fyre Festival

What do you get when you combine an isolated Caribbean island, loads of wealthy music fans, the promise of a better-than-Coachella event, dysfunctional organizing, and celebrity influencers? The mishap that was Fyre Festival.

This episode has less to do with influencers causing trouble and more to do with trouble finding influencers. With tickets starting at $1,000 each and rapper-producer Ja Rule at the organisational helm, Fyre Festival on Great Exuma island in the Bahamas was set to be the elite beat-dropping event of the decade. Models Emily Ratajkowski, Bella Hadid and Hailey Baldwin featured Fyre Festival on their social channels, along with super-influencer, yes you guessed it, Kendall Jenner. Luxurious posts of tanned, bikini-lined women on yachts and a glamorous tropical getaway video painted expectations as a wave of rich, young party-goers hit the island.

But even high-profile organisers, promoters, attendees and influencers couldn’t rescue Fyre. Poor accommodation, food unfit for the queen’s corgis, no running water and general chaos led the organisers to cancel the event while the rich kids fended for themselves on Great Exuma. Soon, the influencers were targeted for promoting something without making sure of its quality. They weren’t to blame, but they did hastily attach their names to a timebomb. Perhaps Fyre Festival is a lesson more suited for influencers than for advertisers and social media strategists.

Disney sacks PewDiePie

The Swedish YouTuber and gamer, Felix Kjellberg, had it all. He even had a deal with a Disney-owned production company. After the controversy of his past year, he still has almost 60 million YouTube subscribers and $15 million in the vault; it actually seems like the PR nightmare earned him more subscribers.

But this didn’t stop Disney running to the hills to distance themselves from PewDiePie’s image. His offence: paying people to display anti-Semitic posters and say discriminatory things about Jewish people, and then featuring them on his videos. His defence: it was all satire. Fortunately, they got out just before Felix once again blundered when he used a racial slur in a video.

PewDiePie has apologised for his videos, jokes, comments and behavior, and his follower count has steadily increased. Often called ‘the king of YouTube’ and ‘the biggest YouTuber in the world’, his brand image took a hit in 2017 but his online presence clearly perseveres.

So, when you’re sifting through thousands of accounts on your creative agency’s favorite social media monitoring tool, make sure you carefully consider who will be the new face of your organic reach efforts.