The rise of social media, and the influencers who surfed that wave, opened up all sorts of possibilities for brands to reach their target audiences – especially younger consumers who were eschewing traditional media.
The influencer market has matured since those early days, with brands now able to make bets on celebrities and content creators with millions of followers, and to partner with micro-influencers with just a few thousand – or few hundred – followers but much higher levels of engagement.
One thing that hasn’t changed, though, is the dance that takes place between marketers and influencers over how best...