Det lånade förtroendet : En studie av risker och riskfördelning i influencer marketing

Sammanfattning

Influencer marketing has in recent years established itself as a central marketing strategy for many companies, while simultaneously introducing risks that have yet to be fully problematised in existing research. This study aims to identify and analyse the risks associated with influencer marketing, with a focus on how these risks emerge, are distributed between influencer and brand, and what consequences they entail. The study adopts a qualitative approach, combining a theoretical framework of three established perspectives, principal-agent theory, spillover effects and authenticity risk. This is combined with empirical case studies of three well-documented scandals, Balenciaga 2022, Kanye West and Adidas 2022, and Fyre Festival 2017. Google Trends data is used as a complementary empirical tool to concretise how attention was distributed between the parties involved in each scandal. The findings indicate that the risks in influencer marketing are not random or event-specific but structurally embedded in the marketing form itself. Three interconnected mechanisms are identified. The loss of control that arises when companies delegate brand communication to autonomous individuals, authenticity breaches that trigger consumer reactions when perceived genuineness is questioned, and spillover effects that distribute negative consequences asymmetrically consistently to the detriment to the brand. The Google Trends data empirically confirms this pattern across all three cases. A central conclusion is that the very qualities that make influencer marketing attractive as a strategy, such as influencers’ authenticity, close follower relationships and personal credibility, are the same qualities that amplify the risks. There is no strategy that eliminates this tension, which means that the risks should be understood as systematic and managed accordingly.