Influencer marketing is now a $24 billion industry. Yet CMOs face a paradox: Influencer marketing is booming, but trust is eroding. One study shows that while 88% of consumers say authenticity matters, nearly half believe most influencers are fake. Over a third think influencers misrepresent themselves and the products they endorse. The result is an increasingly broken influencer ecosystem: Consumers feel misled, influencers struggle to stay true to themselves, and managers don’t fully grasp how authenticity is built. To fix the problem, CMOs first need to understand what influencer authenticity really means. Our research—including 185 interviews with brand managers, agencies, influencers, and consumers across five continents—shows that authenticity isn’t a fixed trait. It’s co-created through interactions among influencers, brands, followers, and agencies. Critically, authenticity emerges when there is alignment across five key dimensions: Expertise: The influencer is seen as credible within their niche. Connectedness: Followers feel emotionally engaged and familiar with the influencer. Integrity: The influencer acts with genuine concern for their audience, not just financial gain. Originality: The content reflects a distinct personal voice. Transparency: The influencer is open about paid partnerships and real experiences. These dimensions matter differently to each stakeholder. Consumers mostly value integrity and transparency. Influencers prize originality and expertise. Brands tend to focus on reach and message control over reciprocal connection with consumers. However, when these priorities fall out of sync, authenticity breaks down. Brands may over-script content or push for short-term ROI, while influencers hide their financial motives for fear of being seen as “sellouts,” even though transparency builds authenticity. This lesson is particularly important as many companies increase their investment in peer marketing. Data from Statista shows the global influencer marketing market size has tripled since 2020 and companies are investing enthusiastically in the creator economy. Our research explores how companies can avoid some of the potential downsides such as prioritizing reach over relevance, scripts over storytelling or polish over transparency. Understanding where these breakdowns occur can help brands avoid damaging critical elements of customer trust. Expertise: From Credentials to Consistency Brands often equate expertise with formal credentials or accolades, but social followers tend to value influencers’ own ongoing experiences with a product or service, shared consistently over time. To audiences, authenticity comes not from titles, but from creators who show up regularly and credibly within a specific domain. Consumers in our study, for example, often said they trusted amateur runners training for a 10k more than Olympic athletes, because the amateurs felt more relatable. Beauty and fashion influencer Jackie Aina illustrates an example of this: She builds expertise through deep product knowledge and candid reviews, rather than formal credentials. Her long-standing commitment to the beauty industry, combined with her transparency and advocacy for inclusivity, fosters trust and credibility—ultimately benefiting the brands she endorses to her nearly 2 million followers. Her success showcases the power of consistent, real-world experience. Some brands have tried partnering with influencers outside the niche they are known for, presumably to reach new audiences. Volvo, for instance, tapped fashion creator Chriselle Lim—known for luxury content—to promote its eco-friendly line. But because she hadn’t consistently engaged with sustainability or mobility topics, the campaign was criticized by followers and industry commentators for lacking authenticity. In contrast, when Canon collaborated with lifestyle vlogger Emma Chamberlain—who wasn’t a professional photographer but had used their cameras—the endorsement felt natural and credible because it aligned with her established content and experience. The campaign was a success, according to interviews conducted as part of our research, with industry commentary also noting that her genuine endorsement “added credibility and authenticity to the campaign, resonating with her followers.” Connectedness: From Metrics to Mutuality Brands often gauge influencer value using top-level metrics—likes, shares, follower counts—but miss the importance of reciprocal connection. High-performing influencers don’t just broadcast content, they engage in ongoing dialogue: They respond to DMs, host live Q&As, and build a community. As one agency executive put it: “There’s a real danger in treating influencers as statues to be admired—statues end up in museums.” SugarBearHair’s 2016 partnership with Kylie Jenner exemplified this trade-off between reach and connection. Jenner’s celebrity status guaranteed millions of impressions (reach), but she had little history of engaging with audiences around wellness or supplements (connection). Followers reacted with fatigue—”the era when every celebrity was promoting SugarBearHair vitamins” became a meme-able moment on Reddit—suggesting the campaign with Jenner and others felt transactional rather than authentic. The effort reached millions but ultimately sacrificed authenticity, in our view. A more effective strategy is to partner with creators who build community through active, two-way interaction. Sephora, for example, hosts Instagram Live Q&As via its “Sephora Squad,” where influencers offer personalized advice and answer follower questions in real time. This turns followers into active participants—not passive viewers. It turns everyday beauty lovers into content creators, potentially generating thousands of product reviews and tutorials across platforms that foster credibility and trust beyond what top-level metrics alone can capture. Integrity: From Concealed Motives to Clear Disclosures Audiences are quick to detect when creators “shill” products without conviction. But here’s the twist: They don’t necessarily mind self-interest, so long as it’s transparent. Our interviews with marketing executives highlighted how many successful influencer-led podcasts leverage platforms like Patreon to be fully transparent about their financial incentives. These execs believe candid transparency resonates with audiences, and can enhance an influencer’s authenticity. A touch of self-awareness can also make a brand feel more human and trustworthy. Rather than weakening the message, it can strengthen the connection between brand, influencer, and audience. Our research shows that an influencer’s followers will react negatively if they perceive a compromise of values, not merely a category mismatch. Showing integrity—acting in line with values and followers’ best interests—is a distinct dimension of authenticity. Another good example of this is found in beauty influencer Samantha Ravndahl who resists deals that clash with her values set, explaining: “Yes, I could do other things and make more money… but is doing those things going to make me happier than doing what I’m doing right now? To me, the answer’s no.” As is generally considered best practice, she discloses if a product was gifted or if she earns affiliate commissions—signaling that her audience is a community, not just a monetized asset. Originality: From Scripted Control to Storytelling Freedom We found that influencers build authenticity through a distinct voice and narrative style. Originality in storytelling is a key dimension of authenticity, yet brands often impose rigid scripts or overload content with selling points. One influencer explained her reasoning for rejecting a client’s request to pack numerous claims into a video as: “It didn’t live up to our creative intentions.” The issue was not just creative frustration, but a perceived disconnect with their authentic voice and style. Another influencer we interviewed but can’t name due to a confidentiality agreement described pitching Starbucks a series of Instagram stories about how she makes their coffee at home, instead of a traditional ad. By staying true to her style, the influencer-maintained originality, and the organic concept ultimately outperformed expectations As this influencer told us: “It was not an ad, it’s content!” Colgate also showed how to use originality effectively in a campaign with TikTok comedian Sabrina Brier, who infused the content with her trademark sarcasm, making it memorable and still on-brand. Brands can also go too far in how they try to insert their own messaging or merchandise into an influencer-driven campaign . The Poppi soda brand learned this the hard way during a recent Super Bowl campaign. They sent vending machines to the homes of several influencers, and the resulting posts ended up being very similar. Media coverage criticized the approach of sending vending machines to individual homes as “extravagant,” “out of touch,” and overly scripted. One TikTok user called the stunt “out‑of‑touch bs,” urging that “iconic marketing” requires genuine effort beyond lavish display. Poppi co-founder Allison Elsworth later made a TikTok responding to the controversy and thanking the community for the honest feedback. Even in the age of generative AI, originality doesn’t have to suffer. One podcaster in our study disclosed using custom GPTs to enhance content by, for example, creating interview briefs and helping learn quickly about podcast guests—a move that added value while reinforcing originality. When creators retain creative control, the result isn’t just better storytelling, it’s a more credible and lasting brand connection. Transparency: From Flawless Messaging to Real-World Reactions Consumers don’t expect perfection, but they do expect honesty. Yet many brands still fear that admitting flaws or showing competing products will weaken their message. Ironically, this instinct to over-polish often backfires, damaging both the influencer’s credibility and the brand’s trustworthiness. Influencer Victoria Magrath shows this kind of flexibility in her promotion of Redken tools while continuing to use her own Dyson dryer—showing both had a place in her routine. This made the message feel more real and trustworthy. Small admissions of weakness can also make positive claims more believable. Our research shows that when consumers encounter a subtle, low-stakes piece of negative information, they become less likely to keep searching for flaws. So, paradoxically, a small imperfection can reduce uncertainty and build authenticity. . . . Misalignment across these five properties—expertise, connectedness, integrity, originality, and transparency—undermines authenticity and erodes trust. But when brands acknowledge these tensions and intentionally manage them, influencer marketing becomes more than transactional—it becomes transformational. In a landscape where authenticity is currency, managing these misalignments is a necessary practice.
