Let’s be honest: the word influencer doesn’t have the same shine it did five years ago. Maybe it’s the rise of de-influencing. Maybe it’s burnout. Or maybe it’s because people have watched too many 12-part hauls for products that have no practical use. Either way, the landscape has shifted, and so should the way brands work with creators.
Consumers are no longer blindly trusting every “link in bio.” They’re scrutinizing. Reading comments. Clocking the disconnect between a 90-second skincare routine and the $3,000 bag sitting quietly in the background.
The problem isn’t that influencers don’t work. It’s that too many campaigns are still built on the wrong ideas: size over substance, sponcon over story, aesthetics over alignment. And people are calling it out. Today’s audiences are here for trust, not just trends.
If an influencer strategy still revolves around follower count and pretty pictures, it’s probably not working. Because today’s audiences are not here for the performance.
They want real. They want reflection. They want to trust that the person posting the promo actually uses the product, and that the brand behind it stands for more than just clout-chasing.
Here are four things brands need to keep in mind when working with influencers in 2025:
Reach is overrated. Relevance isn’t.
A creator with 45 million followers might be great for the algorithm, but if they don’t reflect your audience’s lives or values, the partnership won’t convert. Cool for the algorithm, not always cool for the audience; and in today’s economy, the audience is not quick to forget these kinds of brand and influencer missteps. A massive following doesn’t equal meaningful influence, especially if the influencer doesn’t reflect the lives, interests, or values of the people a brand is trying to reach.
The era of the untouchable influencer is over. Perfect homes, $800 routines, 14-step unboxings of products no one asked for? That’s not influence. That’s noise.
The creators people trust today feel like someone they know. They talk like them, shop like them, and post the good and the real. When that kind of person recommends something, it lands. When they partner with a brand that genuinely makes sense? It converts.
Communities care more than virality.
Flashy giveaways and one-off “awareness posts” fade quickly. Sustainable influence comes from embedding your brand into the communities your customers care about. Influencer marketing works best when it meets people where they are, literally and emotionally. A flashy giveaway or a once-a-year “awareness post” won’t move the needle. But an event at a local bookstore, a collab with a neighborhood chef, or a donation to a community org tied to the campaign? That lands.
A paid post with a #gifted tag is no longer a free pass. Audiences want to know: Does this creator actually use the product? Does this brand actually care about my community?
The most effective partnerships feel like a natural fit, and give people a reason to trust the brand, not just the influencer. That might look like showing up in real-world spaces. It might mean pairing campaigns with givebacks or cause tie-ins. Whatever it is, it has to feel intentional, not performative.
Real Life Outperforms Perfect
Highly staged, overly polished content doesn’t resonate like it used to. Today’s audiences want to see how a product fits into real life, mess and all. That means creator content should reflect the reality of the audience it’s meant to reach: the mess, the chaos, the actual human behavior behind the scroll.
Campaigns that let creators show up as themselves, imperfect, relatable, and honest, almost always outperform the ones that come with six pages of creative guardrails and a fake breakfast spread. A great example is Bumble’s partnership with Chicken Shop Date creator Amelia Dimoldenberg, where the brand leaned into her awkward, deadpan humor rather than forcing a scripted dating scenario. The result felt spontaneous, genuine, and perfectly aligned with her existing audience, proving that when brands trust creators to bring their own voice, the content lands more authentically and resonates more deeply.
Follower count is not a strategy. Neither is “vibes.” Great influencer work starts with choosing partners who actually reflect the people a brand wants to reach. A creator who doesn’t understand or represent the audience will miss every time. But the right voice, with the right story, can carry a campaign farther than any ad buy.
Your audience isn’t passive. Stop treating them like they are.
The best influencer campaigns aren’t just about product, they’re about purpose. Whether it’s sustainability, social impact, or just being a decent company that gives back, today’s audiences expect brands to stand for something. And they expect the people representing those brands to do the same.
People are smart. They know when they’re being marketed to. They know when a post is copied and pasted from a brief. And they’ll scroll right past it.
Today’s audience wants to feel something. Humor. Realness. A moment of “oh, that’s me.” The brands that win are the ones that co‑create with influencers, not script them. Take CeraVe’s Super Bowl campaign with Michael Cera, for instance: rather than a traditional, scripted ad, the brand fueled an organic, three‑phase “fake news” narrative, complete with paparazzi shots, influencer clips, and playful conjecture about the actor’s connection to the brand, engaging audiences across social channels and earning over 9 billion impressions before the game even aired.
The ones that leave room for the creator’s voice, personality, and POV to actually shine. That doesn’t mean every post needs to be a PSA. But it does mean that authenticity now includes alignment.
Influencer partnerships are built on strategy, not just sparkle. That means vetting for values, not just vibes. It means choosing creators who care about their audience, not just their metrics. And it means building campaigns that show up in real life, not just in Reels.
The Bottom Line
Influence still matters. But in 2025, trust matters more. The brands that win will be the ones that choose creators for relevance, authenticity, and shared values, and then give them the freedom to bring the story to life. If your brand’s influencer program needs more than pretty posts, we can help you build one that drives both trust and measurable results. Let’s talk.
