Diversity In Influencer Marketing: Addressing The Issues

As influencer marketing spend surpassed 6 billion dollars in 2019, pre-pandemic, many brands had planned to double down on their efforts.

Unfortunately one thing the industry has not yet seen is a double down on diversity of creators within activations, events, trips, and more.

As film and modeling industries are called out for the lack of Black talent representation, social media influencers across the U.S. have also begun speaking out against the diversity problem in influencer marketing. 

From tokenism to disproportionate pay – and even exclusion for speaking on race-related issues – a wide array of diversity issues plague the influencer market. 

So how do we move forward in a more inclusive way?

Inclusivity In Brand Influencer Trips & Events

The global ad spend of the influencer marketing industry is expected to reach $10 billion by 2022. But Black travel and fashion blogger Alicia Tenise says the systemic exclusion of Black influencers from campaigns prevents them from benefitting from this growth. 

Pointing out the disparities, Tenise notes how brand-sponsored trips rarely invite black influencers (aside from a few token names.) In reaction to her tweet, many others from the industry are acknowledging the issue and calling for Black representation across the board. 

For brands like L’Oréal Paris, speaking on race-related issues is also a sensitive issue. When model Munroe Bergdorf decided to post against Unite the Right’s white supremacist rally, the post was not only removed by Facebook but also got her fired from a L’Oréal campaign.

Interestingly enough, L‘oreal’s Instagram post “Speaking Out Is Worth It” (which stands in solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter) stood in utter hypocrisy to the brand’s past behavior.  

However, the brand has since apologized, and Bergdorf is working with them once again to help them move forward in an inclusive, meaningful way.

If a brand truly wants everyone considering their brand and service to see some reflection of themselves, they should be taking a long hard look at the faces on their feed, those attending their trips and events. The speakers on their panels.

Black creators should be thoughtfully included, not added to fill a diversity quotient and to do that, you need Black professionals on your marketing, PR, and social teams.

If you’re a smaller company that isn’t able to make new hires at the moment, there are plenty of professionals in the industry you can consult with to make sure you’re getting it right.

The Ethnicity Pay Gap

When it comes to pay gaps, there’s no doubt Black influencers get paid less than their white contemporaries, the Influencer Pay Gap account has collected and released each receipt to prove it.

However, influencers are criticizing influencer marketing platform Fohr, calling it out in an open letter, asking the company to release information on pay for white and Black influencers as well as their staff diversity statistics, among other issues. 

Signed by Valerie Eguavoen, Diallo, Kelly Augustine, Denisse Myrick, Yvette Corinne, Dayna Bolden, Marche Robinson, and Aissatou Balde, the campaign has received widespread support across Instagram, calling for equal pay and more transparency. 

If your company is serious about making changes, the work begins internally starting with your own staff. In order to be able to speak authentically to each voice, those voices must first be represented on your team.

Hidden And Underrepresented 

More often than not, Black influencers are unduly exploited for their contributions to online culture – and not given credit where its due. More recently, platform users accused TikTok of having moderators hide content from the “For You” feed to depict predominantly white influencer videos. 

It may be unclear whether Black and POC content creators were deliberately lost in TikTok’s algorithms, but the important takeaway here is Black voices are being hidden.

For example, popular TikTok influencer Charli D’Amelio, earned much of her fame from the Renegade dance – initially created by Jalaiah Harmon, who did not receive credit. 

When the NBA invited TikTok influencers like Charli D’Amelio and Addison Easterling for its All-Star weekend, Harmon was excluded from the list. The absence received severe online backlash, which prompted the brand to not only invite the artist but also credit her in a TikTok renegade video where she dances with others who initially further popularized the dance.  

This is only one example of many where a brand has appropriated and under-compensated a Black creative, with others profiting on claims of “inspiration.”

Having both a diverse internal team of creatives and group of creators you’re partnering with, can help bring these missteps to light early on so they may be corrected.

How To Address These Issues

While it is heartening to see brands speak out in support of the BLM movement, boasting solidarity is the tip of the iceberg that is industry reform. 

There’s no better place to start than at home: take Sebastian Bear-McClard, for example, who admitted and apologized for using racial slurs after being called out by Danielle Prescod for attending BLM rallies without addressing past issues. 

Doing the market research to look at the diversity within your target audience and their unique qualities is key to getting it right.

It’s also essential to give Black influencers a voice: online trends like the Vogue Challenge are giving black fashion photographers, designers, and models space to showcase their take on the cover of an iconic brand that has ignored black people in fashion for far too long.

How is your brand looking at its past and creating a plan to move forward in a more inclusive way?

How are you including Black voices, opinions, and creative ideas in your brand to prevent any actions from being merely performative?