Marketing execs believe deeper relationships, understanding influencers can avoid potential backlash in politics

Ahead of the upcoming presidential election, brands have pushed for influencers to be apolitical as well as planned “dark periods” where they’ll pause influencer marketing campaigns. That will likely be the new norm even after Election Day, but influencer marketing and agency execs believe it’ll usher in a new era of marketers getting to know the influencers they work with better rather than totally pausing the relationship all together. 

“Creators are only going to play an even bigger role in [the] future,” said Ryan Jin, vp at influencer marketing shop Obviously, adding that working with influencers and creators to address things like mental health, economic concerns or civic engagement can allow brands to continue to be present but avoid political bias. “Taking a backseat every single time [there’s an election], that may not be prepping your brand for the future.” 

Instead, six of the influencer marketing and agency execs Digiday spoke to believe that if marketers understand and vet the influencers and creators (and their audiences) that they work with, they could retain those partnerships even during election cycles. They believe this strategy can help mitigate any backlash — of any kind — that marketers fear.

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