Honest Influencers Prove Their Worth - Even When They're On A Lead

In PR and communications, working in partnership with influencers has now become a regular and daily part of the job.

With a broad range of clients based in locations across the UK, their niche interest and their geographic locations have the potential to become a very powerful tool in successfully amplifying awareness and understanding of our clients with target markets.

There are some bad ones, but generally a wonderful collection of individuals who understand the power of influence they hold over their communities and use that in a way to work closely with brands on telling their story in an authentic and honest way.

Authenticity and honesty is crucial because no amount of great communications or marketing prep will make your sous chef turn out an oozy, instafriendly poached egg. If he serves a rubbery hockey puck on burnt sourdough, that’s not bad PR, that’s just bad business. If a waiter keeps bringing the wrong dish to the table, that superb pre-opening campaign counts for very little. You cannot polish turds.

One of this region’s most refreshing bloggers, Pixie Tenenbaum, is one who isn’t afraid to call it how she sees it. Judging by her social media feeds, its clear she’s invited to a great many openings, fashion launches and various other lifestyle events up and down the country. Her most recent updates on two new bar openings in Newcastle were less than complimentary. On one: ‘Excellent marketing, great premise, poor execution, weird vibe, nobody had a f***** clue what was happening and that was just the staff.’

On the other: A great idea. Shockingly bad execution, s*** vibe, no actual theme, looks like a brothel in a cave. Definitely is not a brothel.’ Feel the burn.

She’s one of my favourites to follow. With so many others, you’d assume life and everything is wonderful, regardless of what event or launch they may be at or what product they’re reviewing. We all know this isn’t life. Orders get confused, bartenders forget your drink, new tech sometimes doesn’t work, bookings aren’t on the, erm, book. This goes for any industry.

I’d love to see more honesty from bloggers. It’s in their interest. I fear some risk losing the trust of their audience. Influencers shouldn’t be viewed as a simple and easy ‘free hit’ at great publicity. Far too many in the communications industry take that view and its to the detriment of everyone; the blogger, the client and the agency.

Paint too rosy a picture of something that isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and you start to blur the lines between what is honestly held opinion and, well, advertising. And none of us like adverts, do we?

Three members from the Geordie Shore gang are under investigation from the Advertising Standards Authority for tweets around specific betting odds that were available on Coral and Ladbrokes. The ASA says its in talks with Ladbrokes and Coral, they say they run a very standard affiliate programme with celebrities which is ASA compliant. )

We recently held an event for our client, Three, in Liverpool, which was to amplify their new campaign that allows Three customers to go binge on Snapchat without using any of their data. On Snapchat, users can find their own augmented reality pet ‘puggerfly’: a cute cross between a pug and a butterfly.

Our Liverpool ‘pug brunch’ was attended by loyal pug owners, all of whom could bring their pets and, if they fancied, allow them to don some butterfly wings and pose for the cameras. Cute beyond words. Unsurprisingly, in partnership with our colleagues in London who were hosting a similar event in Covent Garden on the same day, #puggerfly soared on social that weekend.

It was here that I met two A-list pugs. Alfie and Polly boast a combined following in excess of 120,000 on Instagram alone. A crazy microscope on the weirdness of my job sometimes, but brilliantly underlining how important it is to find those who have real impact on their communities.

So, does it make it an ad if a pug with 90,000 followers says he loved his doggy treats at a pug brunch hosted by Three? It would seem not. What if he was to relentlessly plug all the new deals from Three? Different matter, that. Can the ASA even fine a dog? That’s a whole other can of worms.

I have no doubt, however, that had Alfie’s pawsecco not been chilled just so, or his doggie biscuits not been baked chewie on the inside just how he likes them, then we sure should have heard about it.