Swiss influencer marketing agencies join forces for transparency

Influencer marketing is also not safe from dishonest representations of performance values and reach. Swiss influencers who actively buy followers or deliberately falsify insights, for example promising more reach, are by no means a novelty, but fortunately very rare.

In a joint release, the agencies wrote: "Influencer marketing is known for its successful, authentic approach to specific target groups in social media. The trust of the community in its influencers is an important building block of the marketing discipline. If this trust is undermined, negative consequences follow for influencers, brands and the entire industry. Not least because of the reach and appeal to a primarily younger target group, it is essential to ensure transparent, reliable and authentic communication."

To keep it that way and to keep the quality of inspiring campaigns high, the influencer marketing specialists from Kingfluencers, Picstars, Reachbird, Webstages and Yxterix, will pull together in the future. For them, it is easy to see which statistics do not correspond to the truth. Thus, all insights are already carefully tracked, checked and compared. These mechanisms are part of the success of the specialized agencies and will also be discussed across agencies in the future.

If conspicuous behavior really comes to light, the work with unfair means is stopped immediately, the customer is informed and the Influencer:inside is blocked and excluded from future campaigns. In addition to the suspension of payments, legal action will also be considered, depending on the case, and will be specified in the contract. The agencies involved thus commit themselves to an even more active role vis-à-vis fraudulent behavior and set the course for particularly sustainable and responsible influencer marketing.

Dishonest work harms everyone involved and reflects badly on the entire industry and the professional work of correct influencers. Minea Jud, @mineasuraija, says:c "I posted my first Instagram picture over eight years ago now and have been slowly and authentically building my community from day one ever since. Although I receive almost daily requests from people or companies for followers, boosters or similar, this is and has always been a no-go for me and always ends up directly in the trash. The issue of fake followers has been weighing on our industry and my work for years, so I'm glad that influencer marketing agencies are now taking joint action against it and sending a strong signal."

Anja Lapčević, CIO of Kingfluencers: "We maintain a close exchange with domestic content creators and appeal to the responsibility of influencers with the Code of Conduct of the Conscious Influence Hub association. By compensating influencers not for their number of followers, but for their strong Swiss community, good content and resulting performance, we are already taking action against the fake follower problem. We look forward to working together to drive the industry forward and send an important signal against manipulation and fraud."

Ralf Osteroth, CEO of Picstars: "Such cases of fraud currently occur very, very rarely, because we analyze and verify influencers in detail before we accept them into our pool. However, it is important for us to take a clear stance on this issue together with our partners. In this way, we can ensure the quality of our work for our customers. Discussions with influencers, legal consequences and a uniform industry-wide position are, in our opinion, decisive signals in this regard."

Philipp Martin, CEO of Reachbird: "The initiative is to be welcomed, because it strengthens confidence in the entire industry and helps especially the large part of creators who work professionally and honestly."

Tanja Herrmann, Managing Director of WebStages, says: "Recognizing conspicuous values and knowing how they can be independently verified shows, among other things, why specialized influencer marketing agencies are needed. In addition, there is the legal basis that we create for our client:in each campaign. This allows us to react quickly and clearly even in fortunately very rare cases."

Daniel Koss, CEO of Yxterix, says: "A professional check of the insights and a proportional classification of the numbers make fraud almost impossible nowadays. Should influencers nevertheless consciously and proactively present their numbers in a manipulative manner or even falsify them, they have been blacklisted for some time. The revenue is paid back to the customer and the influencer's fraud is communicated transparently. Fraud has long since ceased to pay."