With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Developments In Social Media Influencer Advertising

The influencer industry continues to grow and thrive around the world and in Ireland. A number of celebrity influencers boast over 500 hundred million followers, and an ever-increasing number have followings exceeding 100,000. Surveys indicate that young consumers are averse to marketing and advertising tactics like pop-ups and retargeting. In this climate, statistics¹ indicating that over 90% of brands plan to invest more in video content and more than 60% of marketers reporting that influencer marketing performs better than traditional marketing are unsurprising.

In 2018, Sean O'Reilly, RDJ Corporate Partner, spoke with Marie Boran at the Irish Times about the rise of Irish social media influencers and the issues it raises for advertisers. In the below paragraphs we report on the recent developments in social media influencer advertising.