From hype to revenue: how influencer marketing is reshaping the UK media mix

‍How do you measure authenticity and trust in influencer marketing?

Honestly, sometimes you don’t need to.

For example, there was a campaign for [cleaning products brand] Method where they matched drag queens to different cleaning products based on colour. It blew up. But were those creators “authentic” to cleaning products? Not really.

What mattered was the creative idea. Was it interesting? Was it entertaining?

You can have something incredibly authentic, but if it’s boring, no one cares. That’s the issue. Brands confuse authenticity with effectiveness.

There are different approaches. Always-on affiliate content might be authentic but won’t create a viral moment. Big creative campaigns might not be “authentic” in the traditional sense, but they drive impact.

The problem is brands expect one approach to deliver everything.

How do you see the UGC trend evolving?

It’s really interesting. Apple is now testing UGC-style content on TikTok for their cheaper products, which is huge for a brand like them.

They’ve realised, like everyone else, that Gen Z and millennials don’t respond to polished brand campaigns in the same way. If you want people to engage and buy, you need content that feels real.

For me, if you want your marketing to convert, you need UGC. That’s non-negotiable. The question is how you use it.

Broadly speaking, UGC is mainly a TikTok strategy.

But for Meta, we use UGC for ads. Traditional brand content doesn’t perform as well in ads anymore. So we take UGC from TikTok and use it on Meta for conversion.

Is UGC a cost-efficient strategy?

Not really, in the way people think.

Yes, it’s cheaper per piece of content, but the volume you need is huge. Top TikTok Shop brands are posting thousands of pieces of affiliate content per month.

Also, the platform behaves very differently from Instagram. It won't serve you the same content more than twice. So that kind of content, although it's evergreen if you're going after a specific person, they need that continuous new stream of content because once they see it, the platform will stop serving it to them.

So while UGC might be cheaper per asset, you still need to commit to the process. The platform relies on a constant stream of new content.

The advantage is operational. You can work with a group of creators producing content continuously, rather than managing everything in-house.

How are algorithm changes affecting strategy?

Brands will probably stick to the platforms that are most consistent. TikTok is really consistent. YouTube is really consistent.

Instagram is a bit more mixed. There are some accounts that still do well there, but they tend to be more niche and specific. For example, we manage a creator where every video he posts on Instagram gets at least 30,000 views. His TikTok following is actually twice the size, but the performance isn’t as consistent there. The difference is that his Instagram content is very consistent in style and topic. He doesn’t stray from it.

So if you’re doing that on Instagram, it can work. But the minute you go more lifestyle or discovery-led, that’s where brands will focus more on TikTok, which is just better set up for that kind of content.

At the moment, discoverability is so hard, and TikTok is still the best place for it. So if the objective is awareness, reach or engagement, TikTok will usually win. But if you want more of an always-on community with a very specific audience, then Instagram can work with a more refined slower-burn approach.

What challenges do algorithm changes create for brands?

I don’t really see it so much as a risk specific to TikTok, but more generally it’s about where the algorithms will go.

At the end of the day, you can have the perfect creators, the right product, the right price, the right timing. But if the algorithm changes overnight, the whole game changes.

The challenge is being able to keep up with it and stay dynamic. You can’t be too rigid in your planning, because what works today might look completely different in a few months.

What are the biggest opportunities in the UK market right now?

Social commerce is the big one. It’s now proven. Brands can see it working in their category.

It’ll also be interesting to see whether more creators move into that space. Right now, there’s almost an oversupply of brands and not enough creators specialising in social commerce.

Another opportunity is building full-funnel strategies with creators. At the moment, it’s still quite siloed. It’ll be interesting to see brands brief creators differently for awareness, consideration and conversion.