MAM
GUEST ARTICLE: The perils of influencer marketing for brands
Mumbai: The pervasive impact of social media has not only transformed our personal experiences but also woven itself intricately into the societal fabric. This transformation has given rise to a modern marketing phenomenon: influencer marketing. Supplanting conventional marketing approaches, influencer marketing has emerged as a preferred avenue for both brands and consumers, elevating influencers to the status of contemporary social media titans.
Although influencer marketing has provided brands with countless advantages, it has also exposed them to numerous challenges.
Here are some perils of influencer marketing proving to be an eminent threat to brands:
Absence of an influencer directory: A great deal of influencer marketing campaigns fail mostly due to an erroneous choice of influencers. Despite the fact that there are several influencers available in the market, the lack of a universal marketplace or influencer directory that includes influencers across all platforms limits marketers’ capacity to select from a diverse range of creators suitable to their audience. Therefore, regardless of whether they are a good fit for their brand’s offerings or not, marketers often settle for influencers who are easy to access, undermining their reputation in the marketplace and limiting their reach.
Content fatigue: Have you ever encountered a situation as a brand when your content creators are generating more content than ever through marketing channels, yet the results of all that digital confetti are dwindling? When the audience is exposed to an excessive amount of content on the channels they typically access, they hit their saturation point and experience content fatigue. This might swiftly escalate to a major worry for businesses since it can lead to missed key performance indicators (KPIs) and a reduction in metrics, affecting the bottom line. Additionally, content weariness can make it difficult for marketers to capture viewers’ attention and keep them engaged.
Influx of intermediaries: Many brands still have to rely on multiple mediums of communication and chase creators, agencies, talent managers and PR partners for timely campaign executions. Unfortunately, the more the merrier concept does not hold relevance in this regard. The efficiency of the overall process gets compromised due a more complicated communication chain caused by the involvement of more intermediaries.
Rise in influencer fraud: The evident rise in influencer marketing has also led to a corresponding rise in fake influencers. According to a Statista study, over 49% of influencers engage in follower fraud. Utilizing bots and fake followers with a motive to create an illusion of popularity, influencers today are largely duping firms into collaborating with them. Due to the exaggerated engagement and bot audience, it has become challenging for marketers to find their social match as it becomes difficult to manually identify the right influencer, impeding their ability to build a devoted consumer base.
Lack of price standardization: As influencer marketing has grown over time, social media stars have become highly sought-after marketing partners for modern brands. As a result, influencer marketing companies and other third-party middlemen are utilizing this to play marketers into paying more by promising them higher interaction and reach. Because there is a lack of price standardization and transparency, brands end up falling for exorbitant markups.
Lack of insights: Depriving brands of real-time data like brand mentions, traffic, and conversions to an influencer’s particular content, vanity metrics fail to provide a real picture. Consequently, marketers are unable to assess campaign outcomes and influencer performance, undertake predictive analysis to gauge campaign success, predict the demand for upcoming content, and embrace data-driven decision-making based on meaningful insights, targeting improved results.
Lack of platform play: While influencer marketing has transformed how brands connect with their audiences, it’s concerning that many promising voices remain unheard due to limited access to platforms and accurate representation. This limitation greatly hampers the visibility and potential collaborations for budding influencers, preventing them from fully realizing their impact. As larger and more established creators often dominate the spotlight, the unique perspectives and creativity that smaller creators bring often go unnoticed.
Influencer marketing: A marketing marvel or a failure?
90% of influencers think influencer marketing is a powerful tool for marketing, according to an Influencer Marketing Hub’s report. In today’s technologically advanced industry, the efficiency of influencer marketing cannot be disputed. However certain threats have tainted the influencer marketing field, creating a plethora of difficulties for brands.
Technology-centric tools may be just what brands need to get away with these underlying dangers and uncover new heights. Going beyond the traditional time-consuming processes, influencer management systems perform numerous integrations to identify an ideal match. Utilizing a huge database of influencers, these systems construct creator profiles based on a variety of factors, including location, genre, and content relevance, ensuring appropriate performance play. The development of creator persona goes hand in hand with the generation of the brand persona, and the two are then compared to determine the best fit. By offering data-driven solutions, influencer management tools allow businesses to target a large audience base and acquire a favorable response from the audience.
These tools not only enable marketers to discover the ideal influencer, but also combat content fatigue, avoid middlemen, guard against falling for false influencers, garner in-depth insights, and practice transparency, all of which would help them gain the most out of their influencer marketing efforts.
This article is written by Kofluence CEO & co-founder Ritesh Ujjwal.
MAM
Lego brings Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappé, Vinicius together
Campaign clocks 314 million views ahead of FIFA World Cup 2026 buzz.
MUMBAI: Four legends, one frame and not a single tackle in sight. Lego has pulled off a crossover few thought possible, uniting Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappé and Vinícius Júnior in a single campaign ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026 only this time, they’re building dreams brick by brick.
Titled “Everyone wants a piece”, the campaign features the quartet assembling a Lego version of the World Cup trophy, before placing miniature versions of themselves atop it, a playful nod to football’s ultimate prize. Shared widely across social media, the ad carries a pointed disclaimer: it is not AI-generated, a subtle but telling signal in an era where even reality is often questioned.
The numbers tell their own story. The campaign has already crossed 314 million views on Instagram across the players’ accounts, with fans hailing it as a rare, almost nostalgic moment particularly for the reunion of Messi and Ronaldo, whose last shared campaign ahead of the 2022 World Cup became one of the platform’s most-liked posts.
Beyond the film, Lego is extending the play with exclusive, player-themed sets tied to each of the four stars, part of a broader football-led programme designed to ride the global momentum building towards 2026. The idea, as echoed by the players themselves, leans into the parallels between football and play experimentation, creativity, failure, and triumph.
Messi described the sets as a way to bring on-pitch moments into an imaginative, hands-on world, while Ronaldo called the transformation into a Lego figure a rare honour, blending sport with storytelling. Vinícius, meanwhile, struck a more personal note, recalling childhood moments of building with Lego and framing creativity as a universal language that transcends borders.
The timing is no accident. With the 2026 World Cup set to run from June 11 to July 19 across the United States, Canada and Mexico, and featuring an expanded 48-team format, global anticipation is already building. Argentina, led by Messi, will enter as defending champions, adding another layer of intrigue.
For Lego, the campaign does more than celebrate football, it taps into its mythology. Because when icons become figurines and rivalries turn into play, the beautiful game finds a new kind of pitch. one built, quite literally, by hand.
