Fashion brands, including some driven out by Australia's top retailers, continue to back paid influencer marketing campaigns, despite continued backlash from industry experts.
In a recent slew of body image-focused campaigns, popular Australian fashion retailers including streetwear brand General Pants and swimwear label Seafolly have both leaned on notable influencers Steph Claire Smith and Bree Warren to front their campaigns.
General Pants is the latest retailer to join the body confidence movement, with its #NoFilter campaign inviting women to "debunk the common perception of perfection and constant quest for flawlessness", as part of its latest swimwear launch.
The brand says it is the first national fashion campaign where Smith and Warren have been featured without any retouching.
The campaign invites social media users to share their General Pants Swim posts, as well as unfiltered stories, via the hashtag #NoFilter.
The campaign marks a shift in the use of influencers within the fashion industry, as it continues to proliferate a positive message on 'perfection'. It follows mounting furore around the role influencers play in warping reality and creating fake portrayals of 'social norms'.
Seafolly also launched its latest Fit Is a Feeling campaign with a focus on body confidence and sizing for women across its range, tackling the issue of body shape and weight.
Both brands have a strong youth-based consumer demographic and are noted for their heavy use of influencer marketing, particularly through Instagram.
To combat this, women's fashion retailer Sportsgirl also entered the positive body image battle with its latest campaign, Be That Girl, which celebrates young Australian women in a series of inspiring video interviews that aim to promote self-confidence.
Released across digital platforms, print and in-store, the campaign featured scientists, transgender models, paralympians and bloggers in their natural, non-retouched form, alongside a “just be you” mantra from the Australian retailer.
Similarly Jeanswest opted out of using influencers and models all together in its its 'Jeanswest fits my' photo campaign series, tapping seven of its own every-day customers to front the campaign.
However, industry experts continue to question the use of influencer marketing strategy, claiming that the practice lacks transparency and is creating fictional and negative perceptions of reality, especially among young female users.
Most recently, a paid influencer campaign by Listerine copped backlash for portraying a ludicrous depiction of a 'typical' morning for Scarlett Dixon (aka Scarlett London).
The photo, which featured a bottle of Listerine on a bedside table in the background, drew thousands of tweets and comments, pointing out the bizarre setting: helium love heart balloons tied to the bed, a fake plate of pancakes (later revealed to be tortilla wraps) and a blanket of Dixon with her face on it.
https://twitter.com/hintofsarcasm/status/1035436949727784960Comments also highlighted the poor brand integration with Listerine placed on the bedside table.
The value of influencer marketing has also been called into question after the Federal Government banned influencers from all advertising campaigns after it was revealed more than $600,000 of taxpayers money was spent on social media stars.
According to analysis by Hyland Media, campaigns featuring infleuncers are estimated to reach only 16.7% of an audience that is of value to brands, with CPMs averaging around $780.
The full-service communications agency, which analysed 13 respected Australian influencers, called for a re-evaluation of costs versus the delivery of campaigns and believes that only Australian eyeballs that are genuine should be traded upon.
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