Marketing Briefing: How the current chaos affects influencer marketing

Marketers may be expecting, and prepared for, chaos but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to navigate yet another round of economic uncertainty — especially when the last one was just a few years ago. The replanning, re-forecasting and expected budget cuts has the marketing community on edge, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

While President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs are currently on pause for 90 days (aside from the 145% China tariffs, the 10% global tariffs and those on aluminum, steel and cars), there’s an expectation that could change any minute. The repercussions, should there be a change in policy, would of course have ripple effects for the advertising industry. So far, as marketers look for areas to cut their ad budgets or push for flexibility (the F-word is back) built into contracts, influencer marketing hasn’t been a prime focus for those reductions, according to agency execs, who say the combination of performance and brand as well as the flexibility of the channel is why marketers have maintained the channel.

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As ‘recessionposting’ enters overdrive, creators are taking steps to dodge potential blowback

As content creators across the web get swept up into discussions of tariffs and a potential recession, some are adjusting their approach to avoid possible blowback from affected fans.

With Donald Trump’s currently-paused tariffs (save China) threatening to send the global economy into a recession, content creators of all kinds are chiming in, regardless of their usual lane. In addition to the usual suspects in the worlds of investing and personal finance, there are comedians making humor videos about markets crashing, lifestyle influencers posting about recession indicators and political creators making the economy their primary focus in 2025.

Amid the frenzy, some creators are wary of making videos about the potential recession — particularly those who saw what happened to other creators during the most recent financial crash in 2022. Back then, an entire cottage industry of personal finance influencers arose largely to promote and discuss cryptocurrency investing, only to face backlash and a reputation hit from hordes of angry fans after their advice didn’t pan out. 

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