If you follow any fashion influencers on Instagram, you may have noticed a mass Dior Saddle Bag revival over the weekend. These stylised pictures were all posted at the same time in order to welcome the 18-year-old bag back into production by Dior, but many people took issue with the sheer amount of influencers who had featured the bag in their posts; all at the same time.
One such place where the campaign backfired was China, where Weibo users blasted it as “[making] the bag look so cheap”, as reported in Jing Daily. Other social media users took to Twitter and Instagram to express their disapproval of the mass Saddle Bag posting by influencers; with one user saying: “The media imposing the Dior saddle bag on us is literally the fashion equivalent to U2 forcing their wack [sic] album into all of our iTunes.”
Many were also quick to point out that few had disclosed that the bag was gifted, including today’s fashion police, Instagram account Diet Prada.
So what does this say about mass influencer marketing? While it’s true that influencer marketing is an integral part of building brand awareness in 2018, experts believe that blatantly taking away any air of authenticity (or in this case, exclusivity) can actually damage the appeal of the product being endorsed.
Speaking with Fashionista, writer Taylor Lorenz explained: "I think it's a bad idea.
“What they've done is completely saturated the market and the bag is going to have a shorter shelf life because of it. You don't want to see the same thing on your feed every two seconds; that's why people are constantly moving on from one thing to the next. If you send [an item] to that many influencers — many with overlapping fan bases — it's going to be too much. I personally think that will backfire."
Digital marketing consultant Dina Fierro echoed Lorenz’s sentiments, adding: "Whenever you're doing influencer marketing at-scale as a luxury brand, you're risking alienating a lot of your core consumers. There's [also] a different level of sophistication around influencer marketing by market and by region of the world.
“When we look at Europe versus the U.S. in particular, the U.S. is a very mature market as it relates to influencer marketing, and most of the brands who are based in the U.S. have worked out a lot of this nuance and understand what's going to feel authentic in-feed.
“In order for influencer marketing to be effective, you want it to feel authentic — as opposed to feeling like a carefully orchestrated and meticulously timed campaign."
Ultimately authenticity is key. Today’s consumers crave influencer legitimacy, and a lack of veritableness may lead to a situation where an expected ROI isn’t achieved; instead, potential customers are left over-exposed to a product.
