More than half of multinational brands plan to boost influencer market spend

Please note that this report is WFA member only content. If interested in WFA membership, get in touch with membership@wfanet.org.

Brand budgets for influencer marketing will continue to rise, with 54% of multinational brand marketers saying they plan to boost spend in 2025 and 61% agreeing that influencer marketing will become more important in the future.

New WFA research has found that delivering on these new commitments has seen marketers working increasingly closely with influencer agencies to identify and manage influencer relationships. The use of influencer agencies has risen to nearly 74% when it comes to identifying influencers, up 20% when compared with the last time we ran similar research in 2019.

Brands are also looking to agencies to help manage influencers much more, with nearly 79% using influencer agencies as part of a suite of partners, nearly 54% looking to their social media agency and PR agencies taking a role in almost 51% of cases, with different solutions being applied in different parts of the world by some brands.

The research is based on 73 responses from 59 companies, cumulatively spending over $120bn on global marketing communications.

The report also highlights the development of processes being employed by major brands to ensure they manage the potential risk and reputational issues that can arise from working with influencers:

• More brands – 66% vs 60% in 2019 – now have a policy in place on working with influencers but more than a quarter (26% down from 31% in 2019) do not.
• More brands are now signing contracts with influencers. Seventy percent always do this (63% in 2019) and a further 22% now do this sometimes.
• There is also a slight increase (60% in 2019 to 62% in 2025) in the number that encourage disclosure of the commercial relationship with the brand.
• A smaller number (42%) monitor how influencers comply with existing standards or rules with a further 25% in the process of implementing such measures.

To help drive best practice in line with its peer-to-peer learning approach, we are launching Global Guidance on Influencer Marketing, designed to highlight how some brands are managing this new channel and the solutions they find work best.

“While many brands are striving to set best practice, there is still work to do to raise the bar in terms of where the industry needs to be. This new guidance highlights where and why brands can improve and provides checklists they can follow to ensure a better, more sustainable and trustworthy approach to influencer marketing, which should ultimately benefit both brands and consumers,” said Stephan Loerke, WFA CEO.

The report outlines five key areas where marketers can help ensure that their influencer marketing campaigns are responsible, ethical, and compliant with advertising standards globally.

• Disclosure and Transparency: clear disclosure, placement of disclosure and clear language are all areas brands need to address.
• Content Accuracy: content needs to be authentic and truthful. Brands should encourage influencers to provide genuine opinions and experiences while also verifying all claims are truthful and can be substantiated. Misleading claims, exaggerations, or omissions about the brand, product, or service should be avoided.

• Ethical Considerations: brands should avoid content that could be considered offensive, discriminatory, or environmentally or socially irresponsible.

• Compliance with Local Laws: brands need to understand and follow advertising laws and guidelines in each country where the content will be distributed while also ensuring content is appropriate for the audience and follows age restrictions where applicable.

• Best Practices: areas such as clear contracts, training and guidance and on-going monitoring give brands a firmer handle on managing their influencer partners.

The guidance was developed in collaboration with the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), along with other advertising self-regulatory organisations (SROs) from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Greece, India, the Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, the UAE, and the US, alongside the International Council for Advertising Self-Regulation (ICAS) and the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA).

The guidance includes real life case studies of good and bad practices.