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All the headquarters of the Ogilvy UK group will have to abide by a new process of influencer marketing.
The global advertising agency is committed to creativity and communication without stereotypes.
Influential people hired for this work will not be able to edit their images due to “beauty standards”.
British advertising agency Ogilvy, has taken another step towards the new era of influencer marketing by rejecting the idealization of beauty standards among actors who promote their image. The social impact with which it seeks to reach new audiences will begin, initially, with the refusal to work with influencers who edit their bodies or faces in creative campaigns.
During an interview with The Drum, Ogilvy’s head of influence in the UK, Rahul Titus clarified that the measure was analyzed in relation to the “systemic” damage to mental health that social networks have generated, so from now on the authentic side of marketing will be taken as a basis and without harmful and unreal staging. .
“As marketers, agencies and brands, we have a duty to take care of the next generation of people so they don’t grow up with the same things we’re seeing now.” explained the expert.
Ogilvy’s policy derives from the “digitally altered body image bill” being discussed in the UK to prevent an influencer from promoting edited content, as more and more brands are looking for authentic, unedited images of public figures, but they always end up resorting to wrong campaigns and speeches instead of bringing about a radical change in the industry.
“A lot of research has been done on this. We’ve been working with our behavioral science team and talking to a lot of influencers and we’ve spent a lot of time figuring out how to make it work“.
“It’s easy for us to sit here and say, ‘there’s a systemic problem, so we’re not going to work with these types of influencers,’ but that’s not the solution and it’s not going to bring about the change we want to see. So we are going to take the time and consult our clients and put the plan in motionTitus said.
This ban will begin to apply in all parts of the world where the Ogilvy UK group operates, a recognized agency that has large clients and brands, such as Unilever’s Dove, who were the first to applaud this measure and join the new concepts of the influencer marketing.
“We are delighted to see our partner Ogilvy address this issue. Dove only works with influencers who don’t distort their appearance on social mediaand together with Ogilvy and our community of influencers, we have created several campaigns that celebrate digital non-distortion”, seconded Firdaous El Honsali, Global Vice President of External Communications and Sustainability at Dove.
The influencers that Ogilvy does want
The new measure of the advertising agency to avoid promoting harmful stereotypes and break with the viralization of idealized beauty practices will be presented, first, through a consultation of brands and political influencers, and, second, with the total ban – which begins in May– of new projects and campaigns.
However, December will be the month in which the editing of sponsored or paid content in influencer activations is completely finalized, since the InfluenceO technology stack will detect each time an image is retouched beyond what is allowed: contrast or brightness.
“We need to educate our customers to give influencers the freedom to express themselves a little more.”
“Customers want it, industry wants it, influencers are generally happy with it, so, why haven’t we done it before?Titus determines.
Although the marketing leader knows that this change will take time, he hopes that his quarterly internal diversity audits will have the purpose of improving this social factor also in the influencers who work with them and, later, a chain reaction will be generated between their creative colleagues around the world and with the same brands.
“We’re talking about reversing 10 years of social media behavior and that’s not going to happen in two months. We know that with what we are implementing we will not see any immediate benefits for the next five years. It’s too big a project and that’s fine.”
The director of Ogilvy knows that in politics this change may be abrupt and less accepted, but he trusts that the demands of consumers and citizens themselves will be what forces them to generate ideas without the need to manipulate reality.
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