Marketing Briefing: How the current chaos affects influencer marketing

By Kristina Monllos • April 22, 2025 •

Ivy Liu

This Marketing Briefing covers the latest in marketing for Digiday+ members and is distributed over email every Tuesday at 10 a.m. ET. More from the series →

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.

“Although we are having client conversations about the potential impact for a future state, there is no current impact on our budgets,” said Vickie Segar, founder of influencer marketing shop Village Marketing, now owned by WPP. “It’s a watch and wait moment… we have a president who is not consistent in strategy or thought.”

Though the situation has caused “a lot of distraction and temporary chaos,” influencer marketing shop Fohr hasn’t seen it yet affect clients, said vp of strategy Grace Murray Vazquez. Creator Authority hasn’t seen an immediate recoil. And a decrease in influencer marketing spend wasn’t recorded at Mekanism. Though Kirby Brooks Todd, managing director, head of social and influencer for Mekanism, added that some clients are pulling back on “awareness media” and are being “more conservative in general.”

“An erratic/unpredictable market is not ideal for all arenas of business,” said Brendan Gahan, founder of and CEO of Creator Authority.

One influencer marketing agency exec said she is already feeling the squeeze — not only from tariffs but from the rollout of the department of government efficiencies (DOGE). The shop has seen roughly 15% of client proposals affected with cuts or postponements this year, though she did not provide specific figures.

At Sway Group, an influencer marketing shop, one client was set to launch a new product this year that needed FDA approval but that company’s contact was let go and the project was put on hold — removing the need for influencers to share the product, said Danielle Wiley, founder of Sway Group, who didn’t share the client name.

Another client Wiley didn’t name was planning an influencer campaign with 100 influencers that was immediately sunset when the tariffs were announced. The tariff delay didn’t change anything. “This is impacting the brands, this is impacting us, this is now gonna impact influencers,” Wiley said. “We have to kind of all be sounding the alarm. This is scary. This is bad.”

While some expect some spending may be put on pause indefinitely, influencer marketing agency execs believe the appeal of influencer marketing isn’t just that it’s a performance channel but a brand awareness channel. The pitch of the alleged ability to kill two birds with one stone — er, media buy — could buoy the channel amid the ongoing uncertainty.

If influencer marketing isn’t getting a pullback on spending across the board, there could soon be a shift in how influencers are briefed from brands given the tariffs and uncertain economic climate. Brands will likely want to avoid looking tone deaf. Just look at how quickly the internet mocked the Blue Origin flight to space last week. “Read the room,” noted Segar, adding that marketers for some luxury goods will likely have to be more thoughtful in how they brief influencers in this climate.

Marketers that find a way to work with influencers to provide some sort of comfort to consumers in this market will likely find success, noted Murray Vasquez. Creators can be “the equivalent to a kind of feeling that you get when you watch a cozy TV show or movie. It’s feel-good. Not too heavy. It brings you some levity. Comfort is what people are looking for,” she said.

3 Questions with Aoife O’Driscoll, avp of life cycle marketing at Whoop, a DTC wearable health tech brand

Whoop did some experimentation with AI agents via Hightouch, a data and AI platform, for its marketing efforts to help with personalization and messaging. How did that go?

I wanted to understand how can we drive more revenue from a particular cohort of members that were relatively unengaged with purchasing from our apparel and accessory store… Within six weeks, we had so many insights that we’d never had before.

What have been the results? Has it helped curb marketing costs?

We saw the 10% uplift in conversion from the group that we tested with, the treatment group. The other use case we’re planning to test into is around engagement. We should have payback within that from an incremental standpoint. From a resources perspective, there is a value add in terms of how my teams are spending their time when we start to leverage this model.

Are there plans to scale AI to creative, consumer-facing ads?

It’s definitely not in our plan over the next six months to use AI. We have an in-house creative team. One of the greatest assets we have today is brand, if I’m perfectly honest. It’s a very precious asset for the business and something they’re quite protective about. So right now, they’re not using AI necessarily for creative imagery and for video. We do use AI for copy. — Kimeko McCoy

By the numbers

The ripple effects from President Donald Trump’s tariffs are starting to materialize, impacting everything from supply chains and manufacturing to marketing budgets and consumer spending. As economic headwinds loom, more than half of consumers plan to prioritize product price, according to a new study from Rakuten, a cash back shopping platform. See key findings from the study below:

19% of consumers said they cannot afford to pay their household bills, and 17% cannot afford necessities like food and gas.
Only 36% of consumers said they can afford all their daily expenses in addition to non-essential items.
Roughly two-fifths (41%) plan to shop less than in previous years — Kimeko McCoy

Quote of the week

“The upfronts are due in May and we’re here in New York meeting with partners to reassure them that our plans are to be strong in the market. If there’s partners that are tentative in the market, we would love to be the brand that can take advantage of that. While others are fearful, we’ll continue to be strong and confident in the market.”

— Hyundai CMO Sean Gilpin of the current cautious climate that many marketers may find themselves in given the tariff turmoil and economic uncertainty.