Can influencers stay objective when reviewing products by paying sponsors?

With a fanbase that trusts her views on the latest beauty products, beauty influencer Lifni Sanders has had both paid and unpaid review “collaborations” from brands across the beauty industry.

The 26-year-old beauty influencer, who uses the moniker “livjunkie” online, is one of the country’s rising beauty influencers with 67.4k Instagram followers and 464k YouTube subscribers and counting.

Many of her target audience go to her to hear honest reviews before deciding on which products to buy. Many consider her a credible and fair reviewer, leaving comments that praise the candid quality of her reviews.

She started as many other influencers do - doing things for the “exposure” and visitors. “I used to do unpaid reviews in exchange for getting the products [for free]. When you are just starting out, that kind of collaboration helps a lot because it gives you a chance to be the first one to review a specific product, which then leads traffic to your page,” Lifni shared.

Eventually, she became well-known enough to attract paying advertisers. The brands, she said, want “guaranteed exposure for their products” to her audience.

Although Lifni says that she only accepts paid endorsement from brands that “align with [her] values'”, her increasing fanbase and sponsors means a growing assumption that her positive reviews will skew towards a more positive tone for paying sponsors.

On her end, Lifni said that the only difference between paying products and free ones was which she got around to first.

“Paid means the products go on the priority list,” which means making review videos of them earlier.

“Influencers receive many PR packages. Beauty products, especially skincare, take a while to review, and brands want their products to be ahead of others. Unpaid usually doesn’t involve contracts and obligations, so it all depends on the influencer’s timing or even audiences’ interest,” she elaborated.

Though Lifni agreed that money did make a difference since it takes funds to create content, it also showed that brand’s seriousness in building a relationship with influencers such as herself. “The way I see it, it also shows the brand’s appreciation toward the content creator that has brought revenue to their brand. It’s a two-way relationship.”

The people behind Mad For Makeup, a local beauty brand that uses both paid and unpaid influencers to promote their product. (Courtesy of Mad For Makeup) (Personal archive/Courtesy of Mad For Makeup)

Other than that, paid reviews are different as they require the brand’s confirmation before they go online, at least for Lifni. This means that, at a certain level, there is an amount of self-censorship that takes place - though it is also about sustaining credibility as an influencer.

“When I make paid reviews, I’d always let the brand know beforehand about the negative side effects or experience and ask them if they’re comfortable with me pointing them out. If they’re okay with it, I’ll go ahead with the review. If they’re not, then the deal is canceled, but then I’ll usually go ahead and review them anyway, unpaid, and tell it like it is.”

For brands that simply cannot take any amount of criticism, it is a long and tough road.

Lifni said, “It depends on the influencer, honestly. For me personally, the bridge is burned once they clearly flat out say that they can’t accept any criticism. However, just like people, brands can grow as well, so if in the future they’re finally able to be open and learn from the negative feedback, then we can always rebuild.”

To be honest

For beauty brands, setting the difference on paid and paid reviews and the limitation on how honest influencers should be in it is much simpler than what people think.

A local beauty brand called Mad For Makeup, believes money and honesty do not make the reviews different.

“What comes down the line is the influencer’s experience with the product they used and sharing those experiences,” said Alin Teng, Mad For Makeup’s marketing manager.

“Regardless of whether it’s a positive or negative honesty, in the end, both paid and unpaid reviewers pull the same effort and lend us their voice on the same platform. We feel appreciated because of that. We give [paid and unpaid reviewers] equal treatment with the same product information brief because, from our perspective, they are the same, the key opinion leaders [KOLs],” Alin continued.

She added that her team believed that there can and should still be honesty in paid reviews. “Paying an influencer or reviewer doesn’t mean forcing them to say good things about the product, our brand always believes that we are appreciating their hard work and effort, meaning content making, video shooting, product testing, audience building and the like.”

The Mad For Makeup team appreciates negative reviews and sees it as room for improvement.

BLP's Beauty team believes negativity from being honest can be used to improve their products. (Courtesy of BLP Beauty) (Personal archive/Courtesy of BLP Beauty)

Diplomacy

BLP Beauty, a beauty line from one of Indonesia’s most popular makeup artist-turned beauty brand owners, Lizzie Parra, sees it similarly.

Dery G. Waluyo, the team’s marketing communication manager, said they considered both paid and unpaid reviews all the same. “The difference is only in terms of the schedule for uploading the review, which is adjusted to the marketing campaign.”

For example, if the brand schedules to launch new products in a specific month, they will send the product before the launch date so that influencers can try it early and publish it coincidentally with the launching time.

BLP also believes that honesty is paramount, and it is more than just for money.

“There is nothing absolute in an opinion, so if we work with influencers or KOLs, we as a brand are ready to risk if the uploaded reviews, whether paid or unpaid, are not all 100 percent positive. Sometimes there is feedback from KOLs which we receive and use as improvement material,” said Derry.

Like Mad For Makeup, BLP believes that honesty is inevitable since reviews come from each of the influencers’ personal experiences.

So that both parties can continue a positive partnership, Derry added that influencers could deliver the negatives in certain, more diplomatic, ways. Such as mentioning in their review videos that the products’ skin type target and the influencers’ might not be the best match.  

“For example, influencers can say something like, ‘This product seems to be more suitable for those of you with dry skin because my skin is oily, so it melts faster.’ So there is no need to lie if there is a feeling that there is an inappropriate side effect.”

“Maintaining professional relationships and clear communication with influencers is the key to collaboration between brands and influencers,” Derry concluded.

ohmg