You can view this article as my response to the ongoing debate surrounding influencers, gifted PR bottles or payments and the lying that it leads to in the perfume community. I hope that my readers take the time to read the whole article (I know it’s very long), as I think it’s the most important story I’ve had to tell in my years in this community.
At the time of writing, the debate has flared up again after a video by Marc (Robes08), but this topic isn’t new. As someone who has actively received PR as an influencer, totaling at least 200 different brand collaborations in the past 4 years, but also knows brand owners, store owners, social media managers and distributors, I think I have a good and broad insight in how this all works and what goes on ‘behind the scenes’. And I would like to use this article to address the issue, but also debunk some of the myths surrounding PR. I will address it in the following stages:
1. Influencer vs. Traditional Marketing
2. Disclosure
3. The Great Lie: PR & Negative Reviews
4. Conclusion & Advice
INFLUENCER vs. TRADITIONAL MARKETING
A point that is often brought up is that influencer marketing in general is a terrible thing and that certain brands only rose to popularity because it, while other, smaller brands, don’t have the same capacity for marketing. That last point is definitely true, but it’s at least as true for traditional marketing.
Which didn’t vary all that much from influencer marketing, as for over a century perfumes have been marketing through magazines, as still happens today. A lot of those magazine placements are paid for and even for smaller outlets, you can expect that at the very least fragrances were gifted, to be written about. Other than that, you have store fronts, billboards, television commercials and celebrity endorsements, which are usually only available to the biggest and richest of brands.
Parfums de Marly may be able to give out more PR bottles than your favorite indie perfumer, but I don’t think it’s a downgrade over the couple of dozen designer brands that were impossible to compete with in the pre-internet days. In general, customers have more options to do their own research, buy samples, look up fragrances online now, versus being spoon-fed the brands that spent the most on marketing. This point is illustrated by the excessive amount of new (niche) brands that have entered the market in more recent years.
At the end of the day, marketing is marketing and influencer marketing is just the flavor of this era. I included this perhaps less interesting chapter, because a lof of the anger in the perfume community seems to be towards the whole idea of influencers, and even if you agree… it’s irrelevant. It’s here, it’s here to stay for the foreseeable future and complaining about it for years now has been futile. It makes the older generation of perfume lovers come across as bitter and while they make some excellent points; those issues regarding trust and integrity have always existed. Johnny Depp was paid a million $ to endorse Dior… that’s not a problem? But your perfume-loving peer gets a bottle worth 20$, that’s a problem? I think a lot of jealousy and envy is involved here.
That jealousy is illustrated with comments by people like: ‘If a brand can send 20 people a bottle, than why would I buy it’. When in reality, those 20 bottles are microscopic to the marketing budgets of some of the same people’s favorite brands. Not having actual commercials, billboards or physical stores, but sending out PR bottles drives the costs down massively, not up.
DISCLOSURE
Of course, there is a difference. We all know Johnny Depp is an actor and that he was paid to do a commercial (this is not always as clear and transparent however, but that’s a topic for another day). Which brings me to a subject that I’ve been championing for years: Disclosure.
Gifted products or payments must be properly disclosed. Would I personally enjoy watching someone who’s lying through their teeth about how much they love a perfume or how unique it is, when I know it isn’t? No, and I would gladly not follow that influencer and go about my day. But if it’s clearly indicated to me that this is advertised content that I’m watching or reading, then there is no issue.
It’s their choice to present an ad, to act, to perhaps even parrot a scripted text. It’s not my choice; I’d always prefer to share my honest opinion. But it’s the wrong fight to fight as a community. In fact, I believe the constant nagging about this topic has had a negative, adverse effect. It has come to the point that people hide their PR, because it leads to less engagement and less support, even when they are honest. People who label their Instagram posts as paid partnerships (as they should when a product was gifted) generally see a decline in likes and comments on those posts. People who get PR have, to some extent, been pushed away by what I would call ‘traditionalists’ and it has only made for worse transparency. It’s lead to less conversations, more echo chambers. People have gotten bitter and others have thrown their principles out the window as they are no longer part of the pact anyway.
Let that influencer be the community version of Johnny Depp, if that’s what they want to be. Just hold them accountable on disclosing the partnership properly and don’t watch their content if you don’t agree with it.
THE GREAT LIE: PR & NEGATIVE REVIEWS
The reason my thoughts on PR and influencer marketing differ so much from a lot of the criticism that’s out there. And you can view this section as a response to videos like the one from Ashton (Gent Scents) regarding getting blacklisted. The video has gotten a lot of support, but to me, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
I am an influencer, by any definition, and I have done collaborations with more brands than most. At one point, I posted 4-5 PR posts a week for niche brands. I write criticism often; I actively look for it, even in fragrances that I love. I always look for comparisons to other fragrances (which brands are usually not a fan of). I’m occasionally fully negative and always tag the brands, also when being negative or when I sample them outside of PR. People that know me, know this, but you can find plenty of proof right here on ScentAdvice (if you’re skeptical, take a look at my recent reviews for Pierre de Velay Chou Chou, which was gifted or Amouage Delight, which I sampled myself, but Amouage has structurally sent me PR for some years now).
Please understand that I’m not saying that you can’t get blacklisted for a negative review. It happens, there are plenty of examples of this, as the anecdotal evidence in Ashton’s video linked above. I’ve surely experienced it, even if it’s not been explicitly said. And it’s wrong: brands should not punish influencers for being honest.
But that’s only part of the story and in my experience, a much smaller part of the story than people would like you to believe. If there’s one thing you take away from this long article it’s this:
You can get PR, with negative reviews.
Period. Now, worst-case scenario that I can imagine, you may get half the amount of PR (I think it’s more likely that you get 75%). So, is the reason that a lot of reviewers seemingly love everything and seem to lie when PR is involved, because that’s the only way they can get it? Or is it greed? More on this in my concluding chapter.
Part of this is caused by this big myth that influencers have to lie. That they get scripts to read from, get paid enormous amounts, get reprimanded if their content isn’t positive and of course, get blacklisted when they give a negative review. I asked about these things in polls on my Instagram earlier this year and was frankly shocked by the results (I unfortunately don’t have the actual numbers anymore, otherwise I would’ve included them):
The majority of my audience thought that all influencers get paid (monetary) for the majority of their PR post. The majority thought that brands dictate what to say in a review the majority of the time. A lot of them thought that brands frequently demand changes after posting a review.
None of this is my experience. This is just my experience, but it’s one that I’ve not seen publicized, versus many contradictory statements, often by people without any actual insight on the behind the scenes. Again, I’ve done collaborations with 200 brands. A lot of my close friends in the community did as well. Here’s my actual experience:
In 200+ PR collaborations:
– I’ve been dictated what to write maybe 2-3 times. Which I completely ignored and that was never commented on.
– I’ve not had my content pre-approved a single time.
– I’ve had 1 brand explicitly get mad at me for being negative.
– I’ve not been asked to alter my review after the fact a single time.
– I’ve been paid 2 times, for photoshoots, not reviews.
– I’ve signed a contract 1 time.
– I’ve had brands ask me to not disclose the PR 3x. Twice, I changed their mind. Once, I refused to work with them (Nishane).
Now, I do assume that the community-wide numbers are different. YouTubers seem to get more concrete PR deals than people on Instagram. Some people demand payment or are more assertive. Also, there are much bigger influencers than I am, and I assume most of them get paid regularly. With that payment, may also come more requirements. Again, my point here is not that certain things never happen. My point is that based on my experience and the things that I hear from a lot of my peers, the majority of PR deals are perfectly fine and open to the honest.
Fun fact: While I assume I’ve been blacklisted at least a dozen times, being ‘negative’ has opened as many doors. My first talk with Amouage was after naming Figment Man in a ‘worst fragrances I’ve smelled’ list. Several brands, like Kajal, offered me PR for the first time after a rather negative review. I even got offered PR several times after I had already negatively reviewed it and the brand was aware of that. In most cases; it’s irrelevant anyway. My readership knows how I operate and my opinion is just that, an opinion. My negative review can lead to as many potential sales as my positive review does. Many times when I showcased two fragrances at once, the one that I liked less, got more intrigue in the comments.
CONCLUSION & ADVICE
I think you see where this is going based on the previous chapter, but I want to make a distinction between bigger influencers and newcomers (or new to getting PR). And as mentioned in the first and second chapter; as long as it’s properly disclosed, I have no beef with whatever someone presents in their reviews. However, I hope that these final paragraphs can steer an inspiring ‘influencer’ down a path that they can be comfortable with.
In a lot of cases, the PR reviews aren’t straight up lies. A lot of them feel like reviewers are dancing around certain grievances, they are using obscure language, they are rarely as open and direct about negative thoughts and more overtly enthusiastic, than in their non-PR content. This is not all down to being greedy and as mentioned in the previous chapter, rarely dictated by the brands.
It can be insecurity. Partially, because people believe the myths. People think they have to play along, to do this; that’s why I think it’s so important to have a realistic view of what is possible. Partially, it’s just not as easy to say anything but nice things. It takes a level of confidence and assertiveness to say things that brands may not like to hear. And this confidence and assertiveness already comes into play when the PR is being offered. You may get dictated what to say in a review, but in my experience, you can just say no and the brand will agree with it. You may get asked to make a video instead of a photo, or to post 3 stories as well; anytime I’ve been made such requests, I’ve declined and in all of those cases, I still got the PR bottle. And if not, then you take the loss.
Not begging for PR, but working hard and eventually getting offered PR instead, tremendously helps your position in negotiating and being free to do and say as you please. Be patient. Have something to offer.
When it comes to the bigger reviewers or the ones that get PR in their mail every other day, I think you can safely say that greed is involved. You can be professional, you can be balanced, you can even be the type of person that ‘likes almost everything’. But you simply can’t love everything equal. It makes the reviews meaningless. And you can’t say that everything is equally worth it, equally unique. You also can choose how you word your reviews: Are you pushing people to blindly buy the fragrance you’re promoting? Or are you telling them to trust their own judgement? And yes, all those decisions may lead to less PR opportunities, especially as long as only a minority of the bigger names are keeping their integrity.
Getting less PR shouldn’t be a blanket-reason to cover all behavior with. We can address the issues that come with any form of marketing any day. We can address the brands with bad practices and blacklisting any day. But let’s first address the human component.
Support those who choose to be honest, support those who present balanced reviews, support those who properly disclose PR even if you don’t like their approach. Support aspiring and new ‘influencers’ instead of casting them out. If influencer marketing is going to change for the better, it can only change from within.