{
  "id": 16177649,
  "title": "Top influencer marketers describe 3 big challenges facing the industry",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/23/top-influencer-marketers-describe-3-big-challenges-facing-the-industry",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-10-23T11:00:01.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Business Insider",
    "slug": "business-insider",
    "url": "https://www.businessinsider.com/big-challenges-facing-influencer-marketers-in-2026-2026-10"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Influencer marketing has become a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States, yet running campaigns remains a challenging endeavor. Business Insider interviewed several top brand executives to uncover the main obstacles they face when partnering with creators. Three recurring issues emerged as the most significant hurdles in the influencer marketing landscape.\n\nFirstly, finding relevant talent within the growing pool of content creators is proving to be a mounting challenge. Brands must also grapple with the difficulty of aligning campaign content with both the brand's messaging objectives and the creator's unique voice. Lastly, campaign performance has become increasingly erratic due to the ever-evolving, personalized nature of social media algorithms.\n\nUnlike traditional advertising methods, influencer marketing requires a more hands-on approach, as brands often rely on manual processes to coordinate campaigns. A June survey conducted by Northwestern University and LTK revealed that 45% of brands still use spreadsheets, emails, and direct messages to manage creator collaborations. Lindsay Burstein, senior director of integrated social and communications at Keurig Dr Pepper, highlighted the complexity of balancing human interaction with the fast-paced, ever-changing nature of the internet. She emphasized the struggle to streamline the process while acknowledging the personal commitments and circumstances of the creators involved.\n\nPatrick O Keefe, chief integrated marketing officer at E.l.f. Beauty, lamented the extreme saturation of the influencer space, stating, \"I would love a model or a plan or a program that would capture all the new people coming into this space in real time.\" Similarly, Kiara Kempski, vice president of global consumer marketing at The Knot Worldwide, noted that the influencer landscape has become so saturated that brands must strive for \"great tastemakers\" in an increasingly noisy digital environment.\n\nAnna Doré, Rothy's vice president of brand and communications, stressed the importance of exceptional content creators in a world where \"more than ever, we are going to be looking to great tastemakers.\" Ian Trombetta, the National Football League's senior vice president of global social, creator, and content marketing, acknowledged the rising creative bar in influencer marketing, noting that \"creative reach and engagement\" have become more difficult to achieve as followership alone no longer holds the same weight in social media algorithms.\n\nLastly, the NFL's Ian Trombetta underscored the importance of allowing creators to utilize their unique skills and understanding of their audience when collaborating with brands. Sophia Sesto, Poppi's vice president of culture, emphasized the need to work \"with the talent to make something special and lean into their personalities\" in order to create engaging content that effectively represents both the brand and the creator. Samim Sadrzadeh, director of creator content and partnerships at Disney, added that the influencer partnership model must recognize and value the creators' deep knowledge of their audiences, asserting that this approach significantly enhances the overall effectiveness of influencer marketing campaigns.",
  "summary": "Influencer marketers from brands like the NFL, Poppi, and E.l.f. Beauty shared the main pain points they face when running campaigns with creators.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}