Against the social and political upheaval of 2020, influencer marketing flourished. As some areas of the media suffered from dramatically reduced advertising spend, many brands were quick to move money into influencer marketing. Enabling marketers to curate and nurture audiences through a direct relationship with consumers in their own homes, it was a key tool for growing brand loyalty and awareness through the different stages of lockdowns and restrictions.

When it came to the Black Lives Matter resurgence, again, influencer marketing shone. Digital activism was pivotal to everything from spreading antiracist resources, sharing donations links and signing petitions, as well as organising peaceful protests all over the world.

However, throughout all of this, there has been a rather uncomfortable theme emerging: the influencer pay gap. The team and I kept hearing anecdotes of major pay discrepancies, with race and ethnicity seemingly the big factors.

I founded SevenSix to tackle the lack of representation from brands within the influencer marketing space, so, towards the end of last year, we decided to take action. We reached out to brands, agencies and influencers to try and paint a realistic picture of the landscape. Unfortunately, the findings confirmed our suspicions. Here’s what we learnt:

Ethnicity directly impacts influencer pricing

The numbers were too high to ignore, with 57% of influencers believing ethnicity impacts the fees they can charge.

This impact is often negative

37% of influencers told us they believe ethnicity has a negative impact on their pricing, with fees decreasing as a direct result. More concerningly, nearly all (99%) of this group identified as a person of colour. Flip to those who told us they don’t think their ethnicity impacts their prices, and less than half (45%) identified as a person of colour, with 55% identifying as white.

There is a significant difference between ethnic groups when it comes to undercharging

Whilst there is a clear belief across most influencers (69%) that they undercharge for paid partnerships, there are bigger differences when we look at how this manifests itself across ethnic groups. Nearly half (49%) of influencers who believe they undercharge and believe their ethnicity impacts their fees are Black, followed by 18% South Asian and 13% mixed (Black and white) heritage. Only 11% of this group were white.

Influencers are desperate for pricing structure and guidance

Only 22% of influencers said they felt confident setting a price for paid campaigns and only 26% think they get their prices right. We see this daily, with consistent appetite for talks and educational sessions on the subject of pricing. It’s clear that influencers are calling out for help when it comes to pricing, with a need for standardised and clear structures.

Brands and agencies were much less forthcoming with data

A real blocker to these pricing guidelines is the lack of transparency from brands and agencies. We promised full anonymity but were disappointed to receive nearly four times less responses from brands and agencies than influencers. I certainly have suspicions that a nervousness around being ‘exposed’ played a part here.

There is frustration over brands wanting a ‘quick fix’ when it comes to diversity and inclusion  

To try and facilitate transparency, we asked agencies about their experiences regarding diversity and influencer marketing. One stated that brands “haven’t spent enough time bothering to speak to a diverse audience. So, in return, why would a diverse audience buy from them?”

This sentiment was echoed by another, saying that brands “can’t just switch it [diversity] on and magically expect profits to come from BAME audiences. It takes time, trust, authenticity.”

BLM had an initial impact, but that has waned

Agencies told us how the resurgence of Black Lives Matter last summer had an impact on their approach to diversity and inclusion, with one saying how they have “added clauses to both our influencer and client agreement where both parties need to declare that they are aligned with our actively anti-racist values”.

However, as we have seen over the last few months, there were also questions over the longevity of this impact. One agency told us that “When the BLM movement came out, we were impressed with the number of influencers who wanted assurances that a diverse range of talent was being used. However, we haven’t been asked that once since September”.

As an industry, we simply have to deal with this. It is not good enough to continue to make excuses and stand by whilst this influencer pay gap brings such significant differences across ethnicity and race. This report proves that that brands pay influencers different rates; we now need to turn our attention to how we minimise the inconsistencies and eliminate race as a factor.

This won’t happen if all parts of the ecosystem, brands, agencies and influencers, don’t commit to having some tough conversations about the status quo in their own backyard and how this is contributing to the wider issues at hand. Everyone needs to feel comfortable acknowledging their own strengths and weaknesses in this area, in order for us to tackle the blockers to positive change. It’s not about shaming, it’s about working together for a better future.