A majority of enterprise fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands continue to treat Influencer Marketing as a campaign-level tactic rather than a core business system, according to a new report from social-first marketing agency Socially Powerful.
The report, titled “Best Before: Your Next Campaign,” draws on a survey of more than 300 UK and U.S. enterprise FMCG marketers and outlines what the agency describes as a structural misalignment between how brands plan and how consumer demand is generated in 2026.
Planning Cycles Out of Step With Social Discovery
The survey finds that 41% of enterprise FMCG marketers say most campaign ideas originate during annual or quarterly planning, while only 11% say cultural or social insights drive those ideas. Just 1% report testing and learning in public as a source of campaign direction.
This planning rhythm contrasts with where product discovery increasingly occurs. More than a third of enterprise FMCG marketers surveyed say social media and creators are where most product discovery in their category happens, ahead of television and search.
The report also surfaces a gap in how brands perceive creator expertise relative to their own teams. Eighty-one percent of marketers surveyed agree that influencers understand culture and trends better than internal teams, yet 62% believe they can remain culturally relevant without changing how they work with creators.
Brand Loyalty Weakening Across the Category
Eighty-six percent of enterprise FMCG marketers surveyed say brand loyalty is weaker now than it was five years ago. The report attributes this to consumers’ increased exposure to new brands and products through social media, which the authors say has accelerated experimentation and cross-tier purchasing behavior.
The report notes that challenger brands and private labels are intensifying competitive pressure on established FMCG players. Private labels, according to a cited McKinsey 2025 finding, are now competing on quality and consumer proximity in addition to price. Challenger brands, meanwhile, are building market relevance through cultural positioning.
Seven in ten enterprise FMCG marketers surveyed say challenger brands outperform them on speed to market, including faster decision-making, approvals, creative production, and content publishing.
The Case for Creator Relationships Beyond Reach
The report argues that enterprise brands rely predominantly on campaign-burst influencer activity, which it characterizes as attention spending that resets with each new campaign. Forty percent of enterprise FMCG marketers surveyed say brand history has the greatest influence on a consumer’s first-time purchase, though the report notes that heritage alone does not sustain repeat purchasing in the current environment.
The report includes direct commentary from brand-side practitioners. “Brands need to shift away from using creators to collaborating with them,” said Don Cheney, Senior Brand Manager at The Absolut Company. “Instead of thinking how the creator fits into the brand world, the question needs to become, ‘how can the brand fit in the creator’s world?'”
Paolo Narag, Global Brand Director at Mars, is also quoted: “Creators not only participate in culture, they drive it. The brands that will win in the future are those that embed themselves in the creator economy and treat creators as co-creators, not channels to connect to their audience.”
A Five-Level Maturity Framework
The report introduces what Socially Powerful calls the “Influencer and Advocacy Maturity Model,” a five-level framework intended to help enterprise teams assess where creator marketing sits within their organization. The model evaluates five dimensions: architecture, creator selection, integration, speed and frequency, and measurement and learning.
The agency places the current majority of enterprise Influencer Marketing at Level 3, which it labels “Strategic.” At this level, brands operate an always-on ecosystem with campaign spikes, maintain a tiered creator portfolio, and integrate social into initial planning phases. Measurement at this stage moves beyond engagement metrics toward demand signals such as sentiment, search lift, and share of voice.
Level 4, labeled “Infrastructure,” adds seeding and affiliate programs between campaign peaks, community-embedded creator partnerships, and real-time insight loops connected to commercial outcomes. Level 5, termed “The Cultural Engine,” positions creators as members of a strategic advisory board influencing brand positioning, product narratives, and go-to-market planning.
The report cites Edelman’s 2025 Trust Barometer in support of the cultural integration argument, noting that 73% of respondents in that study say a brand that authentically reflects today’s culture is more effective at building trust than one that focuses only on products.
Risk aversion is cited by 43% of enterprise FMCG marketers in the Socially Powerful survey as the primary obstacle to delivering bold, culturally led work on a consistent basis.
Image source: Socially Powerful Get the full report here
Jonathan is a South African content creator, photographer and videographer with 25 years of experience in journalism and print media design. He is interested in new developments in AI content creation and covers a broad spectrum of topics within the creator economy.
A majority of enterprise fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands continue to treat Influencer Marketing as a campaign-level tactic rather than a core business system, according to a new report from social-first marketing agency Socially Powerful.
The report, titled “Best Before: Your Next Campaign,” draws on a survey of more than 300 UK and U.S. enterprise FMCG marketers and outlines what the agency describes as a structural misalignment between how brands plan and how consumer demand is generated in 2026.
Planning Cycles Out of Step With Social Discovery
The survey finds that 41% of enterprise FMCG marketers say most campaign ideas originate during annual or quarterly planning, while only 11% say cultural or social insights drive those ideas. Just 1% report testing and learning in public as a source of campaign direction.
This planning rhythm contrasts with where product discovery increasingly occurs. More than a third of enterprise FMCG marketers surveyed say social media and creators are where most product discovery in their category happens, ahead of television and search.
The report also surfaces a gap in how brands perceive creator expertise relative to their own teams. Eighty-one percent of marketers surveyed agree that influencers understand culture and trends better than internal teams, yet 62% believe they can remain culturally relevant without changing how they work with creators.
Brand Loyalty Weakening Across the Category
Eighty-six percent of enterprise FMCG marketers surveyed say brand loyalty is weaker now than it was five years ago. The report attributes this to consumers’ increased exposure to new brands and products through social media, which the authors say has accelerated experimentation and cross-tier purchasing behavior.
The report notes that challenger brands and private labels are intensifying competitive pressure on established FMCG players. Private labels, according to a cited McKinsey 2025 finding, are now competing on quality and consumer proximity in addition to price. Challenger brands, meanwhile, are building market relevance through cultural positioning.
Seven in ten enterprise FMCG marketers surveyed say challenger brands outperform them on speed to market, including faster decision-making, approvals, creative production, and content publishing.
The Case for Creator Relationships Beyond Reach
The report argues that enterprise brands rely predominantly on campaign-burst influencer activity, which it characterizes as attention spending that resets with each new campaign. Forty percent of enterprise FMCG marketers surveyed say brand history has the greatest influence on a consumer’s first-time purchase, though the report notes that heritage alone does not sustain repeat purchasing in the current environment.
The report includes direct commentary from brand-side practitioners. “Brands need to shift away from using creators to collaborating with them,” said Don Cheney, Senior Brand Manager at The Absolut Company. “Instead of thinking how the creator fits into the brand world, the question needs to become, ‘how can the brand fit in the creator’s world?'”
Paolo Narag, Global Brand Director at Mars, is also quoted: “Creators not only participate in culture, they drive it. The brands that will win in the future are those that embed themselves in the creator economy and treat creators as co-creators, not channels to connect to their audience.”
A Five-Level Maturity Framework
The report introduces what Socially Powerful calls the “Influencer and Advocacy Maturity Model,” a five-level framework intended to help enterprise teams assess where creator marketing sits within their organization. The model evaluates five dimensions: architecture, creator selection, integration, speed and frequency, and measurement and learning.
The agency places the current majority of enterprise Influencer Marketing at Level 3, which it labels “Strategic.” At this level, brands operate an always-on ecosystem with campaign spikes, maintain a tiered creator portfolio, and integrate social into initial planning phases. Measurement at this stage moves beyond engagement metrics toward demand signals such as sentiment, search lift, and share of voice.
Level 4, labeled “Infrastructure,” adds seeding and affiliate programs between campaign peaks, community-embedded creator partnerships, and real-time insight loops connected to commercial outcomes. Level 5, termed “The Cultural Engine,” positions creators as members of a strategic advisory board influencing brand positioning, product narratives, and go-to-market planning.
The report cites Edelman’s 2025 Trust Barometer in support of the cultural integration argument, noting that 73% of respondents in that study say a brand that authentically reflects today’s culture is more effective at building trust than one that focuses only on products.
Risk aversion is cited by 43% of enterprise FMCG marketers in the Socially Powerful survey as the primary obstacle to delivering bold, culturally led work on a consistent basis.
Image source: Socially Powerful
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