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- YouTuber Colleen Ballinger earns a commission from a cookie dough brand using affiliate links.
- Viewers thought Ballinger was a sponsor of the company.
- Affiliate marketing is a tricky business, especially when brands have little control.
YouTuber Colleen Ballinger is someone many brands might not want to serve as a spokesperson for their products.
Last year, a former fan came forward with accusations against Ballinger. Ballinger is best known for the characters he plays online. miranda singsabout “grooming” and interacting with minor fans. in an inappropriate way.
After a five-month break, she has resumed posting on social media.
Ballinger though lost some sponsorship deals He ended his podcast with co-host Trisha Paytas at the height of the controversy, but has been able to make money since he resumed posting to YouTube and TikTok.
Notably, Ms. Ballinger continues to participate in YouTube’s Partner Program, which allows her to earn money from ads within her videos and use YouTube’s product tagging and affiliate marketing tools. YouTube typically only removes creators from its Partner Program for harassment, hate speech, or other violations of its community guidelines. Ballinger hasn’t crossed that line.
But that doesn’t mean brands are happy to associate their products with Ballinger, which is causing a headache for at least one company.
Last month, Ballinger promoted his cookie dough brand Sweet Lauren’s. video blog They then linked to their products using YouTube’s affiliate program, which allows creators to earn commissions on sales.
To the casual observer, it may appear that Sweet Loren’s hired Ballinger to promote its products. Ballinger’s former fans also took to TikTok to share their outrage over what appeared to be a sponsored post, in which he tagged Lauren, and questioned why the brand appeared to be affiliated with Ballinger. I thought.
One commenter on TikTok declared, “I will never buy their products again.”
catch? Sweet Laurens did not actually employ Ballinger. She was linking to her products through her affiliate program.
A representative for Sweet Loren’s told Business Insider, “Like our fans, we were concerned about the inclusion of our products in affiliate links and in Colleen’s YouTube videos.” “Sweet Laurens has no previous, present or future relationship or collaboration with Colleen. We have not gifted her any merchandise or paid her to mention our brand in her videos. Please visit the attached affiliate link. ”
Although brand engagement is very different, affiliate marketing and sponsorship can look surprisingly similar to audiences. Affiliate links are custom links generated by affiliate marketing platforms that allow influencers to earn a small commission from any products or services sold using the link. In this case, the link in the video description directs you to a product sold at Walmart. (Walmart did not respond to BI’s request for comment.) This is different from sponsorship, where brands pay influencers to promote their products.
While brands can opt out of specific affiliate programs (like Walmart in this case), there is generally no way to blacklist specific creators, so working with all influencers in the program needs to be stopped. Sweet Loren’s could likely sue Walmart or YouTube to remove Ballinger from their affiliate programs. But participation in affiliate programs typically receives less scrutiny than brand agreements, where a brand explicitly decides to collaborate with a creator. YouTube and Walmart have a high bar to kick influencers out of their affiliate programs.
Broad issues surrounding affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing has helped many influencers build profitable businesses by allowing them to decide what to promote in exchange for a commission. Unlike other advertising methods, affiliate marketing puts the creator in charge, while brands have little to no control over the content or who promotes their products.
This can be difficult, especially if the problematic influencer makes money by promoting a brand without the brand knowing.
When an influencer promotes a product or service through a sponsored post, a brand selects the influencer and either works directly with the influencer to create content and negotiate a contract, or hires an agency.
However, when influencers promote products and services organically and link to affiliate links, brands are usually not involved as most brands work with third-party affiliate networks.
A Sweet Loren’s representative said, “Creators can generate links through affiliate programs and online retailers and receive rebates from related sales without notifying the brand or seeking approval.” “We would like to thank our fans for reporting this matter and publicly announce on our TikTok channel that we do not support any person or entity that harms or encourages children. I would like to make it clear that I do not and will not work with children.” Please pay Colleen now and from now on. ”
Affiliate links can be a problem for brands who want to control who partners with their company in exchange for payment. It can be difficult for brands when it looks like they’re paying creators for advertising when in fact they aren’t, like Ballinger and Sweet Loren’s.
This speaks to a broader theme among brands trying to navigate social media.
Conor Begley, chief strategy officer at CreatorIQ, said: “One of the pervasive problems brands face is that they have little control over who talks about them and what they say.” “This will allow us to have a team (mainly in-house) dedicated to managing relationships with creators, in the same way we would have a PR team to better manage press relations, both good and bad press.” They help shape and inform the narrative, tell the brand’s story in a more human way. ”
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