The Untapped Power of the 'Wrong' Influencer
Here's the thing about influencers in 2025: we’re still oddly obsessed with polish. Curated feeds, blueprint brand partnerships, the perfectly timed swipe-up. It’s the digital equivalent of turning up to a bonfire party in white jeans. Oddly impressive, totally impractical.
So I’ve been deep-diving, stalking, and generally clicking too much into a subcategory that’s weirdly underused in New Zealand marketing: the Wrong Influencer. Not wrong as in problematic or off-message, but wrong as in... not obvious. Think: the semi-retired mechanic who reviews slow cookers. Or the Dunedin choir teacher who casually mentions her favourite Māori-owned eye cream to 4,000 devoted alto sopranos.
The scale isn’t the point. Micro-audiences with macro-trust? That’s gold. These people are whispering about your brand during wine tastings and book club nights. They’re not front-page stuff. They’re page seven of the group chat—the kind you only read if you really care. And their followers? They care.
Here’s the kicker: the Right Influencer™ doesn’t always convince. We can sniff an ad out faster than a soggy warehouse sale. But when someone’s whole feed is dedicated to family composting and they suddenly say your product fits into their Sunday rhythm? That lands. Brands should stop hunting for reach stats and start charting conversational gravity. Be where the weird conversations are happening—and please, stop waiting for shiny people to make your product sparkle.
So I’ve been deep-diving, stalking, and generally clicking too much into a subcategory that’s weirdly underused in New Zealand marketing: the Wrong Influencer. Not wrong as in problematic or off-message, but wrong as in... not obvious. Think: the semi-retired mechanic who reviews slow cookers. Or the Dunedin choir teacher who casually mentions her favourite Māori-owned eye cream to 4,000 devoted alto sopranos.
The scale isn’t the point. Micro-audiences with macro-trust? That’s gold. These people are whispering about your brand during wine tastings and book club nights. They’re not front-page stuff. They’re page seven of the group chat—the kind you only read if you really care. And their followers? They care.
Here’s the kicker: the Right Influencer™ doesn’t always convince. We can sniff an ad out faster than a soggy warehouse sale. But when someone’s whole feed is dedicated to family composting and they suddenly say your product fits into their Sunday rhythm? That lands. Brands should stop hunting for reach stats and start charting conversational gravity. Be where the weird conversations are happening—and please, stop waiting for shiny people to make your product sparkle.