Kirk Ram­per­sad

Re­mem­ber when a food blog­ger’s rec­om­men­da­tion could make or break your week­end lime spot? Or when a quick video re­view from a lo­cal cre­ator turned an ob­scure dou­bles ven­dor in Pe­nal in­to a must-vis­it des­ti­na­tion overnight? Those mo­ments were root­ed in au­then­tic­i­ty, a time when in­flu­encer mar­ket­ing in T&T was built on trust, not trans­ac­tions. In the ear­ly days, con­tent cre­ators gained in­flu­ence not through al­go­rithms or ad bud­gets, but by of­fer­ing hon­est rec­om­men­da­tions based on re­al-life ex­pe­ri­ences. Their sto­ry­telling was raw, their voic­es un­fil­tered and their im­pact un­de­ni­able.

Fast-for­ward to 2025, and the once-au­then­tic dig­i­tal space has be­come in­creas­ing­ly com­mer­cialised. Spon­sored con­tent dom­i­nates feeds. Brand tags and af­fil­i­ate links crowd cap­tions. And the pas­sion-dri­ven voice of ear­ly cre­ators has been di­lut­ed by the pres­sure to per­form and mon­e­tise.

Yet, as in­flu­encer mar­ket­ing con­tin­ues to ex­pand in­to a US$24 bil­lion glob­al in­dus­try (In­flu­encer Mar­ket­ing Hub, 2025), it’s fac­ing a cred­i­bil­i­ty cri­sis and au­di­ences are catch­ing on.

A 2024 Edel­man Trust Barom­e­ter Spe­cial Re­port re­vealed that 64 per cent of glob­al con­sumers dis­trust in­flu­encer en­dorse­ments when it’s un­clear whether con­tent is paid. Even more strik­ing­ly, 71 per cent of Gen Z con­sumers — the dom­i­nant so­cial me­dia de­mo­graph­ic in Trinidad and To­ba­go — say they are more like­ly to un­fol­low in­flu­encers who post in­au­then­tic or over­ly pro­mo­tion­al con­tent.

Lo­cal­ly, this shift is just as vis­i­ble. Mar­keters re­port ris­ing in­flu­encer fees paired with falling en­gage­ment. Fol­low­ers are in­creas­ing­ly skep­ti­cal. And busi­ness­es are ques­tion­ing the re­turn on their dig­i­tal in­vest­ments. The gold­en age of au­then­tic in­flu­ence has giv­en way to what feels like a paid per­for­mance.

So, what hap­pened to the “in­flu­ence” in in­flu­encer mar­ket­ing?

This ar­ti­cle ex­plores how we got here, where the gaps lie and what cre­ators and brands across T&T can do to re­store trust and rel­e­vance in the dig­i­tal age.

In the ear­ly days of the lo­cal in­flu­encer boom, con­tent cre­ators felt like friends. Food blog­gers in T&T earned cred­i­bil­i­ty not by go­ing vi­ral, but by show­ing up con­sis­tent­ly and hon­est­ly. Their re­views were trust­ed be­cause they weren’t pol­ished. They were per­son­al. Fol­low­ers tuned in to find the best bake and shark, the crispi­est fried chick­en, or a hid­den pas­ta spot in South.

To­day, In­sta­gram and Tik­Tok feeds are packed with “col­lab” posts, cu­rat­ed aes­thet­ics and spon­sor­ships from in­dus­tries far re­moved from a cre­ator’s niche. Some food blog­gers now pro­mote beau­ty clin­ics and SU­Vs in be­tween restau­rant re­views — cre­at­ing con­fu­sion for au­di­ences and di­lut­ing their au­thor­i­ty. What was once com­mu­ni­ty-dri­ven con­tent now feels more like a cat­a­logue. And au­di­ences are notic­ing.

The shift away from au­then­tic­i­ty isn’t lim­it­ed to T&T.

A 2023 Hub­Spot study found that 61 per cent of US con­sumers now per­ceive in­flu­encer con­tent as more script­ed than ever be­fore. And 55 per cent of mar­keters ad­mit they pri­ori­tise sales over au­then­tic­i­ty in in­flu­encer cam­paigns.

This ten­sion be­tween com­mer­cial goals and gen­uine sto­ry­telling is at the heart of in­flu­encer mar­ket­ing’s cur­rent iden­ti­ty cri­sis. As more cre­ators chase quick brand deals, they risk alien­at­ing the very com­mu­ni­ties that built their plat­forms.

Mean­while, a 2024 Stack­la study showed that 90 per cent of glob­al con­sumers con­sid­er au­then­tic­i­ty crit­i­cal when choos­ing which brands to sup­port. Sev­en­ty per cent of con­sumers say they trust rec­om­men­da­tions from “every­day peo­ple” over celebri­ties or in­flu­encers with over­ly pol­ished con­tent.

The mes­sage is clear: au­di­ences crave re­al­ness. And when they sense that con­tent is dri­ven by mon­ey in­stead of mean­ing, they tune out.

In T&T, where the dig­i­tal ecosys­tem is small and in­ter­con­nect­ed, these shifts are am­pli­fied. A cre­ator’s rep­u­ta­tion can rise or fall quick­ly based on how au­then­tic their con­tent feels.

Anec­do­tal­ly, many lo­cal mar­keters re­port that while in­flu­encer fol­low­ings have grown, en­gage­ment rates have dropped. Com­ment sec­tions once filled with en­thu­si­asm now show signs of doubt: “This look­ing spon­sored”, “You sure you re­al­ly like this?”, or “How much they pay you for this one?” This skep­ti­cism re­flects a grow­ing pub­lic aware­ness that not all in­flu­encer con­tent is cre­at­ed equal. In such a close-knit on­line com­mu­ni­ty, au­di­ences are quick to spot in­au­then­tic­i­ty and even quick­er to dis­en­gage from it.

De­spite the flood of trans­ac­tion­al con­tent, the ev­i­dence shows that au­then­tic­i­ty re­mains the most pow­er­ful mar­ket­ing tool.

A 2025 De­loitte Dig­i­tal re­port re­vealed that brands part­ner­ing with mi­cro-in­flu­encers (those with niche fol­low­ings and stronger com­mu­ni­ty ties) saw 22 per cent high­er re­turn on in­vest­ment com­pared to cam­paigns us­ing mega-in­flu­encers. The re­port al­so not­ed a grow­ing con­sumer pref­er­ence for re­lata­bil­i­ty over as­pi­ra­tional per­fec­tion.

In the Caribbean, where cul­ture, iden­ti­ty and sto­ry­telling are cen­tral to how we con­nect — this in­sight is even more rel­e­vant. We don’t just con­sume con­tent; we feel it. And we trust cre­ators who show us some­thing re­al.

So how do we get back to what works? Here are four prac­ti­cal, strate­gic shifts for cre­ators and brands in T&T:

1. Au­then­tic Brand Part­ner­ships Work—on­ly with brands that align with your per­son­al val­ues and au­di­ence ex­pec­ta­tions. A food blog­ger en­dors­ing a car deal­er­ship may earn quick cash but risks long-term rel­e­vance. Choose syn­er­gy over short-term gain;

2. Pri­ori­tise Long-Term Col­lab­o­ra­tions—Sus­tain­able in­flu­ence is built over time. Long-term part­ner­ships al­low for sto­ry­telling, au­di­ence buy-in and deep­er en­gage­ment. Brands like Nike and Co­ca-Co­la have built loy­al­ty this way for decades;

3. Trans­paren­cy is Non-Ne­go­tiable—Dis­close paid part­ner­ships. Tag spon­sored con­tent. Let au­di­ences know when you’ve been gift­ed a prod­uct. A 2024 Nielsen sur­vey found that 78 per cent of con­sumers ap­pre­ci­ate trans­paren­cy — even when con­tent is pro­mo­tion­al;

4. Re­turn to Sto­ry­telling—Prod­uct re­views are for­get­table. Per­son­al sto­ries are pow­er­ful. Talk about the mo­ment, the mem­o­ry, the mean­ing be­hind the post. Let your au­di­ence in­to your world, not just your feed.

Op­por­tu­ni­ties for the Lo­cal Mar­ket:Trinidad and To­ba­go has the cul­tur­al depth, cre­ative tal­ent and com­mu­ni­ty spir­it to lead the Caribbean in re­defin­ing in­flu­encer mar­ket­ing.

With Gen Z emerg­ing as a ma­jor con­sumer force and one that val­ues so­cial au­then­tic­i­ty above all else —there’s a prime op­por­tu­ni­ty for brands and cre­ators to re­think the in­flu­encer econ­o­my. In­stead of chas­ing likes, we can build loy­al­ty. In­stead of per­form­ing, we can con­nect.

T&T’s culi­nary di­ver­si­ty, en­tre­pre­neur­ial en­er­gy and close-knit so­cial cir­cles make it the per­fect place to cham­pi­on a “back-to-re­al” in­flu­encer ap­proach. Let’s make au­then­tic­i­ty our com­pet­i­tive ad­van­tage.

A Strate­gic Call to Con­tent Cre­ators—Re­claim­ing In­flu­ence with Pur­pose

To the many tal­ent­ed in­flu­encers across Trinidad and To­ba­go: your voice holds pow­er. Not just to pro­mote, but to shape cul­ture, dri­ve com­merce and up­lift brands with pur­pose.

In­flu­ence to­day is no longer just about reach. It’s about rel­e­vance, re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and res­o­nance. Your fol­low­ers sup­port you be­cause your con­tent once felt per­son­al and gen­uine. That trust is your great­est cur­ren­cy and it must be pro­tect­ed.

As in­flu­encer mar­ket­ing ma­tures, so must we. Let’s move from the hus­tle of one-off pro­mo­tions to the depth of long-term im­pact. Let’s choose part­ner­ships that re­flect our val­ues and serve our com­mu­ni­ties.

Let’s favour hon­esty over hype. Be­cause in 2025, au­then­tic­i­ty isn’t a buzz­word — it’s a busi­ness strat­e­gy.

In­flu­encer mar­ket­ing in T&T isn’t bro­ken. It’s evolv­ing. And this mo­ment presents a chance to re­build it in­to some­thing more mean­ing­ful, sus­tain­able and unique­ly Caribbean.

Let us lead by ex­am­ple. Let us re­store trust, el­e­vate voic­es that mat­ter, and prove that in a world full of noise, re­al still res­onates.