Targeting The Influential; Who's Doing The Shopping, Really? | AdExchanger

"Influencer culture might be good for brands, but the shilling has serious implications for consumers. Once someone spends enough time watching their favorite creator, they develop a feeling of intimacy, she said - and they're much more willing to follow the advice of someone they trust. Plus, with hyper-personalized ad targeting and increased media fragmentation, "there is no one TV commercial" that practically every household is seeing on a regular basis, writes The Verge."

"Instead, users are deluged with product recommendations everywhere they look, sometimes - like in influencer marketing - speaking directly to them. But despite pushback, "the draw of the influencer is powerful," says The Verge. "Even if you cannot become her, you can own the same things she does." The AI Grocery List One important difference between finding information via agentic AI vs. traditional web searches (e.g., Google.com) is that AI responses are extremely limited."

"Google Search pages feature many paid placements, such as in the Google Maps sidebar, a shopping carousel, sponsored links, etc., often many at once. And then there's the organic search content. That's a lot to scroll. A ChatGPT prompt for a place to see a movie, say, or for sugar-free sodas, is going to return a much narrower set of options."

Influencer culture creates perceived intimacy that increases viewers' readiness to act on creators' recommendations, amplifying commercial influence. Hyper-personalized ad targeting and media fragmentation replace a single dominant TV ad with pervasive, platform-specific product suggestions. The aspirational element of influencers drives purchases as users seek the same items creators showcase. Agentic AI delivers much narrower, curated results than traditional search pages crowded with paid and organic placements, altering discovery paths. Retailer–platform partnerships like Walmart–Pinterest and NYT–Instacart convert inspiration into click-to-buy grocery options. True cross-content shopping integration requires AI to parse recipes and match ingredients to real-time availability.

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