In our survey regarding what marketers check when vetting influencers, all but one of 29 marketers said they check for collaborations with their direct competitors.

We thought this number would be high…but not this high – especially since it’s not all that easy to check.

The next question becomes – is working with competitors a deal-breaker?

The answer is complicated and depends on multiple factors, but here’s the TL;DR: most brands don’t mind working with influencers who have worked with their direct competitors. As long as the product category allows it and the collaboration isn’t ongoing and/or long-term, it’s A-OK. This graphic also summarizes the argument well:

‍Pssst..want to know what the seven most common deal-breakers in influencers, according to our survey? Read this article to learn all about the influencer red flags you should watch out for.

3 instances when working with competitors is a deal-breaker

1: When your product category demands it

In some product categories, it’d be weird if an influencer would use two products from different brands. Take Deeper Sonars. Their flagship product is a portable sonar. It’d appear inauthentic if an influencer used two sonars simultaneously. For this reason, the Head of Partnerships, Valeriia Chemerys, asks for exclusivity for the entire duration of her influencer relationships:

Valeriia Chemerys

Head of Media Partnerships, Deeper

It [working with competing brands] isn't good for both the influencer or the brand. Anglers smell "promotion" and they don't like it. But when the creator uses one product for a long time and shares educational info and tips, it's a win-win for us both. The influencer becomes a trusted & reputable source, and we get more authentic-feeling promotion to our target audience.

There are many other product types where buying two quantities from different brands wouldn’t make sense – like a coffee machine, a television, or mattresses.

If you sell a product that’s high-ticket and/or encourages longevity in use, you wouldn’t want a creator to promote your product today and a competitor’s product tomorrow. The audience wouldn’t trust the influencer and your partnership would lack credibility and authenticity.

⚠️ Note: there might be exceptions to this. For example, if you can sell why an influencer has switched from a competing brand to your brand with exceptional storytelling, the collaboration might work out great.

2: When an influencer has done/is doing a long-term collaboration with your competitor(s)

The most common reason marketers avoid working with influencers who have worked with competing brands is because the creator was/is involved in long-term partnerships with them. Why?

1. Non-competes with competitors: sometimes, an influencer might have signed an exclusivity contract with a competing company. If they’ve signed a non-compete, they cannot legally work with your brand for a certain duration. Maybe you can approach the creator after the contract ends and explore a collaboration. But until then, it’s a no-go.

2. Association with the brand: working with a competing brand for the long haul often means the audience has started to associate the influencer with the company. The influencer has built trust and credibility with the followers, and it can be hard to erase that by introducing a new (aka, your) product.

3. Promotion from an influencer to affiliate/brand ambassador: if an influencer has worked with a competing brand long-term, they likely aren’t just a creator partner anymore. Perhaps they have their own affiliate code or have been promoted to a brand ambassador. This means they have a deeper relationship with your competitor, which isn’t ideal.

4. Competitor partnership is still active: apart from the above two reasons, an even stronger deal-breaker is when an influencer is currently in an active partnership with your competitor. Or when the collaboration has ceased very recently. As an anonymous contributor to our blog explains:

“In some cases, we are open to working with creators who have worked with competitors in the past, but we don’t typically move forward if the creator is actively working with another competitor; their audience can see that and we want to ensure the creator loves the product and it doesn’t come off as just another sponsored deal.”

⚠️ Note: a recent competitor collaboration might be a deal-breaker regardless of whether or not the partnership was long-term. The creator’s audience has just witnessed them promoting a product that rivals yours. You wouldn’t want them to start marketing you immediately – it’d come across as inauthentic. Nacho Selma, Influencer Marketing at Isnach, agrees:

Nacho Selma

Influencer Marketing Manager Isnach

It's not a reason to avoid collaboration, but if they have recently published content with a competitor and then collaborate with us, they would lose credibility as an influencer, which would also affect us.

So you can work with influencers who have collaborated with competitors long-term, but maybe after some time has passed since their partnership ended.

But like before, we’d argue that it can be really powerful if you have a superior product and can convince the creator of that.

For example, Perfora ran a gifting campaign and convinced influencers like Puneet who were reluctant to try electronic toothbrushes, to change their minds.

Not only this, but some creators also said they had been using electronic toothbrushes for a while and switched to Perfora because of how great the product is.

In the post below, lifestyle creator Gayathri Iyenger doesn’t bad-mouth Perfora’s competitors by dropping names, but clearly highlights that she switched from one brand to Perfora. How? She mentions she has been using electronic toothbrushes since the for two years, but only came across Perfora a month ago.

Remember: even a creator wouldn’t want to taint their reputation by endorsing a new, competing product – especially when they have been loyal to one brand for a long time. So, if you (& the creator) can craft a compelling story about why the influencer made the switch, the audience might resonate and follow suit.

Perhaps you can experiment by doing influencer gifting and offering to let the creator try your product for free, no strings attached. There are no hard and fast rules here. Adapt to the circumstance and make the right call – whether that’s exploring the collaboration at a later stage or trying to convince the influencer why your product is better.

3: When the audience didn’t respond well

Working with competitors isn’t a deal-breaker for many brands because it proves that your product is a good fit.

Noor Ahmed, Influencer Marketing and Partnerships Manager at Mad Kicks, agrees that working with the competition is actually a positive signal because shows the influencer has an audience of your potential customers:

Noor Ahmed

Influencer Marketing and Partnerships Manager, Mad Kicks

That is not a deal breaker, but more of a push for us to use the influencer since they have an audience for us.

But what if the data actually suggests the opposite?

What if the audience didn’t respond well to the competitor’s collaboration? Maybe the comments were off or the post(s) didn’t perform well. This is a clear red flag and a sign that you should also avoid working with the creator.

While you’d have to scan the audience comments manually, you can easily see an influencer’s past sponsored content and its performance on Modash’s influencer analytics tool.

1. Enter the influencer’s username in the search bar

2. Run the search and open their profile’s details

3. Scroll down to see their popular and sponsored posts with performance metrics

Easy-peasy, right? Check an influencer’s profile for free today. Your first 14 days are on us. Oh, and did I mention you can also find every creator on planet Internet with over 1k+ followers across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube? 😉

If an influencer has worked with your frenemies, it might actually give you a competitive edge. Now, you can not only gauge whether a creator’s audience responds to your product category (and save your $$$ if not), but also come up with new and creative angles to market your product. In essence, you learn from your competitor’s mistakes.

3 instances when working with competitors isn't a deal-breaker

1: When exclusivity isn’t the norm in your product category

No one buys clothes from just one store. Unless you’re Steve Jobs, of course.

But you get my point. Some products don’t require exclusivity. No beauty creator would buy all their makeup from just one brand, and no travel influencer would always stay in the same hotel chain in every single location they visit. It just…doesn’t make sense.

Ben Williams, Senior Creator Manager at Blast.tv, says not working with a competitor can backfire in these product categories:

Ben Williams

Influencer Team Manager, Blast

If an influencer is only promoting one brand/product, it can feel inauthentic. It's clear that they're being paid to promote that brand, and consumers will start to see right through it. Having variation on an influencer’s page can actually add authenticity and credibility.

In some product categories, it might be unreasonable to demand creators refrain from working with competing brands for the long term.

But it’s still possible that the partnership will come across as inauthentic if the collabs from the competing brands are lined too close together. A skincare influencer promoting moisturizer A from one brand on Tuesday and moisturizer B from another brand on Wednesday, for instance. Ben suggests asking for a two-day exclusivity window for these situations:

Ben Williams

Influencer Team Manager, Blast

Ask for a short period of time around your post date where the influencer can't talk about a competitor brand. This could be two days on either side of the post to maximize the effectiveness of your collaboration

2: When the specific product doesn’t conflict with yours

Skincare creator Aishwarya Kandpal collaborated with Lacto Calamine one day and Foxtale the very next day – both of which are skincare brands.

On paper, this looks like bad planning. How can a creator work with two competing brands just a day apart? But it was a non-issue. How? Because Kandpal promoted moisturizer for one (Lacto Calamine) and face mask for another (Foxtale).

If an influencer is collaborating with your competitor but isn’t endorsing the specific product that rivals yours, the other partnership isn’t a problem. After all, the audience isn’t getting introduced to two similar products from different brands.

It’s a small nuance, but it makes a difference. You can offer the creator freedom to work with competing brands as long as they don’t promote the competing products.

3: When product category knowledge is key

If you work in a product category where category expertise is valuable, it’s difficult to demand exclusivity because your industry might have many overlapping influencers.

Take Sunsama. They sell productivity software and Triveni is their regular creator partner. She knows the ins and outs of their complex product and highlights every feature in a digestible way for her audience.

But she also often promotes apps with competing features like Notion or Toggl. Since productivity software is a niche space, Sunsama can’t ask Triveni to let go of her other tools entirely. And neither can they find a knowledgeable creator in the productivity space in a jiffy.

In such cases, it’s best to demand a brief window of exclusivity instead of category exclusivity for the entire duration of the partnership.

What else should you evaluate when vetting an influencer profile?

Whether or not an influencer has worked with your competitors is just one factor you should check for when vetting an influencer profile.

Wondering what are the other crucial parameters you should examine? Here’s a list of the top seven factors you should assess. And if you want to snoop at what other influencer marketers are vetting in potential creator partners, check out the results of our survey.