Why are dozens of influencers raving about Mercadona products? Is Roig paying them?
Forum users debate whether the influencers promoting Mercadona products act on their own initiative or as part of a covert marketing strategy.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
The influencer invasion of Mercadona: marketing or paid promotion?
Is it a coincidence that TikTok has become a massive showcase for Mercadona ready meals, or are we looking at a large-scale covert marketing campaign? The suspicion that influencers are not acting out of pure enthusiasm but under the umbrella of an opaque advertising strategy has sparked a heated debate on the forum.
The end of traditional advertising
The thesis gaining ground is that the chain has replaced conventional ads with an army of content creators acting as spontaneous recommenders. While some users point out that Mercadona funds advertorials in digital media under formats hard to distinguish from real news, others argue the real business lies in cheap virality: getting half of TikTok to review its products as if they were gastronomic discoveries. It's perfect marketing: cheap, massive and with an air of authenticity.
Volunteers or paid community managers?
The debate splits between those who believe the algorithm rewards easy content and those who claim that behind every video there is an agency paying for campaigns. There is no shortage of testimonies from former business owners confirming they paid thousands of euros for advertorials in national media, which reinforces the idea that nothing is free in the chain's communications ecosystem. The suspicion that infiltrated community managers are working to defend the brand and deny the foreign origin of certain products is a constant complaint among forum users.
The open question is to what extent consumers can tell a genuine opinion from a paid script. As long as the algorithm keeps rewarding content about fast-moving consumer products, the flow of videos shows no sign of expiring. Are we facing an influence bubble or simply the new way of doing advertising in the era of digital lumpen?
Related discussions on the forum
Is it a coincidence that TikTok has become a massive showcase for Mercadona ready meals, or are we looking at a large-scale covert marketing campaign? The suspicion that influencers are not acting out of pure enthusiasm but under the umbrella of an opaque advertising strategy has sparked a heated debate on the forum.
The end of traditional advertising
The thesis gaining ground is that the chain has replaced conventional ads with an army of content creators acting as spontaneous recommenders. While some users point out that Mercadona funds advertorials in digital media under formats hard to distinguish from real news, others argue the real business lies in cheap virality: getting half of TikTok to review its products as if they were gastronomic discoveries. It's perfect marketing: cheap, massive and with an air of authenticity.
Volunteers or paid community managers?
The debate splits between those who believe the algorithm rewards easy content and those who claim that behind every video there is an agency paying for campaigns. There is no shortage of testimonies from former business owners confirming they paid thousands of euros for advertorials in national media, which reinforces the idea that nothing is free in the chain's communications ecosystem. The suspicion that infiltrated community managers are working to defend the brand and deny the foreign origin of certain products is a constant complaint among forum users.
The open question is to what extent consumers can tell a genuine opinion from a paid script. As long as the algorithm keeps rewarding content about fast-moving consumer products, the flow of videos shows no sign of expiring. Are we facing an influence bubble or simply the new way of doing advertising in the era of digital lumpen?
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (11 replies).
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