Done renting attention: Go Zero shuts influencer budget, bets on in-house creators

Go Zero has decided to shut down its influencer marketing budget and redirect the spending towards hiring two full-time content creators, in a move that has sparked debate across India's marketing and creator economy ecosystem.

Announcing the decision on LinkedIn, founder Kiran Shah said the shift was driven by one fundamental challenge: the inability to clearly measure returns from influencer campaigns despite running nearly 30 collaborations simultaneously.

"I could not measure the ROI on my own marketing spend. That is what broke it for me. Not the money. The blindness," Shah wrote.

According to Shah, influencer marketing often amounts to "renting attention" because the content remains on a creator's platform and audience. While brands may gain temporary visibility, the long-term value, followers and engagement ultimately stay with the creator.

"The reel sits on someone else's page. Their audience, their followers, their growth. We paid for a visit," he added.

As a result, Go Zero is reallocating its entire influencer budget towards hiring two full-time content creators, one focused on Hindi content and another on Kannada. The company plans to create content exclusively for its own channels, with the aim of building a long-term audience and content engine.

Shah pointed to global examples such as Sprout Social, Starbucks and Dell, which have invested in employee creators and owned-content strategies. He argued that brands should focus on building assets they control rather than relying heavily on external creators for reach.

The announcement, however, has prompted pushback from several industry professionals who believe the issue lies not with influencer marketing itself but with how brands execute creator campaigns.

Krishna Lohani, founder of Ask For Video, argued that repetitive campaign briefs and a lack of creative diversity are often responsible for underperforming influencer campaigns.

"The fatigue was never the creator's fault. It was the brief's," Lohani wrote in response to Shah's post.

She added that when multiple creators are given identical scripts and talking points, the result is repetitive content that feels inauthentic to audiences. According to Lohani, brands should focus on encouraging diverse storytelling rather than viewing creators as interchangeable distribution channels.

The debate reflects a larger question facing marketers today. As brands face increasing pressure to demonstrate measurable returns on marketing spend, many are reassessing the balance between influencer-led campaigns and owned-content strategies. While influencers continue to offer scale, reach and cultural relevance, owned content gives brands greater control over audience relationships and long-term brand building.

Go Zero's experiment will now be closely watched by marketers, agencies and creators alike. Shah has said he intends to publicly share the results of the strategy over time, offering a rare test case for whether in-house creators can deliver the growth and engagement that brands traditionally sought from influencers.