Go Zero, the zero-added-sugar ice cream brand, has scrapped its influencer marketing budget in favour of hiring two full-time in-house content creators as it looks to build a more measurable and sustainable content strategy.
Founder Kiran Shah announced the move on LinkedIn, saying the brand will redirect its entire influencer collaboration budget towards the salaries of two creators—one producing content in Hindi and the other in Kannada.
According to Shah, the decision stemmed from the company's inability to accurately measure the business impact of influencer campaigns. While Go Zero was running nearly 30 influencer collaborations simultaneously, the team struggled to determine the return generated by individual campaigns despite closely tracking city-wise sales data.
"What broke it for me wasn't the money—it was the blindness," Shah said, adding that influencer marketing often feels like "rent" because the content ultimately lives on someone else's platform and helps grow another creator's audience.
Instead, the company plans to focus on building its own content ecosystem through dedicated creators who understand regional audiences and can consistently produce brand-led content.
Shah cited examples of brands adopting similar approaches. Starbucks hired two full-time creators on year-long contracts last year, including one who worked as a barista, while social media management platform Sprout Social reported that employee creators accounted for less than 8% of its content but generated nearly 30% of its video impressions. He also pointed to a broader industry trend of brands hiring in-house creators as influencer marketing evolves.
As part of its recruitment process, Go Zero has done away with traditional resumes. Interested candidates are instead required to create a 30-second reel in either Hindi or Kannada promoting the brand, publish it on LinkedIn and tag Go Zero.
Shah said the company will publicly share the results of the initiative every quarter to evaluate whether the strategy delivers stronger business outcomes than conventional influencer marketing. "If this bet is wrong, you will watch me be wrong," he wrote.
