In 1981 I went to Edgbaston Cricket ground to watch the fourth day of the Ashes test match against Australia with my mum, two brothers and a Spanish boy called Alfonso.
Ian Botham took five wickets for a single run in a 28 ball spell and England won a famous victory. We poured on to the pitch, shouting and chanting: "There's only one Ian Botham!" etc.
(Amusingly it became clear on the way home that Alfonso had no idea who had won).
Shortly afterwards I saw an advert with Ian Botham using a Duncan Fearnley cricket bat - which I then bought. Good enough for Beefy, good enough for Tom.
But I felt a bit cheated when I realised later that he had been paid to promote that bat. Not a big deal - but I remember it now, 35 years on.
Tom Goodwin makes a similar point: Influencer marketing is all about trust, if you lose that trust, you lose influence. In B2B marketing, with longer relationships, this is all the more true.
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