India, July 28 -- Kiran Shah, the founder and CEO of Go Zero, has shut down the company's entire influencer marketing budget, citing unclear return on investment and no brand recall value through content creators' videos. In a post shared on LinkedIn yesterday, Shah compared paid influencer campaigns to paying rent every month.

He claimed that brands pay for temporary exposure on someone else's social media account, but once the campaign ends, the audience and followers remain with the influencer, not the brand.

"Today, I am shutting down our influencer marketing budget at Go Zero," announced the founder of Go Zero, a company that manufactures sugar-free, low-calorie ice creams.

To explain the reason behind his decision, Shah cited the...