THE HIGHLIGHTS
How influencer marketing
has matured as a channel
SPONSORED BY the fifth
An expert panel at the Festival of Marketing debated how the success of influencer marketing should be measured, and pointed out why brands and influencers need a genuine rapport
Influencer marketing has come a long way in recent years. While its challenges – for example, brand safety, verifying audience numbers and ensuring all ads are clearly marked in accordance with regulations – haven’t gone away, as a marketing channel it has professionalised. With the right partners, marketers can achieve higher standards than ever before.
Speaking at the Festival of Marketing, Tag Heuer marketing director Elie Barnes noted that the LVMH-owned watch brand has moved into a “more metric-led” influencer space within the last 12 months. She puts this down to increasing maturity in the marketplace.
It’s not an ad campaign. There is no script
According to Oliver Lewis, managing director of influencer marketing agency The Fifth: “Influencer marketing is growing very quickly. Spend is increasing. In a recent study, 61% of marketers said they would increase their spend this year in influencer marketing, and we have seen that realised.” Olympic gold medal-winning snowboarder Aimee Fuller pointed out that brands need to move away from thinking solely in terms of reach to “something more meaningful and outcome-driven”. While campaign objectives differ, from the influencer’s perspective real trust tends to lead to a more authentic, organic and creative partnership, she said.
Fuller told the audience how, as brand ambassador for Tag Heuer, she has learned first-hand the importance of working alongside brands that are “a true representation” of herself. “Tag aligns with what I do both on and off the mountain,” she said, adding: “I’d call myself an athlete not an influencer.” Tag Heuer’s Barnes agreed, telling delegates: “We do a lot of due diligence and research into people. But the more important question is: what do you want from it? Do they represent you as a brand? Is it a good match?
“It’s not an ad campaign. There is no script,” she added. “It’s very different from a brand campaign.”
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Elie Barnes, Tag Heuer
Candice Braithwaite - influencer, writer, and founder of Make Motherhood Diverse - warned that audiences don’t like to be “fooled”. Pointing to the recent Advertising Standards Authority guidance on influencer marketing, she told the audience: “If you don’t play by the rules you will get called out.”
She said she turns brands down more often than she agrees to work with them, due to the need to find genuine synergy. “I’ve been burned before,” she admitted. “If I don’t use it in my real life, I don’t do an ad with it…the people I’m marketing to are depending on me to be honest.”
Tag Heuer marketing director Elie Barnes on the brand's search for credible partnerships
Candice Braithwaite, founder of Make Motherhood Diverse, on her criteria for choosing brand partnerships
Anthony Richardson, founder of fitness equipment business Ausfit and influencer data platform Q-83 agreed. He added that, as the transparency of metrics has improved over the past year, sharing them has become more “expected”, rather than a “nice-to-have”.
This has led to the channel becoming more respected. In turn, it has seen more marketing spend diverted in its direction.
Personal rapport is really important, Braithwaite added, noting that she often sees a “cross-pollination of audiences” when the slick professionalism of a well-lit ad is combined with the “realism” of an influencer. “You’re getting a lot of bang for your buck,” she told the audience of marketers. “Where you can, support them in creating the content.”
The panel all agreed that they’d like to move away from the term ‘influencer’ towards something that is more reflective of the need to work with credible individuals. “It’s now a more professional, metric-led space. We view it as more of a media partnership,” said Barnes.
The panel were unanimous in their belief that there remains plenty of opportunity in the space, especially if it continues to professionalise in the way it has in the past 12 to 24 months.
“Maybe this time next year we won’t even need to use the term influencer,” said Lewis.
“What social media has given us, and given individuals and many talented storytellers, is an opportunity to create content, to publish and broadcast very quickly, and be entrepreneurial. What we're witnessing is people creating their own brands and becoming micro-publishers in their own right.” ■
THE HIGHLIGHTS
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