"Influencer marketing" is in itself a triumph of marketing. If something is going to work in today's marketing and agency worlds, it has to appear to be new and shiny. As with "native" or as us old gits would have it, "advertorials." By the way, hasn't the fuss around native recently died down a bit? Or am I just filtering it out?
In 2018 Kantar Media released a study called Dimension. It was the second in the series; the third will be launched this spring. KM asked connected consumers (these are people who use multiple devices to access the internet) in five countries: "Which of the following do you use to get information about brands and services?"
"Celebrity endorsements" was the worst-scoring option named by 9%. Blogs scored 15%. Except in China where celebrities scored 26% and beat bloggers (18%).
There are more detailed studies on how using celebrities can add a great deal, but as the KM work suggests this does seem to be a lot of fuss about not much. Yes, of course having a celebrity promote your product, especially if he or she provides an audience of adoring followers, can be a good thing. It can drive awareness and add a degree of credibility amongst those in the intersection between loving the celebrity and being in the market for the brand.
But influencers need to be selected and then used in a way designed to use their strengths as an integrated part of an overall marketing campaign, not in a manner that has nothing to do with the brand's strategic communication goals.
My social media feeds regularly fill with posts ridiculing so-bad-they're-laughable uses of the influencer channel. Which only goes to show, as with so much online advertising, that once we start caring more about un-verified numbers (fake followers, bots, fraud and the rest) than we do about ensuring that what we say informs, intrigues and entertains, we're screwed.
If those hiring the influencers could remember that fit, creativity and authenticity are far more important than meaningless numbers, then everyone would benefit.
And I'm a media guy for goodness sake!
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