A.I. in Influencer Marketing: Buzzword or Real Deal?
Since the onset of artificial intelligence’s use for previously manual business functions, headlines have both heralded the technology and criticized its potential to take over a myriad of jobs. The influencer marketing industry has been the latest to discuss where smart AI integration can occur, and even integrate artificial intelligence directly into campaigns. But, with exciting advancements in technology that are sure to support smarter influencer selection and management, AI will neither replace the tastemakers of the future, nor will it eclipse the need for human marketing experts to continue to drive innovation in marketing strategy.
A Future of Computer-generated Influencers? Not Likely
There is an increasing fascination among computer-generated influencers with social media audiences. Perhaps the most famous Instagram influencer of this kind — Lilmiquela — has been in the media as of late not only for the mystery of who’s behind her account, but also for her recent collaboration with Pat McGrath and her takeover of the Prada Instagram before their Fall/Winter 2018–2019 show.
While this trend is sparking curiosity from brands and audiences alike, it’s unlikely that CGI influencers will ever make human influencers a thing of the past. The biggest advantage influencers pose for brands is a trusted, personal voice. A recommendation from a favorite influencer can be likened to suggestion from a close friend. Undoubtedly, computer-generated influencers may be able to offer inspiration — a small piece of the puzzle for brands when it comes to influencers — but they are unable to build that true personal connection with an audience. The beauty industry has seen huge, arguably the most, ROI from influencers specializing in content around unboxing or beauty vloggers specializing in reviews and tutorials. Because CGI influencers do not possess a human element, their opinions around specific products — specifically beauty products — simply do not hold as much weight as human influencers’ do.
Further, savvy (human) influencers understand the need to protect their audience that they worked so hard to build, and routinely work to ensure the brands they represent, as well as any branded messaging they offer are in-line and authentic to their organic content. In the case of a CGI influencer, there is no obstacle to a brand completely hijacking the content and messaging — which today’s consumer can spot from a mile away.
AI in Brand-Influencer Partnerships
Influencer marketing AI is still in its early stages, but given one of the biggest obstacles for the industry is the ability for marketers to adequately scale influencers effectively as a channel, there are certainly applications of AI that can very much help advance the industry.
AI can create classifications for “influencer attributes” based on particular sets of data, ranging from things like audience breakdown, past partnership performance, brand affinity and sponsorship saturation. And then it can go even further — we’ve learned that an influencer who works well for one brand may be completely ineffective for another brand, and even more so, may work for certain goals (eg. storytelling, awareness, generating qualified traffic, sales, etc.) and not for others. An influencer can also become more or less effective over time. Technology can be powerful in providing transparency around effectiveness to both brands and influencers; for overall workflow and measurement automation; and also checks to ensure proper FTC-mandated disclosure or a program’s specific hashtag are included in the content. All of this enables advertisers to focus less on execution and more on making the right marketing strategy decisions, and truly scale influencers as a channel. This in turn provides more opportunity for influencers, particularly the smaller influencers, beyond the top 1%.
In the last 12 months, we worked with over 75,000 influencers, publishing over 6,500 pieces of content each month and this is where we see the most opportunity for, and have the most excitement around artificial intelligence. AI can sift through past performance data, assess what types of brands influencers have worked with in the past, and which influencers continually drive high, qualified engagement around specific types of products or types of content. Because AI can assemble rich databases like these in a matter of minutes, it’s a huge time saver for marketers — as well as expanding the possibilities for influencer marketing as a channel to scale. But, a human element is certainly still required.
Influencer campaigns need a human gatekeeper for all critical decisions when it comes to final selection of the right influencers for a partnership, as well as continuing to drive innovation in content and social media strategy. Where AI excels in pulling together a wealth of information about influencers and supporting smart decision making with maximum efficiency. However, it lacks the creativity and ingenuity humans have. When you consider the most memorable marketing initiatives, across any channel whether it be TV or email, it is the out of the box, ‘surprise’ element of an idea that drives the most impact. So, while AI can help you optimize process and distribution, there will always be a need for human creativity to drive the narrative. More than ever, there is a need for the role of an influencer strategist who continually looks beyond campaigns to see what is happening across various social platforms, how influencers are adapting to new channels and features (eg. Instagram Polls, Swipe Up, etc.) and also drives new ideas that combine the goals of the brand with the experience and knowledge of the influencer.
In summary, AI is paving the way for more streamlined influencer-brand collaborations, but the human element is still a critical success factor to ensure creativity and innovation and, in turn, impact.
This was first published on MediaPost
ACTIVATE is a fully end-to-end influencer marketing platform, covering influencer discovery, program workflow, measurement, and analytics. Last year, the ACTIVATE platform enabled over 75,000 influencers to collaborate with brands.
Want to learn more about Activate? Just drop us a note at research@activate.social.
