Beyond Branded Content: Weaving Influencers into Your Marketing Mix
If you work in the influencer marketing industry (or if you’re an avid follower of influencers on Instagram), you’re probably sick of seeing uncreative sponsored content promising product “X” is the best ever. You’re also probably sick of hearing the word “authentic” thrown around, and have likely seen over a dozen articles claiming “the age of the influencer is dead.”
Yet, in our 2019 Influencer Marketing Study, we found that brands are continuing to diversify their influencer engagements in a myriad of ways. While tried and true sponsored content collaborations continue to be the go-to activation approach, marketers are engaging influencers beyond social media through events, podcasts and more.
Below we’ve outlined a few ways you can weave influencers into your marketing mix, moving your partnership beyond simply branded content.
Podcasts and Video Series
Whether your brand is developing its own video series or podcast, or is participating in a popular series amongst their audience, consider adding an influencer to your original content. Abby Adesanya, Head of Talent and Influencers at Bustle Digital Group, has plenty of experience threading digital influencers into Bustle video series on behalf of their brand, and the brands they work with. She says…
“Featuring familiar faces that consumers recognize and trust has been immensely successful in driving deeper engagement and conversation in the comments of serial video content.”
Bustle Digital Group (BDG) recently launched a co-branded video with Macy’s, intended to encourage shopping and conversion, which features trending looks for the holiday season, curated by influencer “BFF” duos.
Creative Ideation
While many still categorize influencer simply as a channel for distribution, the reality is that influencers represent much more than that. Influencers, aside from being regular people, are creative leads, brand strategists, and community activists. Instead of inviting influencers to create content for your brand for an upcoming initiative, invite them to help develop that initiative with you in partnership. Nobody knows your brand better than you, just like nobody knows an influencer’s audience better than them. By incorporating influencers into the creative process, you gain perspective from someone even closer to your customer than your marketing team.
Abby sees that at BDG, the programs where influencers are an integral part of the creative strategy ends up being the programs that run more seamlessly and perform better in the end, since the influencer has authority than a standard, negotiated pay-to-post program.
“At BDG, when influencers serve as the anchor of an idea or program, it’s important we get involved with the talent early, in order to build a concept from the ground up to ensure the storytelling can be natural and native for all parties involved. And these days, we’re noticing that influencers are much more thrilled around opportunities that invite them to collaborate with a brand long-term versus in a one-off.”
Content Development & Production
According to ACTIVATE’s 2019 Influencer Marketing Study, more than 75% of marketers upcycle influencer-created assets with some level of regularity. Given this trend, brands are more readily considering influencers for content creation only opportunities, positioning influencers as independent “micro studios” with the capacity to generate premium content that is built for social at a fraction of the price of a production company. Abby agrees, stating that…
“When it comes to digitally-native content, highly-engaged influencers can be some of the most talented producers in the business. When thinking about a brand’s end goals for social-first custom content — visually engaging, algorithm friendly, etc. — it makes sense to leverage the community that has mastered social media to create the images primed to do well on it.”
Events
Having an IRL experience with the influencers in your community makes your relationship with them, whether consumer-facing or not, that much stronger. Typically, if the event is of immense value to the creator, they will post content on their feeds sharing their excitement, likely tagging your brand, without being asked.
Planning large-scale influencer trips isn’t the only way to engage creators in an event format. As a matter of fact, influencer trips, a strategy commonly used by large beauty brands, have recently gotten heat for being a waste of energy and money, with little ROI. Lauren McGrath, VP of ACTIVATE Studio, shares her thoughts on the most impactful, valuable ways to engage with creators IRL…
“The impact of an event or influencer trip is not always predicated on budget. The most meaningful experiences for creators are those that are centered around a mission or point of differentiation that defines the brand, and the thoughtful selection of influencers that complement that. A smaller experience with built-in content creation moments and face-time with brand executives will ultimately wield more value for a brand than an extravagant trip to an exotic location that has no connection to the brand or product being promoted.”
Consider the following types of activations when weaving influencers into your event strategy:
- Brand Sponsored Events (such as pop-ups, product launches, or in-store activations) showcase the influencer’s loyalty and love for your brand in a consumer-facing way
- Trade Events (such as Beautycon or Indie Beauty Expo) give consumers attending these events a reason to stop by your table
- Industry Events or Panels (such as the ones hosted by CEW or WWD) are a wonderful way to give back, via educational and networking opportunities, to the creators you work with closely
If requiring an influencer to attend an event, make sure to contract them to create content before, during, and after the event for them to develop a genuine event storyline and further increase visibility around your initiative.
Product Innovation and Development
Consider aligning with influencers for product innovation or capsule / co-branded collections to drive additional interest around an upcoming launch. According to Edelman’s 2019 Brand Trust Survey, 63% of consumers trust influencers’ opinions of products “much more” than what brands say about themselves, and 58% of people have bought a new product in the past six months because of an influencer’s recommendation. Before selecting a partner to develop a product with, test and learn who your top performing creators are when it comes to promoting your current products or brand overall. And remember, quantitative performance isn’t the only parameter for partnership success. Ensure that the influencer you’d like to co-develop a product with is one that you have a great working relationship with, as well.
Both ACTIVATE and BDG both forecast product development to be a hot topic in influencer marketing in 2020.
“[They’re] starting to strategize ways to innovate and leverage their strengths both on and offline — some are creating their own beauty lines (Marianna Hewitt with Summer Fridays, Tracee Ellis Ross with Pattern Beauty), their own apps (Tezza with the Tezza App), or even their own influencer marketing platforms (Mary Orton with Trove Business).” Adesanya says.
“At the end of the day, social media is a rapidly changing medium and influencers are aware they they cannot be dependent on a platform that is totally beyond any of our control, it’s time to build a brand for themselves that will be stable and live on beyond a post.”
Creators are hungry for opportunities to create beyond the newsfeed, and brands can help satisfy their craving by inviting them to collaborate in a deeper way. Otherwise, who knows? An influencer-founded brand could become your brand’s next competitor.
Consumer Insight and Customization: Given the trust consumers have in the influencers they follow, as evidenced by the Edelman stat shared earlier, creators could be a great channel to gather valuable insight about your brand, products, and more.
A new L2 report shared how Rimmel London recently launched its first interactive campaign on Instagram, spearheaded by brand ambassador and makeup artist James Molloy. The brand directed their audience to varying Instagram Story, encouraging users answer a set of polls to inform an upcoming ad. L2 reports,
“Viewers were able to tap into the brand’s Story or ‘Lips’ Highlight to scope out the set, music, and lipstick shade options via the Poll feature, with Molloy as a guide in concocting their own version of the ad. The options with the most votes will then be selected for the final film.”
By giving users the privilege of choice, Rimmel London added some creativity to what might otherwise be just another ad while also upping its engagement on the platform. Tactics like this are not only great for gathering insightful information to inform your brand strategy, but for driving engagement, increasing customer loyalty, and supplementing positive brand sentiment.
Is your brand engaging in any of these types of influencer partnerships already? Although many of these highly visible and high commitment engagements are an area where many brands are still in testing mode, aligning with a trusted and select few to cut down on risk and better optimize your efforts.
If you’re considering one or more of the influencer strategies above, consider reaching out to us at ACTIVATE to get started on our platform, or have our team help support your efforts through our influencer casting services.
ACTIVATE is a fully end-to-end influencer marketing platform, covering influencer discovery, program workflow, measurement, and analytics. The platform consists of an opt-in network of 150,000+ vetted and authenticated influencers. Pinpoint niche groups by leveraging our geo-targeting and micro-survey capabilities or dive in deep with our curated networks of creators. Notably, the networks span a diverse variety of influencers including ‘vegan foodies’, ‘outdoor enthusiasts’ , ‘bohemian stylistas’ (and more!). Need a hand? Leverage ACTIVATE Studio, our in-house team of influencer strategists to build out and execute custom influencer initiatives.
Want to learn more about Bloglovin’ or ACTIVATE? Just drop us a note at research@activate.social.
