If you are one of those people who spend most of their time online, you’ve surely noticed by now the increasing number of individuals, so called internet celebrities with sponsored posts and product placements promoting a business or brand. The biggest marketing trend in the past 5 years, influencer marketing is here to stay and adapt to the ever changing market requirements. Social media influencers are people who use social media channels such as Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook etc. to create promoted content. The secret behind this marketing strategy is hiring an influencer to increase interactions with their target audience online with a boost in brand awareness and recognition which in turn gives more sales. Marketers are fairly familiar with this strategy, but is it outdated already? 2020 had its challenges for almost every market, so a question emerges; Is influencer marketing capable of adapting to this new world order? Ben Givon does the analysis for you.
Over the past few years a couple of trends emerged and created a need to kick things up a notch when it comes to influencer marketing. From the preference to relabel the title “influencer” and use “creator” instead, to long-term contracts and a significant decline in celebrity endorsements, here are some of the most important trends the market is leaning towards.
It seems like the word “influencer” has gained a negative connotation lately when it is tied to social media activity. The disliking isn’t anything new, in fact distancing was noticed in the last year or so and the emergence of the term “creator” as its substitute. The intent is for users to recognize creators for their work and not its result. 2020 might be the year this term dethrones “influencer”; it’s all about creators now. Another thing worth mentioning is creators finding more ways to get paid directly, rather than cashing in the brand/product they promote. Nowadays we come across more interesting ways to exploit social talent, for mutual gain. Additionally, social media influencers use these platforms to sell their merchandise making a brand of themselves.
In the past, you would dream big and go to Hollywood, waitress at a dinner and hope to get discovered by a talent scout and become a star overnight. In this day and age, the only thing you need is a social media platform of your choosing and a fresh outlook on content creation. Statistics show that there has been an increase by 300% in micro-influencer campaigns since 2016 which serves as proof to the fact that virality isn’t unachievable. Nevertheless, staying on top of the influencer game isn’t so easy to reach. For example, you’d think that celebrities would have no trouble staying on top of the endorsement game, since they are already widely recognized for their work. But one of the buzzwords of the year, “authenticity”, suggests the lack of a genuine connection between celebrities and their audience — something micro-influencers have no problems with. The public wants to see someone similar to themselves; not a celebrity and a huge wealth gap in-between. Be that as it may, celebrities will always attract with their star power, but before you consider paying one, you should check if it can be aligned with your brand or at least presented in a creative and inspiring way.
A different emerging trend of 2020 when it comes to influencer marketing is value-based briefing. Reports show that consumers are willing to pay more money if they trust the face that represent the brand/product and if their principles align. And if you have the trust of an audience, you can tell and sell them anything. So if the influencers have the credibility to talk about a brand/product the sales will definitely go up and there will be no jeopardy of hurting the name of the represented brand. In turn, influencers today get long-term partnerships because companies are trying to move away from the too transactional approach and build customer trust by creating campaigns that use the same influencers. This can be more persuasive to the public, creating a bond between the influencer and the endorsement in the consumers eye.
Lastly, we cannot avoid talking about the impact that the coronavirus pandemic had on the influencer market. Campaigns were postponed, sponsorships cancelled and social distancing and lockdowns created a new office space for everyone — their homes. So naturally, this issue had to be surpassed in a way where influencers could make their living from home. On the other hand, screen times and social media engagement went through the roof, so it was up to them to get creative. Adaptation is one of the main survival skills of 2020, so influencer marketing did accordingly. The numbers don’t lie either; 93% of the marketers used influencer marketing in 2019, and the budgets went up for 2020 by 57%. In two years experts believe that the market value will double to 15 billion dollars despite the coronavirus outbreak.
In conclusion, influencer marketing is going to rise to even more fame, possibly with a new name — creators marketing. The focus will shift to more regular people (mainly nano and micro-influencers and creators) and will keep moving away from celebrities. If there were recent doubts about their importance, the year 2020 has shown that not only the influencers will surpass any obstacle on the way, but will also keep the numbers and engagement going up. And if actors were the stars of the 20th, influencers/creators are without doubt the new stars of the 21st century.
