Influencer Marketing Archives - Page 8 of 10

In News

5 Social Media Marketing Trends to Watch Out For in 2018

March 5, 2018 No Comments

Make sure to keep an eye out for these five social media marketing trends that are taking over the digital marketing world in the upcoming year.

Did you know that on an average, we scroll through at least 300 feet (90 meters) of content daily? Not every brand’s campaign grabs our attention. It is a difficult and competitive game, as brands are trying harder to grab our attention, while our attention span has been reduced to a mere eight seconds. Brand strategy in the coming years will try more than ever to connect with their audiences across a variety of social platforms. It becomes imperative that your campaign works, more so taking into account the speed of feed. We have curated a list of five trends that we believe will impact your social media strategy in 2018.

Adopt Chatbots

https://giphy.com/gifs/11FyVJOvLleR5S

Gone are the days when chatbots meant unresponsive, hilarious and outright ridiculous software. Today, chatbots can do a lot more than just solve customer issues or order pizza for you. Various studies state that 20% of business content could be machine generated by next year. When we teach machines how to create authentic and engaging stories, the potential for advertising and marketing will become multifold. Chatbots interact with the users and deliver the solutions that they are looking for at the speed of light. Bots are developing to become smarter and empathetic. This engagement feels personal, from the user’s perspective. Chatbots are definitely a must-try social media marketing strategy in 2018 for your business.

Momentary content makes for good engagement:

Snapchat was the early adopter of momentary content. Instagram and Facebook followed suit, owing to the huge popularity of Stories format in a short time. These content are ephemeral and disappear in 24 hours. Brands are creating a whole new digital marketing strategy for their momentary content marketing. Having your stories appear at the very top of your follower’s feed keeps your brand at the top of their mind. Many brands do a live story session with a subject matter expert. This helps the user look out for the brand more so as to not miss an informative session. Ephemeral content marketing strategy is something that you should try in 2018!

Augmented reality boom

Augmented reality blurs the line between reality and computer-generated content by enhancing what we see, and hear. The adoption of augmented reality on mobile phones is a quick and easy way for brands to reach their target audience. Many brands are taking their products right inside the homes of users through exclusive filters. IKEA has released an app called Place which allows users to preview how the furniture would look in their homes before they buy. As more people get warmed up to augmented reality, more people will start to feel like they are missing out on things and want to become a part of it. However, you would also have to check where your strategy fits. Make sure your AR adds value for the user and don’t simply create one for the sake of it.

Influencers are here to stay

Influencer marketing has grown so much over the last two years that the popularity has made it difficult to know whom to trust. Consumers expect genuine reviews from genuine influencers. Brands must seek to work with relevant influencers with industry background or knowledge. Viewers are already bored of seeing brands engage popular influencers who promote teeth whitening and a mobile phone app with the same vigor. In 2018, try and create worthwhile relationships with influencers and maintain them. Influencer marketing is going to become more authentic with brands moving to real experts instead of social influencers.

Make more videos

We are addicted to mobile phones, and we love our videos. In 2017, 90% of the most shared content on social media was in video format. If you are not using videos yet, you will have to quickly start using them and master the art of capturing the user’s attention in the first 3 seconds. Video is the quickest and the closest way you will come face to face with your target audience. As with everything, you need to have a clear strategy before creating a video. Taking advantage of Facebook Live and Instagram Live is also a smart strategy. Ensure that the video is of the highest quality and engaging. You will also have to consider making the best design and make sure to add subtitles to attract users when they are watching with sound off.

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In News

Retail Marketers Are Bullish Moving Into 2018

March 1, 2018 No Comments

Nearly 90% of retail marketers will increase marketing spend this year.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

RetailMeNot has released result of a study showing how retail marketers will expand their content, use their marketing spend and what they are planning in 2018 to better engage and convert consumers.

This year, 9 in 10 retailers will increase marketing spend, and marketers will spread their increased budget almost evenly among marketing channels such as social, mobile, brand and display. This move reflects the need to ensure that every customer is receiving information in the channel of their choice. Interestingly, 93% of mid-sized retailers (between US$500 million and US$1 billion in annual revenue) are increasing their budget compared to 86% of large retailers (more than $1 billion in annual revenue) indicating an increase.

“Retail marketers are no longer thinking in channel silos. They are approaching commerce holistically with an understanding that consumers are channel-agnostic,” said Marissa Tarleton, CMO, RetailMeNot. “Delivering an experience that meets the consumer in the moment across the shopping journey will be the pathway to success for brands.”

Tackling New Trends and Challenges

While trends like virtual reality are still an exciting frontier, most retail marketers have their sights set on more realistic forward-looking trends. More than half of retail marketers surveyed believe improving mobile web checkout capabilities (52%) and offering exclusive promotions for mobile app users (51%) will positively affect sales growth in 2018. Additionally, voice-assisted shopping is an area that 39% of retail marketers plan to implement, with many retailers hoping to capitalise on increased use of smart home systems and smart speakers.

About 50% of retailers indicated they will use multi-touch attribution in order to better monitor the quality of traffic from their advertising investments. Further, retailers will become more bullish on advertising fraud as they look to ensure that their marketing is reaching the highest quality audience. More than 6 in 10 retail marketers (63%) will increase their direct media buying in 2018 in order to better monitor the quality of their traffic from advertising investments.

Holistic Approach to Increasing Sales

Retail marketers are wisely embracing mobile as a conduit for sales both on the phone and in physical retail stores. Based on our survey, retail marketers believe mobile is the key priority for positively affecting sales growth, and 72% will use mobile marketing to drive in-store sales. Further, 82% will rely on mobile marketing to drive in-app sales.

As marketers look to increase revenue in the coming year, their team structures and channel approaches will evolve to become more cross-functional. In fact, 50% of retail marketers say that their mobile marketing team falls under digital marketing within their organisation, up from 41% in 2016.

Finally, promotions continue to be top-of-mind for driving sales. Most retailers (76%) plan to increase the amount of promotions they are offering in 2018, and 86% will partner with websites and apps that focus on deals, cash back and loyalty programs.

“The convergence between physical and digital shopping will blend even further this year,” said Tarleton. “As retail shifts continue, delivering seamless shopping experiences—be it in-store or online—are critical to success.”

RetailMeNot is a savings destination connecting consumers with retailers, restaurants and brands, both online and in-store. The company enables consumers across the globe to find hundreds of thousands of offers to save money while they shop or dine out.

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In News

High Impact Digital Marketing Tips to Sell More

February 27, 2018 No Comments

If you have a sales event coming up, like the end-of-season sales, then here are the tips you need to know.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

The actual benefits of designing commercial strategies around events like America’s Black Friday or China’s Singles Day improve market platforms and strengthen the domestic economic market because it’s a great opportunity to encourage consumption and sales.

On Black Friday, for example, thousands of companies from different industries tag along with the commercial event and offer large discounts on their goods and services. However, competition is rife. An offer can lose its meaning when another company offers a better one, and what’s more, businesses must not only participate in Black Friday, but really know how to stand out and attract consumers.

So how do you as a marketer get your business to stand out?

Here are some tips from Adext. They deploy and optimise online advertising campaigns on Google, Facebook, Instagram and thousands of websites to increase the sales of SMEs that have limited resources for the activities.

1) Plan a strategy: It’s not enough to offer irresistible discounts on events like Black Friday… You need a promotion strategy with a clear action plan and execution dates. You must be clear on what discounts and incentives you’ll promote, how you’re going to put them across, the digital platforms you’ll use, who you’ll target, when and why. The what, how, where, when and why questions are key to developing any action plan. Come up with answers to them while always keeping the goal you want to achieve in mind. In this case, it’s sales.

2) Research your competition and make sure to offer something really attractive: You could offer a 10% discount, but if your main competitor offers 25%… You can imagine the outcome. If you want to take the lead, look at what they’re doing and ask yourself how you can beat their discount and/or add more value (without affecting your profit margins). You could give your prospects something of value like a gift for their loyalty, or an extra incentive for them to buy more. Also, don’t forget to let your imagination roam and build your offer or promotion around a creative concept.

3) Build Anticipation: Teaser campaigns are wonderful for building your target audience’s curiosity. Don’t reveal your discounts, offers or incentives too soon… Let your prospects discover what they are as anticipation builds. They should be interested and intrigued to find out what you’ll offer them on your sales event day. There are several examples of clever, catchy strategies where they invite their prospects to go to Snapchat to discover what the 10 star products reduced to €10 are.

4) Send your prospects emails: You can send a few emails before the big sales day (to build anticipation), and other reminders before the day arrives.

Here are three tips to make your email marketing campaign a success:

Make sure to add an attention-grabbing title or subject line to your email. An email subject line you see all the time, like “Check out our discounts!” will go unnoticed. But if you can entice the reader with something like “I don’t want to freak you out, but you’ll regret it if you don’t take advantage of this” will definitely pique their curiosity and make your open rates go up.
Once they open your email, there must be something of interest for them to look at and read… The body of the email must be pleasant to look at, and easy to read and scan. Use short paragraphs, bold letters, headlines, subtitles, vignettes, images, and of course: good copywriting.
Add a CTA (Call-To-Action), where you specify what you want the reader to do once they’ve read your email. For example, you might write: “Our discounted products will be available in store until we’re out of stock. We’ll be ready to serve you when you arrive” or “Buy your Christmas gifts NOW and make sure you don’t get burned in January”. This action-oriented copy should stand out on the page. And if you have an online store, add a link to it.

5) Take advantage of the power of social networks: There is no doubt that you need to be where consumers spend most of their time. Where’s that? In this digital world, it’s on social media. Join the conversation and interact with your audience. Include the most relevant hashtags (e.g. #Black Friday or #SinglesDay or #Summersales) on your posts, so that prospects looking for discounts and deals can easily find you.

6) Let digital advertising bring you the clients you need: Digital advertising no longer has to be complicated. And it can give you the results you’re hoping for. Adext is the first Artificial Intelligence platform in the digital advertising space that can automate the entire process of creating, managing and optimising your ad campaigns on Google, Facebook and Instagram.

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In News

Are you a Tourism Marketer? Here’s What Travellers are Hashtagging the Most

February 23, 2018 No Comments

If you are marketing anything in the tourism game, this is what you need to know.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

For those that are lucky enough to get away on holiday or go on an extended travel stint, we can predict what actvities you might be doing after a new study has been published by Hotels.com

The company have used a data-crunching bot to track what people are hashtagging the most on their sojourns. More than five million brags globally were analysed using a combination of Tweet data, Instagram posts and travel keywords and destinations mentioned on other social media. So here are the results.

Worldwide travellers are all about the culture: they enjoy musing around museums (300,000 brags), old-town charm (170,000 brags) and a spot of sunshine (130,000 brags), but they can also be found in floating restaurants, erotic museums and night markets.

TOP 10 GLOBAL THEMES

Museum
Rooftop bar
Old Town
Modern Art
Opera
Sunshine
Olympic Games
Cathedral
Gallery
Ballet

This travel bragging trend echoes the findings from the recent Hotels.com Mobile Travel Tracker report, which revealed that one in six travellers search social media before their trip to plan the photos they’ll take. And 56% of people surveyed admit to spending more than an hour a day on their smartphones while on holiday.

While travellers naturally brag about taking in the tourist hotspots and cultural offerings, more people than ever are sharing foodie ‘grams, shopping stories and luxe posts.

#Foodporn
You’re never more than an Insta-scroll away from #FoodPorn and the brag lists are brimming with culinary treats. Cakes in Stockholm and curry in Toronto spice up the brag lists, and New York steak and pizza both made the cut. Perhaps more surprisingly, enchiladas proved twice as popular as modern art in Mexico City, ice cream scooped 10% of all San Francisco brags and Jumbo Kingdom floating restaurant in Hong Kong took second place in the Hong Kong chart with more than 20,000 brags.

Shop ’til you drop
Shopping is a must-do for most travellers. Those visiting Paris brag more about the Rue Vieille du Temple, famous for its boutiques, than Le Louvre! Other top shop-spots included Bal Harbour in Miami, the Harbour City mall in Hong Kong, vintage shops in Melbourne and the stylish Cecile Copenhagen fashion brand made the Danish capital’s top 10.

Five-star luxury
When travellers check into a posh, luxury hotel they naturally want the world to know. The stunning 5-star Ritz Carlton in San Francisco topped the city’s brag list, the Four Seasons in Singapore proved brag-worthy and the Park Hyatt came in at number one in Seoul – most likely for its awe-inspiring rooftop pool.

Scott Ludwig at Hotels.com said, “Bragging about your travel experiences on social media has become the norm – if you didn’t get social kudos out of it, it didn’t happen!”

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In News

Adweek Announces Its First Advisory Board, Featuring 24 Top Marketing, Media and Technology Executives

February 21, 2018 No Comments

Adweek has called in the big guns for a huge collaboration which could be an example of how the rest of us will work in the future.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Everyone in advertising knows Adweek, a bible for marketers. Adweek has published articles for the brand marketing ecosystem since 1979. Adweek’s coverage reaches an engaged audience of more than 6 million professionals across platforms including print, digital, events, podcasts, newsletters, social media and mobile apps.

Today, the publication announced the launch of the Adweek Advisory Board, made up of 24 of the most innovative and creative executives who are shaping the modern brand marketing ecosystem.

Adweek says they recognise the need to synthesise a diversity of opinions to maintain its position as a voice in the marketplace. “Our newly formed Advisory Board will provide us – and our audiences – with the thought leadership and expertise we all need to help navigate the complex and constantly shifting ecosystem of today’s marketing and media world,” said Adweek editorial director James Cooper. “Adweek’s ultimate goal each day is helping our readers stay ahead of the curve and do their jobs better.”

“I am excited to be partnering with Adweek and joining its Advisory Board,” said GE CMO Linda Boff. “With digital transformation built into our DNA, we are in an especially unique position to guide and advise Adweek and the business community it serves.”

The Advisory Board will meet regularly with Adweek’s senior editorial team at gatherings across the country to discuss the pressing issues of the day. Members will also be on hand to publish thought leadership columns, speak at Adweek events and provide Adweek with insight and analysis on an as-needed basis across all platforms.

“The times we operate in aren’t easy. The pressure to deliver is daunting for even the most experienced here,” said board member Colleen DeCourcy, chief creative officer for agency network Wieden + Kennedy. “When an organisation like Adweek consciously turns its efforts to developing our talent, I am all in. Collaboration feels like the thing we need right now. All boats rise with the tide.”

Adweek’s Advisory Board Members:

Marisa Thalberg, Global CMO, Taco Bell
Linda Boff, CMO, GE
Adrienne Lofton, SVP of Global Brand Management, Under Armour
Andrew Keller, Global Creative Director, Facebook Creative Shop
Cameron Clayton, GM of Watson Content and IoT, IBM
Jon Suarez-Davis, Chief Strategy Officer, Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Ben Lamm, CEO and Founder, Conversable and Hypergiant
Caroline Papadatos, SVP of Global Solutions, LoyaltyOne
Alicia Hatch, CMO, Deloitte Digital
Baiju Shah, Chief Strategy Officer, Accenture Interactive
Joel Stillerman, Chief Content Officer, Hulu
Colin Kinsella, CEO North America, Havas Media Group
Michelle Lee, Editor in Chief, Allure
Tiffany R. Warren, SVP and Chief Diversity Officer, Omnicom, and Founder and President, ADCOLOR
Susie Nam, COO, Droga5
David Sable, Global CEO, Y&R
Colleen DeCourcy, Chief Creative Officer, Wieden + Kennedy
Michael Dill, President and CEO, Match Marketing Group
Bonin Bough, Author and TV Host
Terrance Williams, CMO and President of Emerging Businesses, Nationwide
Kasha Cacy, CEO, UM U.S.
David Mondragon, CEO of Triton Automotive Group and Senior Partner, Motormindz
Linda Yaccarino, Chairman of Advertising and Client Partnerships, NBCUniversal
Nannette LaFond-Dufour, Global Chief Client Officer, McCann Worldgroup

To read further about Adweek’s Advisory Board initiative, click here

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In News

Good Branding Stops Your Customers From Switching, Not Good Deals

February 20, 2018 No Comments

Brand managers, get on it!

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Energy companies in the UK are using specific branding approaches instead of product innovation to keep customers, according to new research from the University of East Anglia (UEA).

While previous research has tended to focus on pricing, this study looked at the branding strategies and personalities of the Big Six energy firms – British Gas, SSE, EDF Energy, E.ON UK, npower and Scottish Power. They wanted to find out whether increasing consumer loyalty results in reducing switching behaviour. The Big Six represent more than 90 per cent of all energy supplied in the UK consumer sector.

The researchers looked at the electricity market between 2013 – when the number of customers switching providers reached its lowest level – and 2015. And, the researchers did find that brand personality consistency over time is important.

Consistent brands (such as EDF Energy) performed better, and their customers decreased switching. This was compared to firms like npower and Scottish Energy, who had significantly changed their brand personality position or communicated inconsistently in this period.

Providers that had a significantly different brand personality position between marketing communication channels, such as their website and annual report, also had more switching than those that remained consistent. Interestingly, the majority of the brands studied were inconsistent on this measure.

Lead author Dr Richard Rutter says that this research demonstrates the long-term importance of corporate branding. “Brand personality does have an impact on customer retention. The Big Six energy providers recognise the power of brand identity when attempting to persuade consumers to switch providers. Rather than doing so simply on the basis of superior financial offers, they are increasingly looking to build a long-term brand personality with which consumers will identify.

“These organisations wish to be viewed as customer-focused and as offering a fair deal to consumers. There seem to be subtle but important differences in the ways that each company is choosing to communicate with its domestic audience and some are more effective than others.”

Concentrating on companies’ communication through their websites and annual reports, the researchers examined what brand personality dimensions – defined as sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication and ruggedness – were communicated most strongly and how consistently each organisation communicated its brand between the website and annual report. They then assessed the organisation’s performance, measured by consumer loyalty or switching behaviour.

They found that brands communicating excitement more strongly, such as EDF Energy, had the lowest levels of switching. The findings also suggest an ideal brand personality for the UK energy sector: low to medium levels of sincerity and competence and high levels of excitement and ruggedness communicated through the website lead to better performance. The authors say the annual report should maintain this, but also communicate a higher level of competence.

Said co-author Prof Konstantinos Chalvatzis, “Under scrutiny from the public and politicians, the energy sector is changing rapidly. Branding within the energy sector has become increasingly important, as energy firms seek to attract and, importantly, retain customers.

“We find that certain energy brands, for example EDF Energy have communicated their personality consistently, while others, such as npower and British Gas, seem to have repositioned themselves. A strong brand personality alone is not enough to prevent consumer switching, rather, particular dimensions of personality are more favourable than others and the relevance of specific personality traits can change.”

The authors recommend that firms should not drastically change their branding each year. Brand managers should also consider how to increase the communication of excitement in relation to their brands without being inauthentic, and ensure that their brand is consistent over time and between different marketing media.

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In News

How to be heard over the noise in content marketing

February 20, 2018 No Comments

Posted by Impression

n the beginning, when online marketing was merely a twinkle in the eye of the internet, gaining online exposure for your brand was straightforward enough.

If you knew what you were doing, a little bit of social media and journalist outreach was an effective strategy to engage with your potential audience. However, as we witness an increase in audiences far and wide consuming the majority of news and content online, it’s fair to say that the landscape has grown up.

Today, social media, blogs and other news portals are oversaturated with content on content on content. It’s becoming increasingly hard to be heard as a brand. As large corporations clock on to the benefits of online marketing, they’re storming into the marketplace with gigantic marketing budgets, campaigns and agencies. Subsequently everything else is drowned out and gaining exposure online as small to medium sized business suddenly becomes impossible.

The content marketing revolution

“An abundance of content online means the quality is decreasing.” I have heard this so many times. I would disagree. Why do people assume scarcity equals value? What this actually means is that in order to stand out against the noise, marketers are having to create unique and remarkable content that is more targeted and relevant for its audience than ever. More content means more opportunities for better quality. It’s just harder to find, and create.

But how can we do this? Content marketing campaigns, of course. Over the last few years, we’ve seen an evolution of the news, whereby there’s a mix of creative campaigns frequenting the headlines in place of traditional media tactics. Whereas branded news and stories dominated the columns in the past, we’re now seeing a shift towards creative marketing campaigns across the news.

Coming from a more traditional PR background, I essentially see this as the digital version of the offline PR stunt. Some maverick somewhere decided that they’d take the principles of PR – coming up with something compelling that will gain virality – and they executed it online. The difference is that digital presents the opportunity to be even more interactive with its audience, leading to additional marketing tactics, data capture and surveys, for example.

Spice it up with an influencer

As more marketeers catch wind of this, it’s almost become to go-to and we’re dealing with the same content oversaturation problem again. Therefore, in order to run a successful and effective content marketing campaign, we need to implement some sneaky alternative tactics.

You may be experts in what you do, but your audience won’t necessarily know that. Let’s be honest, the likelihood is that your brand doesn’t currently hold enough weight on it’s own, causing your content marketing efforts to flop. You need additional authority, and that’s where using influencers comes in.

Start by reaching out to other higher profile businesses in relevant industries to see if they’d provide comment. This may sound like a difficult task, yet you’d be surprised. Business leaders generally support positive exposure for themselves as individuals as well as their brand, and will be more than happy to comply, seasoning your piece with that essential authority.

It’s easier than you think to reach out to high profile experts via public or decentralised social media platforms such as Reddit or Twitter. Gaining comments from experts in their field in this manner not only helps add the weight to gain exposure, but also aids in the share potential, as these influencers have a huge audience on social media.

Top Hopics

A easy way to ensure that people are going to talk about your topic is to make sure people are already talking about your topic. How? Before you start a content marketing campaign that’s relevant to your industry, think whether there are any ongoing controversial conversations, current trends or hot topics that you can piggyback to support your idea.

Sometimes this can be something as simple as national holidays, such as Christmas, Hanukkah or May the Fourth. On that note, pop media such as films and TV series’ gain a load of exposure during the times they are released and broadcast, so try to leech off that coverage as well.

A content marketing piece that is focused around current trends means outreach will also be easier, as you’ll already have a list of media and news outlets that are speaking about your topic ready to outreach with your content marketing piece.

Where shall I begin?

Tapping into influencers and trends is an opportunity to be creative. Sure, go ahead and try a combination of the above, but don’t be afraid of trying something totally off-piste.

One of the beauties of being a content marketer in a time of such an abundance of content is that it means there’s so many fantastic examples of successful creative pieces online already. Don’t just blindly carbon copy, but note the tactics used within these and don’t be afraid of taking inspiration from other ideas.

Reading industry relevant blogs, and using ideation tools such Buzzsumo and ‘Answer the public’ is recommended to get an idea of what already exists around certain topic areas.

I understand if you’re still wary of creating content that has had parallels to content that already has been covered. But don’t always try to be entirely novel in everything you do. Look at Wordsworth or Van Gogh; the best ideas come from inspiration from others, and there’s no reason why this can’t transfer into digital marketing too. I firmly believe that if something has had traction before then a new and innovative slant on, it will be picked up again.

Create something amazing that doesn’t shout louder over the noise, but is heard simply as it whispers it’s relevancy, as a unique and remarkable piece of content marketing.

By Jess Hawkes, Digital PR Specialist

Posted by Impression

Sourced from THEDRUM

In News

Advertising in Fashion Magazines is Dead to us Now

February 19, 2018 No Comments

Now? Fashion brands are meeting with social media influencers directly.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Hundreds of NY Fashion Week influencers were invited to a party specifically held to put them in front of brands that want some of the spotlight. The party was held by a company called Influence, which connects brands and influencers. Together, they create social campaigns that expand visibility and engage new audiences for brands. The influencer gets paid, and the brands get to reach audiences that they might not be able to access using other methods. Welcome to the “now” of fashion and brand marketing.

Influence is a sister company to the already-successful operation called Newswire. Newswire currently have an online portal that publishes thousands of press releases every day. Journalists and influencers can go straight to company news, by keyword or subject search. This means that they can get their news directly from the companies, rather than have the interaction brokered through a PR agency. This renders the traditional PR agency almost obsolete.

The way the PR industry is changing is similar to the way that fashion magazines are going. Teen magazines and fashion publications are no longer the huge, powerful entities that brokered deals between brands/fashion houses and their audiences. Now, it is the online fashion influencers who have huge sway with their fans, and brands can contact them directly. This circumvents the hugely expensive fashion magazines, whose circulations are falling dramatically.

As an example, a top YouTube fashion influencer is Chriselle Lim. Her channel is growing at a breakneck pace. Her videos reveal how to transform basic pieces of clothing into stylish apparel. Chriselle has support from global brands such as Target and Estee Lauder.

The change in the way brands and fashion are marketed has been incredibly rapid. Fashion magazines? Pah. Now Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube are the place to put brand marketing spend.

But back to the party. The event hosted hundreds of NY Fashion Week Influencers at Manhattan’s chic Sixty Soho Hotel. Influencers and brands from across the globe arrived to share in networking and developing opportunities for campaign partnerships that strengthen an Influencer’s channel and widen content reach for brands. The party was also used to promote Influence.com itself. And it worked, because here you are, reading about this new company.

Said Director of Influencer Marketing, Magnolia Sevenler, “Whether you are an influencer or marketer, the Influence by Newswire platform provides a community to build your campaigns.”

According to Sevenler, the platform has been well-received from both marketers and creators for its simplicity and reach. “It’s exciting to see all the positive feedback…as we enter a new era of marketing, where micro-influencers can be rewarded for their passions and brands can reach new untapped audiences.”

The company has plans to expand its network and add additional features to enhance users’ experience. And it is doing this all because the fashion magazine industry is destined for a papery grave. It’s time to move on, people, and bring your marketing spend with you.

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In News

How brands’ use of online celebrity influencers is maturing

February 16, 2018 No Comments

By Stephen Lepitak

The search by brand marketers for consumer engagement has led to the continued growth and funding of the social media influencer that has made millionaires of some vloggers and online celebrities the world over.

However, as these seemingly normal people have grown their fame, demand by brands for their audiences has similarly grown and the rules and regulations around their ability to promote products became a problem for marketing regulators. And in that time some have developed that relationship to become the face and voice of individual brands they truly connect with. Examples are endless, from Cole LaBrant and Mackenzie Davis to Maia Mitchell, who have used different platforms and shared their own life skills and insights to develop personal fan bases. And as Facebook changes its newsfeed algorithm to drive more personalised content to the fore, over media content, those organic relationships will become more coveted by advertisers.

According to research by blog discovery website Bloglovin’ 32% of marketers saw influencer campaigns as being essential to their strategies, with 41% admitting to seeing more success from their influencer campaigns over their traditional advertising.

“Brands are learning,” states Peter Willems, head of marketing activities and sponsorship for world footballing body, Uefa, while speaking on a panel organized by FCB Inferno about influencers and his experience of working with them through the launch of a new project alongside freestyle soccer skills channel, F2.

“Brands are more and more trying to put the objective first. We believe in data but we struggle a little bit with specific target groups, especially youngsters, and therefore one of the objectives of working with F2 was to grow our database within that specific target group. We believe at the moment that influencers can help us there.” he continues to explain, adding that sharing the objective with the influencers who are involved in the collaboration is now crucial too.

Willems also cites the comparison over the share prices of Adidas and main rival Nike as examples of how powerful the use of influencers can be in delivering sales, with Adidas having spent years now working with online personalities to achieve global growth and product awareness.

“For me, the biggest problem has to be how you measure success, which is still in its infancy to show what it can bring and what it can do,” Willems continues.

That problem around measuring return on investment is definitely to be an issue that brands entering this burgeoning sector face, agrees Laura Visick, head of social for FCB Inferno.

“There are soft and hard metrics that we can put in place such as reach and engagement which can be given to the influencers themselves to benchmark against their own content and to identify how things are resonating. One of the most important things is upfront identifying what the objective is and articulating what success looks like to ensure that everyone is on board.. there are a huge number of ways to work with influencers,” she explains of the clearly maturing marketing strategy, where one celebrity tweet is not seen as success in itself.

“The ASOS model is a good one. They are building a group of influencers that are engaging with and advocating the brand all of the time, and there are a few campaigns that we are seeing coming through that the moment that are very similar. They are building a group of ambassadors who are engaging with the brand and creating a very authentic relationship rather than a ‘one-hit-wonder’,” she continues, adding that that course helps create more robust measurements.

Using tools to help monitor and achieve return on investment is an obvious route. Verena Papik, director of marketing EMEA of Musical.ly, says it is important for brands to understand why each tool is being used and used to meet specific set goals and objectives.

She also advises that brands and influencers set objectives that see both succeed together.

“When brands and influencers really collaborate together, and they include a tool like Musical.ly, it is to add value to each other. Everyone is getting lost in setting goals and achieving data numbers, numbers of posts; but in reality is actually about adding value to each other,” she explains. “For a long term relationship you definitely have to understand what benefit the other party can actually bring to this partnership.”

Influencer, Bangs Carey-Campbell, fitness editor at Elle Magazine and blogger, advises that brands recognise the importance of not just paying online celebrities to pose with one-off products but to agree an ongoing strategy and to really follow through on the partnership for the most successful collaborations. She also advises that influencers understand the brand’s perspective rather than forcing their own ways of working fully, too.

“It’s about finding that middle ground when creating content. Especially if you are being paid to do that. You do have to understand from a brand’s perspective that they have a certain job description and certain markers that they have to achieve even if they are not 100% clear on them. It can be tough from the creative’s point of view as you have a way that you like to produce your content, but that’s why the brand got in touch with you. It can be tough to find that middle ground but as a creator, if that is the direction that you want to take your brand in, and you want to be more involved with other brands, you have got to be willing to meet in the middle somewhere. It’s not compromising your material. It’s finding a way to work together and find a way to be flexible,” she relays but later offers a reminder to brands that they are working and partnering with individual people, and not to forget that and treat them as a soulless commodity.

There is a long way still to go for the brand and influencer model, and the bubble has far from burst judging by the growing numbers offering their services and audiences to brands, however another piece of advice that all contributors agreed with was that influencers were more successful if they offered authentic insights and had achieved success in the fields their audiences held interests in. Otherwise it was likely that such influence would be fleeting and of little long-term commercial value in tandem.

By Stephen Lepitak

Sourced from THE DRUM

In News

4 Reasons Why Influencer Marketing is a Must-Have for Your Company

February 14, 2018 No Comments

By Magda Urbaniak

Marketing is such a dynamic industry that the “in thing” from a year ago, is now just a wisp of a memory. It is essential to have an ear to the ground at all times. Following our customers is simply not enough – we always need to stay one step ahead of them.

The beginning of a new year provides the ideal opportunity to identify, find and adapt to the latest trends.

Observing and acting on the latest trends in time can be challenging. Each year we hear marketing experts predict plausible trends, and the year passes with no action from our end. That could be the case because we don’t find enough evidence to support the trend and convince executives of its necessity, or because we can’t find the time and resources necessary to pursue it.

This year, one thing is certain: influencer marketing will rise in demand.

What exactly is Influencer Marketing?

Unlike classical marketing, influencer marketing is more niche; focused on a specific person, group or brand, rather than a wider target audience. For a company that implements this form of marketing, it’s important to provide the influencer a quality product that he/she would want to promote. Then, on the basis of an agreement, the influencer will introduce his/her community to the product, providing the brand with advertising and publicity, and increasing brand awareness and consequently sales.

You can also use micro-influencer marketing to reach your audience.

How it works

How to find influencers to reach your audience?

First find a platform where people discuss your brand, your competitors or other topics of interest to you, and keep tabs on it. This is much easier to do with a monitoring tool, like Brand24. Not only will the tool monitor multiple platforms, but report to your interesting mentions specifying the platform where each mention was made, person who made the mention and his/her reach.

Then, having prepared a strategy and a list of objectives, you can contact a specific person, group or brand, present mutual benefits and initiate an influencer marketing project.

It is important to have clear objectives. Influencer marketing relies heavily on building a strong relationship, and you need to be proactive in building one.

Why influencer marketing is worthy of your attention

Traditional advertising no longer works

Did you know that advertising is the second oldest occupation in the world? After many centuries of effective action, it seems that in the XXI century, its efficiency is lower than ever. We are immune to trivial, common advertising messages. We omit them in the public space, and ignore the press. Online pop-ups annoy us so we use an Adblock, which lets us use the network without banner ads. As indicated by Nielsen: 90% of consumers trust peer recommendations. Only 33% trust ads. Daniel Newman, digital transformation expert and Forbes contributor claims that traditional advertising does not work anymore. People have not stopped buying things, but how and why they buy those things have changed.

This is particularly evident among millennials – people for whom surfing the internet is as natural as breathing. What we can observe about them is that different sources influence their online choices and advertising is not one of them.

Before purchasing a product, they tend to check if any of their friends has recommend it and if their favorite blogger or YouTuber has anything to say about it. Influencer marketing has huge potential, which can perfectly meet brands’ demands, and not only of those that want to reach millennials.

Your competition is already on it (or will be shortly)

As indicated in the TapInfluence report, 84% of marketers are planning an influencer marketing campaign in 2018. This means that after several years of momentum, influencer marketing has finally gained impetus. Marketers are not only appreciating it as a phenomenon, but realistically implementing it in their strategies.

As indicated in the report, the top companies and agencies are just learning of the effective use of influencer marketing. People still need proof that influencer marketing can impact their bottom line.

Year 2018 promises to be one in which the effectiveness of influencer marketing will be backed up with hard data..

It does not cost much

Facilitation of an influencer marketing program can also be a great challenge. Remember, however, that influencer marketing doesn’t need a big budget (of course, provided it’s not a star like Julia Roberts who advertises your products). What counts more is creativity, thinking smart and out-of-the box.

The goal is to get through to a particular group or a person. Any number of communication channels and messages can be used. You need to reach out, surprise and get noticed. Remember, however, that the practise should benefit both parties. Even if you do not have a budget of $ 1M, you may want to think of personalizing the communication. Prepare your product in such a way, that the recipient can feel that you have earned their positive opinion. It may not be easy, but it’s certainly worth a try.

People trust opinion leaders more than friends

I realize how controversial this may sound. The fact that people trust in recommendations more than in advertising is already widely known. However, recent studies presented in the book Influencer Marketing in Practice, show something rather surprising. In the decision-making process, people are beginning to trust industry experts more than their own family and friends. A few years ago, the enormous potential of recommendations was also shown in Nielsen’s report.

You could connect with influencers, or run an employee advocacy program on a platform that also doubles up as a content curation app. With top industry content curated, you can prompt your employee advocates to share and position them as experts that their friends will be likely to follow.

Experts, bloggers and YouTubers build their authority on the basis of knowledge and experience, but also their personality, charisma and original ideas for presenting themselves and their business. They stand out, they provide innovative content and that is how they build their reach and authority.

The line between an Influencer and a blogger is thin. When one becomes an influencer is difficult to predict as it doesn’t depend on the influencer himself/herself. It is the audience that decides to follow, to like, to observe and to trust an online persona. As a consequence, influencer’s recommendations gain credibility.

Conclusion

Influencer marketing is based on mutual benefits. When inviting influencers to work with us, we need to show them that money might be one, but not the only incentive. It may happen that the influencer, or company, is so pleased with how the given company operates, that they become (voluntarily or by encouragement) brand ambassadors.

Influencer marketing is growing at lightning speed. It can actually convert into sales and bring tangible profits. Join the game and enjoy it as soon as possible or it’ll go on without you.

Sourced from http://magdaurbaniak.com