Singapore’s Environment ministry latest government body to recruit ‘influencers’
Just weeks after the Ministry of Finance received a public lashing for its influencer campaign, another Singapore government department has taken to Instagram in its marketing efforts.
This time around, its the Ministry for the Environment and Water Resources – or Mewr –, which has recruited a host of ‘influencers’ to promote climate change messages on their social media pages.
However, in a departure from the MOF, which was heavily criticised for using beauty bloggers to promote the Budget, the Merp appears to have opted for so-called ‘micro-influencers’ – Instagram users with followings in the hundreds and early thousands.
Using the tags #SustainableSG and #ClimateActionSG, the users have posted messages promoting measures such as eating less meat, recycling clothes, using less plastic and raising the air conditioner temperature.
‘Micro-influencers’ with a tendency to post pictures of their children or parenting messages appear to have been a popular choice for the Merp.
Meanwhile, appealing to Generation Z, the ministry picked young bloggers such as Tacomels and Marcus Nai. Although neither of the pair have a niche in any particular subject, including the environment, together their posts have generated more than 500 Likes.
According to The Straits Times, each post costs up to S$35, with the entire campaign costing around S$1,500.
In addition, the newspaper reported the government body has paid 28 people in total with a combined reach of 100,000, for a campaign lasting three months in total.
Although using Instagram users with smaller followings decreases a brand’s potential reach, research has suggested using so-called micro-influencers will lead to better engagement overall.
According to a 2016 study by Markerly, which surveyed 2 million influencers, those with 1,000 followers have a like rate of around 8 percent, while those with 1,000 to 10,000 followers have one of 4 percent.
As follower base increases, like rate decreases, with influencers bearing a 10,000 to 100,000 following having a 2.4 per cent like rate.
And although the influencer medium has increased exponentially over recent years – and is expected to be a $2.3 billion industry by 2019 – many have called into question its ability to generate ROI and transparent advertising for brands.
Eleanor Dickinson is the editor of Mumbrella Asia. Eleanor joined the Asia platform from Dubai, where she acted as senior reporter for Campaign Middle East.
Hello! May I just point out that apart from tacomels and Marcus Nai, the other Instagram users you have included in this article are not sponsored “micro influencers” but contest participants (no #sp in the caption) – and the inclusion of these hashtags (#SustainableSG and #ClimateActionSG) are part of the contest requirement.
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