The power of persuasion: influencer marketing creates new opportunities for brand ambassadors
Nellie Lim is a Singaporean influencer with an Instagram profile likely to turn her 60,000-plus following green with envy. In each of her carefully-crafted pictures, she stands — beautifully dressed — before the gorgeous backdrop of a far-flung, exotic corner of the world.
And what’s even more impressive is that somebody, somewhere is paying her for it.
“It all started about four years ago,” Nellie shares in a phone conversation, having just returned to Singapore from Seville. “While working a corporate job, I started posting pictures of my outfits on Instagram. It was a genuine expression of my love of fashion. Brands took notice and they started asking if they could send me stuff. A year later, the whole industry just exploded. Soon brands came forward that were willing to pay me to post about the products. After about a year of that, I decided to quit my job and pursue this full-time and it was the best decision.”
Since the early 2010s, as online blogs rapidly transitioned onto platforms such as YouTube and Instagram, young, semi-famous social media stars being used as ambassadors for brands has grown exponentially. The industry was estimated to be worth US$2 billion in 2017 and is expected to hit US$10 billion by 2020. Last year, on Instagram alone, where many lifestyle and fashion bloggers like Nellie work predominantly, advertisers spent roughly US$1.6 billion.
None of this should come as a surprise. In an era where traditional media like television, print, and radio may be becoming less relevant and digital banner ads are often erased by the rise of ad blockers, social media influencers have become one of the few channels to reach vast swathes of young, mobile-addicted consumers with very defined interests and tastes. Top influencers are often praised for their ‘authenticity’, giving marketers perhaps the closest digital equivalent to a word-of-mouth recommendation.
A recent Influencer Marketing Benchmarks Report from one of the marketing technology leaders, RhythmOne LLC, reinforces the rapid growth and increasing use of influencers as a key strategy to drive not only brand engagement (measured by KPIs including cost-per-engagement, engagement rate, and earned media value) – but also to help drive brand lift and awareness, and lower-funnel KPIs such as campaign landing page conversions. To this end, consumer-focused categories – like retail, CPG food and travel – are realising additional campaign benefits and higher performance. With RhythmOne, a retail advertiser that leveraged the company’s Sharing Analytics and Smart Links features saw a measured uptick in product purchases – and as a result, the campaign landed a hefty return on advertising spend (ROAS) of $26USD.
All that said, for some time, serious questions have been raised about the medium’s accountability. Last year, US-based agency, Mediakix, raised suspicion when it uncovered how easy it was to create a fake influencer by buying robots as followers. Soon after, The New York Times exposed the staggering extent of fake follower use and fraud within the influencer sphere. It was enough to make the world’s most senior marketers, including Unilever boss Keith Weed, very concerned. Mediakix now estimates that fake Instagram influencers and engagement could cost advertisers up to $100 million annually.
Recently, things hit home in Singapore, when Daryl Aiden Yow, an Instagram photographer with 104,000 followers, was exposed for using stock images and passing them off as his own. For Nik Vyas, content lead at Publicis Media Singapore, it was yet another in a stream of negative stories that are making some brands increasingly wary towards the medium.
“Influencers are all too common these days and some give the entire practice a bad name,” he admits. “Many view it as a quick route to fame and money, not because they’re passionate about their chosen field. There are some very good influencers and some very poor ones.”
“Trust is paramount in any advertiser and consumer relationship,” says Charlie Baillie, managing director Asia-Pacific for RhythmOne. “The value of influencer marketing relies on authenticity, and that authenticity must be preserved through transparency and measurability if it’s going to have a chance to reach its full potential.”
“Due diligence in selection and briefing is therefore critical to find an influencer partner that can be trusted with a brand’s reputation,” says Vyas, who has helped run influencer campaigns for the past seven years, in both the UK and Asia. Brands now need to cover their backs in two ways: checking all of their chosen ambassador’s numbers, including vetting for any suspiciously robotic followers, and truly assessing whether the influencer is really suitable for their brand and campaign. “Weak execution is often the result of weak selection, adopting a scattergun approach, and not briefing influencers properly,” he adds.
In addition, it’s not just as simple as picking the right influencers. While metrics focused on quantity are certainly important (e.g. follower count, posts per day/week, etc.), engagement measurement can have a big impact on the effectiveness of a brand’s campaign. Increasingly, companies, such as RhythmOne, are investing in tools to help marketers gain an extra level of accountability with their influencers. In simple terms, they will help marketers trace where a brand’s website is shared beyond the influencer’s post, across both the internet and so-called ‘dark social’ apps like iMessenger and WhatsApp. These solutions give marketers a clearer view into the path-to-conversion, while at the same time enabling them to retarget relevant audiences.
Technology tools, however, are only one part of a much broader, and more complex ecosystem, as Vyas explains: “Metrics are a challenge for any form of communication and this needs to be established right up front when deciding if influencer marketing is right for a client or brand. It’s not the right solution in every scenario and its purpose needs to be articulated up front.
“What business objective is it related to and at what stage in the consumer journey is the content addressing a need? Once you’re clear on the purpose, you can optimise the content and amplification and build a measurement framework that’s right for that campaign, whether that’s around awareness, consideration, conversation, or advocacy.”
He adds: “Ultimately, influencer marketing is about creating great content and connecting it with the right people, to meet business objectives. Tech has a valuable role to play in the selection, distribution and measurement phases, but a critical component is the quality of content produced.”
Meanwhile, for Lim, whose most recent post shows her relaxing in Singapore with a shiny new pair of shoes, there are just some things that you cannot put a number on. “When you become an ambassador for the brand, it becomes how consumers see you and associate you with the brand,” she says. “And that is something you just cannot quantify. With every brand I work with, it’s about trust and friendship.”
Pondering on the state of the Singaporean industry, post-Darryl Aiden Yow, she adds: “Influencer marketing is still growing and there’s still a lot of investment from the industry in social media, whether it’s influencers or video bloggers. The good thing is that now the brands are more aware and educated on the best practices when working with them. And to be quite honest, in Singapore, we are very harsh on influencers. That seems to be the best way of weeding out some of the worst behaviour.”
CONTENT PAID BY RhythmOne
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