Over the last three years influencer marketing has gone from strength to strength, thanks largely to greater regulation and the efforts of brands to create more impactful, authentic campaigns.
At the start, for many brands, influencer marketing was a land grab. They knew it was important, and that they couldn’t afford to ignore it, but they didn’t have a clear strategy or direction. As a result, they often rushed in. Those days will soon be over, as this approach just isn’t sustainable.
As the industry has matured and as more brands have got involved, they need to start focusing on how to activate influencers if they want to maximise results and build a successful influencer campaign. It will become vital for brands to focus on how they brief influencers, and then who they work with as part of the process. A lot more thought needs to go into it, especially if brands want to activate bigger influencers.
We saw 2018 being about brands learning about which influencers to work with, but in 2019 the focus will be on how to activate the influencers. As brands begin partnering with a mix of influencers and putting more marketing budget into the activity, the importance of a good brief that extracts the most creative interpretation will become increasingly important.
There is a big need for the brief to be more creative, meaning where possible brands should bring influencers in as early as possible in the planning stage, so they feel part of the project. They should give the influencers context on the campaign, messaging and goals, and help them understand the do’s and don’ts, but not be too controlling over exactly what they want to see in the content. If it’s too forced and they can’t use their style and tone of voice brands are only wasting their time and money.
Even the biggest critics of influencer marketing don’t necessarily think that it is a bad way to market products, just that most brands are currently doing it badly. There is a need for it to be done more elegantly, in a less superficial way.
Leading managed service platform for influencer marketing campaigns, Takumi will be taking to the stage at Advertising Week – Europe on Monday 18th March at 11:45AM (Story Crafters Stage). Chief Revenue Officer, Adam ‘Sven’ Williams will provide guidance on how to activate influencers in interesting ways (beyond just a cookie cutter brief) to cut through the noise and win over consumers who are becoming increasingly frustrated by soulless product features.
About Takumi
Takumi is an industry leading influencer marketing platform that makes it effortless for brands to deliver successful Instagram campaigns across the full spectrum. Founded in 2015 by Solberg Audunsson, Mats Stigzelius and Gummi Eggertsson; the company has become the most active dedicated Instagram influencer platform, creating 35,000+ pieces of content, completing 1,900+ campaigns and working with 800+ brands. As experts in the field, Takumi provides a fully managed service which results in original branded images on Instagram and high-quality creative that can be repurposed across other marketing channels – bringing tech and in-house expertise together for a holistic campaign delivery.