Marketers need to rethink influence marketing in the new year if they want better marketing outcomes and more authentic experiences, otherwise they run the risk of wasting money on simply a ‘gun for hire’, several experts agree.
“Influencer marketing is one of the most disastrous trends to have hit businesses,” Growth consultancy Penso CEO, Con Frantzeskos, said. “For brands to give money to random people to generate low quality, low reach, low reliability outcomes is a complete waste of time and money.
“Influencer marketing is largely low reach, it does nothing to create and reinforce brand memories, and is mainly based on flimsy, if not downright false metrics for success. The wheels will fall off this elaborate con-job industry in 2018 and it’ll go the way of Second Life: teaser campaigns and virals.”
For Jaywing PLC (LON:JWNG) Managing Director, Tom Geekie, influencer marketing has still been something of a blunt instrument in 2017, with numbers of followers and celebrity status still regarded as a reasonable measure of influence. This is set to change in 2018 as consumers demand more authentic brand experiences.
“But in 2018 with better data-led techniques, marketers who are able to understand more about their customers, their networks and the detail of the things they talk about will be far better at influencer identification and marketing,” he claimed.
“This will enable them to spend budget more wisely and find more authentic influencers who will be true advocates, have greater genuine reach and move beyond being an obvious ‘gun for hire.’”
LogRhythm senior regional director for APAC and Japan, Joanne Wong, stressed that while there is still value in it, marketers need to understand that influencer marketing is not only about the reach.
“You must work with influencers that provide value to your customers and that is where content trumps reach,” she said. “As marketers, we would all love to control every aspect, but there is value in letting our influencers convey our messages in their own voice.”
