What’s Influence Got to Do with It?

Reach Audiences with Social-Digital Campaigns

Catch and Release sponsored its first ANA Social Digital event last week in Carlsbad, CA. In attendance were 300+ marketing professionals from mid-large enterprise brands that spend their days executing online only campaigns using channels to engage customers and drive revenue.

As you’d expect there was a lot of talk around how to attract followers, get likes, amplify shares and ultimately transact through the largest, most popular channels including TikTok, YouTube, Instagram. The strongest emphasis was on TikTok, due to its reach and user demographics.

If your brand cares about a Gen Z audience, there’s no debate which platform yields the best result. TikTok claimed 22.6 trillion minutes watched in 2021 vs Netflix's 9.6 trillion. They’ve clearly won the battle for attention and they are also winning the battle for trust and affinity. According to YPulse, 2023 Gen Z says TikTok is their favorite platform, the most addictive and entertaining and 45% of those polled spend 3+ hours daily.

Influencer Marketing. Yep It Works!

Influencer Marketing was the most talked about topic at the conference. AI was also a hot topic, albeit fairly new and definitely the least well understood. Best Buy, Hyundai, ESPN, DoorDash and CPK presented their unique approach to audience reach using content influencers.

Best Buy discussed their approach in finding the right set of influencers for primary placement, overlaying paid amplification against those influencers and combining that with organic social. When you get your community involved in following, liking and sharing, ROI increases and it makes sense to combine paid efforts with organic and roll into one program and shared business goals.

Best Buy took this a step further by working in partnership with Sony on a Vlogging camera that its content creators used to produce videos, shooting in the wild and sharing the stories and experience on that journey, which of course pointed consumers back to Best Buy and a commerce opportunity. Bingo! To avoid alienating certain audience appetites, they blended the type of creators in the campaign ranging from a micro-influencer to a mid-level and a mega celebrity who created bespoke content, specifically for that 55% of TikTok’ers that get their news from “personalities”. This way they had control over budget and of course audience reach and then selected specific creators to amplify in other cross-promotional efforts.

Most digital and social teams engage with third party agencies and producers to execute and do the heavy lifting. Given fast-turnaround times, it makes sense and one attendee shared that their in-house marketing team of nine that supports multiple brands have double that in external agencies and contractors. It’s all about leaning into specialized skills and knowledge. There’s simply no way any one team-member could keep up with all the nuances of how to leverage each social channel, especially when it comes to reporting downstream metrics.

Digital Ad Spend On the Rise

By 2027, US brands and agencies will spend almost $400 Billion dollars which is the lion's share of their total ad spend. This represents 20% of the total marketing budget in the coming 12 months. Social investments aren’t going away. It just makes sense given all consumers now use multiple devices, predominantly mobile and time spent watching (TV) cable networks is rapidly dwindling.

U.S. Digital Ad Spending

Social Media Spending as Percent of Marketing Budget

Get Creative With the Content Mix

This translates to downstream pressure on marketing teams that have to move more quickly and also stretch their investment dollars farther. There’s no question that using content influencers works but you must make sure it’s a blend so you don’t turn off consumers that see it as an obvious product placement.

Celebrity influencers charge a pretty penny when they accrue 10’s of 000’s of followers and you also need to check that the creator’s audience matches closely what your brand desires. Other factors come into play which present additional wrinkles for every marketer. Best Buy did a good job outlining key areas to consider:

Authentic: (Yeah, it’s an overused term but actually executing authenticity is hard). Does the creator have genuine passion for their craft or area of expertise? Does that really come through in the content they create?

Credible and Quality: Are they knowledgeable and experienced in their feed? Are they a thought leader in the subject?

Creative: Do they have a unique voice and perspective? Also an innate understanding of what resonates with their audience?

Engaged Community: Are their followers made up of a cohort you’re trying to reach? Do they have critical mass on what you most care about?

Diverse + Inclusive: Do they represent a variety of races, gender, generations, body types, sexual orientations and other backgrounds you care about?

On-brand: Not trying to be everything to everyone? Does the creator align with your brand values and attributes? Is there possibly anything offensive now or in their past?

It’s important to check all the boxes especially when using valuable budget dollars and engaging production teams. For influencer marketing, don’t tread lightly. It’s a deep investment so conducting ample due-diligence and safely licensing the right usage is key.

The strategy of achieving a content blend, cleared for safe use early is the best advice for social-digital marketers. In attendance at the event was a private investigator that goes the extra step to conduct background checks, ultimately to protect your investment and brand reputation.

Always Be Curating

Active social listening can’t be underestimated. There are all types of content creators already applauding and sharing your brand’s products and services. Know who they are, follow and engage with them. Their content is available for use and all you have to do is discover and then get on a path to usage licensing. When doing this at scale, especially for continuous social feeds, you need to source way more content than you need in the near term.

Hyundai’s campaign that reached black and brown communities was excellently done but not every brand has the ability to place creators inside cars and the full experience. https://www.tiktok.com/@leticiagardner Leticia Gardner with 2M followers on TikTok presented a perfect opportunity for Hyundai’s Ioniq car model promotion but not all campaigns will command the same reach and budget spend.

What Does Your Next Social Campaign Need?

To find the amazing content gems on the Internet created by people with a camera in their pocket or perhaps from the next micro-influencer or mini celebrity, tell us more about your next social-digital campaign.

What’s your timing, goals and topics? You’ll be impressed to discover what’s out there ready to integrate, license and impress your customers in new and engaging ways.