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Influencer Marketing |
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Thursday, June 02, 2022 |
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Welcome to Ad Age’s influencer marketing newsletter, featuring news gathered by Ad Age Tech Reporter Erika Wheless. Every week we will explore how brands are working with influencers and how the creator economy is transforming the advertising marketplace. You can sign up here to get updates delivered to your inbox.
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Inflation and influencers
As the U.S. inflation rate surpasses 8%, marketers are starting to feel the pain in their advertising budgets. Brands such as consumer packaged goods, quick-service restaurants and direct-to-consumer marketing have been cutting back ad spend to avoid raising prices, as Ad Age’s Jack Neff reported in April. Marketers are also starting to see this with influencers.
Over the last six months, influencer marketers said they have seen more traditional ad dollars go to influencers as brands look for more flexible, affordable options. Apple iOS changes making targeting less effective and higher costs to reach 1,000 eyeballs on traditional paid spend on social channels are also contributing factors. While influencer choices and prices vary greatly across platforms, influencer marketing is still far less expensive than TV or print advertising.
“[Influencer marketing] is more measurable than traditional ad spend,” Danielle Wiley, founder and CEO of Sway Group, wrote in an email. “The available metrics (impressions, engagements, saves, clicks, replies, shares) are unparalleled, which is vital when brands need to make the most of their spend. If you are spending money in an inflationary market, it's key to know exactly what you are getting for every dollar.” She adds that ambassador programs are another way to effectively market, since brands can lock in influencers for a certain time period at a set rate.
Still, influencer rates have also been rising steadily as brands are eager to get in front of engaged audiences. "But the total influencer population is growing much slower," said Even Horowitz, co-founder and CEO of Movers+Shakers. "Influencers are increasingly choosy and are raising rates as they get flooded with brand requests."
But despite the increased rates, brands still know influencers can have better engagement and more loyal followings. One way to tap into creators in a more cost-effective manner is to use ambassador programs, said Wiley. Brands can partner with influencers for six months to a year at a set rate to protect themselves from inflation increases.
"Influencers also retain a unique feature, a relationship with their fans," Dylan Conroy, chief revenue officer of the marketing agency The Social Standard, said in an email. "That can be retargeted with paid media, so this is a first0party data source that remains intact and is now more valuable than ever."
Related: How TikTok can help find brand talent
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Influencer brand spotlight
Sisters Kim and Vanessa Pham are the daughters of Vietnamese refugees. Tired of not seeing their food represented in the grocery store isles, in 2020 they started Omsom, an Asian food brand that makes starter packets of Southeast Asian and East Asian dishes, including Thai krapow, Korean bulgogi, and Filipino sisig. “There was a lot of shame around our food growing up,” Kim Pham said. “We wanted to make a company that was loud and proud about the love that goes into Asian food.”
This interview with Kim Pham has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
How did you get your start on TikTok?
We launched in 2020 and went to Instagram first. We started experimentally posting on TikTok in 2021. I was obsessed with it as an individual and thought there was room for us to expand and grow, so we started posting. We learned right away to throw out what we knew about social media. We have a strong follower base and engagement on Instagram, but that playbook wasn’t working on TikTok. It’s been a fun but frustrating learning curve.
What makes a TikTok go viral?
TikTok is still a black box, and I love that. We don’t know when a video will pop off, but we are starting to see that our viewers care about the storytelling, like our video about why we started the company, to the behind-the-scenes stuff, like how we compensate Asian chefs. We are getting better about putting out content that resonates with our community.
Has TikTok impacted your sales?
Not necessarily. We do have a coupon code in our TikTok bio, but I view it more as the top of funnel, as a way for us to engage with part of our community. Facebook and Instagram have a more robust ad platform and analytics than TikTok, and I feel like TikTok hasn’t quite figured out an ad offering that makes sense.
Do you use influencers?
Yes, we do gifting, which has been great, along with a few paid engagements. We’ve gifted to @trinhdoesthings and @ireneykim as a few examples.
Are you running into supply chain issues?
Absolutely. It’s a chain reaction, starting with labor and cascading from there. We’ve gone out of stock before. Our main pain point is fulfillment and shipping, which is tough as a small brand.
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Number of the week: $26,401
According to a new report on pets on TikTok from the website All About Cats, prices per post for feline influencers can hit over $26,000.
That’s the case for ThatLittlePuff, a cat that has nearly 28 million TikTok followers and makes about $26,401 per post. The second highest per-post earner was Jiffpom, a speedy Pomeranian, at $20,600. Chipmunks of TikTok came in at $13,000 per post.
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