Content is the key influencer marketing metric, not reach, says agency
Influencer marketing is valuable because of the content creation not the reach of the influencer, argues Visual Amplifier (VAMP) marketing director, Amy Luca.
Speaking at Mumbrella’s Sports Marketing Summit, Luca said: “It certainly is something people talk a lot about in influencer marketing – the cost per engagement is this magic metric you should go for and it’s definitely important but I’m going to propose another, more valuable metric that you should look at.
“It’s actually the content itself and where you can use it. What I want to propose is that the value of influencer marketing, with the power ‘middle versus the celebrity’, is actually in the content and not the reach.”
Convincing clients to view influencer marketing through this lens is “pretty easy”, said Luca.
“The biggest thing we have to overcome with clients is the quality of the content. They think influencers who have a lower following than a celebrity influencer can’t produce the same level of content that an agency can.
“Usually once we get over the first hurdle of what the content looks like, the opportunities open up. They come back to us and ask, ‘Can we use it here? Can we use it there?’. And we say, ‘Yes, absolutely you can’. We believe in compensating our influencers so we do control rights to those images and we do charge extra for other usages.
“Brands are getting to that conclusion on their own because they want to use the content in so many other places.”
However the Australian Turf Club is still firmly on the side of ‘reach’. “Until now it’s mostly been reach but we draw a line between celebrity ambassadors and influencers,” said Tony Partridge, chief operating officer of the Turf Club.
Partridge said the Turf Club does not pay influencers “beyond our official ambassadors”.
Luca said using a celebrity ambassador or influencer is a strategy that complements using the ‘power middle’ influencers which means spreading a budget across a number of influencers with smaller reach to get more content.
“They’re not mutually exclusive strategies – they work together. Using a celebrity or celebrity influencer in tandem with a bunch of ‘power middle’ influencers to create lots and lots of content and lots of spread is the best way to achieve the PR lift you get from a celebrity and lots of content and lots of content spread across social media,” she said.
Miranda Ward worked for Mumbrella from 2013 to 2017, eventually becoming deputy editor. Miranda joined Mumbrella in September 2013 from Sky News.
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And what evidence was offered up to support the effectiveness of these claims?
Honestly, some of these conference stages are little more than a forum to peddle vague half-truths and flog voodoo-marketing.
Is anyone buying it?! – The voodoo that is, not the conference tickets, they seem to be selling well.
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So what you’re saying is, you’re paying someone to create content for your client, who does not generate a decent volume of reach, who works exclusively on social media.
This could be a stupid question, but could you not just hire good creatives and produce better content at a lower cost?
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Surely increased use or amplification of content leads to greater reach?
So ultimately it is reach!
Why do people have to attempt to make something more difficult than it needs to be to validate intellect.
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As an “influencer” or whatever we are being called today as well as someone who works at a digital agency it’s become apparent that the agency creative team model for social media content isn’t sustainable. I am capable of taking a brief from a brand turning it around then get paid directly for my effort at a rate I set. In my current agency the suits, planners, producers are all racking up time and cost before it even gets to the creatives. We then have to come up with the content idea, pitch it to a client (usually with lots of feedback/revisions) then we have to pitch it and shoot it. From brief to post I can be done in a few days, collect my cash and be on to the next project. Unfortunately, most of us aren’t getting paid enough to quit our day jobs yet but that time might come soon enough. Here’s hoping.
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Reach is meaningless unless you understand the audience, content has no ammunition without relevance for that audience and influencers are impotent in the wrong context.
Brands must consider that the ideal brand ambassador for driving awareness is likely to be very different to the one that can drive sales to the one that can protect the brand’s reputation…
There is only one solution that enables you to measure someone’s influence by topic and audience. Perhaps they’ll present at the next conference
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