Influencer marketing is considered as a real activation and advertisers are so enchanted with it that the majority of them employ the discipline for their brands.  A global market estimated at 20 billion dollars in 2020, growing by 1,500% in 3 years. It’s therefore understandable that brands therefore easily rely on this efficient communication lever, with tempting promises and sometimes dazzling ROI (11 times greater than traditional advertising).

But there’s still work to be done to make this recommendation tool a high added value activation that will strengthen the brand values, already existing in its DNA. The health and social crisis that we are going through has only highlighted the consumers’ expectations towards brands: search for meaning, trust, authenticity and commitment! 4 key points undermined during Covid-19 confinements, which however allowed influencers to rediscover their strong sense of personal values and their creative potential with one and the same goal: to entertain and inform their community; to be their equal allies in everyday life. Because it’s clear that the emotional attachment a community have towards its favourite influencer is a desired goal by any brand.

In this context, how brands can find their find their place within the influencer-follower symbiotic pair?

THE SECRET OF A GOOD RELATIONSHIP : IMPLICATION & CO-CREATION

Many brands use "one-shot" influencer campaigns to complete an already defined marketing strategy, without "thinking" of influencers as major strategic keys. Thus, they become a simple tool for disseminating an advertising message. However, as in any marketing action, it’s necessary to think as much about the content as the container!

For example, influencer partnerships that concern products co-creation between the brand and the influencer are still too rare. Indeed, the vast majority of brands tend to use them for product placement or the promotional code sharing.

Thus, the influencer's involvement in the brand campaign remains weak, while he only asks to create, to innovate and to join forces with the brand to tell a story that fits with his values.

Building a lasting partnership is precisely necessary to integrate the brand into the influencer-follower couple to form an emotional trio.

CONSIDER INFLUENCERS AS BRAND REVELATORS

This lack of strategic vision can be explained in particular by the existence of fake influencers and the fear of brands of not controlling their image through influencers’ publications. Mutual trust must therefore be established while optimally targeting influencers who share the brand’ values. The influencer should be seen as an accompanist and a revelator by brands and not as a “preacher”. Just like a client or an employee, the more he’s involved upstream in the brand project, the more he’ll express his talent and his qualities to create the right brand content and seduce his community!