Submitted by jurgen on
Influencer marketing is becoming an increasingly indispensable part of marketers’ toolkits. While it emerged as a highly targeted and authentic way to reach audiences, even in its early days, the drawbacks were apparent to marketers and consumers alike. With brands having little control over influencers’ output, partnering with creators can result in damage to the relationship they have with their consumers if their endorsements are inappropriate or less than transparent.
According to our Media Reactions Study in 2022 influencer content became consumer's preferred online channel for advertising. Some 59% of marketers say they invested in influencer content in 2022, and close to 60% of marketers globally say they are going to increase spend on influencers in 2023. This places the channel fourth overall for increased investment this year.
Does influencer marketing really deliver for brands
We used our Context Lab Solution, which allows creative effectiveness testing and measuring brand impact and delivers behavioral insight for influencer contact, to analyse different influencer campaigns. We noticed that influencer creative executions are in the top third for delivering new information and being credible. Many consumers also find the content relevant to them.
On the emotional side of things, there is still work to be done. Enjoyment of the content is particularly weak, only placing in the bottom 40% of the ads tested in their respective markets.
And what about brand impact?
Do the contexts in which marketers place influencer content translate this performance into an actual outcome for the brand?
The answer to this question currently appears less than triumphant. Our analysis identified one particular role – trend setting – where influencer content performs better than an average ad in terms of brand impact.
This indicates that influencer content is a great way to make your campaign and your brand go viral, and actually influence what people think is “cool”. Its effectiveness at providing awareness, favourability or affinity among other metrics, however, lags behind that of an average digital video ad.
Get in touch with our experts
Deniz Sariyildiz, Creative Effectiveness Director