Influencer marketing; is it a necessity or a waste

Brands and businesses pay a very huge amount of money for celebrities and influencers to create content for them, be the face of their brand, or post about the brand on their social media platforms.

Instagram says that

A post by Cristiano Ronaldo on Instagram could cost 1.72million euros or 774million naira (if one euro is 450 naira). 

My question is

Is influencer marketing really converting? 

That’s what this article is set to answer. So let’s dive in.

We live in a world largely influenced and revolving around the internet. Today, the internet is largely driven by social media.

Social media is a medium that creates a vast network of connected people all around the world, where everyone is linked together at an alarming speed and ease. It allows the exchange of information and communications.

Examples of social media include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Twitter e.t.c.

Why is social media more important for marketing in this generation than ever

• It is the most popular and used internet platforms

A study carried out statista research development stated that

By January 2021, an estimate of 59.5 percent of the world’s population which is 4.66 billion were active users of the internet.

Here is the catch for me…

Earlier research carried out in 2020 showed that over 3.6 billion active users were on social media worldwide as of 2020. The research also estimated users will rise rapidly to 4.41 billion in the year 2025. Alas, it exceeded the estimated population in just one year.

This value proves clearly that social media is the most widely accepted, popular, and patronized online medium in the world today. A lot of people are already addicted to these platforms as a result.

• It contains numerous information

The majority of information and beliefs are received and shared across social media, making it the most trusted medium for information access.

This explains a great surge in the use of social media as a medium for marketing and advertising by various brands. They understand its exposure level. 

Let’s look at a case study of the Euros.

Portugal’s opening game interview at the Euro 2020 best explains this narrative.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s rejection of the popular beverage product Coca-cola and its replacement by water not only create a great stir on social media but also saw a plummet in Coca Cola shares value – around the range of four billion dollars.

Likewise, this same move and video created opportunities for various major water industries to promote their product. The WHO organization was also not left out, as the video was used as a medium to draw attention to the health gains of avoiding sugar.

Influencers and social media effect

Now, this scenario draws our attention to  two major factors, which are

1. Influencers 
2. Social media  
3. Their effect on market rate and acceptance.

Let’s take look at these factors,

• Influencers 

As we have already taken a quick look at what social media and the internet are. It will be impossible to define Influencer without understanding what Influence is.

So what is Influence?

According to Dictionary, it is the ability to have an effect on the character, development, or attitude of any person or thing. It can also be defined as the act or power of producing an effect without a visible exercise of force or direct exertion of order.

Therefore,

An Influencer is anyone who exerts a level of influence over a certain group of people.

Meaning that an influencer is anyone who is able to affect or rather impact the decision of others towards various issues and decision making.

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What is  influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is the use of an influencer to promote and create awareness of a product with the aim of influencing the choice or decisions of the target audience about the goods.

An influencer generally would refer to a celebrity. A celebrated and respected figure; be it in sport, the movie industry, comedy, music, and so on.

Normally, these sets of people usually have an undisputed large fan base alongside their solidarity and love.  This largely defines why the Influence market revolves largely around celebrity endorsements and projections of products. Although, with the boom of social media, we’ve seen the definition of an influencer or even a celebrity take a new shape, with many active users of social media having a great number of fans or followers too.

Social media such as Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and many others have caused the emergence of many influencers outside the sphere of the usual entertainment and sport sector and beyond the usual celebrities.

Today, many unknown figures have established a large community of trusted followers and family via social media. These people are able to cast their aura of Influence on their followers Because of this, their followers readily depend on them for information.

We have seen people such as Huda Kattan who owns Huda Beauty.

Huda Beauty is an Oklahoma makeup expert known as a highly-influential beauty guru. She has a high social media reach on her Instagram page of 49 million followers via her makeup tutorials video.

Also,  another Instagram influencer is Kayla Itsines who is an Australian physical trainer. She usually uploads workouts and dieting videos. This generated a following of over 13 million people.

Social media do not only create room for more people to gain influence but also increase the influence of others as well, such as celebrities. A perfect example would be the Instagram profiles of football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo with 401 million followers as earlier mentioned and singer Ariana Grande with 275 million followers.

Influencer marketing is a necessity. Here is why

What then is the essence of all this information?

Due to the continuous change in the world market, many brands are accepted based on recommendations and these recommendations are what is sought by companies when they use influence marketing. 

This is seen In the partnership of the pizza chain, Papa John’s with a basketball player and sports analyst Shaquille O’Neal. The partnership birthed a special brand of pizza named after the influencer called Shaq-a-Roni pizza. This pizza saw a massive acceptance with over 3 million units sold as well as over 3 million dollars generated for charity in under 3 months.

Another partnership between McDonald’s and Travis Scott saw an immediate positive effect. The meal was coined from the partnership “The Travis Scot” which become one of its best-selling products. It even created shortages due to excess demand.

The negative side to Influencer marketing 

Influencer marketing can mess things up too if anything significant goes wrong.

An example is a partnership between social media influencers, Kim Kardashian and Duchessnay. It created a negative response that had a negative effect on both the brand and hers. This was because her promotion post on the brand’s morning sickness drug was flagged off by FDA.  

We also saw a similar case in  2014 with the partnership between Samsung and Lebron James on Samsung Galaxy Note III. We saw how it went sideways. People even tweeted at him to make complaints about the phone. It created a negative downtrend and dissatisfaction in the brand and its product.

We have seen that influencer has a great impact on the upward or downward trend of any brand. 

In conclusion

Many companies source for these influencers to obtain their services and loyalty. They are ready to spend as much as possible to get the endorsement of an influencer.

The partnership between James LeBron and Mc Donald yielded him appropriately 20 million dollars from endorsements and sales according to Forbes. Likewise, the partnership between Kim Kardashian and Duchesnay on their morning sickness drug cost them 500,000 dollars without yielding them a positive result.

I leave you then with these questions,

Having seen the great effect of influencer marketing in both ways as well as the budget involved around it, could it then be viewed as an urgent necessity for brand promotion or rather a Wastage of funds?

Let’s know your viewpoint in the comment box below.

Writer: Menorah