A couple of weeks ago the Influencer Marketing Show 2021 took place. It involved a variety of talks and panels sessions covering everything from the current influencer marketing landscape, to what the future holds – topics included social commerce, the role of AI and contracts, navigating licencing & usage rights, plus lots more. The day was full of insights and innovative thinking. Below are some key takeaways from the event.
Social Commerce is growing, and Live Shopping is coming!
Live Shopping is the latest social commerce trend taking the industry by storm. By the end of 2021, Live Shopping is predicted to be worth $36.6 Billion in the US and $302 Billion in China. The Chinese market is the most advance to date, with 14 million people tuning into luxury retailer Tommy Hilfiger’s Live Shopping event, selling 1,300 in 2 minutes (more here). Additionally, 46% of the population in China are buying direct from social media.
Globally, 56 Million people are using Facebook to facilitate purchases and 130 Million Instagram accounts are used for shopping and to learn about products every month.
In the UK, TikTok recently ran their first-ever live shoppable concert with Ellesse and Zara Larsson. You can find out more here. This is something the platform are continuing to develop therefore this could be a great opportunity for our clients.
Integrated strategies and long-term partnerships are the future
I (Maddie) was lucky enough to be a panellist on this session alongside TikTok and Coty. We discussed how trust and authenticity still reign supreme in influencer traits. All of us agreed that long-term partnerships are key to a successful influencer campaign as these strategies drive resonance with an influencer’s audience, allowing for more organic placements and builds trust with the influencer, their audience, and your brand.
We also touched on how Influencer Marketing is becoming more integrated into the wider marketing and communications strategy – utilising influencer content for paid advertising, social campaigns, retail & e-commerce and more.
AI is taking over
In recent years Adblockers, GDPR and CCPA have stop Ads from reaching the right people and brands are having to think outside the box as to how they can reach the right audiences. 72.5% of brands are looking to invest in Influencer Marketing and AI has become a new useful tool for more accurate influencer identification.
When it comes to influencer identification, we often analyse the structural data of an influencer such as views and likes combined with audience demographics to match the right influencer for a campaign. However, AI allows us to examine the unstructured data like visuals and audio which amounts to approximately 90% of the influencers data giving a more holistic view of the influencer’s profile.
AI can also detect content similarity, bots and audience overlap allowing brands to match the best influencers to their campaigns.
A couple of case studies were given during the talk including the launch of APEX Legends with EA Games. AI was used to select the appropriate influencers across YouTube and Twitch and the prediction of 60 Million views (first two weeks) – were 99.9% accurate.
Navigating Licensing, Rights and Usage
Law firms are now specialising in influencer contracts, on behalf of influencers as there’s an increase in demand for contracts to more accurately reflect what’s been agreed and to prevent brands from exploiting influencers content and intellectual property.
This was a really interesting talk and well worth a listen if you’re handling any influencer contracts. It discussed Intellectual Property, Licencing, BuyOut’s Usage Rights and more.
You can see the full line-up of talks here.
If you’re interested in any of these topics or Influencer Marketing in general, we would be more than happy to share additional information or set up time to chat. Please feel free to reach out to Maddie and Aaliyah from our Digital team.