How can you balance creative freedom and mobile advertising guidelines with social media influencers?

Clearly Define Brand Guidelines and Objectives: Before collaborating with influencers, clearly outline the brand's guidelines, including logo usage, color palette, tone of voice, and messaging. Simultaneously, establish clear campaign objectives, such as brand awareness, engagement, or lead generation. Partner with Aligned Influencers: Select influencers whose personal brand and content align with the brand's values and target audience. This ensures that the influencer's creative expression resonates with the audience while adhering to brand guidelines.

Give influencers the freedom to be creative, but make sure it stays within those guidelines. It's all about finding that sweet spot where creativity meets the rules for a campaign that really clicks with the audience.

The influencer knows their audience and also knows the best way to reach them. That's why I am in favor of giving them freedom when doing a collaboration. I would only give them some guidelines on how to use the product/service and would only ask for a modification in the case of misuse. Moreover, when the influencer feels comfortable and we don't put words in their mouth, their speech is much more believable.

Provide Creative Direction and Parameters: Offer influencers creative direction and parameters within which they can express themselves. This could include providing brand assets, suggesting content formats, or outlining key messages to incorporate. Encourage Authenticity and Transparency: Encourage influencers to maintain their authentic voice and style while incorporating brand guidelines. This creates a genuine connection with the audience and builds trust. Establish Review and Approval Process: Implement a clear review and approval process for influencer content. This allows the brand to ensure compliance with guidelines while providing feedback and suggestions for improvement.

Influencers are cool because they have their own style, right? So, let them represent your brand in their own unique way. You can throw in some ideas, but don't get too bossy – let their realness shine through.

Begin by choosing influencers whose content aligns with your brand values, product, and target audience. Look for influencers who have a history of creating authentic content that resonates with their followers. While providing guidelines is important, give influencers room to be creative and express themselves authentically. Overly restrictive guidelines can stifle creativity and make content seem forced or inauthentic.

There's a delicate balance between creative freedom and the restrictive nature of brand guidelines. The best influencer relationships are the ones that get this balance right. It's a balance that you strike through art and science. The science is the research you do ahead of the partnership to make sure that your influencer shares the same values that you brand does. This research should cover their previous social activity and posts. The art comes down to your judgement and experience through discussion with the influencer and their team.

So, to get that sweet balance between creative freedom and ad rules, make sure you pick influencers that vibe with your brand.

I've always found it interesting the relationships with influencers are called 'partnerships'. Whilst they are in some cases, in most they're not. Yes you work together and the benefit comes from collaboration. But in reality, in the vast majority of cases the brand holds the power over the influencer. Or at least they perceive they do. Make it clear up front whether you want a true partnership or a 'buyer / supplier' relationship. It makes a big difference as to how smoothly the relationship runs over time.