Content Licensing in a New Digital Landscape

The popular practice of digital licensing is rapidly evolving. Historically, licensing models were built on two main principles: likeness and audience. However, the changing digital landscape calls for new considerations and categories, expanding our main principles to include content generation and relationships. As all four of these principles advance at hyperspeed, they’re simultaneously amplifying the power of digital licensing like never before and introducing plenty of opportunities along the way. 

To quickly illustrate how the landscape has shifted, think about A-lister and 90's heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio. Over the years, brands have wanted to license his likeness for top commercials in product categories like fragrance, whisky, and even bubble gum. His popularity and strong connection with a sizable female audience meant unmatched persuasive power and influence. Take that mental picture and replace DiCaprio with one of today’s top digital influencers. With built-in audiences of over 1 million, they have something he doesn’t: personal relationships with followers on a grand scale and a steady stream of content that audiences crave. 

Audiences are everything. 

The value of built-in audiences on social media is almost unquantifiable. Engaged followers have a huge impact on the ability to extend the lifetime value of a single piece of content while creating long-lasting business relationships. 

Brands are strategically partnering with and licensing content from influencers that 90% of America doesn’t recognize. So what makes these influencers relevant? They have highly-engaged, eager-to-consume, core audiences bucketed across different social networks. Through the licensing of content, brands can access these uniquely valuable target audiences. This process not only reveals untapped markets, but it can even expose new customers, opening a world of possibilities in terms of growth.

A Facebook group here in New York City called the “Upper West Side Moms” is all about sharing tips, trends, shopping guides, mom hacks, and more. For brands looking to target women in New York City, and American coastal cities, finding this audience is a powerful opportunity. The core consumers in this group may not recognize the influencers behind Upper West Side Moms, but they do know they can trust the content because it feels localized and authentic. 

Social media makes it easy to get concentrated data. When you license content and likeness, you’re getting so much more than previously obtained through traditional marketing. Brands can now use influencer content and run paid ads targeting promising new audiences, creating a seismic shift in the value of the digital influencer. Brands shouldn't look at audiences as short-term commodities anymore. To survive this paradigm shift, they need to invest in audiences as long-term solutions.

Personalized communication strategies are relationship builders. 

Personalized communications strategies are evolving rapidly. Brands must make the decision on whether to implement technological and licensing tools to communicate with potential customers. 

One tool that has gained traction over the past several years has been the use of chatbots. In the past, you would visit a website and see a pop-up message saying something along the lines of "Hi Dan, thanks for coming to the site. Would you like more information?” This probably feels like a cold touchpoint since it’s obviously staged. 

However, brands now have the opportunity to take this to the next level by gaining access to an influencer’s social channels and setting up communication that allows fans to message directly with influencers. This creates an authentic bond, and converts a historically transactional touchpoint into a meaningful conversation and, over time, a relationship. As an entity, chatbots represent a very structured, personalized communication tactic. They carry unexpected value by allowing customers to feel ingrained in the product conversation while disrupting the old model of customer service and creating an authentic connection.

In 2020 text message marketing became a more established, personalized communication tool for brands and influencers alike. People open nearly 100% of text messages, which results in strong click-through and conversion rates for product sales or new customers. Using a designated phone number, brands and influencers can build communities and share information in a way that feels natural. Whether that influencer is Jennifer Lopez or a small micro-influencer with an established community, creating that direct line of communication is pivotal in the journey for conveying authenticity and creating value.

Content is (still) king. 

It’s cliche because it’s true, and it’s more affordable than ever. You don’t have to hire someone for $100,000 to produce commercials or large-scale, styled photoshoots, and break the bank while doing so. This landscape has drawn an influx of creators onto the social media playing field — they have the talent to rival major players, but they’re willing to produce work for ten or twenty times less. 

At face value, this seems disruptive to professional setups, but it also challenges large legacy agencies and gives up-and-coming creatives, photographers, artists, and videographers significant, and sometimes life-changing, opportunities that were previously unattainable. This validates the notion that top quality comes with premium pricing. Value can be found everywhere. And because you can choose to limit upfront costs, you can reserve more of your budget to use later on in your marketing funnel through executions with greater ROI, like paid media, retargeting, and SEO. 

It’s not always just about selling products. It’s also about education and quality of information. For example, TikTok recently launched its brand new Q and A feature, which allows users to submit written questions to their favorite influencers. Imagine a popular dietician on TikTok partnering with a supplement brand. That influencer could easily and authentically open the door to sensitive questions about supplement safety and can license and repurpose this content in a multitude of different ways. 

New licensing models & the future. 

The road ahead is exciting for brands and influencers alike, but it’s not without risk. To avoid misuse of likeness and content, rights monitoring needs to become more expansive. We’re seeing a shift from fewer traditional partnerships with extensive scopes of work to a greater quantity of partnerships with limited upfront requirements and long-tailed approaches. This means compensation models will need to be designed to ensure success for both the brand and the influencers. 

To stand out, brands will have to create long-term monetary opportunities for influencers that derive value from all four pillars. The future rests on building meaningful relationships with engaged audiences and licensing authentic, high-quality content.

How will you reach new levels in the future?

Dan Albert has more than 10 years of experience in the performance-based marketing agency space. Find his previous articles here and get in touch at [email protected]