From Advertising to Advocacy: Turn forced product placement into smart service positioning

-- or in other words, just tell a goddamn good story.

I went to a #YVRSocial panel a week or so ago, entitled "The Rise of the Influencer". It got me thinking about what is a salient topic in marketing and communications given the rise of individual voices in our ever more noisy media landscape.

Some people's voices are just louder out there; if we can passively compel influential people to say something about us (especially to people we can't talk to ourselves), great! If we can actually guarantee to get them to say something we want them to say about us, even better.

There's a blurry line here though, especially in light of influencer partnerships, as opposed to straight-up WOM and positive earned media: It becomes too clear who's actually doing the talking, which can be offputting when executed poorly. It's a transparency and authenticity thing.

The value of influence comes from when it's honest; otherwise, it's just manipulation.

We've seen this happen everywhere, especially as brands have started to appear on the same pages as consumers, often intersecting their conversations, or at minimum sharing space with real people. There's an evident erosion of public trust in the status quo messages that come from faceless companies and organizations amidst all this.

It's safe to say that we - citizens, customers, consumers - are becoming more critical, be it of governments, mass media outlets - or brands. So how can we work together as lines between endorsement and advocacy blur, as conversations between business and individuals converge?

Here are three lessons I pulled out of this session on influencer marketing - because in a way, regardless of our role or industry, we're all in the business of just that.

Lesson #1:

The trifecta of 'inform, inspire, entertain' applies to all content (including all types of advertising)

In light of social media exposing more diverse voices, it's not only important that brands make sure the influencers they work with are credible or entertaining in and of themselves; they should be well-suited to the brand, in terms of value alignment, tone, and audience reach. Their influential words should be an extension of the brand they're promoting - but so much so that the influencer, also, shouldn't be compromising their own brand.

Publishers, influencers and media outlets have long monetized their distribution in one way or another, through some form of advertising - and namely, so they could continue operating and doing what they do best: providing a service. A service like informing, entertaining, or inspiring those their content touches.

With 'traditional' display ads becoming less effective (particularly in mobile), marketers have looked to new placements. This includes native ads that interfere less with user experiences and ultimately drive higher engagement in an effort to offer one of these three important aspects of content.

And we've seen native advertising work well when it follows these same tenets.

Native ads are about positioning products deeper into a consumer context , rather than just placing them next to things.

It's often the softer sell that engages audiences in a different way - beyond a forceful call-to-action to 'buy!' a particular product. When done well, native advertising makes products relevant through storytelling rather than just by placing them in front of people like one would with a more traditional ad. Think of Facebook Newsfeed; the native ads that fare best are those that 'fit' with the wider experience, that don't stick out like annoying, interruptive ads.

This is true for influencer marketing, which really is often just another form of native advertising. One panelist, a 6S Marketing executive, spoke to the importance of storytelling in this regard - that is, working with influencers to place your product into a story that your brand can't tell on its own, that someone else can tell better.

Lesson #2:

Use influencer marketing for storytelling rather than for product placement

Panelists from Hootsuite, Arc'teryx and 6S Marketing all shared fantastic case studies of their influencer outreach tactics in action. They drove home the importance of knowing your audience and finding the right kind of influencer who will tell their story about you, and not just tell your story about yourself (how credible...)

In doing so, like broader native advertising, influencer marketing has grown in popularity as it gives brands the opportunity to inject themselves more seamlessly; it helps them make blatant talk of a product actually become a strong communication of service through the voice of an advocate. Well, ideally. When done well, it passes the test of public scrutiny.

We've seen this happen from a UX perspective with executions like Facebook's 'native' video, but also with things like branded content/native advertising. Both make the experience of consuming content better for the user while driving revenue for brands (and Facebook). Even more hard-selling ads, like sponsored posts promoting products on Facebook, for instance, work well - if the consumer sees it as something that helps them make that final purchase (this necessarily means the audience needs to be made up of qualified prospectives).

However, where a lot of brands go wrong in their attempts at native ad placement, is when they push for hard selling in environments that are built for soft selling. In influencer marketing, this looks like a poorly-executed, forced product placement by an untrustworthy influencer. In broader media, this looks like a poorly written advertorial.

Lesson #3:

See content as service rather than a place for product

Publishers, whether media outlets, brands or the influencers themselves, have to drive profit in some way; this isn't a secret. In order to provide the kind of service and content they set out to, they have to find a way to pay the bills.

In driving those revenues with monetized content, outlets can come under pressure from some brands that misguidedly seek placement (rather than positioning) - that want to be heard more than actually understood; these sites make compromises that detract from their initial service mission (that's something we've seen happen with websites with popup ads that detract from their content or Facebook, when it keep serving the same ads over and over). The result, at its extreme, is a kind of "selling out"; in a mild form, it's a misstep.

A good business is one that's ingrained in service more than just product (because really, the product should also be a service in some way - whether it's content that informs, inspires, entertains (for publishers) or whether it's a tangible product that's actually relevant to a certain lifestyle (for brands). And the best kind of influencers - be they individuals or brands - are ones with a service that helps fuel momentum through a bigger movement (marketers don't call them 'campaigns' for nothing): A movement of more advocates, a ripple effect, returning customers, a loyalty loop, a symbiotic relationship.

Ultimately, the important thing for us to remember when choosing influencers, outlets, or our wider marketing approaches is: Does this help me do a better job of being consistently relevant, (not just consistently heard)?

If it's worthwhile for fans, they'll vote with their clicks and engage, otherwise, they'll just hit "unfollow" and seek out a new source. Because as always, consumers have the final say about what they consume - they're still the ultimate influencers in any market.

Check out the full event recap and maybe I'll see you at the next one!