Power Pulse #5: R-Squared Agency's Weekly Dose of Influencer Marketing Insights - Friday, 26 May 2023

Welcome to the fifth edition of Power Pulse! This week, we're exploring how brands can unlock the value and power of influencers for efficient and cost-effective content production to support their content and social media ads production needs. We also divulge our secret to ensuring the most robust brand affiliation in influencer selection. In addition, we'll discuss a crucial metric consideration in the influencer marketing sphere and why influencer marketing performance metrics should be assessed differently from those from digital marketing campaigns. Join us for a peek behind the curtain with our weekly Power Update. Dive into this exciting journey with us!?

Industry Snapshot

As the digital marketing landscape evolves rapidly, brands are discovering the enormous potential of integrating influencers/creators into their content production processes. Not only are influencers/creators renowned for their ability to create authentic content that rivals the quality of professional ads, but they also offer a cost-effective, swift, and genuine alternative to traditional content creation.

These advantages are essential for brands aiming to augment their content without incurring steep costs or enduring lengthy timelines associated with traditional casting, production, etc.

Furthermore, by collaborating with various influencers/creators for content production, brands can ensure a continuous supply of varied and engaging content. This diversity in creative styles resonates with multiple audience segments, thus making the brand's content more appealing on a universal scale.

Influencers/Creators have evolved beyond being just components of influencer marketing. They now play a vital role in supporting and complementing other aspects of the media mix. By harnessing the unique skills of influencers/creators, brands can create content that is authentic, captivating, economical, and scalable.

Reach out to R-Squared Agency to explore how you can boost your performance and ROI by integrating influencers/creators seamlessly into your media mix to support your brand's content needs.?

Best Practice Pointer

In the realm of digital marketing, certain key metrics like conversions, CPA, CPM, CPE, and CPD are typically calculated based on a budget solely dedicated to paid distribution. This excludes essential factors such as content production and organic distribution.

There's often a tendency to draw parallels between these metrics in influencer marketing campaigns and traditional digital marketing efforts to gauge performance and inform budget allocations. However, although these metrics may share the same denominations, their inclusions differ significantly, rendering any comparison invalid.

Take the example of Cost Per Thousand (CPM). In digital campaigns, CPM solely incorporates paid distribution. In contrast, the CPM of influencer marketing includes content creation (production) and organic distribution and doesn't factor in paid distribution unless the posts are additionally boosted.

Therefore, while these metrics may bear the same names, they embody vastly different elements. Metrics generated from influencer marketing should not be measured against those from other aspects of the media mix to evaluate performance and profitability. Instead, they should only serve as benchmarks against other influencer marketing campaigns, ensuring a fair comparison of like with like - akin to comparing apples to apples rather than apples to bananas.

In cases where paid media is utilised to bolster and extend the reach of influencers' content, performance metrics derived from the paid media segment can be compared to those from other digital campaigns. However, the organic portion, which also entails content production, should strictly be compared to other influencer marketing initiatives to effectively assess their joint performance.

Contact R-Squared Agency to establish the optimal metrics for your influencer campaign and discover the most effective methods to seamlessly incorporate them into your overarching report, enabling efficient performance attribution and comparison.

R-Squared Showcase

?The topic of authenticity is a hot topic in the influencer world. It all starts at the influencer selection level, and we at R-Squared Agency have a unique approach to ensuring the most authentic and story-telling results and campaigns.

?By selecting influencers who genuinely affiliate with the brand from the beginning, this affiliation will translate into the content as genuine love and appreciation. We do not have a fixed list of influencers; instead, we research and recruit influencers that fit the brand the best. We refuse to compromise quality or authenticity by pushing forward those who might not have the best affiliation or passion for the brand.

?A crucial part of this is a brand affiliation questionnaire crafted and designed for each campaign instead of simply asking if they are interested in a campaign. This way, we can assess the interest with the brand love instead of the interest only.

?For instance, while working with a car brand, we had two influencers with similar profiles, styles, audiences, and performances expressing interest in the campaign. The selection seemed equally advantageous until our brand affiliation questionnaire came into play. One influencer never owned one of the brand's cars but expressed a genuine appreciation for the brand and was particularly enamoured with the new model to be advertised. The other influencer shared a similar sentiment for the new model but also revealed a heartfelt personal story. Years ago, he had taken a road trip with his girlfriend in a car from this same brand, and during this journey, he had asked her to marry him. They've been happily married ever since. This authentic and personal story enriched the influencer's affiliation with the brand, making him the prime choice for our campaign.

?In another instance, we had numerous seemingly ideal influencers for a whisky brand campaign in Kenya. However, our brand affiliation questionnaire helped us unearth an influencer emotionally connected to the brand. The whisky brand was a favourite of his late grandfather, and a bottle was always present on their shelf. The whisky was more than just a high-value product to him; it carried sentimental value, acting as a bond to his cherished memories with his grandfather. Sharing this emotional connection with his audience created a similar emotional bond between the audience and the brand, making him a perfect fit for the campaign.

?Do you need to increase brand love and affiliation between your influencers, their audience and your brand? Contact R-Squared Agency.

R-Squared Tidbit

At R-Squared Agency, we value connection and communication, acknowledging that moments for team cohesion can sometimes get overlooked in the hustle and bustle of our fast-paced work week. To maintain strong lines of communication, we've implemented a weekly ritual known as the Power Update each Friday.

The Power Update serves as a touchpoint for our team to reflect on the week's victories, confront challenges, and anticipate the upcoming week's expectations. Each team member presents a four-part report, highlighting their week's best and worst moments, the future challenges, and what they're eager for the following week. These components cover three core areas: "Work, Company Core Values, and Personal."

While there's no requirement to share personal aspects, we've fostered an environment where team members feel comfortable sharing personal victories or challenges. These shared moments of celebration or support contribute to our team's overall connectivity and unity.

The Power Update has thus created a supportive and empathetic space for team members to express any concerns or share significant or minor accomplishments. It provides a refreshing closure to the workweek, reflecting the collaborative and supportive culture we champion at R-Squared Agency.

Don't forget to subscribe (if not done yet), share this with your network interested in influencer marketing, and see you next week for the next Power Pulse!

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