Predictions for Influencer Marketing: 2023

Someone, please pop a crystal ball at the top of my Christmas list year because it seems now, more than ever, we’re asking what the future holds for influencer marketing.

?As the year draws to a close and Mariah Szn sneaks up on us, it’s useful to pause and reflect (unless you’re knee-deep in Q4 campaigns) on the successes, the failures (Liz Truss anyone?) and which specks on that not-so-distant horizon called 2023 could transform into huge opportunities for creators and brands.?

Are platforms unhinged?

2022 has seen a lot of changes. Elon Musk nearly bought Twitter, then he didn’t, then finally did and introduced a blue tick subscription service whilst firing half the company.

We finally tried getting used to calling Facebook, “Meta”, and by the time we did, Facebook Meta fired 11,000 people.

On top of all that faff, a little app called BeReal exploded beyond Gen Z’s gated community of Snapping and we all quickly became obsessed with those front and rear-facing, staged-but-not-staged pics where everyone tried to make our WFH set-up look exciting each day.

Oh, and then TikTok and Instagram both tried to kill and bury BeReal by copying its only unique feature, and all we really wanted was Vine back (…just me?)?

What a time to be alive.

Chaos aside, what this shows us is just how determined platforms are to adapt at lightning speed to kill off competition and maintain dominance.

There’s no sign of things slowing down. Just this week YouTube announced that Shorts (the TikTok rival that is actually doing a good job at being a rival) will soon be viewable on TV, hot on the heels of their recent announcement that they will be monetising Shorts with a 45% rev split with creators.?

Why is this huge??

YouTube has been paying creators for over a decade ($30 billion to creators in the past three years alone from ads, merchandising and other service features). It means creators can earn directly from their content. They can be far more selective about the branded partnerships they take on and focus more on the creating part of their job. The same can’t be said for TikTok and Instagram, although they do have reward programs.?

Creators are the lifeblood of any platform?

Moving into 2023, there will be an increased focus on how platforms can make content creation sustainable for their creators. TikTok and Instagram know that creators are the lifeblood of their platforms, so they’ll need to do more to keep them happy.

Instagram already does a good job of peeing off a lot of influencers by not communicating platform changes, seemingly treating them with pure contempt whenever they do. ?

Churn and earn model

Equally, just as the platforms have changed at a breakneck pace, so too has influencer marketing. We’ve seen a focus on scale, or what I now refer to as the “churn and earn model”, since late 2019 and early 2020. There was an explosion of new agencies & platforms whose sole focus is to scale brand strategies to a huge scale and saturate a market.

This model loses sight of the fact this industry is built on the shoulders of incredibly creative people. It’s a desperate attempt to harness the burgeoning industry and automate an experience that is – and should be – uniquely human.

Influencer marketing got lazy over Lockdown. In 2023, I hope brands continue to move away from the scale, churn and earn, and bring back humanity, sincerity and creativity. Campaigns that are creatively awarded drive 11x more market growth… audiences, brands and creators only stand to benefit from campaigns that double down on innovation and creativity.

Is UGC the next evolution of influencer marketing?

No… Sorry, let me unpack that.

Brands who invest in influencer marketing simply to generate content for their paid strategies are doing influencer marketing wrong.

Partnering with influencers allows you to work with people, faces and voices that just aren’t seen in traditional media. You get to leverage relatable or aspirational creators to social-proof your product and deliver impactful content that you know is going to reach an audience who truly cares.

UGC – user-generated content for the uninitiated – is content that is brand-specific and created by (you guessed it) users and published on social media. Brands often get usage for this content and run it as ad creatives in their paid strategies because it really works. Apparently, nothing beats an authentic endorsement… Who knew?

Channelling your influencer spend, which should be used for storytelling and connecting with communities, into making up for a content deficit for your paid strategy is ?not a vibe?.

Key takeaways?

I haven’t touched on NFTs or Web 3.0 because – honestly – I haven’t even gotten my head around cryptocurrency yet and that’s so 2016. For now, those developments are pretty far off (will the Metaverse ever happen?) but there are some more immediate things we can consider for 2023:

• Double-down on creativity: sacrificing creativity in pursuit of scale is madness. Creativity drives cut-through. Work with creators to safeguard their TOV whilst carefully balancing key messaging to get content that ladders up to a wider campaign platform. Cohesive marketing – we love to see it.
• ?Organic should complement paid: I’m a strong believer that influencer can, and should, be a key part of your brand comms and at the heart of any media strategy. Use paid to compliment organic – not the other way around.
• Cross-platform strategies: With platforms doing the most to innovate (or copy), think about executing cross-platform strategies grounded in storytelling and community driving. Ultimately platforms make a cut from paid ads on the platform, not organic influencer partnerships, so algorithm/ platform changes that screw with your creator partnerships aren’t a priority for them. Spread the risk, and work across multiple.
• ?Longer-term partnerships: I feel like we’ve been talking about this one for at least 6 years… Influencers want more from their partnerships. Help them get it. Partnering with them for a more extended period saves you time (less negotiating & briefing) and money (influencers are more likely to cut you a deal for extended partnerships.) and helps them build a meaningful relationship with your brand. Work smarter, not harder.

When LinkedIn asked creators on their LinkedIn Creator Accelerator Programme to share their predictions about the future of work in our respective fields, they really opened a can of worms. ??

With 2023 just around the corner, what do you think the year will hold for influencer marketing?