Why 'Influencers' might be completely wrong for your brand

Two years ago, you could have asked someone on the street if they knew what a social media influencer was and 50% would have shaken their heads and asked what on earth you were talking about. Fast forward two years to and we are almost too familiar with the phrase, most of us following numerous influencers on all of our social accounts.

‘Influencers’ are typically people with large following and engagement stats on their social media who are of great influence in their area of interest. The best influencers are very niche which is ideal for companies looking to work with them as it is a super short cut to a targeted audience. Brands can use Influencers as a tool to execute digital marketing plans and sponsor or support influencers simple by asking them to use their products. A recent YouTube video by Grace Fit UK showed that some influencers had been offered more than ￡100,000 for working with one brand!

However, it is imperative to choose the right influencers, developing a clear strategy and establish set expectations. Without these, the campaign content will be pointless.

Our client Canterbury has a huge presence on social media. We assisted in the delivery of Canterbury #RugbyFit Campaign last summer, during July and August 2018. Influencers were a key part of fulfilling the aims of this campaign.

The aim was to encourage rugby players to train throughout the summer (trying drills and fitness techniques shown in the videos and outlined in the .pdf training plans) and purchase Canterbury Kit for this. Using two amateur teams (that would ultimately go head to head in a ‘final’) and some fitness influencers well known in the industry, we assisted in the production and delivery of the #RugbyFit series.

The influencers shared the #RugbyFit clips across their social media, as per their contract, and brought further reach to the campaign and increased the awareness of Canterbury across digital platforms.

Videos were carefully pushed out on social channels at times when fans are most active, days when they’re free (i.e. the weekend during off season) and can read the training plans. Not only were the videos posted on social, but they were also hosted within Canterbury’s ‘Training Hub’ along with the training plans to encourage traffic to their website.

We have also worked with Speedo to bring their #Make1kWet campaign to life. We took four fitness influencers by their audience for their love for running and got them into the pool. Challenging them to swim 1k as fast as they run 5k was their task. Could they do it?

Now, this campaign wasn’t created to look pretty. Their aims were to engage fitness enthusiasts and encourage them to take a swim alongside their other preferred ways of keeping fit, ultimately checking out Speedo swimwear to make it possible. By using Influencers whose followers fitted the profile Speedo had created for its new campaign, we were able to reach the right audience.

When not to use Influencers

One example of where using social media influencers may not be right, is if the product is heavily B2B or has nothing to do with the influencer/is unrelatable for the influencers’ audience. For example, if a banking firm asked a well-known vegan Influencer to talk about changing banks. Unless it was really well captured, the nature of this could be very inappropriate.

How have you found influencers to benefit your brand?