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June 1st, 2021 – The tasks in influencer marketing have so far been mostly clearly distributed: Influencers provide a brand with reach and trust with the target group for a fee. The relationship will, however, differentiate significantly in the future.
by Christina Rose
Influencer marketing polarizes like no other marketing discipline. When talking about influencers, campaigns and / or their commissioning companies, the mood regularly ranges from cheering as high as the sky to complete disaster.
If you try to design a scenario for the future of the still young marketing discipline away from the emotional waves, the first step is to define the perspective. “Do you see the topic through company glasses or from an influencer’s point of view?”, put it by Dr. Erwin Lammenett, self-proclaimed “marketing problem solver” and experienced expert. The motives – if you ignore the purely idealistic motives of some influencers – of those involved in this value chain are clear:
- Influencers want to gain notoriety that they can monetize.
- Companies and brands want to use the reach of relevant target groups to encourage them to convert more.
Lammenett has observed a direction in Asia in which influencer marketing could develop in this country in the future: “Asian influencers are increasingly monetizing their own reach and awareness through their own brand.” We also have that occasionally: with the fitness influencer Sophia Thiel or Bianca Claen as the beauty influencer from the very beginning Bilou
already in an early phase of influencer marketing in Germany at the end of 2015 her own brand was exclusive to Drugstore dm
has sold.
More and more influencers will monetize their reach through their own brand
(Erwin Lammenett, Expert, lammenett.de)
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Image: lammenett.de
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Monetize reach via your own brand
This trend will become even stronger in the future. Influencer marketing in Europe will develop in a similar way to Asia, where more and more influencers are monetizing their reach through their own brands, the expert is convinced. “Influencers would then no longer be advertising partners, but competitors. And if there were no longer just one Bibi with its own brand, but 100, then the company would be degraded to a supplier,” Lammenett outlines.
Sven Wedig, founder and CEO of the social and influencer marketing agency Full board media
, on the other hand, sees the future relationship as more cooperative and less competitive: “Influencers and brands will join forces more and more and are already doing so in order to develop brands and products, because the whole potential lies in the intersection of the know-how of the agency / brand and influencer.”
It also has full board in its study with the media Berlin University of Technology and Economics
also found that influencers with their own products have a harder time engaging their target group.
And so the development from advertising partner to competitor is certainly only one conceivable, albeit very plausible, scenario: In this scenario, the manufacturing company, which was previously known with its own strong brand, mainly produces for influencers who sell under their own names and who get a larger share in this value chain. The development of this scenario is essentially characterized by three development stages:
- Influencers and companies are advertising partners for individual products.
- Influencers break away from existing brands and create their own brands with the aim of embodying the product and brand at the same time as influencers. The manufacturing company behind it becomes invisible.
So far, only relatively few have followed the example of Sophia Thiel or Bianca Claen in this country. Erwin Lammenett sees various reasons for this:
- It is a completely different effort to post about products than to create your own brand with all the processes that are associated with it: production, logistics, sales, etc.
- “Bibi” also took the “detour” via an exclusive contract with a private label at dm, before developing the business further.
- To create and market your own brand, you need business experience and understanding.
- What works in Asia does not necessarily have to be a success model in Europe because the framework conditions are different, even at the B2B level.
Erwin Lammenett has learned that Asian role models in particular contain many unknowns as a potential formula for success. He himself accompanied concepts for brands that wanted to expand into the Asian market. Market entry is better left to local agencies, he says: “As a non-Asian, it is difficult to do sensible marketing for the local market from here, because there are many things that cannot be assessed from here.”
How the relationship between influencers and brand manufacturers is changing
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Image: HighText Verlag
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For some influencers, it is sometimes more attractive to monetize your own reach and awareness through your own brand. Manufacturing brands are degraded to suppliers.
The value of the brand
Who earns the most money in such a value chain and under what conditions? Ultimately, every actor wants to answer this question with “I”. The network of relationships can be broken apart using the example of “shampoo”: A branded shampoo costs twice the price in the drugstore as the same shampoo under the house brand at the discounter.
A brand therefore represents a value that the company would like to use for itself. Every shampoo that an influencer sells, the company no longer sells itself. That can’t be right for the company.
But if the effort is as great as outlined above, how likely is the scenario that more and more influencers are going this way in this country too? The influencer Farina Opoki
(novalanalove)
goes this way with its own fashion label. With influencers who have been in the business a little longer and have already received 5-digit sums for posts and have the financial means to hire people, according to Lammenett “It is easy to imagine that they will do this more often in the future”. He cannot imagine that in the medium term “on a large scale” there will be more and more companies selling under their own brand.
“Looking at a time horizon of five to ten years, however, established top influencers will recognize the potential that lies in marketing their own brands”he resumes. Because once a brand is established, it always brings money. Posting, on the other hand, is project business: Most of the time, the influencers are hired for campaigns. When this is over, the project is also over. “But once it has succeeded, a brand in the mindset
of the consumer, I keep a cash cow “, says the brand expert.
Sven Wedig sees a clear trend here in building relationships with influencers and mutual learning. “That happens in the long term and has positive effects. Influencer marketing isn’t just a matter of posing,” he emphasizes.
Triangle relationship: company – agency – influencer
The various forms of relationships between brands and influencers show that the learning curve that companies in influencer marketing can make in Germany is far from over. It is still a young market if it is understood from a social media perspective. Because the principle of influencer marketing itself has been around for much longer with bloggers and testimonials. The way we currently understand influencer marketing, namely through postings Facebook
, Youtube
& Co., the discipline is only in kindergarten age. And so it still has a lot of development potential.
For comparison: The SEO discipline has been around for around 15 to 20 years. And Erwin Lammenett repeatedly comes across companies that have not yet mastered this discipline: “When you see how poorly older disciplines such as SEO are still being served today, it will take a while in influencer marketing until everyone involved knows who bears how much responsibility for which message and where.”
Influencer failures show that it is always necessary to question how much freedom the company gives the influencer: Should the influencer address the target group in his or her language, what he needs a certain amount of freedom for, or are there strict guidelines because brands are afraid of damage to their image ?
Discussions about competencies and responsibilities for a long time
These things are not yet learned and will continue to fuel discussions about authority and responsibility for some time to come. At the end of the day, the company bears a lot of responsibility, but the influencer’s followers often don’t realize that. Because as is so often the case, the messenger of the message takes the beating.
Influencer marketing is a field of communication on equal terms.
(Sven Wedig, founder and CEO, full board media)
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Image: full board media
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Sven Wedig is convinced that the market will clear itself up. “Professionalization is the logical consequence. This also includes agencies and advertisers, it is not the influencer alone,” he emphasizes. Because: “Whoever writes shit gets shit out.”
Mistakes are still being made, which is also important in order to remain disruptive and innovative, he emphasizes. “You can learn a lot from influencers in the future, both positively and negatively. They are the pioneers and show us what works and what doesn’t in the social community.” Content will be the decisive factor for all stakeholders, from influencers to brand decision-makers, he predicts: “Who produces the best, most frequently and most targeted relevant content and who is really ready on the road to get involved with their communities / customers?”
The network of relationships between brand, agency and influencer is becoming ever closer and more transparent, Wedig outlines. “In the Kr, everyone sits at the same table and learns from one another or makes maximum use of their skills.” The common understanding allows freedom in briefings and thus maximum development opportunities for the influencers, which in turn has a direct impact on the performance of the campaigns. Wedig: “It’s a common cause and not a channel without feedback, but a communication playing field on an equal footing.” The mutual learning process will continue for a few more years and will certainly produce a few more business models.
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Image: HighText Verlag
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You can find various topics on influencer marketing as well as other key topics here
read as e-paper, issue 05/2021.
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