Influencer marketing is rapidly evolving. If brands want to stay current and competitive in this game, keeping up with the latest trends is a must + the easiest way.
By regularly refreshing industry knowledge, brands can take advantage of new opportunities, stay ahead of their competitors, and ultimately achieve their marketing goals.
What are the top influencer marketing trends in 2024 we should watch? Keep reading to find out.
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Influencer marketing is a modern marketing strategy where brands collaborate with individuals with a significant and active following on social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube
By partnering with the right influencer, brands can leverage the influencer’s credibility and authenticity to build trust with their followers and achieve their marketing goals. In the end, drive more conversion and sales.
Why is influencer marketing important for your brand?
Influencer marketing can help brands leverage the influencer’s credibility and authenticity to build trust with their audience and achieve their marketing goals. In other words, it makes people feel more connected to your brands and products.
Plus, data showed that 89% of marketers report that the ROI from influencer marketing is better than other marketing channels.
Most importantly, for brands, influencer marketing can drive sales organically and provide valuable insights with the right tool for modern marketing strategies. This way, brands can ensure to always remain on top of the game in the social media world.
Top influencer marketing trends in 2024
1. Social and shopping will be more connected
Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook are all working to introduce ways for users to shop without leaving the platform. Implementing direct-to-shop solutions allows these platforms to improve their monetization and capitalize on influencers.
By merging the social experience with shopping, these services can tighten the influencer-to-purchase pipeline and improve their ability to track influencer marketing campaigns even further, strengthening their monopoly on user behavior data.
For users, social shopping will translate into a frictionless experience from product discovery to purchase. In addition, it will reduce the need to provide payment information to untrusted third parties.
British fashion retailer Rebellious Fashion has adopted TikTok Shopping features to smoothen the collaboration with creators on the platform and allow users to shop directly when they see a fit they like. Thanks to this approach they boosted their sales by 400% with 80% of them coming from affiliates.
2. Micro-influencers will remain in the spotlight
This is not news to anyone who is following the influencer marketing scene: micro-influencers are far from being dethroned. While they may not make headlines like Snoop Dog, they drive true results. Combining highly engaged audiences, segmented niches, and localization, they will continue to be the top choice for marketers.
Established brands like Nike and Airbnb routinely create micro-influencer campaigns to complement their more attention-grabbing campaigns with celebrities. By doing so, they ensure that they cover all bases and appeal to as many people as possible.
Brands that rely on micro-influencers will not only see all the benefits that they bring but their social proof and perception in the eyes of the influencers following will also be enhanced.
Are you struggling to find the right Influencer?
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French underwear brand Undiz used AI-generated images instead of human models in a recent campaign. It’s hard to identify whether the strikingly refreshing visual was an AI-made campaign.
4. Analytics base campaigns will be the norm
Marketers used to consider the result of influencer marketing untrackable. However, modern software solutions and data-collecting services have changed this preconception.
They will bring more data into influencer marketing and establish data-backed campaigns at the core of influencer marketing.
This is also a point to consider before working with influencer marketing agencies. It’s essential to know if they use data-backed solutions to support their campaign execution so that you can make sure your budget and time go to the right place.
5. Long-term collaborations are going to be the norm
Brands are discovering that collaborations don’t have to be one-and-done.
Having long-lasting partnerships with relevant influencers will not only result in better-priced deals but also show the company’s interest in supporting content creators in its field.
In a sense, brands are going to move partnerships from a purely economic view to a more patronage view.
While ROI will always be in the back of every marketer’s mind, from time to time, it will be savvy to sponsor projects that may not have an immediate return but will establish your brand name in the niche.
Are you struggling to find the right Influencer?
Explore top influencers in Asia and worldwide.
Boost your marketing ROI with our trusted expertise.
Red Bull wants its brand to be associated with energy, sports, and performances, so it sponsors many extreme athletes and stunts.
While it may not be common for people to see a man jump from space, breaking the world record for supersonic freefall, and immediately buy a case of Red Bull, the stunt successfully garnered notoriety and connected the brand with extreme feats.
While RedBull and a few others have been taking this approach for years, most brands still miss out on consolidating their presence in key niches.
With this blog post, we hope you will understand the importance of keeping up with the industry trends and how it can help you stay ahead in the game.
Conclusion
Influencer marketing is always on the move, and keeping up with the latest trends is key for brands to stay ahead of the game. From cutting-edge tech to shifting consumer behavior, staying current with influencer marketing trends is vital to your success.
We all get excited when our team scores or the athlete we cheer for breaks a new record. Sports have attracted crowds for centuries, and those who excel at them have been hailed as gods and generate enormous fame in their prime. Names like Pele, Muhammed Ali, and Joe Di Maggio are widely known decades after they last competed.
It’s clear that athletes have a dear space in the minds of many but do they have what it takes to be used for marketing campaigns? In other words, are they influencers?
In this article, we will go through the history of athletes and sponsorships, which goes way back. How athletes can be a great tool for marketers in general and why 2024 will be a great year to create collaboration and partnerships with athletes for your influencer marketing campaigns.
But let’s go with the order:
Are athletes influencers?
Yes, athletes are influencers.
For over two thousand years, we have celebrated the people who excel in physical disciplines. We admired them and kept them in great regard with stories, songs, and paintings dedicated to them.
In a sense athletes are the basis for influencer marketing as we know it today: in ancient Rome, it wasn’t uncommon for gladiators to be paid by local merchants to promote their products since they were widely known and popular figures their names attached to an olive oil seller or a winery would have driven sales, which is not very different from what athletes now do with sponsorship deals.
At the beginning of the last century, physical culture, later renamed bodybuilding, became a thing and was spearheaded by Eugen Sandow who not only performed in strongman shows, a popular form of entertainment at the time but started attaching his name to many products related to health and fitness.
With the introduction of television, sports events broke the geographical barriers they always had, and the people at the top of certain disciplines would gain worldwide fame and notoriety. During the Cold War sports became a by-proxy competition between the blocks and audience investment grew even further.
Athletes as primordial influencers
Starting in the 90s, athletes have been increasingly commonly employed in marketing campaigns. The face of this time is Michael Jordan, who held sponsorships by Nike, Gatorade, Hanes, and Coca-Cola; he is estimated to have earned as much as $2.4 billion from these endorsements.
Social media gives fans and sports aficionados even more capillary access to athletes at every level. Social media also allows many athletes to narrate their journey and cultivate their fame even before they are at the crest of a sport.
Recently, a US Supreme Court ruling went against the long-standing practice of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) of forbidding its members from profiting off their name, image, and likeness. For marketers, this meant that the floodgates were open and college students could be part of marketing campaigns.
Do athletes make good influencers?
Athletes are great influencers. Not only do they have fans and followers who trust them and want to stay up to date with their content but compared to other “pure” influencers they have a clear journey they are going along. And having such an arc makes their story more compelling and relatable to many.
In many cases, the connection between an athlete and the product that he is sponsoring is more direct and evident than with a generic influencer. Combined with the fact that many athlete followers are likely to have similar links and interests, it makes athletes great for partnerships and collaborations.
Why athletes should be on every marketer watch list in 2024
In 2024, Paris will host the XXXIII edition of the Summer Olympics. With up to 10,500 athletes participating in the event, and hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide, this is an incredible opportunity for brands to gain exposure and get their name out. While enormous conglomerates can take on official sponsorships for most brands, it is necessary to be ingenuous and find other ways to attach their image to the event.
Looking at thetop 10 most-paid athletesin 2023 only Kylian Mbappé, Canelo Alvarez, and the golfers earned more from their salaries than their endorsements.
Figures like Roger Feder, Lionel Messi and LeBron James routinely partner with brands and endorse products.
To be associated with these worldwide known names brands are often ready to dish out tens if not hundreds of millions at the time. But excluding large multi-billion dollar companies, this is not a feasible course of action for most.
The beauty of athletes and influencers is that you don’t need to sign a multi-million dollar deal to achieve an effective campaign.
As much as it may be tempting to collaborate with some of the big names, most brands are better off connecting with smaller athletes who are active and upcoming in the geographies they intend to expand into.
The Olympics will be a prime moment in which some more “guerrilla” style tactics may deliver disproportionate results.
How to maximize your marketing with athletes in 2024
With all eyes on one large event like the 2024 Paris Olympics, there will be immense potential for lesser-known athletes to break through the mainstream and make a name for themselves in the public sphere.
While ordinarily attention is mostly relegated to a single sports event, the 2024 Olympics will gather 32 sports in more than 300 events and allow lesser-known sports to emerge and gain traction.
Concurrently we may see other figures emerge to public attention: non-participant athletes and other personalities providing coverage and commentary on the events.
But sticking to only athletes participating in the Olympics is the prime time to research them and individuate which ones will be in touch with the target audience and geographies you want to tap into.
Once these are identified, you can contact them and find which ones are willing to collaborate with your brand. You can find more niche sports and disciplines that fit your ICP and your wallet.
Once the selection has been done and you identified who is willing to work with your brand, you can start to roll out the campaign. While big brands will have their logo plastered on every backdrop and product placed on the tables during press conferences, you will have access to a more intimate and personal space. The athletes feed.
During the Olympics, many relatively unknown athletes will be catapulted to stardom and they will gain a great amount of exposure. After seeing them competing people will be wondering about them, searching them on Google and following them on social media, where you will be ready to meet them.
Thinking long term
But athletes are not only a good investment in the time of the Olympics.
As I have described above, the connection between sports and marketing has existed long ago; it will continue for as long as sports will draw in crowds of adoring fans.
Investing in young promising athletes is great for many companies that want to start or expand their influencer marketing: they are authentic, they have a story to tell, their life empowers the audience, and they can be much more cost-effective than other influencers.
Companies like Nike have successfully established early partnerships with upcoming athletes to see them boom to worldwide celebrities like Michael Jordan and Cristiano Ronaldo.
While picking such an extreme level of success early on may require more luck than anything else brands can still find success and good returns from collaborating with athletes in the regional circuit.
FAQs
1. How do athletes navigate the balance between their sports careers and their roles as influencers without compromising their athletic performance or personal brand?
Athletes carefully schedule their training and influencer activities, ensuring their sports performance remains their top priority while also maintaining a genuine and relatable personal brand online.
2. What are the long-term impacts on an athlete’s career after they engage in influencer marketing, especially after their competitive career ends?
Engaging in influencer marketing can extend an athlete’s career visibility and provide financial opportunities beyond their competitive years, aiding in a smoother transition to post-sports endeavors.
3. How do regulations around athlete endorsements vary internationally, especially with events like the Olympics that involve participants from many different countries with diverse rules?
The rules for athlete endorsements are diverse across countries, requiring athletes to adapt to different legal landscapes, especially during international competitions like the Olympics, where multiple national regulations might apply.
If you’re interested in knowing more about influencer regulations in different countries and regions, here we have prepared an E-book for you!
Social media are the main tool todiscover and research new products and services. And influencer marketing is necessary for brands that want to establish themselves. While crafting and executing influencer marketing campaigns is quite simple contacting and partnering with influencers can be hard and complicated, at least the first few times.
In this article, we will present 7 tips for you to partner with influencers confidently and with a valuable offer for both parties.
Influencer marketing campaign workflow
Campaign Ideation
Influencer marketing campaigns are born out of the drawing table of a brand or an agency. Starting by individuating an area that would need improvements, often sales or brand awareness. The team will come up with a strategy to tackle the issue that involves collaborating with influencers. The strategy should also outline what are the KPIs that mark its success.
After having shortlisted a few potential influencers to collaborate with comes the outreach phase. The campaign idea is pitched to them and it can develop into a negotiation around compensation and objectives.
Campaign execution
Once an agreement has been reached is time for the content creators to prepare the deliverables for the campaign. This moment generally includes a series of revisions of the content from the brand or agency in order to make sure the content fits with the brand image.
When the content is satisfying for all the parties it gets published and comes the time to track the campaign.
Goal tracking
Monitoring results and engagement in order to evaluate KPIs accomplishment.
Based on the content performances many brands will start considering certain influencers for long-term collaborations.
How to create a killer influencer marketing campaign?
In a sense influencer marketing campaigns truly embody McLuhan’s famous phrase “The medium is the message”. Because they connect customers, and brands through influencers these campaigns need to take into account the specificities of each influencer.
Differently from every other advertising medium-influencer have their own preferences and style. And they should all be taken into account when deciding about the collaboration.
The unique style of a creator should never be seen as a detriment to the campaign but as a strength to empower the message.
If a brand understands the unicity and potential of the creators they are partnering with they can easily incorporate it into their influencer marketing campaign. Creating a more engaging and captivating experience for potential customers.
Why partnering with influencers can be difficult
Influencers per se are not difficult to find, just looking at the discovery page of Instagram you may see tens of them. But finding the right ones for a brand is a more complicated task. Following numbers are not enough, there is a need for a convergence of values, fields of expertise, and much more.
And after having found the right ones, many influencers may be reluctant to partner with a brand that they are not sure they can trust. They are going to present it to their audience and one wrong collaboration can break the trust that is established between them.
1 – Find common values and interests
When partnering with influencers, the first aspect to look at is shared values.
Before considering partnering with any influencer a brand should do its due diligence. Look at the content the influencer has created. Have an idea of their style and tone, and evaluate how it fits with the brand image.
By getting familiar with the creator’s content is also possible to individuate common values and interests. Having overlapping interests is a great starter for collaboration.
Once the common points are found be mindful to include them in the pitch and explain how they are important for the campaign, this is going to make the partnership feel the fruit of a common vision.
Example
Gabi DeMartino is a beauty influencer with 4.4 million followers on Instagram and 3+ million on YouTube. She is outspoken about her passion for self-care, plastic surgery, and luxurious items. Her vlog after her third nose job was the perfect occasion for Gabi to bring up her love for Fraîcheur Ice Globes. The collaboration not only felt natural because of the situation she was in, with her discomfort mitigated by the Ice Globes, but also because the product fitted perfectly with her style.
2 – Collaborate with experts
Prominent members of an industry or experts on a specific matter are often also influencers who have created a following around themselves. By partnering with them, it is possible to foster a deep relationship between thought leadership and the brand.
Sponsoring industry-related events, papers, and research is a long-established practice that can help to bring a brand’s name to the forefront.
Similarly, this can be done on social media through partnerships with industry leaders and experts.
Organizing virtual panels and roundtables is a great way to offer not only brand exposure but also influencers the possibility to present their expertise and network.
While unconventional, it offers the possibility to present the brand as dedicated to the furthering of the industry and wanting to engage in serious discussions.
Example
When Yakult wanted to highlight the value of its products, it partnered with doctor and YouTuber Ricky’s Time. Ricky is an officially certified nutritionist and clinical scientist. Through his YouTube channel, Ricky helps people stay informed about health and well-being. A doctor’s approval is a powerful endorsement for a product like Yakult which is targeting a health-conscious audience.
3 – Include social value
Leaving a positive impact is always a great incentive. Connecting a campaign to a tangible and positive impact in the real world is going to provide ulterior incentives to the content creators to participate.
Showing interest and support for causes a creator sides with is going to create a more favorable image in the minds of the creator and its audience.
Example
Arts and crafts content creator DIY Danie has a history of scoliosis and knows the danger of bad sleeping posture. Thanks to her background, she was a great choice for Derila and their optimized sleep pillow line. By connecting the product to her condition, she could transfer credibility and trust in the brand and its pillows.
4 – Make a compelling offer
Content creators and influencers, as many others don’t want to work for free. Be sure to be respectful of their time and craft by offering fair compensation for their job.
Many expect content creators to work in exchange for free products or services, and while this is true in some cases it is not the norm.
Compensation for influencers can follow a few different models:
Flat rate, where the total price is established beforehand and performances are not going to affect it.
Results-based, which can use indicators like views and likes multiplied for a flat rate to price the content the base of its achievement.
Commission-based, the creator is going to receive a percentage for each sale that is directly traceable to them.
A mixed rate is generally configured as a flat rate plus a results bonus for reaching of certain levels on the likes, views, or conversions.
Monetary incentives are the most direct and obvious but in certain cases focusing on other perks can also be powerful motivators.
Exclusive access to products, custom modifications, and other similar approaches can be very enticing for creators in your industry.
Here is why you should not use an affiliate program when it comes to influencers.
Example
Sometimes, after the creators know a certain brand is interested in sponsoring them, they will develop ambitious content ideas. This is the case for Jbao and World of Tanks: being an engineer in his previous career he proposed to put together a homemade tank for promoting the game. The project was more costly than a simple playthrough video, but it also reached a much higher level of notoriety and views.
5 – Creative Content Synergy
Don’t limit yourself to integrations or standard content formats. Each creator has their own voice and a way to express themselves and integrate them into your marketing campaign.
By proposing ideas that fit the influencer content style is going to be more likely to be accepted and to have delivered a campaign that is truly effective.
Combining the influencer’s style with the brand goals is going to deliver a campaign that resonates authentic and genuine.
Example
Artisans de demain is a traveling duo always on the move that creates extremely high-quality content from their travels around the world. When Acer wanted to promote its newest compact line of PCs there was no better matchup than with Artisans de demain. Both their situation and history and their artistic quality were perfect to highlight the value and characteristics of the new laptop line.
6 – Long-Term Relationship Building
The possibility of long-term collaboration is going to show dedication and support to the influencers involved
While many companies prefer one-off collaboration, the real value of influencers is in the long game. Showing true interest in partnering with them, not just for brief access to their audience, is going to be a great signal about your brand’s commitment.
Developing long-lasting relationships is not only cheaper but is also a strong signal to the audience of those influencers. It shows commitment to the collaboration beyond immediate sales and support for the creator’s values.
Not every influencer a brand partners with should become a brand ambassador, but there should be a clear idea of what would constitute a good candidate.
Example
Benefitbug is a Korean Maplestory streamer with over 250K subscribers. Many may expect that a VPN sponsorship would be almost a mandatory step in such a streamer career. Benefitbug was able to include advantages specifics for its audience in the ad read making it very successful and pushing NordVPN to extend the collaboration to other 8 integrations and obtain extra exposure and conversions at a lower cost.
7 – Staying open about expectations and deliverables.
Content creators may have ideas about how to deliver your message in the best possible way.
They know their audience better than anyone else and their whole career is based on creating content that resonates with them.
By discussing expectations and deliverables details is possible to obtain concepts that better fit the specifics of a creator’s audience.
It can also be a very important part of how KPIs are identified and calculated.
Example
Softcore erotic ASMR video may not be the first medium that a marketer would think of for promoting a videogame but in the case of Arrukai and Erolabs, it was a match made in heaven. The content creator specializes in ASMR roleplay that revolves around male figures being flirty. By adding a twist about distraction were able to create a seamless ad for NU: Carnival.
Conclusion
Influencer marketing is a powerful tool that can help most brands to establish themselves. To do it correctly is important to consider the influencers themselves for what they are: people passionate about certain topics and able to gain attention around them.
Finding influencers with common values, including a social value in the campaign, and establishing a content strategy that is mindful of their unique characteristics are great steps to make it easier for an influencer to accept a partnership and see the value for themselves in it.
Fair remuneration, the possibility of long-term relationships, and openness to inputs on the campaign results and contents are all aspects that will help to have good and healthy connections that not only promote sales but also boost the brand image.
You may have heard of affiliate marketing and thought to yourself: “A way to gain promotion with no upfront costs? That’s amazing”. You probably also know about influencers, and who better than people with an online following to promote your product, especially if there is only to pay for the results.
But, as is often the case, what sounds too good to be true has a catch.
While the monetary stake may seem low, there is more at play with affiliate marketing under the surface.
Here we explain why combining an affiliate program with influencers may be one of the worst ideas in a marketer career.
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a marketing tactic by which promoters earn a percentage of the sales done through them.
Affiliate marketing is often done by providing each affiliate with personalized links to the products using which the brand can track sales and calculate the kickback for every affiliate.
Many affiliate marketing programs have very low entry barriers and encourage as many users as possible to join.
Affiliate marketing offers the possibility to earn for many bloggers and website owners who specialize in small niches with content like product reviews.
Different platforms implement affiliate marketing differently: Amazon, for example, provides a 10% commission for any sale done through their personal link regardless of where it comes from.
Meanwhile, Etsy has different programs if it is promoted through social media or other avenues.
Platforms try to incentivize the promotion through channels they deem respectable and advantageous for their image and reach.
At the core affiliate marketing is a performance-based way to remunerate successful promotions that converted.
In practice, it gets easily exploited with low effort and spammy content that is likely to hurt a brand image in the long run.
Why affiliate marketing is appealing?
Affiliate marketing allows companies to have increased exposure and brand awareness without committing any budget before the sales are actually in.
With this strategy, the brand does not have to provide content or directions and can let the affiliate do most of the heavy lifting to find out the strategies that work best with their audience.
Starting companies often find it appealing due to low costs and the huge potential of increasing visibility.
Affiliate marketing vs influencer marketing
Both affiliate marketing and influencer marketing use user-generated content (also known as UGC or consumer-generated content) to spread information about a product and convince new potential customers to make a purchase.
The main difference lies in the control over the content.
With influencers, there is a back-and-forth between the brand and creators to only put out content that aligns with both.
When using affiliate marketing, the brand does not have control over the content. Affiliates are not supervised and can prepare content without regard to the brand guidelines or image.
Affiliate marketing offers a hands-off approach while still providing the potential for a great level of reach and coverage for the products or the brand. But those who engage with it are strictly interested in making a sale as fast as possible often with disregard for other important aspects like, for example, brand recognition.
Influencer marketing offers a more controlled output of content and with it, it also comes a more mindful approach to the brand and the products since a campaign’s success is not only determined by short-term sales.
How do they combine?
In its more traditional approach, affiliate marketing has been mostly used by small site owners or bloggers to have a viable way to monetize their content. But social media becoming popular many brands have attempted to combine it with influencer marketing and institute a program specifically for affiliates with a large online following.
Their approach combines the hands-off affiliate marketing practice with qualifying criteria, often minimum social media following and engagement rate. Some programs will also specify which platforms to publish and which hashtags need to be used for the posts to qualify.
What are the drawbacks of combining affiliate marketing and influencer marketing?
While on paper the combination of affiliate marketing and influencer marketing may sound like a perfect strategy, the reality couldn’t be further from that.
Most influencers understand that they offer more than direct sales and will refuse a pure affiliate deal.
Creating good and engaging content is expensive and requires both time and resources. Offering a payout only when directly connected with a sale would not attract many serious content creators who take pride in their jobs.
From our experience most of the creators that will agree to affiliate type of deals are the ones that you will not want to have on board: low engagement, poor content, and questionable practices.
How to successfully combine affiliate marketing and influencer marketing?
While a pure affiliate program is going not to be enticing for most reputable influencers, there are ways to combine the two that are going to play into the strengths of each strategy.
For once, providing a base payment for the content shared is going to be the bedrock of any respectable influencer partnership. On top of that is possible to include a bonus for each sale done through their link.
This way the content creators will both have a stable baseline payment for their work and an incentive to craft the best-converting content they can think of.
For any questions about influencer marketing and how it can help your brand achieve your goals, we are here to answer them. Our team of expert campaign managers will craft and execute the right strategy for your goals so you can lay back and enjoy the benefits.
TL:DR
Affiliate marketing is not a great way to grow a respectable band and will cause many questionable practices to be associated with your name if not only implemented as a way to provide extra incentives.
If you are working in influencer marketing, you must have heard of the new buzzword: AI influencers.
AI influencers, sometimes called virtual influencers, are particular influencers whose appearances are virtually generated by AI technology.
Even though it is the latest industry trend, they will definitely not take over completely human influencers.
Working with AI influencers could drive excellent marketing results and grow your business. This is why, it is essential to keep up with this trend and understand how to work with AI influencers.
In this article, we will discuss the history of AI influencers, how they will impact influencer marketing, and, with their existence, what will happen in the near future.
What are AI Influencers?
AI influencers are influencers generated by AI technology. They usually have CGI appearances and act like real human beings interacting with the world in a first-person perspective.
At the moment, The Conversations mentioned there are 3 types of AI influencers:
non humans
animated humans
Life-like CGI humans
Most of these influencers nowadays use AI as part of their narrative such as LilMiquela and many others.
Currently, the closest version for us to a true AI influencer is Kuki, which is integrated with an advanced chatbot and offers the possibility of having a conversation with Kuki herself.
What’s the history of AI influencers
The concept of AI influencers first came out can be traced back to the early 2010s.
Back in those days, the early version of AI influencers were simply virtual characters in the gaming and entertainment industry.
As AI and computer graphics developed, these characters started to have more nuances and became more sophisticated, eventually becoming the virtual influencers we see today.
In 2016, the world welcomed Lil Miquela who is considered the first official hyperrealistic AI influencer in history. After her release, there were a ton of debates about whether she was a real person or not.
Since then, many brands also have developed their own AI influencers for their business, starting from their mascots. The most successful is CB de Casa Bahia, the face of a major retail brand in Brazil with over 10 million followers.
While initially AI was just in the name while the images were CGI creations in the past year, with the explosion in popularity of stable diffusion and generative AI, have emerged profiles like Milla Sofia whose images are generated by an AI model.
With the advancement of generative AI, virtual influencers will become more and more integrated with the real world and offer a more engaging experience to fans.
Why do Brands need AI influencers over Human Influencers?
While they are for now still a niche category of influencers AI influencers appeal to many brands for various reasons:
They allow brands to try experimental and innovative ways to reach their customer base
With AI influencers, brands can have full control of the messaging and branding
Compared to human beings, AI Influencers are less likely to be caught in scandals or controversies
Besides those reasons, according to Influencer Marketing Hub data, AI influencers are collecting excellent feedback from the marketers who worked with them and inspiring more collaborations:
59.8% of marketing professionals have worked with AI influencers
15.5% plan to collaborate with AI influencers
Over 60% of those who once collaborated with virtual influencers are satisfied.
Since AI influencers don’t exist as people outside of their social media feed, there is a team of professionals managing them, it is easier to have them align with the specifics of a marketing campaign.
How to use AI influencers in your marketing campaign
Although there is still no data about how effective AI influencers are compared to traditional influencers is clear the fit with the product is still the most critical factor for a successful influencer marketing campaign.
Audiences might be happy to see the innovation of AI influencers, but they may find human influencers more relatable regarding certain products.
Still, AI influencers are great if brands want to showcase an innovative image and position themselves at the forefront of a trend.
We’ve found 3 case studies in different industries to help you get to know better how to work with AI influencers.
Hugo Boss Rebranding (2022)
In the spring of 2022, the German fashion brand Hugo Boss underwent a major rebranding effort to reach the younger generations. First of all, it was the campaign, which included many traditional fashion influencers such as Kendall Jenner and Hailey Bieber.
In addition, they partnered with Nobody Sausage and Imma, two of the most well-known AI influencers in this field.
It was a powerful signal to integrate virtual influencers in the rebranding, which showed that Hugo Boss’s future will focus on technology and innovation.
Miquela for Samsung
Created by Los Angeles-based startup Brud, Miquela Sousa has collaborated with prestigious brands such as Calvin Klein, UGG, Prada, etc. Among all the exceptional work, one paid partnership stands out: her collaboration with Samsung’s #TeamGalaxy.
In this collaboration, Miquela stands for one of the most advanced technologies, like the latest Samsung phone. The collaboration is undoubtedly a perfect match in digital heaven.
The presence of virtual influencers like Miquela Sousa has also redefined the concept of brand ambassadorship.
Miquela Sousa brings a unique allure to the brands with which she collaborates.
By leveraging Miquela’s influence, Samsung has effectively connected with a tech-savvy audience and embraced the essence of modernity, ultimately enhancing its brand image.
Noonoouri for Dior Rogue
In 2018 Noonoourisubstituted Natalie Portman in the Dior “Rogue” perfume campaign. With her cartoonish appearance and exaggerated eyes, Noonoouri gave a huge tribute to her predecessor.
The commercial resembles the original version, with Noonoouri dancing while applying makeup. While it would be a standard ad for the cosmetics industry, using an AI influencer creates a sense of novelty and unexpectedness, making the ad much more appealing.
What is the Future of AI Influencers
As we know, AI tools like Midjourney, and ChatGPT are becoming more vital in every industry. They are integrated with many services to provide a more personalized user experience. With these tools becoming more precise and reliable, we expect to see them integrated with AI influencers in the future as well.
Integrating “true AI” tools in AI influencers will allow these influencers to connect with their audience better. As in the case of Kuki, AI models can be tailored to chat with users while having their characteristics.
Once this kind of implementation is proven reliable, we can expect many brands to start creating AI influencers of their own and relying on them as brand ambassadors while including them in much of the brand’s online material.
Conclusion
In conclusion, AI influencers have opened up a new frontier in the world of social media marketing. While they present exciting opportunities for brands to engage with their audience in novel ways, they are still in the early stages of development. As AI technology progresses, AI influencers will become more common while providing better value to brands.
FAQs
1. How do AI influencers maintain engagement and authenticity in interactions with their followers, given their non-human nature?
AI influencers engage followers through programmed responses and content that resonates with audience interests, though this might lack the depth of human interaction.
2. What ethical considerations arise in using AI influencers, especially concerning transparency and disclosure to audiences?
Ethical concerns include the need for transparency about their AI nature to avoid misleading audiences.
3. How is the creative process for content involving AI influencers managed, and who is responsible for it?
The creative process involves teams of designers and AI specialists who develop the influencer’s persona and content, ensuring alignment with brand and audience expectations.
Establishing the right price for an influencer can be difficult.
With unique characteristics and factors coming into play.
This doesn’t mean you should pass on the 5X ROI that influencer marketing can bring you.
We created this guide based on our experience to stir you in the right direction when it comes to influencer prices.
But before we start going into money talks let’s clarify some of the basics:
Is it worth paying influencers?
Definitely. There will always be influencers available to work for free but these are often starting influencers or ones with minimal traction.
It may be beneficial to create ties with emerging influencers in your area from the beginning but is also important to get access to more seasoned faces.
They are more than likely to expect compensation for their work.
In exchange, they will provide your brand with an extra boost of relatability, social proof, and, conversions.
How do I hire and pay influencers?
Hiring an influencer can be as simple as sliding in their DMs, even if we suggest taking a more professional approach.
Once you establish a line of communication you want to lay out what you are expecting from the collaboration and what are your goals.
Work out the details and sign a contract to put all the expectations and requirements in a written, legally binding form.
Influencer payment is often a very simple process that can be done by money transfer, but in some cases, especially if you are executing a campaign in a foreign country, you may have to adapt to local preferences about payments.
You can prevent many of these problems by outsourcing influencer management to a specialized agency.
What affects the price of an influencer partnership?
Influencers do not have a fixed price and due to their unique traits, the cost of a partnership can vary wildly.
There are many criteria to take into account when deciding what is the price worth of an influencer collaboration.
Content Category
Influencers who create within small, in-demand niches can charge higher rates.
In contrast, large popular content categories have lower rates due to the high supply of content that can be sponsored.
Audience Size
Audience size is often the first characteristic that is looked at by marketing professionals.
A larger audience means that more eyeballs are going to see the content but also translates into fewer people (proportionally) engaging with it.
Country of the Creator & the Audience
Creators from countries with a higher cost of living have higher costs for activation.
The nationality of the audience is also important since many products are tailored to specific countries.
Production Quality
The quality of the content on the channel sponsored reflects the brand image and the cost of production driving the price higher.
Engagement Rate
Engagement rate is a measure of an influencer’s ability to drive audience actions.
Higher levels of engagement are a strong indicator that an influencer can drive conversions.
Agency Involvement
When agencies are involved more parties need to be paid.
Agencies’ participation is often also connected to a higher quality of content and easier communication between parties.
Exclusivity
It is common for brands to ask influencers to not promote their competitors for some time after sponsored content.
Exclusivity clauses do not have a super pronounced effect but they are worth keeping in mind as they may come up during negotiation.
Repurpose Rights
If you want to use the sponsored content for your marketing material or on your channels you may have to add a little extra to the deal.
Time of the Year
There’s a well-observed phenomenon that ad spending is higher towards the end of the year.
And then goes through an early year slump while budgets are decided upon and brands recover from their Christmas spending spree.
Cross-posting
Most influencers operate on multiple platforms and is often possible to negotiate a package that includes multiple platforms.
These deals are a value add because the multiple touchpoints reinforce your brand’s image and improve conversion rates, at a lower cost.
Long-Term Promotion
If you can guarantee an influencer works over a long period in the form of multiple collaborations, you will be able to obtain a lowered CPM.
Celebrity Status
With more and more people turning to create content online some of them are already famous from other careers.
Collaborating with them can be beneficial since they are often more known to a wider audience than online-only personalities but they come with a higher cost of activation.
Types of Deals
But not all deals are the same.
You can adopt different methods of compensation based on which kind of agreement and KPIs you are going after.
To make your life simpler, here are the most common kinds of payment deals when it comes to hiring an influencer.
Flat-Rate Payment
A flat fee is paid in exchange for one or more posts on the creator’s platform.
This is the simplest form of payment as it requires no post-publish calculations.
However, it can be difficult to judge a fair price for a piece of content.
Affiliation
The brand pays the creator a percentage of profit for every one of its audience who purchases through them.
It’s generally disliked by creators since it does not guarantee any return for them.
Hybrid models are common: the brand can guarantee a minimum payment to creators while also a percent of sales as a bonus to the creator.
Non-monetary deals
Products and services can be offered in exchange for a promotion.
This is often the case with smaller creators.
A hybrid approach is also common: providing free products along with flat-rate payments.
Influencer Seeding Marketing Campaigns
In a seeding campaign influencers are sent a sample of the product without any kind of agreement but just for the possibility of them organically creating content around it.
Performance-Based
Typically deals will be structured around CPM with a fixed price per thousand views.
Paid out after a pre-agreed amount of time (often 30 days) the content is published.
This has the benefit of incentivizing good work from the creator while reducing the brand’s potential for overspending.
What is CPM
CPM, or Cost per Mille (Latin for one thousand) is a commonly used metric in influencer marketing and calculates the cost of a thousand interactions.
Often is agreed on a certain CPM before the campaign and after a certain time the interaction is counted and the payment is made based on the CPM rate agreed upon.
CPM by real views
With this model, the CPM is agreed upon in advance, and after, generally a month, the views are counted and the payment is made.
Ex. Jim agrees to sponsor a new drink for a $15 CPM. His video after 30 days has collected 100K views. The drink company is going to pay Jim $1,500 ($15 CPM X 100 thousand views).
CPM by average views
In this case, the final payout is agreed upon in advance on the base of the average amount of views the content receives.
Ex. Sal’s 20 most recent videos received between 80K and 120K views. A sponsor offers her a $20 CPM with 100K average views. Sal will receive $2,000 no matter the performance.
CPM by expected views
Expected views are a great tool when one recent video has over or underperformed sensibly.
Shaving off the outliers is going to be more representative of the actual results.
Type of Influencer Partnerships
Influencers are a versatile medium and they can be integrated into your marketing plan with many different types of content.
Here you can find some examples of the most common ones.
Keep your mind open to experiments with new and different ways that may benefit your goals.
Dedicated Post
Most common and simple promotion from an influencer.
A post showcasing your product and accompanied by a caption explaining the benefits/ their story with the product.
Video Integration
Similar to dedicated posts but for YouTube influencers.
While videos are about topics the audience finds interesting or entertaining you can buy a 60 to 90-second slot in the video with the creator introducing your product to the audience.
Giveaways
The influencer entices his audience to engage with your brand or your social media by offering the possibility to win one of your products.
Platform Takeover
Allow an influencer to publish from your brand’s social media and be in charge of them for a while. This is going to give more visibility to your channels and allow a different less business approach to social media.
Affiliate Marketing
Make influencers part of your team incentivising them to promote your brand with a part of the revenue.
Brand Ambassador
Brand ambassadors are people with large visibility designated to raise awareness of a brand or product.
Instead of a collaboration limited to a specified amount of posts or content pieces brand ambassadors represent the brand, often participating in company events and doubling as spokespersons.
The Right Price for an Influencer on each Platform
Influencers are active and available on many different social media platforms.
Each platform has its characteristics and different kinds of content that are available.
Here we will give you an overview of how much sponsored content costs in various forms and on various platforms in our experience.
The right price for an influencer on YouTube
YouTube is the largest video-sharing platform.
It has over 2 billion monthly active users and hosts more content than anyone could see in their lifetime.
It is also a hub for content of any type allowing marketers to tap into any kind of community they are interested in.
Integration Price
Integration is the most common partnership with YouTube content creators.
Your product will be promoted in a 60 to 90-second segment inside a larger video.
Is beneficial if the video and the product can be easily connected.
In our experience, integrations in a tier 1 country can cost a CPM between $15 and $25. Larger YouTubers are relatively cheaper but often have a less engaged audience.
The previously listed factors come into play to influence the final number.
Dedicated Video Price
Due to the cost and time investment of creators to script and film an entire video related to your product, dedicated videos are more expensive compared to integrations.
We estimate that you can expect the CPM to be double from an integration at minimum.
Therefore, in a tier 1 country, you can face costs of $30 and above for each thousand views.
Once again the final cost will be affected by many different variables especially technical costs related to the video concept.
The right price for an influencer on Instagram
Instagram allows its users to share photos and short videos.
Is the main platform for many influencers and one of the most used channels by marketers to promote their products.
Sponsored Post Price
A sponsored post cost can vary wildly due to many factors, in particular, the size of the influencer following.
Nano and micro-influencers are relatively cheap and a single post can be agreed upon with a budget between $100 and $1000.
When it comes to larger influence the cost can skyrocket significantly into the tens of thousands.
For celebrities, the price inflates even more, and $1+ Million deals aren’t unheard of.
Sponsored Story Price
Instagram stories are slightly cheaper than posts.
By disappearing in 24 hours they are only available for a small amount of time but they have higher levels of interactions and can directly lead to your shop.
The right price for an influencer on TikTok
Since its emergence, TikTok has consistently shown how its algorithm is extremely powerful at matching content with viewers.
Thanks to this characteristic the potential reach of any TikTok influencer is much larger than their followers list and each piece of content can be expected to be served to an interested audience.
Sponsored Video Cost
As usual, the following size is the most important aspect to determine the cost of a sponsored video.
Micro and nano influencers on TikTok have average prices from $20 to $500 per post.
Larger influencers can require compensation of up to a few thousand dollars, with celebrities once again being able to cash in the most.
How do I know the right price for the influencer I want?
Many influencers, especially if they are not new to sponsorships, have prepared a press kit that will outline what are their prices and which channels they are available for sponsorship. Otherwise, you may have to directly pitch to them your plan and ask for their price.
Influencer marketing agencies can be game changers for many companies since they will relieve the marketing teams from having to deal with each influencer individually and will instead provide a single point of contact.
In international or cross-country campaigns influencer marketing agencies are often better equipped to deal with different languages and cultures.
Also, influencer marketing agencies have the tools and expertise to evaluate the potential and effectiveness of each influencer before launching the campaign, translating into better results.
Therefore influencer marketing agencies are a powerful tool that many marketers should keep in consideration when planning a campaign.
How much does it cost to hire an influencer agency?
The cost of an influencer marketing agency may vary drastically by the scope and size of a campaign.
Commonly the cost is between 15% to 30% of the overall campaign budget.
Generally, agencies prepare a pre-campaign brief in which they illustrate the plan for the campaign and the expected results.his document also includes a breakdown of the costs that take into consideration the fees for the agency services.
In some cases, agencies may prefer a fixed fee or will want a different type of deal.
What should I look for in an influencer marketing agency?
There are many influencer marketing agencies available on the market and finding the right one for your goals can be a long process.
But most importantly you should be looking at the previous works the agency has done, the ability of the agency to operate in the geography your campaign wants to target, and their communication and reporting abilities.
What to look for when pricing an influencer
As we have seen many factors come into play when is time to price an influencer collaboration. But is also important to keep in mind other aspects independent from the influencer that help marketers to decide whether or not to proceed with the deal.
Average ROI
Influencer marketing is projected to give a 5:1 ROI on average.
That means that for every dollar spent $5 should come back in.
Not all deals will bring in $5 or more for each $1 spent but this is a good measure to identify which influencers have good potential and who is underperforming.
Previous performances
The size of the following is the main aspect taken into consideration when calculating an influencer price.
But it is important to know that is not the only thing that matters and it could be inflated.
Looking at engagement, likes, and sentiment analysis around an influencer’s content is going to give a better understanding of what is going on with an influencer and what is the potential of a collaboration.
NELK, or the NELK Boys firstly started as a pure prank YouTube channel where the boys would play pranks on the public in a variety of hilarious ways to garner reactions.
In 2010, Kyle formed the YouTube channel called NelkFilmz with his best friend Lucas and two other friends, Niko and Marko Martinovic.
Kyle and his crew began to film prank videos on YouTube for the next 3 years as they started to gain some local traction.
Around this time in late 2013, Kyle rebranded his YouTube channel name to simply NELK and began upping his game regarding the quality of his content and the risks he was taking to execute pranks.
As a result, he made a connection that allowed him to attend the 2014 MTV Canada conference where he met Jesse Sabastiani.
At the time, Jesse was filming for MTV Canada doing a country-style, Canadian version of the show Jackass.
Kyle and Jesse saw eye-to-eye on many ideas early on so they decided to start filming together. Later Jesse officially joined the group and left his MTV Canada career.
NELK and their first viral video
At this point in NELK’s journey, their leading brand was prank videos with some occasional beer drinking taking place. NELK was working on a very strict budget, and they had to sleep at the houses of fans as they road-tripped around America to film their videos.
Their thriftiness began to pay off as it was an easy way to directly connect with their fan base. It has also forged many opportunities for creating viral moments on the internet, one of their first being its “Coke on Cops” prank in 2015.
In this video, Kyle and his crew purposely park illegally and act sketchy as a police officer approaches them.
After some questioning from the officer, Kyle blurts out that they have Coke in the back.
The boys had a Go-Pro rigged to the top of the trunk so the viewers could see the officer’s reaction as she uncovered a pile of Coke cans.
At the time the cop seemed somewhat amused, but the LAPD later released a statement stating that they were none too pleased, and the prank was technically a crime.
“Coke Prank on Cops” became the second most viewed video of all time from NELK Boys
With the boys avoiding legal trouble, this video marked the beginning of their YouTube notoriety.
Despite this close run-in with the law, NELK continued to push the boundaries with their pranks, some of their most recognizable ones being their fake employee videos.
NELK would acquire a specific uniform for a large corporate store (usually from a fan) and would film videos pretending to be employees at the store and messing with both the customers and staff.
These videos would prove to have their consequences though as they were banned from many stores and local Canadian law enforcement started to take notice. However, the boldness and hilarity of their pranks created an extremely rabid and supportive fan base.
At this point, NELK was beginning to build a cult-like following on the internet which proved to be their saving grace and path to success.
A major portion of the early NELK story revolves around their constant battles with YouTube which would constantly age-restrict and demonetize their videos seemingly without cause in certain cases.
This type of punishment nearly put the boys out of business as they were no longer able to make ends meet from ad revenue on YouTube alone.
It was this combination of a need for an alternative revenue source and their rabid fan base that created the perfect storm for NELK to start making some serious money with their merchandise sales.
From the beginning, the NELK boys employed a unique strategy when it came to releasing their merchandise.
Unlike most influencers who have an online store with a nearly constant supply of their various merchandise items, NELK has consistently done what they call “merch drops” about five times a year.
They also never re-released any of the items in future merch drops.
This scarcity strategy has allowed them to always sell out their inventory and also be able to charge continuously more expensive prices as the demand for their items continues to grow by making them more and more exclusive.
The early and immediate success of NELK’s merch drops propelled them into a higher tier on the YouTube creator ladder.
The increase in money and fame allowed the boys to pursue things like travel, collaborations with other influencers, higher quality videos, and a larger team to help support these things. Specifically, NELK was able to relocate to the center of entertainment, Los Angeles.
On top of moving locations, the boys were also invited by FaZe Banks of the famous e-gaming company, FaZe Clan, to move into his influencer-focused house called “The Clout House,” which has been home for many mega influencers like FaZe Banks, Ricegum and Sommer Ray.
This provided NELK with a group of large influencers within the same living space as them which helped their name and brand to spread across Los Angeles and the internet.
Another genius creation of the NELK boys was their tagline “Full Send” which is a saying that represents going all out for something, in the case of the boys’ brand, partying and drinking.
The brand tagline “Full Send” fits perfectly with their LA celebrity lifestyle, populated by parties with copious amounts of alcohol and scantily clad women.
NELK was able to exponentially grow the popularity of their brand through videos covering their partying life mixed in with their classic prank bits.
It was at this point, going into 2019 when NELK truly began its takeover of YouTube and the influencer scene.
SteveWillDoIt Joins the Gang
In May of 2019, Kyle struck gold when he found a young man by the name of Steve Deleonardis on Instagram who was gaining popularity for his insane drinking, smoking, and eating challenges.
Steve was an instant hit with the NELK fans as he fits in perfectly with his crude sense of humor and love for alcohol.
His drinking and eating challenges were so outlandish and popular that he formed his channel on YouTube called “SteveWillDoIt” in addition to being a mainstay in NELK videos.
Steve’s fan base multiplied and he was able to amass one million subscribers just in the first month of creating his YouTube channel.
This move proved to be very fruitful for both Steve and NELK as a whole because although Steve was a later addition to the NELK crew, he was able to form a close relationship with his fans much faster through his channel.
This allowed him to be a hilarious, alcohol-consuming force in NELK videos as the original NELK fan base quickly understood and accepted what Steve brought to the group.
Following the new NELK business model, Steve and the crew could immediately capitalize on his addition through their exclusive merch drops.
Essentially, a whole new brand line was created for Steve-specific merch that ranged from T-shirts and hoodies to a glass boot to drink beer from called “Steve’s Boot.” Throughout the rest of 2019, it was reported that the NELK boys would consistently sell enough merchandise to generate seven figures of revenue on their drop days.
At the end of the year, the NELK boys felt like it was time to use some of that money to move to their own space where they could also house their growing team of employees.
In February 2020, NELK officially moved out of the Clout House and into their mansion (also in LA) which they dubbed “The Full Send House.”
The naming of the house may seem simple, but it was very meaningful to the boys as their main goal was to start to grow the Full Send brand to new heights.
They wanted to not only continue to grow the Full Send clothing line into a legit streetwear brand but also expand it into a lifestyle brand that is recognizable to a wide demographic of people.
NELK Boys and their full-blown business
In early 2020, NELK’s growing rabid fan base allowed them to take even bigger business and content risks as their whole operation was being funded entirely by their fans. YouTube had completely demonetized their channel and there weren’t any brands interested in using the group to sponsor their products given the edgy and sometimes controversial nature of their videos.
From here on out, NELK was able to get involved in the development and selling of various types of products to support its goal of making Full Send a complete lifestyle brand.
The boys were still very calculated with the types of products they started to develop by sticking to what they knew. One of their first ventures into a product not involved in their clothing & small accessories line was workout supplements and equipment.
In late 2019, the boys realized they needed to do something to combat the toxic nature of their constant partying and celebrity lifestyles so they started hitting the gym and lifting weights. Around this time they also started to collaborate with a YouTube workout influencer named Bradley Martin.
Bradley soon became a mainstay in many of the group’s videos and vice versa regarding the boys being in some of Bradley’s workout videos.
This collaboration was another one that proved to be very fruitful as the NELK boys were now getting exposure amongst a workout-focused demographic which further diversified their fanbase and made their videos about more than just pranks and partying, but a certain way of life.
The NELK boys’ ventures into new products and fan bases came at a great time as the world was about to experience a tragedy that would drive people to greatly increase the time they spent on the internet and YouTube in particular.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused governments around the world to enforce stay-at-home mandates and prevent people from going to work which forced many people to spend much of their greatly increased free time perusing the internet.
At first, it proved to be a tough transition for NELK as all of their videos required them to be able to interact with the public in some way.
However, they were able to weather the storm early on by adapting their videos until they were able to travel to different states around the country that had fewer restrictions as California was one of the most locked-down states.
Media exposure soaring
Many people took issue with the NELK boys continuing their pranks during a global pandemic but it didn’t matter and proved to pay off as the online demand for new content was at an all-time high, especially amongst people in NELK’s average age demographic of young adults.
This caused NELK’s subscriber total and overall media exposure to soar.
Now that the boys had garnered a large amount of mainstream media coverage, they were starting to get noticed by big-name celebrities who were fans of what they were doing.
This led to the boys getting invited to fight nights which created amazing content for their videos and to a clothing collaboration that featured a UFC x Full Send t-shirt.
This was a match made in heaven as it was another catalyst that helped expand NELK’s fan base and it also fits very well with the already-formed workout component of Full Send’s lifestyle brand.
Possibly one of the most important relationships to the transformation of Full Send into a lifestyle brand was a lucky opportunity the boys got through Dana White that was completely unrelated to fighting or the UFC.
They met President Donald Trump on Air Force One before one of his presidential rallies.
The President even brought the boys on stage at the end of his rally to shake hands and be introduced to the crowd.
This was the first time that NELK had been involved in anything political and even though they never state their personal political views, the fact that they got to meet and be a part of the sitting President’s political rally showed the world how far past just pranks and jokes the NELK boys and most importantly their Full Send brand had grown.
The year 2020 proved to be huge for the growth of Full Send but it had also clearly taken a toll on the boys as they were constant targets of law enforcement, had to adjust to new COVID restrictions, and traveled across the U.S. and out of the country to find less restricted areas to film content.
It was because of this that during NELK’s annual holiday video break one of the founding members, Jesse Sabastiani, decided to remove himself from the content side of NELK to focus solely on the business side of the Full Send brand.
He took over everything related to the development of the Full Send brand from designing new clothing items to coming up with new lifestyle items like Full Send skateboard decks, poker chip sets, ashtrays, and many other items that fit the brand’s lifestyle.
In addition to this, he started a new Full Send-specific YouTube channel where he documents his life behind the scenes of the business.
Jesse taking over the main role in the development of the Full Send brand was one of the most important moves that NELK made in 2021.
With his intimate relationship and knowledge of the NELK fan base, Jesse was able to better target the type of new lifestyle items to invest in.
Also, Jesse’s separate “FULL SEND” YouTube channel turned into a huge hit among NELK fans and gave them a new appreciation for the complexity of the Full Send brand.
However, the most impactful move that NELK made for their brand in 2021 was the release of their alcoholic beverage, a hard seltzer brand called Happy Dad.
Although the release of Happy Dad happened in June 2021, it’s already proving to be a huge hit with most stores selling out of the hard seltzer on the first day of its release.
This makes perfect sense as NELK tapped into the ultimate product for the Full Send lifestyle brand because they were able to go back to their roots of drinking and partying and execute a product that is accepted and consumed more broadly in society.
Full Send now produces a product that is both attractive to its cult-like fan base and the general public.
Happy Dad seems to have fully transitioned Full Send into a lifestyle brand now that it can reach everyday people who aren’t familiar with the NELK boys. In other words, you no longer need to be someone who watches YouTube and is a fan of pranks and crude humor to want to support the Full Send brand.
This is the true power of the creator economy or influencers in general, to build real businesses while using their fandom as a huge jumpstart. The only question that remains now is: what product or industry will the NELK boys try to take over next?
Streaming debut
On October 26, 2023, the upcoming streaming platform Kick announced that Nelk was going to start streaming live on their platform the next day.
In less than a week the group collected over 25K followers on the new platform and streamed one of their pranks live and their Halloween party.
Until now Kick was going after established streamers and trying to snatch them from other platforms like YouTube and Twitch with multimillionaire deals.
But with Nelk they took a gamble and signed a group with a large online following but no streaming background.
Their first live stream brought in many eyes but is still up to see if they will be able to conquer this new medium.
FAQs
1. How do the NELK Boys navigate legal and ethical considerations given the controversial nature of some of their pranks and content?
The NELK Boys likely have a team to handle legal matters and ensure compliance, especially given their history of controversial pranks.
2. What specific strategies do the NELK Boys use to maintain and grow their fan base, especially on platforms outside of YouTube?
They probably use diverse content and engagement strategies across social platforms to keep their audience engaged and growing.
3. How has the inclusion of new members like SteveWillDoIt influenced the group dynamics and content strategy of the NELK Boys?
SteveWillDoIt’s addition likely brought new dynamics and content ideas, further diversifying the group’s appeal and content strategy.
If you are a marketer looking at influencer marketing, a CEO with an idea that targets influencers, or just interested in the dynamics that involve content creators, you most likely need access to an influencer database!
Adding an influencer database to your tool bag can be beneficial for all these purposes and even more. Businesses often need access to information regarding influencers and the creator economy that are contained in an influencer database
In this article we will go over what an influencer database is, what can you find in it, and how that can help you. Plus, we will go over free alternatives and ways around using a professionally managed database.
What is an influencer database?
An influencer database is an organized collection of influencers, generally, it also includes information and analytics like their following, engagement, and social media they are active on, plus many other things.
Influencer databases allow marketers to bypass the choke points of social media by having more precise and in-depth search functions. Oftentimes a database is populated with data from different social media making it easier and faster to check between platforms.
Influencer databases gather their data from social media and they can supplement it with other services and tools to provide better contextualization and deeper analytics.
Is there a database of all influencers?
It is unlikely that exists a database of all influencers. Even if reputable services scan social media and update their database daily, the amount of data to go through and categorize is just way too large and too fast-changing.
Are there free tools to find influencers?
Of course, mainly social media themselves. All social media platforms allow you to search the profiles of their users but then is up to you to find the ones that fit your needs.
Social media do not let you search for the following size, engagement rate, and often neither just topics. Therefore, the quality of the results may vary depending on your knowledge of the niche you are interested in.
How can I find influencers in bulk?
To find as many influencers that fit specific criteria, it is best to use professional tools. Advanced search functions, like the CreatorDB’s, allow you to quickly highlight the creators for you based on measures like following, content category, language, country of provenance, and even audience demographics.
With these services, you will be able to access the right influencers at a much larger scale than on social media, also having an easier time comparing them.
While building your own database can sound enticing, it would bring you to deal with many chokepoints that social media put in place when accessing their data. By relying on a professional service, you can rest assured that all those bottlenecks will be addressed by an expert team allowing you to access all the information you need hassle-free.
Access an influencer database
Getting access to an existing influencer database is fairly simple, in fact, you can try CreatorDB’s one with just an easy sign-up. Many of these services allow for free trials so that you can try them first-hand and evaluate their usefulness.
There are mainly two ways to interface with an influencer database:
According to your needs, it can be advantageous to use one method over the other.
How to search through an influencer database?
Influencer databases can be searched using many different criteria. Commonly marketers look for influencers that are popular in specific content categories or geographies. This can be easily sorted out by querying a database for these data. Some databases, like CreatorDB, also provide audience data and allow you to search for creators with audiences of specific ages or located in particular countries.
Databases or portals
Differently from databases influencer portals are directly connected with the creators they feature. Often they offer more detailed information about the influencer’s performances, but the number of influencers present drops significantly.
Portals work as a sort of agency facilitating communication between the two parts but like agencies their reach is limited. Often portals only feature medium-large influencers and don’t include micro-influencers hampering the efficacy of your campaign.
What I can use an influencer database for?
The beauty of influencer databases is that they are extremely versatile and can be used for a variety of different purposes. From our experience, these are the most common use cases for an influencer database:
Enrich previously acquired data
Companies often combine data from third-party providers with data they collect themselves in order to obtain a more nuanced understanding of the situation around the influencers they are interested in.
Embed extra data for custom applications
Many of our clients need access to just a minute part of our data offering in order to integrate it with their products. For example, a website that shows the subscriber count for Instagram profiles will likely obtain access to a third-party database and acquire the data from there over directly collecting the data.
Develop advanced data analysis
For some the data they can retrieve from third-party a provider are just the starting point. They will use them to develop models and investigate the connection between various aspects of online interactions.
Learn how Talkback sped up the identification of fitting creators thanks to the creator comment-reply ratio in our case study.
How can I find Influencer analytics?
Influencer databases generally include most common, and some uncommon, analytics, making them available for any user.
Can I find influencer data for free?
Of course, most influencers’ data are freely available on social media. You could collect data regarding likes, followers, and much more by yourself for free. But would it be worth the hassle? Most likely not, that’s why relying on a professional third party is often the best option.
How can I find influencers’ contact information?
Contact information is some of the most searched and most difficult to find information on influencers’ databases. While many do include them others don’t and is something you will have to verify yourself.
You can avoid all the trouble and rely on CreatorDB, we provide contact information.
Common analytics in influencer databases
Most if not all influencer databases will include:
Followers count, sometimes with the progression over time
Views, especially for YouTube channels
Average likes
Average comments
Many databases will also provide additional analytics. Often more advanced ones are derived by performing calculations on the basic ones or contextualizing the values with other creators in the same category or in the database.
Audience analytics
Some databases, like CreatorDB, provide you with audience data. Since these data are only visible to the creators themselves they are often derived with alternative means and represent an approximation. They may include:
Audience countries of origin
Split between male and female in the audience
Split between age groups in the audience
While not a hundred percent accurate audience analytics allow marketers to better understand if a content creator is a good fit for their goals or not.
How to integrate an Influencer Database with my workflow?
Data providers are going to offer different ways to interact with their data and you may prefer some to others due to your necessities.
Custom frontend
Many data providers are quite jealous of their data and only allow you to access them through a custom portal that will show all the data but prevent you from bulk exporting them in any form. If you choose to rely on a provider that only offers this option be ready to manually copy data one by one when you need them.
CSV export
A common form to allow data export is through CSV files. You are probably already familiar with this format of data and can be easily imported into most data analysis programs. It still requires some manual work in downloading the spreadsheets and importing them to their destination.
API
Not very common but extremely powerful. API allows machines to talk directly and retrieve data by simple code.
By querying a data provider server the data you need will be delivered to you, typically as JSON, and your application will be able to directly pick them up and parse them without any need for human intervention.
API is the best implementation for big or repetitive tasks since they can be set up once and executed in perpetuity.
You have decided to start an influencer marketing campaign but don’t know any influencers. No problem. We will walk you through how to contact influencers.
From identifying the right ones to deciding which is the best channel to contact them on and how to establish solid and long-lasting relationships with them.
Keeping a good rapport with the content creators you have worked with will help you carve out your name in the niche you choose to pursue and establish your company as a reliable and integral part of the sector.
Why influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is optimal when you want to connect with a specific audience or believe that a human touch could help your promotion. Influencers have amassed a substantial following on their social media platforms, and people look up to them. Often even develop parasocial relationships.
When an influencer promotes a product, many of their followers will associate their trust with the influencer with the product, something that is less immediate with other marketing avenues.
Furthermore, we are bombarded by ads, and many try to escape them as much as possible. Sponsored influencer content blends with their typically produced content making it more accepted and less invasive for the audience.
Decide which influencer to contact
Identifying influencers that fit your requirements and brand values is the first step in the process and can be done manually or through influencers’ platforms.
Over 165 million content creators have joined the creator economy in the last two years.
They cover any imaginable niche and segment of the audience, making it possible for you to target highly detailed segments. But, identifying the right one in this sea of creators will be challenging. You can decide to go two ways: manually or with the help of software tools.
If you choose to go manually, you need to identify pertinent hashtags or keywords and search who is posting related content. After you have collected a good amount of possible creators, you will need to extrapolate the fitting analytics for your campaign, like the number of followers, engagement rate, community sentiment, and any others you feel are relevant for each of them.
Organize them on your own. And make comparisons to decide with whom to partner in your campaign. You may want to identify more content creators than the one you want for your final campaign since some may not be interested, not reply, or just refuse to work with you.
To simplify the process, you can use third-party services, like CreatorDB, to do the heavy lifting. Through CreatorDB, you can search a database of over 3 million influencers for 130+ data points. We also offer a built-in niche system that allows you to identify and access over 9000 segments to have granular control over who will receive your message. Furthermore, CreatorDB directly allows access to simple and advanced analytics, making it easy for you to evaluate your picks and select only the best creators for your influencer marketing campaign. CreatorDB also lets you quickly find who a creator worked before and when: this way, you can easily avoid creators currently working with competitors or over-saturating their audiences with ads.
Decide where to contact influencers
Going through emails or agencies strikes as more professional but smaller creators may not have set up a business email or be represented by any agency making it necessary to contact them through the various social media platforms’ direct messaging functions.
Once you select a certain number of creators with whom you would like to collaborate, it is time to consider contacting them. Depending on the social media you are looking at, you may have or not a way to directly communicate inside the platform. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok (but only if the creator follows you back) have direct messaging systems that potentially put you in contact with the creator. Using these services may seem straightforward and tempting, but you have to consider that content creators receive many messages: from fans, other companies, spam, and so on. So the larger the creator’s following, the more unlikely they will see your message if you use such ways.
Concurrently, the larger the creator, the more likely they will be under management from some agency or have some people in place to manage their collaborations. You can generally reach these people through an email address listed in the creator’s information or in their link in the bio.
For platforms like YouTube, where there is no way to communicate with them in the platform, you will have to rely on the business email or try to contact them through other social media they may have.
Once again CreatorDB can help: you can filter your results for only creators that provide an email and access those emails directly, leaving you only to compose and ship emails. Overall is preferable to use the email address when it is provided. It would make your offer look professional and stand out from the tons of messages a creator would receive daily.
Contacting influencers with your pitch
Compose your message in a way that feels personal, and attention-grabbing while also introducing your brand, the idea you have for the campaign, and the influencer’s part in it.
Imagine yourself in the creator’s shoes: you want to collaborate with brands that will positively impact your community and share your same goals and values (or at least are not opposed). So try to tailor your offer to the creator’s style and personality: explain what your company and their message have in common and how they could combine.
Overall any successful email pitch should be composed of the following:
An attention-grabbing subject line.
Applies only to emails. You want to be direct and enticing at the same time. Mention your brand name, and that is for a collaboration/partnership/promotion. Avoid spammy wording and symbols: no dollar signs or fire emojis everywhere. That would make you look unprofessional and likely to be treated just as spam.
A personalized first paragraph.
Make it about them and what you appreciate about their platforms and messaging. Creators are more likely to respond and collaborate with companies that understand their vision and support it. Explain how your campaign perfectly matches their platform and why you chose them.
Introduce your company and product.
Explain your brand, its vision, and how a collaboration between the brand and the creator would be a double win. It is crucial to introduce yourself well if your brand is launching or is relatively unknown in the creator space. You could tweak the intro to focus on the product if the product is going to be the center of the campaign or if your brand is already widely known.
Explain the campaign and their role.
Here comes the meat and potatoes of your pitch. It doesn’t have to be a super detailed explanation, but it gives the general idea of what is to come: talking about what kind of content you expect, how long the campaign is going to run, and the campaign goals. If the influencer replies positively to this first contact, you will go further in detail with them and figure out all the nuts and bolts.
Combine the pitch with a seeding campaign
You can use the first contact with an influencer as a way to kick-start a product seeding campaign. Since sending a product to a creator is likely to need a physical address is necessary to first find out if the creator is available for this kind of campaign. In order to receive a positive answer is always better to explain why they would be a great matchup with the brand.
You can get other useful tips on how to convince a creator to partner with you here
By this time, you should already have in mind how you are expecting the influencer content to be structured, but in case you are still undecided, these are the most common ways of including sponsored content:
Testimonials
Especially suited for products that don’t have a significant strike factor at first sight or may need prolonged use. Software, dieting products, services, and similar can benefit from having an influencer bring to the audience their experience with them and how it compares to other similar products.
Unboxing
Very beneficial if your product is going to come through the mail. The audience would have a first-hand experience of what to expect through the influencer content. Also, leave a lot of space for the influencer reactions and spin on it.
Ads
Old but gold. Classic way to endorse a product less sophisticated than other approaches but evergreen. They are often done as a 30 to 60-second sponsored video in which the content creator reads a previously composed message about the product sponsored. For extra effectiveness is possible to allow the creators to give their personal spin on the ad.
Reviews
Reviews are the perfect way to make your promotional material feel authentic and genuine. You will have an influencer try out your product and give feedback on its performance. It may sound counterproductive, but you also want to have some negative feedback. If it is all negative, you may have to rethink your product, but the presence of minor issues or things that could be smoothed would make the review look even more genuine and less like a paid promotion.
Learn why you shouldn’t try to push for an affiliate program when it comes to content creators.
Negotiation
Be ready to discuss details and KPIs with the creators, set boundaries, and listen to their ideas about the creative direction they could bring to the campaign.
If the creator replies with interest to your email, this is the time you two will start discussing the details of the collaboration: timeline, rewards, and expected KPIs. Even before contacting the creators themselves, you should have an idea of what the partnership will bring to you regarding the essential KPIs for your campaign but be sure to discuss them with the creators and listen to their side of the story. They know their audience better than you.
Be clear with the creator about the timeline for the content publishing, what boundaries need to be respected, and how the product needs to be shown and discussed. Depending on the influencer experience size and preferences, they may want to be paid or accept product gifts as compensation.
Be sure to hear them about their creative ideas and compensation choices, and be accommodating when possible. If you want to work with influencer marketing for an extended period establishing positive relations with content creators is essential.
FAQs
1. How can a brand effectively track and manage communications with multiple influencers to ensure consistent follow-ups and relationship building?
Brands can use CRM tools or influencer marketing platforms to organize and monitor communications with influencers, ensuring no follow-up is missed and relationships are nurtured effectively.
2. What are the common pitfalls or mistakes brands make when reaching out to influencers for the first time, and how can they be avoided?
Common mistakes include not personalizing outreach messages, lacking clarity about the collaboration, or not researching the influencer’s content and audience alignment, which can be avoided with thorough preparation and customization.
3. How do influencers typically prefer to be compensated for their collaborations, and how can brands navigate negotiations to meet both parties’ expectations?
Influencers’ preferences for compensation vary, including monetary payment, free products, or revenue sharing. Open and transparent negotiations, respecting the influencer’s value and audience, help in reaching agreeable terms.
Conclusion
After all that we discussed in this article, you should be ready to start finding potential influencers for collaboration and sending out messages to get them on your team.
While contacting them, and being clear when doing so, is very important is not the only step that matters: being able to craft an effective campaign, track the analytics that matter and know what to do with influencers’ generated content after the campaign are also important steps.
To help you in your influencer marketing journey we at CreatorBD offer tools for you to craft your own campaigns and managed solutions to let you take a laid-back approach while reaping all the benefits.
Get familiar with the 4Ms model for influencer marketing and ace your next campaign.
If you dabble in marketing, you are probably familiar with the 4 P’s, one of the pillars of marketing theory, which see Product, Price, Place, and Promotion as fundamental aspects for any marketer that wants to achieve their objectives.
While this model was and still is a fundamental base when discussing how to market a product, the emergence of new channels to reach clients has pushed for new models. In 2004 Sid Peimer proposed the “Internet Mix” composed of Sell, Tell & Dwell as the central pillar to succeed in online marketing.
The “Internet Mix” is, under many aspects, still a valid model and can be a perfect guide to understanding the needs of a digital marketing campaign and if your planning is going in the right direction. With word of mouth and social proof becoming a more and more prominent aspect of digital marketing, especially influencer marketing, a new model came to light to frame how influencer marketing campaigns should be organized and their life cycle: the 4Ms model.
Thanks to this model, you can identify the core tenants of an influencer marketing campaign and easily understand your positioning.
The 4Ms are: Make, Manage, Monitor, and Measure, and they are used to create and follow an influencer marketing campaign from start to finish. The 4Ms are especially important not to get distracted by the many vanity metrics and secondary achievements that often become the main point of influencer marketing campaigns while focusing on the real benefit of influencer marketing:
Make
“Make the influencer” by understanding at which stage of the customer journey your customers are. Each different position in the funnel would require a different approach to successfully being pushed further down. Therefore knowing which kind of audience you are targeting is extremely important to make the correct decision about which influencers to collaborate with. Identifying the audience of any influencer and understanding how they fit in your sales funnel is the first step to success.
Manage
Manage is the more experimental moment of any campaign. Now that you have the right influencers for your campaign, it is time to see how their audience resonates with a different kind of content. While other influencers may target a similar audience, there can be significant differences in what their audiences enjoy. Considering that the influencer is the one that best knows its audience preferences is essential to keep their ideas in mind and give them at least a fair shot.
Want to learn more about how different content can lead to different outcomes? Check our Wargaming case study!
Monitor
Once the campaign is up and running is vital to monitor it actively. Social webs are not static, and by offering them a stimulus, the marketing campaign, they will answer to it, sometimes in unpredictable ways. By keeping track of mentions, sentiment, and trends around the sponsored content, you can individuate other influencers that will benefit your campaign and how external factors are aiding or disrupting your messaging. By proactively monitoring, you can rapidly adjust your campaign and react to changes in the circumstances that could disrupt your goals.
Measure
As for every marketing campaign, ROI is the most critical metric. Whatever your final goal is, you should have had it very clear since the beginning and have divided it by measurable metrics. Using content categories benchmarks to establish goals and thresholds. Controlling various measurements will make it easy to spot the influencers that overperformed, who underperformed, what kind of content was more effective in achieving your objectives, and much more.
Conclusion
Too often, companies and marketing departments decide to adventure into the world of influencer marketing because they expect it to be the next big thing and to bring results anyway. But like every other form of marketing, influencer marketing needs to have a solid backbone to work, a backbone that will sustain your current strategy and help you improve upon what you have already done, and boost your growth in the future. The 4Ms model provides you with all the tools you need to present and future success. If you are looking for the perfect way to handle your influencer marketing campaigns, look no further than CreatorDB. CreatorDB’s platforms let you access all you need to achieve your influencer marketing goals in one place: from influencers discovery to performance tracking to market analysis. CreatorDB also shows the audience’s sentiment about each influencer’s content and lets you easily differentiate between organic and sponsored content. If you want to succeed in influencer marketing, book your consultation today.