WatchPro – August 2019

GLOBAL INFLUENCER MARKETING SPEND IS EXPECTED TO GROW FROM $1.3 BILLION IN 2018 TO $2.3 BILLION BY 2020. THE NUMBER OF BRAND-

SPONSORED INFLUENCER POSTS IS ALSO EXPECTED TO DOUBLE, SURPASSING SIX BILLION MESSAGES NEXT YEAR. THE WATCH INDUSTRY WAS

SLOW TO EMBRACE INFLUENCERS, AND NOW FACES A BATTLE TO BE NOTICED AS THE WATCH LOUNGE’S TOM MULRANEY DISCOVERS.

I

nfluencer marketing is one

of the most thrown about

buzzwords of the past five

years, with outsized media

coverage putting it front of mind

for many businesses; not always

for the right reasons.

Google ‘Fyre Festival’ if you don’t

know what I’m talking about.

Or better still, watch the Netflix

documentary on the same topic

which covers how some of the

world’s biggest models, all with

millions of Instagram followers,

promoted a festival that its

organizers singularly failed to deliver.

It is scary stuff and a cautionary tale

of the horrors that can flow from an

over-hyped social media campaign.

In reality though, this is still

considered a relatively niche area of

marketing, forecasted to reach $10

billion total value by 2022. To put that

figure in context, worldwide digital ad

spending is expected to be in excess

of $333 billion in 2019. Or roughly

half of the global ad market.

Influencer marketing is undeniably

on the rise though, particularly in

the luxury goods industry where

consumer purchases are largely

driven by status and emotion.

Done right, it promises heightened

brand awareness, better engaged

customers and ultimately more

sales. In recent times though,

these potential benefits have been

overshadowed by controversy.

From fake followers to high costs

and low returns, many question the

effectiveness of this strategy. Others

worry that it might do more harm

to their brand’s image than good. It

doesn’t seem like the trend is going

to die out anytime soon though.

It could be argued that there

is nothing new to the influencer

trend, it is simply a repackaging and

digitising of techniques that have

been since the dawn of capitalism.

Pre-internet, it went by a different

term: word-of-mouth. Essentially,

someone you knew used a product

or service and then personally

recommended it to you based on

their experience. These types of

endorsements were (and still are)

hugely valuable to brands because

they tend to deliver real outcomes

that can often carry more credibility

than traditional advertising.

These days, the advent of social

media has exponentially amplified

the potential reach of these

recommendations. When people have

a good experience with a product or

service, they go online to let others

know about it, either through their

own social media channels or those

of the brand. After all, why just tell one

friend at a time when you can tell all

of them simultaneously? Along with a

load of strangers too.

This is what’s known as Earned

Media – publicity gained through

promotional efforts other than paid

media advertising. Inevitably though,

it has also given rise to an entirely

HOW TO GET AHEAD IN INFLUENCING

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