What is Influencer Marketing and Why Does It Work?
Written By Dominic Graci
What is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing is a type of marketing strategy that involves collaborating with individuals who have a significant and engaged following on social media platforms or other online channels. These individuals, known as influencers, have the ability to influence the purchasing decisions of their audience due to their credibility, authenticity, and reach.
The process typically involves a brand or company partnering with an influencer to promote their products or services. This collaboration can take various forms, such as sponsored content, product placements, reviews, or endorsements. The goal is to leverage the influencer's influence and connection with their audience to create awareness, build trust, and drive engagement and sales for the brand.
Where does Influencer Marketing take place?
Influencer marketing is prevalent on platforms like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, and others, where influencers share content with their followers. It is essential for brands to carefully choose influencers whose values align with their own and whose audience matches the target demographic for the products or services being promoted.
Here you see popular Instagram influencer LethalShooter do a collaboration with Redbull. LethalShooter is a world renown basketball trainer, training athletes from star forward Anthony Davis to celebrities like Drake. He is most known for his amazing skills of shooting the basketball, but he also gives himself very obscure challenges (you can call them trick shots). As you can notice, LethalShooter doesn’t even mention Redbull. He does his stunt while wearing their merchandise and them placing their logo all around the set. This brings an entire following to Redbull’s brand and their stock in the racing world.
This is another example of LethalShooter doing a collaboration with a brand. In this video he is working with the apparel and shoe brand Converse. In this post, they go through Lethal’s background and upbringing. They go through his struggles and how his determination as a creator has carried him to the success that he now has. This is a reflection of what Converse wants its consumers to feel. Converse attracts the determined and willing people of society, and their brand is what sets them apart from the rest. As you scroll through you can see a customized sneaker that they made that includes Lethal’s most popular saying, “Stay Locked In”. This not only pushes the idea that Converse consumers are the over achievers, but also allows Lethal to push his message to a broader audience.
Influencer Marketing Is Here To Stay
Since 2010, overall social media usage has tripled. Along with this, the amount of celebrities and athletes have hopped on this trend and used the influence as “influencers” to persuade their audience to buy certain products. It is such an effective method because there are millions of kids who want to be just like their favorite athlete, actor, or YouTuber. Assuming everyone has at least one person they look up to, in most cases they trust them. This relationship allows brands to directly connect to a certain target market and just from using an influencer to relay the message, they automatically have a foot in the door.