In order to overcome consumer skepticism, third party voices have always been the vehicles for brands to communicate to consumers. Brands want a trusted, authentic and effective medium to communicate with and acquire customers. In an age when skepticism is at its peak, marketing through influential people is one of the few media channel that can deliver on that so effectively. Here is why:
Celebrities, talents, and idols are considered the societal class that the populace builds their identities upon and the class that instigates mimetic behaviors among their devotees and the larger society. This identification process overcomes the cynicism and skepticism occurring in our day and age and builds the necessary trust that the audience needs to have prior to accepting any message.
People channels constitute the natural medium for stories to be perceived as authentic and they are the native channels where word of mouth takes place. Influencer marketing seeks to instigate the conversation and capitalize on consumers’ belief in the credibility of word of mouth recommendation.
In an effort to monetize their audience growth, social media platforms have offered brands the ability to communicate through their own voice to their relevant communities. Some good years later, this method has yet to prove to be working and brands are witnessing the fact that they have to pay for almost every interaction. Marketing through the creators and influencers of this generation enables brands to take advantage of their organic distribution capability. Coupled with paid targeting methodologies, brands are able to acquire customers and create engagement at lower cumulative CPAs, CPVs or CPMs than what the platforms themselves offer.
The above arguments are the reasons why influencer marketing has the capability to become a core media spending channel, as influencers became media channels themselves. For the model to remain, a few hassles need to be overcome, including access to data, scalability and ease of media buying.
