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With so much economic uncertainty through covid, long standing collaborations for brands in 2022 has meant more than just economic stability. It has meant sharing the cost, sharing the profit, and most importantly, sharing the risk in this sometimes inconsistent market. Brand collaborations also offer the opportunity to navigate outside of traditional brand activity, while still feeling brand appropriate! Establishing partnerships for the long-haul isn’t just a greater investment of time and money, they also demonstrate shared values and real commitment between creators and brands, which further helps to build trust with consumers. In fact, according to research, 48% of marketers said that building strong, long-term partnerships is their top priority when working with influencers, emphasising the benefits of well-established relationships. As a result, 2022 has been a year when partnerships between brands and influencers are stronger, more diverse and more purposeful than ever.
This is a topic that, by now, you’ll know we preach about a lot. Micro-influencers are in, and they’re not going anywhere. Micro-influencers (those operating with 100,000 followers or fewer) have been proven to drive an ever greater ROI than their macro counterparts, helping to drive authentic messages to loyal and engaged fanbases. Aside from just surprisingly impressive statistics, there are many other benefits of working with micro-influencers. They’re often more affordable for brands’ budgets and can help diversify a brand’s reach, as well as having generally a higher engagement rate because the followers feel a real connection to the influencer. Put bluntly, they just seem more real and relatable to ordinary people than those with a larger following. Because a micro-influencer deals directly with a product and its attributes, function, and reliability, they have a deeper understanding of the brand, lending serious authenticity to their recommendations.
If the past year has taught us anything, it’s that consumers are more savvy than ever. Brands are especially transparent right now, meaning that creativity has had to be the main ingredient for Influencer Marketing campaigns if they had any chance of being accepted organically. As ever, consumers also want to be kept on their toes – leaving creativity and individuality as the latest cornerstones of the industry. With it, brands manage to generate value in the audiences and position brands, whilst also winning over Influencers when transmitting their message! Storytelling through creative campaigns also became all the rage. Influencer-led storytelling proved itself as an incredibly effective way to connect with your target audience and create meaningful engagement, through the perfect combination of informative, but importantly highly emotive content! Brand stories were seen to help otherwise faceless organisations build an emotional connection with their audience, overall resulting in higher engagement, loyalty, and sales.