GROWING INFLUENCE

Several brands are deploying influencer marketing to put their products on the map. Is the strategy working?

- Zainab Mansoor

“People have been companions for a while now. Athletes have endorsed sports giants, movie stars have backed skincare and F&B products, while other celebrities have helped drive a plethora of customers to banks and other brands. The marriage was a happy one.

But as digital connectivity and content curation exploded, advertising mediums grew and social media donned a new face of engagement and connectivity, the concept of modern endorsement shifted.

Marketing arenas, once restricted to celebrities and famous people, beckoned individuals who deployed social media platforms to exert a certain ‘influence’. This shift came as ‘influencers’ started to become a trusted presence within their communities while engaging customers in a more personalised fashion.

Drawing on the connect and its benefits, brands began to leverage the concept to market their products and services via digital creators. But is an influencer’s value restricted to just their following?

“In 2021, I’d go as far as to say that the size of an influencer’s following is one of their least valuable assets. Brands have realised a big following does not equal big success. It’s much more valuable to focus on audience engagement and drill down into the specifics of where those followers are than blindly hit big numbers. That’s why micro influencers have become so popular, they have much more engaged followings, so recommendations are more trusted,” explains Karl Mapstone, head of Middle East at Vamp, a content and influencer marketing platform.