Today I looked into the real impact that social media is having on our buying habits and how we perceive brands. I looked at this demographically in relation the brand in question and why it is important for brands to know the impact of the social influencer. We see a shift from Celebrites endorsement to social influencers and hw us as consumers and the target market (18-34) trust brands based on what their favourite influencers are sponsoring. At the end I will discuss the importance of choosing the correct influencer and why it's important for brands to be liked and backed by the big influencers that consumers look up to.
Information/Source: http://academic.mintel.com/display/913734/?highlight#hit1
IAB – Interactive Advertising Bureau found that online and digital advertising was worth 11.6 billion in 2017 and this is being predicted to increase by a huge 18.5 billion by 2020. With Gen Z being a big focus in this research its important to mention how strong the link is between them and social media. Mobile advertising having the biggest increase as it went for 1% in online advertising expenditure and has grown and grown to almost half (45%) by 2017.
According to Mintel over half of Gen Z's sturggle to take breaks from their phones and social media. They are being consumed by what they are seeing on their phones. Which means its the perfect platform for VS to influence its consumers. The biggest percentage of those addicted to mobile phones being girls aged 16-18 which is the peak age for VS's brand PINK.
Social Influencer affect and risks:http://academic.mintel.com/display/913734/?highlight#hit1
Social Influencers are a huge part of our digital world, especially peaking in Generation Z. They trust and consume their content every single day. Brands must keep with the times with the wave in the market that social influencers are bringing. They must ensure that the Social Influencer is relevant to their brand but also that they have a high amount of engagement with the followers. This way, they are getting the most out of their money. For example if followers have been bought, there will be a low level of engagement and therefore the brand will not see much in return in terms of increase in sales. Brands must also make sure their target audience is in line with the influencers target audience, this will increase likelihood of relevance and sales in product.
It's good to note that mintel suggested that influencers can have an opposite effect as those that are following them want them to seem relatable and something they an aspire to be like. People may not want ad after ad on their timeline as it seems unreliable, this may have more of a negative than positive effect on the consumer.
Importance of Social Influencer: Study by Mukta Chowdhary and Sara Grimaldi, source fullscreenmedia https://fullscreenmedia.co/2018/03/27/influence-numbers-lowdown-whos-really-influential-online/ published in March 2018
They survey was conducted with 31,802 influencers with different amounts of following, including celebrities and with 1,200 people aged 18-34 (Vs's target audience)
Trust in digital creator seems to be overtaking the trust that people have in brands alone. With 27% of those from the survey saying that they trust brands after been exposed to them by their favourite influencers and therefore will be more likely to buy from them. The bigger, more successful influencers e.g trailblazers, increased consumer trust in brands to 45%. This suggests they have a very high position in the market when it comes to brand trust which brands need to be taking advantage of.
Brand Trust from Influencers
It's important to mention how much the Gen X and Z trust influencers when making choices about brand purchasing. According to the statistics, 54.4% of 18-24 year olds trust influencer posts. This number decreases when it comes to millennials (25-34) to 36.5% have influencer trust. However this demographic is more likely to hold trust in what an influencer says about a brand. As 44.3% trust what an influencer says compared to the 20.8% who trust what the brand says about itself.
Not only do influencers create bonds and trust with their audience but they also influence buying habits and purchases of the brands that they have posted about. 43% of those to paid branded influencer posts, tried out the product or service being advertised and 26% purchased the product.
The rise and fall of Celebrities
-All we used to be able to see before social media was celebrity endorsement, on perfume ad's, on Tv and film and on billboards. However as the rise in social media has taken over, there has been a complete switch in which brands take their advertisements to, and it proves to be working. It's clear to see that the younger generation (Gen X 18-24) are being most heavily influenced. 47.6% of Gen Z were considering purchasing after been exposed to influencer and brand collars compared to 26.3% of Millenials. One of the biggest influencers are Trailblazers, those which have over a million followers. These are the real key influencers brand should be looking towards as 1/3 of those exposed to sponsored content by these influencers had gone out and purchased the product. This has almost doubled the effect that Celebrities have now and 13% over what micro-influencers have influenced.
What Kind of influencers should brands be looking towards?
Rising stars (250k-900k) and Trailblazers have the highest amount of engagement when it comes to all social media platforms. The figures show that the have the highest influencer power over 50-80% higher than those from Celebs or Micro-Influencers. It's clear that brands like VS should be looking towards these types of influencers to promote their brand.
Why is this?
Micro influencers are still quite small, they may not have built a rapport with their audience yet, which is why they might not trust them and therefore are lacking in branded content. They must engage the audience first. It's important to remember that Micro-influencers may have another job for living due to a small income coming from social media and therefore may not be s dedicated or post as frequently as those with a higher following. My theory for Celebrity endorsement is that it's a dying marketing strategy. Consumers don't feel as through they can relate to them as much as influencers. They are quite far from reality, it shows in their engagement on social media and don't get anywhere as near brand deals now as social influencers. The market has moved, especially with the boom of instagram, people are engaging more with people they want to be like and aspire to be.
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