Traditionally when brands needed to get
their word out through trusted faces, they have turned to the personalities of Bollywood and Cricket, even if they were to market a light bulb (quite
literally see this ad) which even prima facie seems like an inefficient idea.
The rise of social media has led to the growth of ‘micro-celebrities’ who can
better cater to the needs of the brands.
- Influencers are the New
Celebrities : As the importance of Social
networks increases and more people begin to embrace the freedom and diversity
of online content, the creators of said content will continue to grow in
importance and popularity. Platforms such as Instagram already have tens of thousands
of users following individual influencers, giving them a voice that even some
Bollywood actors and actresses (who themselves might be on Instagram as
influencers) would envy. eg: Mahima Kottary, a fashion and fitness blogger from
Mumbai, active on Sociafluence
- Influencers are Relatable : Often, the reason behind an influencer gaining importance in the lives of their
followers is that they have positively impacted them by sharing experiences
that the consumer can relate with and this creates the basis for which the
future of their content in built on, making their opinions and preferences for
(marketed) products even more legitimate and hence more ‘influential’.
- It is Cost Effective : It doesn’t take a genius to recognize the fact that advertising is expensive and
brand ambassadors might be just the most expensive way of giving a face to the
brand. Major actors and actresses in both Hollywood and Bollywood charge up to
millions of dollars for just a few appearances and TV ads. In their place,
influencers are an effective way to give your brand not only a face of
familiarity but that of trust.
- It is More than Just an
Appearance : While popular celebrities showcasing a product can do great things for the
popularity of said product, it sometimes is more effective to have someone
experienced from the industry evaluate and showcase your product instead and
several times, such people are also major online influencers who have a fan
base built around trust and faith which gives their word an unparalleled amount
of legitimacy.
- It is Interactive : The followers of different influencers often discuss amongst themselves and
with the influencers about topics of their interest and hence building a much
stronger bond that otherwise possible with the seemingly-distant celebrities of
B-town and Sports.
- It isn’t Obvious : Nowadays we are simply too accustomed to seeing celebrities on the small screen
and online doing short commercials about products that have little to no
connection to their line of work. As is with consumer fatigue, the effectiveness
of this avenue of advertising is slowly and steadily fading.
- Highly Scalable : Unlike brand ambassadors, who turn into the image of the product itself, a
company can choose to have multiple influencers as a part of its marketing
campaign, giving access to a type of scalability in terms of word-of-mouth
marketing that is unprecedented in its abilities.
In a nutshell, you get all the benefits of
a celebrity in an influencer without any of the drama of dealing with a
manager, an ego or a competing brand for a much lower cost and higher ROI.
Influencer marketing is easy, effective and economical.
