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INFLUENCER MARKETING
Comedian Trevor Noah
has more than 4-million influencers being remunerated for brand-
Twitter followers
? “There’s an abundance of local influen-
Using influencers
is an extremely
efficient strategy
Unsurprisingly, many of the most
valued influencers were early and
enthusiastic adopters of social
media. They have developed large
followings over time.
However, the unequivocal recognition
of influencers on social media is
not always easy. Sometimes their
messages, particularly where brands
are photographed and tagged, make it
blatantly obvious. But, because there
are no transparency rules compelling
influencers to disclose paid-for posts in
South Africa (in many other countries,
influencers are required to hashtag
posts as #sp or #sponsoredpost), it
is not always clear.
Moreover, unless they advertise their
services as influencers on sites such
as Webfluential – which connects more
than 6 000 influencers with around
2 500 marketers from 185 countries
via digital media and then tracks and
reports the results of the interaction
and dissemination of content – it can be
difficult to distinguish professional paid-
for influencers from unpaid enthusiastic
supporters of brands.
44 strategicmarketing August–September 2016
? But, what is clear is that the number of connection with your brand, their posts
will almost certainly be effective.
PHOTOS: SUPPLIEDrelated posts is growing in this country.
EFFECTIVE LOCAL
CAMPAIGNS
cers available for business-to-consumer According to a 2015 poll conducted
campaigns, particularly in the fashion among marketing professionals
and lifestyle sectors,” notes Lebogang by influencer platform, Tomoson,
Mokubela, whose Johannesburg-based influencer marketing is the fastest way
Lemok Agency focuses on digital and of acquiring customers online. It is also
social media marketing for small-to- one of the most cost-effective.
medium sized businesses. “But when it
comes to business-to-business markets, Mokubela says a four week-long
there are fewer.” campaign using an influencer with a
total social media following in excess
One way of overcoming the problem of one million – and involving three
of identifying the right influencers and/ Twitter, Facebook and Instagram posts
or finding influencers in sectors that per day – costs around R70 000. This
have few, he says, is for marketers to is the approximate price of a full-page,
identify their most loyal customers and full-colour advertisement in a weekly
include them in influencer campaigns. financial magazine with a circulation
of less than 20 000.
A company’s ideal customer, reasons
Mokubela, has the kind of rational and Statistics provided by Thabiso Maloi,
emotional connection to the brand Account Manager at Webfluential,
that marketers want to promote more indicate penetration and coverage of an
widely. The premise is that when you influencer campaign are optimised with
have influencers with that level of
INFLUENCERS AND THE QUESTION OF ETHICS
Should sponsored posts be disclosed mislead their followers, they and
as such? In some countries, this is the brand are mismatched and the
mandatory. South Africa has no such campaign is unlikely to be effective.
regulation and, although one might
expect most people to insist on Lebogang Mokubela of Lemok
transparency, this is not the case. Agency concurs: “Actively disclosing
that posts are sponsored takes
“Yes, information identifying the power of the platform away.
sponsored posts should be Because influencers create their own
available if it is requested,” says content, they are able to maintain
Nonkululeko Mabena of marketing their integrity, which adds to the
and communications agency The effectiveness of the campaign.”
Strategy Department. “But disclosing
this in every post defeats the Veteran marketing analyst, Chris
purpose of the trusted word-of- Moerdyk sees it differently: “It is a
mouth nature of the technique grey area, but consumers are not
of influencer marketing.” stupid,” he says. “If posts are not
authentic, people will know and
The theory is that, even if influencers will lose credibility, which
influencers are paid, everything they will not only damage the brand but
say is fact. If an influencer has to also their standing as influencers.”