Your Weekly Influencer Marketing Update 🚀
02.11.2020 / #52
☀️ Happy Monday! ☀️
A few updates!
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🔍 This week’s Deep Dives
🛍️ TikTok moves into social ecommerce with Shopify deal
TikTok has (finally) partnered with Shopify to allow users the ability to shop while they scroll, placing the platform more in line with competitive (read: Instagram) platforms when it comes to eCommerce capabilities.
Social commerce is slowly starting to scale up in the U.S., with sales predicted to be around the $20bn mark. This is however still a long way behind China, with apps such as WeChat driving a predicted $253bn in social sales this year.
Satish Kanwar, who leads Shopify’s Channels division, said TikTok had quickly become popular among retailers with a large influencer audience. “It was obvious early on how [TikTok] was starting to influence commerce trends and trajectories,” he said. “With direct-to-consumer brands, that relationship between storytelling and entertainment and the product they sell is so close.”
Shopify has benefited hugely from the eCommerce boom, with shares nearly tripled since March.
On TikTok, Shopify merchants can now connect to a TikTok business account and add a TikTok tracker to their store. They will be able to turn existing product assets into videos that will function as “shoppable ads”. The purchases that are made will be completed through the Shopify platform, meaning that the purchase data will not sit with TikTok directly.
💡 Our Opinion
The message is clear; there is going to be a lot of opportunity for those working in the eCom space, especially in combination with influencers. It has to be noted, though, that while a step in the right direction for TikTok, they are still trailing Instagram significantly, which has a much more integrated approach. I’d also like to highlight that transactions will happen on Shopify, which means that TikTok will more than likely not be able to call upon the data as efficiently.
✏️ How the passion economy is shaping the future of influencer marketing
The influencer hierarchy has started to flatten, and creators have had to adapt to match the changing needs of content-consumers.
The global pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement have made us all look for more substantial and purposeful content, and many creators have thrived within this new environment.
Brands have been a catalyst for the influencer economy, where they would “rent” audiences built by influencers. Influencers, however, don’t control the algorithm and are faced with constant challenges when it comes to creating successful content and growing their audiences.
Platforms such as OnlyFans, Cameo and eCommerce (see our first article this week), are enabling creators to monetise their own audiences and start to build brands in their own rights.
Some have dubbed this the “passion economy”, where everyone now has access to the tools to build audiences at scale and turn their passion into dollars. This model is more established within the gaming, podcasting and publishing sectors (i.e. this newsletter you’re reading is created on Substack, which is pushing me quite heavily to monetise my own audience).
If brands want to maintain access to audiences and remain relevant, they will need to start thinking more about communities. They will have to look into workflows that are more collaborative, focus on co-creation, or simply empower creators.
The author calls for a change in the way we look at influencers; not focusing on reach and scale, but rather the access they have to their community. Doing this will redirect attention away from amplification and towards adding value to communities in order to drive credibility towards consumers.
💡 Our Opinion
It’s not often that we find a piece that aligns so well with our thinking. The influencer economy is gradually adjusting to the new decade, and influencers are slowly separating themselves from brands as their only source of viable income. They’re beginning to monetize their audiences and build their own brands – opting for longevity versus a quick cash injection that comes with a high risk (alienating audiences).
The author really gets it right here – if brands wish to remain relevant as well as make an impact with audiences, they will have to stop thinking about influencers solely as a means to broadcast / amplify existing messages, but rather collaborate to reach communities with relevant messaging.
📰 Headlines
Big Tech’s Election Plans Have a Blind Spot: Influencers
“The campaigning world is years behind the brand world, and influencer marketing is already huge in the brand world, so I’d be very surprised if this doesn’t pick up in the next few years”
Triller Selects Influential As Its Influencer Measurement And Data Partner
Triller, an AI-powered music video app that allows users to create professional-looking videos in a matter of seconds, has selected another AI-powered company, Influential, a social data and conversion technology, as its influencer measurement and social data partner.
Mary Keane-Dawson: how influencers moved into politics
This will require a combined effort: strict guidelines from the government and trade bodies such as the FTA and ASA, regulation by the social media platforms, and a willingness to comply from the influencers. If this can be achieved harmoniously, then influencer marketing stands to be a hugely powerful tool not just for advertising but also for politics.
What Do Insta Influencers Actually Earn?
Here's the story: In 2020, Instagram influencers received an average $180 for a story -- the feature that enables users to share multiple photos and videos, appearing together in a slideshow format; $370 for a feed post, when photos and videos show up in the feeds of followers; and $670 for a video, according to the latest annual pricing trends research from influencer marketing platform Klear.
TikTok ban once again blocked by judge, this time thanks to three influencers
TikTok is suing the Trump administration and Commerce Department to block its app from being banned, but this ruling actually came from another lawsuit: three TikTok creators who were concerned that the ban would prevent them from earning a living. The judge sided with their argument that TikTok videos constitute “informational materials,” which are protected under the relevant law.
Twitch emerges as rising platform for beauty brands
“The reason I wanted to do Twitch was because I wanted to interact with my audience in a different way, where it wasn’t just them chatting,” said Phan. The event was successful at driving sales: Daydream Cushion sold 278% more units on launch day, compared to previous launches. Seventeen percent of Em Cosmetics’ revenue and 45% of its site traffic for the day was generated during the roughly three-and-a-half-hour livestream. The promoted cushion accounted for 46% of the purchases bought during the livestream.
…and a bonus read for those of you interested in Formula E!
How Formula E Racing Is Driving the Electric Vehicle Revolution
EV expert Eward Kjaer, who advises power utilities on EVs, says Formula E is a game-changer not only for its technological advances, but also because it helps consumers see electric vehicles as high-performance cars, not golf carts putt-putting around senior communities. “The progression of Formula E has been really impressive,” he says. “It’s exciting racing, and they’ve created state-of-the-art concepts involving the fans. They are so much further ahead than Formula One, which is stuck in the past.”