Your Weekly Influencer Marketing Update 🚀
12.10.2020 / #49
☀️ Happy Monday! ☀️
Some of you that follow me on LinkedIn may have already seen, but for those of you that haven’t…*drumroll*
I’ve joined Formula E as influencer marketing manager, a hugely exciting role where I get to work closely with some very inspirational and amazing people on a purpose-led, future-proof sport product. There are some fantastic opportunities for influencer marketing as our first race of Season 7 is coming up in January 2021.
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🏊 The Deep Dive
🎵 Spotify is leaning on influencers to win the podcasting wars
Spotify wants to be the largest audio platform in the world
Exclusive podcast partnerships have been a significant part of the charge thus far. Deals with the Obamas and Joe Rogan have received a lot of attention.
“In order for us to continue our growth and our trajectory, we knew we wanted to broaden out what being an audio network really means,” said Dawn Ostroff, Spotify’s chief content and advertising business officer, at Fast Company’s 6th annual Innovation Festival. “And podcasting, which is the fastest growing medium right now particularly among young people, was the natural next step.”
Over the past few months, Spotify has struck deals with influencers including Addison Rae and Denzel Dion. Spotify’s median listener age is 26, and leaning on the huge reach that influencers provide allows the platform to directly tap into the much-coveted Gen Z audience.
“[I wanted people to] get a glimpse into the other side of my life that people don’t hear about or see,” says Rae, who hosts the Spotify podcast Mama Knows Best with her mother. “I feel like when it comes to content on other platforms [there’s] no time for really learning about someone or getting in deeper in their mind. And a podcast is the perfect space for that.”
According to Spotify, 21% of their 299 million users actively engaged with podcast content, and providing influencers with a platform to create more personal and varied content seems to be working for both parties.
🌡️ Our Opinion
eSports and podcasts are on the up and up, and Spotify is clearly showing how aligned they are with influencers and the impact they can generate. It is a case in point example that creators can be a more authentic, effective way of reaching a (younger) audience that they themselves wouldn’t be able to reach/advertise to as effectively. It’s clear that Spotify is coming in with a value proposition here too, apart from the obviously huge (yes, I am making an assumption here) payday that comes with an exclusive Influencer x Spotify partnership. They are providing influencers and creators with a format that is not as content-focused, and allows them to engage their audience in a way that could lead to a closer and intimate relationship, strengthening their personal brand in the process, as well as delivering new users to Spotify.
🗳️ Joe Biden Taps Portal A For #ImVotingFor Influencer Campaign On Instagram, Twitter
Last week we discussed influencers as part of politics and, voila, this week - we have this article.
Portal A has been tapped by Joe Biden to run a social campaign called #ImVotingFor. It launched last week and the goal is to allow influencers to share their personal motivations for voting.
The campaign focuses on Twitter & Instagram, where >100 creators and celebrities have been asked to share content using the hashtag and nominate their high-reach friends.
The campaign includes the Obamas among a wealth of other YouTube and Instagram stars. According to TubeFilter (at the time of writing) the campaign generated 85,000 posts in addition to 6.2 million engagements - and achieved trending status on Twitter in the U.S.
The campaign includes the Obamas among a wealth of other YouTube and Instagram stars. According to TubeFilter (at the time of writing) the campaign generated 85,000 posts in addition to 6.2 million engagements - and achieved trending status on Twitter in the U.S.
“In an election that will define the future of our democracy, our team is proud to be launching a social media campaign that will reach tens of millions of voters and put the stakes of November in the most human and personal terms,” Portal A co-founder Zach Blume — who formerly served as political campaign consultant before founding the firm — said in a statement.
🌡️ Our Opinion
We discussed this topic in-depth last time, and it’s great to see that influencers are being leveraged at this rate to inform and hopefully get people to the voting booths next month. Being able to reach this many people with meaningful stories behind why people are voting is the no-brainer we expected to come across much earlier. It also seems to us that this campaign is fully purpose-led, (without any payment) asking people to genuinely and authentically share their stories, nominate other people to share theirs, and directing audiences to iWillVote.com.
📰 Headlines
Joe’s Jeans’ Jennifer Hawkins on collaborating closely with influencers
“Joe’s Jeans is heavily invested in working with influencers. It’s a relationship that has to make sense to work, said Jennifer Hawkins, the brand’s SVP of marketing and innovation.
“It’s not just plucking someone off a list and saying, ‘Let’s do a collaboration,'” Hawkins said on the Glossy Podcast. “It’s finding people that you organically fit with from a product standpoint and working with them.”
How UGC Content Is More Powerful Than an Influencer Campaign
“The future of authentic marketing lies with the consumer itself, allowing them to create the content that sells and appears authentic by creating an opportunity to share their quality experience and use of your product. The report concludes that UGC is the most influential form of content on the internet.”
TikTok Spins Ocean Spray-FleetWood Mac Viral Video Into Commercial
“TikTok made a TV commercial from the Ocean Spray-Fleetwood Mac crossover video that became a viral hit, and it ran during Major League Baseball’s Playoffs on Thursday”
US election 2020: TikTok gets pulled into the campaigns
“Both sides' online efforts are undoubtedly focused more on Facebook, Instagram, Google and YouTube.But experts say TikTok can, if nothing else, reveal which campaign messages seem to resonate with its youthful audience.The Conservative Hype House is one of the biggest political accounts on the app, with 1.5 million followers.”
How brands can work with Twitch as Amazon makes its mark
“Amazon and Twitch are in the middle of what’s become a familiar dance, a large internet platform trying to nurture its hipper acquisition without ruining what its fanbase loves about the service in the first place. For years, Amazon kept its distance from Twitch, allowing it to explore marketing and advertising through its own ad sales team, and it still is. But as Twitch matures—and shows impressive growth—Amazon is starting to meddle. Amazon is assimilating Twitch into its ad platform.”
Celebrating 10 Years of Instagram [Infographic]
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