Your Weekly Influencer Marketing Update 🚀
23.11.2020 / #55
☀️ Happy Monday! ☀️
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🤿 This week’s Deep Dives🤿
📷 Instagram Shakes It Up: More Branded Content Capabilities 📷
Instagram has released updates to its branded content options within the platform, from the official update, in our own words:
The Branded Content Tag is now available within Reels and will be testing in Live shortly.
Until today, Branded Content ads could only be created by promoting existing posts, now - advertisers can create ads that will have to be approved by the creator.
Branded Content ads in stories will now also include "tappable elements” including @mentions, locations and hashtags.
Branded content ads will soon include product tags, meaning that users can directly shop based on content that has been created by their favourite creators.
Instagram has also put in place minimum age restrictions for branded content, allowing a safer environment for those on the platform.
💡 Our Opinion
Instagram has clearly put some more thought behind branded content ads - and is (putting my tech hat on here) potentially paving a viable route where advertisers will be able to easily collaborate with creators within the app to deliver branded-content ads (aka influencer generated content).
The new workflow explained by Instagram (and please - do share your thoughts on this - as this is my current understanding) puts a heavy dependency on the availability of assets from an advertisers perspective, as it seems more natural to promote posts that have already been created, versus relying on advertisers to develop content without assets/input from that creator.
This will be an interesting one to keep your eyes out on, and if you have any experience with the new branded-content features, do get in touch. I’d love to find out more.
🚗 Honda Launches Next-Generation On Twitch For Gaming Community 🚗
Honda’s gone all-in for the launch of its 11th Generation Civic automobile; , launching exclusively on Twitch, where younger, first-time car buyers spend a lot of their time online.
Utilising their branded Twitch gaming channel, they dropped the prototype in a special broadcast featuring live music and a game of Fortnite.
Gaming communities on Twitter & Reddit were targeted to drive traffic to Twitch.
“We want to make sure that we show up in an authentic way and give something to the fans,” Phil Hruska (Honda) said. “We worked hard to create contextually relevant spots. We feature esports talent and different esports personalities, and this helps to add value for the fans when they see us using the actual IP and the athletes in our commercials.”
Twitch broke records last month with daily visitors reaching 17.5 million, and with 67% of its viewers under the age of 35 - which is the Civic’s core audience.
In order to reach younger, first-time, multicultural buyers, Honda has a three-pronged approach when it comes to esports. They have partnered with a team (Team Liquid), a league (Riot Games’ League of Legends Championship series), as well as paid media amplification on Twitch, Reddit and Twitter.
This launch is the first time Honda has combined its music platform (Honda Stages) with gaming.
“We see them melding together. Twitch is making a big move in the music space by having more and more artists do things on their platform. They’re trying to grow their music audience. For us, that’s a real opportunity because we have this equity in music and we’ve been building this equity in gaming. It’s just a natural fit.”
💡 Our Opinion
With over 1.6 billion viewing hours in October, 2020 has been a year where Twitch has been able to firmly established itself as a viable channel to reach audiences that advertisers and brands will find hard to ignore. Honda’s not sleeping on the fact that young audiences have a strong affinity to esports - and they’re cleverly aligning themselves within that space. Becoming team Liquid’s official car sponsor? Check Sponsoring an official League of Legends championship and appearing in game? Check. They’re showing up in spaces where many brands haven’t gone yet, and we’re curious to see where that will take them.
📰 Headlines
CMA turns its attention to platforms to combat hidden influencer marketing
“Consumer protection law requires that marketing communications should be clearly identifiable as such and should not mislead consumers. In the context of social media, this includes formal sponsorship and ambassador contracts as well as more spontaneous instances of incentivised content, such as where a company sends their product to an influencer for free in the hope that they will post about it. Instagram, the second largest social media platform in the world with an estimated 850 million regular users, has committed to introduce several new features to promote compliance with UK law in this area”
‘There’s more opportunity’: Publishers on TikTok are taking branded content into their own hands
“Over the last year, as their audiences on the social app have grown, a flurry of publishers — including U.S.-based Group Nine and Bustle Digital Group and U.K.-based Global and Dazed Media — have turned to tactics such as brokering influencer partnerships and developing branded content campaigns to explore new commercial opportunities.”
Politicians Are The New Fashion Influencers
“Fashion has long been a platform to express social and political views, but activism in the commercial arena has been more pronounced than ever in 2020, according to the global fashion shopping platform Lyst. From the most recent wave of Black Lives Matter protests to the US presidential election, consumers have been searching for clothes that say what they stand for.”
These are officially the best times to post on TikTok
“Your dances, lip syncs and dog videos just aren’t going anywhere if you don’t post them at the prime time to capture everyone’s attention. Yes your mates might watch them and give them a lil like, but you need to be planning when to post them in order to get the full impact.”
Is It Time for Influencer Marketing to Embrace the Performance Model?
“Whilst there is certainly no lack of appetite from brands to drive the influencer charge, the pandemic and various economic factors have accelerated the need for the existing model to mature rapidly, to offer brands more accountable and enhanced measurement, tied to ROI.”