Dive Brief:
- Marketers are reaching out to social media influencers to reach millennials, but marketers should look for engagement instead of popularity.
- Influencer-based campaigns should include key performance indicators to get full value from the efforts.
- Even though social media influencers are getting some marketing dollars, celebrities still command the highest fees.
Dive Insight:
Marketers hoping to reach their millennial audience are turning to social media superstars with tons of followers (or “influencers”) for sponsored posts and endorsements. One mistake marketers and agencies make when running an influencer-based campaign is treating it somewhat differently from a more typical effort.
Jason Stein, CEO of Laundry Service, told Digiday that making key performance indicators part of the campaign is important. He explained, “We do guarantee KPIs on every campaign. If we don’t hit that [threshold], we have to do make goods, where the influencer has to post more. It’s our way of saying it’s a true guarantee.”
And even though influencers are commanding some of marketers’ budgets for endorsements, celebrities still rule the roost in terms of how much marketers are willing to spend. Danielle Wiley, CEO of Sway Group, put the divide into perspective, saying a celebrity might get $50,000 to make an event appearance where an influencer would receive between $5,000 and $10,000 for the same appearance fee.
