According to a recent report published by Business Insider, the influencer marketing industry is on track to be worth up to $15 billion by 2022 and with nearly four out of five brands using Instagram for influencer campaigns, it’s fair to say influencer marketing is here to stay.
Regardless of the communication channel you use, it’s no easy task to pick the right influencer for your brand. Fake followers, ineffective measurement, lack of commitment in original content, there are many metrics worth considering before reaching an agreement. Once you’re sure the metrics are right, how can you be positive if that person is a good match for your brand, from your consumer’s point of view?
What if they prefer someone more local?
Sure, you can track the influencer’s already published content, try to scroll down through their feed in order to make some level of analysis, but before making a serious commitment you might want to rely on more accurate and up-to-date data.
Perhaps your consumers prefer someone more local and relatable? What if the influencer did something to offend your consumers in the past and your PR report didn’t catch it? What if your consumers lost trust in the influencer over time?
Well, why don’t you ask them directly?
We recently completed a project with one of our FMCG clients actively selling their products and investing heavily in influencer marketing across the EMEA region. The strategy team came up with a few alternative names that they might want to be in a long-term relationship with. The objective was to find out the awareness level of these selected influencers, the level of trust and liking amongst their consumers, and to analyse if their consumers find these names relevant to the brand.
Using our proprietary platform, we created a 5-minute survey. By using Facebook & Instagram, we successfully recruited 400 people and collected quantitative data in less than 4 hours. Whilst utilising the same audience definition the brand regularly used to communicate with their followers, we targeted participants based on age, gender and location quota.
Each participant first saw a short video clip from the influencer. This was to ensure that they were familiar with the influencer without any further help. Moving along with those who did indeed recognise the said influencer, participants shared their opinions through a variety of both open-and-closed-ended questions.
As a result, a high majority (65%) of the participants had an increased desire for one of the alternatives, furthermore 23% showed distinct rejection to the other. This helped the brand team prioritise the top 3 best alternatives and decide to move forward to the proposal stage with the best match. (They already signed at the time of writing this post.)
As soon as our team received the brief we immediately began creating the questionnaire, earned approval from the brand team, formed a custom survey using our proprietary technology, collected data from 400 participants (in less than 4 hours). In summary, it took a total of 4 business days to create a final executive report.
We have succeeded in reducing the end-to-end research process time from weeks to days. There is no longer a concern of dealing with any local third parties, and no hidden costs. Our clients have the chance to create a massive efficiency in cost for their marketing investment, relying solely on current data from their own consumers.
Are you in a similar position where you have to make a quick but important strategic decision?
Reach out to us today and see how our tools can offer you a seat next to your consumer!
