Overview
As always, the landscape of social media is evolving. Globally the influencer marketing industry is set to grow from $4.6 to $6.5 billion this year, and here on home shores, we’re shaping up to kick into the new year stronger than ever. As we wind down from the holiday season, we’ve been plotting what changes are on the horizon… and without further ado, here are our predictions for the key areas of growth in 2019!
Content Creators Take The Crown
As the industry grows, we’re seeing a rise in affordable, high-quality content creation, where skilled creators have cut out their own slice of the cake that is influencer marketing. Talented photographers and videographers are churning out stunning content across all verticals, drawing attention from brands for their content creation skills, rather than their following. Set apart from the traditional influencer bracket, these creators are producing professional level content at a fraction of the standard content agency cost – which makes for happy relationships and engaged audiences. Definitely an area to watch in 2019!
Standardised Pricing
In such a creative space, a standardised pricing format for influencers can be hard to pin down. Reach, engagement rates and content quality are just some of the factors to be considered when pricing influencer content. Of course, it will never be exact, but having industry standards and guides is crucial for helping both brands and influencers understand their ROI and value. Over the last few years, New Zealand and Australia have been making strides in the influencer space, and as the industry grows we are seeing increasing consistency and stability in regards to pricing. To help move things along, we’ve developed an estimator to eliminate some of the guesswork. We’re pretty stoked with the results so far, and we’ll continue to make adjustments as the market evolves.
Size Doesn’t Matter
In 2018 we spoke a lot about brands using a combination of micro and macro influencers to maximise the breadth and depth of the campaign reach. The close relationship these influencers have with their smaller followings have proven to bring solid results for campaigns of varying size, goals and budget, and we’re pumped to see more of these authentic conversations happening in the new year.
In It For The Long Haul
As more brands jump on the influencer wave, we’re expecting to see more of their annual budget committed to influencer marketing. This is an essential shift, because with more moolah to work with, there also comes the potential for longer campaigns. Committed, long-term strategies – such as a six to twelve month collaborations – are by far the most effective, increasing engagement rates by as much as 400%. This is because strong relationships between brand and influencer typically strike a more authentic chord, and a longer campaign means more space for creativity, with better chances of virality and media coverage. Check out these images from Rekorderlig’s Content Creation and Summer Festivals campaigns.
Is It Pronounced Data Or Data?
The availability of data has always been a huge talking point in influencer marketing. 2019 will see a shift in some of those conversations, with more of a focus on fake engagement detection (cull the bots!), and improving the accuracy of reporting around ROI. Instagram Stories, for example, has been massive over the last year, and we’re expecting to see increased efficiency in gathering this data. In addition, we’re hoping that automating the scheduling of “stories” will become a major time saver!
Covering New Ground
Influencer marketing has been a staple for industries like fashion, beauty, food/drink, tourism, and entertainment. In 2018 it was epic to see a much wider range of brands get on board, with industries like finance, insurance and automotive cashing in on the action. We’re excited to build on that in the new year, with heaps of new projects on the go for an incredibly varied range of brands. In addition to that, 2018 saw a greater emergence of platforms like Twitch, Tik Tok, Linkedin, and YouTube, and New Zealand particularly has plenty of room to grow on that front. Watch this space!
All up, it’s going to be an awesome year for the industry, with some long-awaited changes finally taking shape. We have some sweet projects in the pipeline already, and we’re excited to make more connections and tell more meaningful stories in 2019.
