• May 2020 shows the highest amount of brand mentions by UK influencers on Instagram
• Brand mentions more than doubled from January to May, with a 123% increase
• Pretty little thing, Zara and Asos are three of the most mentioned brands in the UK during Q1 2020

From the beginning of the year up until now, UK influencers have more than doubled the number of brand mentions on Instagram, as reported by the influencer marketing platform Primetag. This form of marketing has undergone exponential growth since the start of the pandemic, according to both public data and national industry professionals.

In light of the UK Influencer Marketing Leaderboard launch, Primetag has analysed the activity of over 30,000 UK influencers and 250.000 posts during the last months on Instagram.

Some highlights of the UK analysis include:

• Instagram brand mentions have more than doubled from January to May 2020, with a 123% increase. 
• While January registered 32k mentions by influencers, May shows the highest amount of brand mentions, a staggering 71k.
• From January to May 2020, the UK influencers analysed have registered almost a quarter-million brand mentions (230.9k).

As social media has been the shelter for many during the last months, it has never been easier for brands to reach their target audience via digital channels. The UK Influencer Marketing Leaderboard includes a series of rankings featuring the most mentioned brands across the major national sectors.

The most mentioned brands by UK influencers on Instagram during Q1 2020, across different industries, are, respectively:

• Pretty little things, Zara and Asos, as seen in the Fashion category ranking.
• Huda Beauty, Anastasia Beverly Hills and NARS Cosmetics, as seen in the Beauty category ranking.
• Nike, Adidas and Liverpool FC, as seen in the Sports category ranking.

“40% of the brands mentioned belong to the fashion industry, which remains the biggest part taker in the UK influencer marketing panorama”, claims Primetag’s CMO, Pedro Fernandes.

“Having in consideration the size of the UK Influencer Marketing industry, we believe that analysing a pool of 30k influencers paints an accurate picture of the national landscape. We are confident that Primetag’s leaderboard is a key tool for UK brands willing to benchmark their influence in the market, for free”, says Fernandes, when asked about the Influencer Marketing Leaderboard for UK.

When asked to industry professionals, most attribute the Instagram brand mentions growth to the coronavirus breakdown:

Natalia Cortazar, considered ‘One to Watch’ on Top #Influencer50 by Talking Influence and founder of The Good Egg, has reported to Primetag that: “the breakdown has forced UK brands to redistribute their marketing budgets, from the offline to the online. Cortazar, who holds 8 years of experience in the UK influencer marketing field, alleges that “ever since the breakdown, everyone I have talked to in the influencer marketing business has been extremely busy, due to an unexpected peak of campaign workload”.

About the Influencer Marketing Leaderboard

Primetag has previously launched other international Influencer Marketing Leaderboards, offering a free platform with rankings of the most mentioned brands by national influencers. 

The dynamic lists are already available online and free of charge. It includes a general list and 7 unique industry-specific lists, with brands in fashion, beauty, food and beverage, retail, sports, technology and tourism.

You can also check out highlights of the Spanish and Portuguese Influencer Marketing Leaderboards in our blog.

The post UK Leaderboard: Influencer marketing shows explosive growth amid coronavirus pandemic appeared first on Primetag Blog.

Often seen as unnecessary stakeholders by brands, talent managers and agencies are downgraded to being a trivial part of the influencer marketing industry. When in actuality, they play a crucial role in the professionalization of the business and ecosystem. First of all, let’s go ahead and open our Influencer Marketing Glossary to understand what it really means to be a talent manager.

But, hey! They are not to be mistaken as the influencer’s assistant.

Talent agents are the real Jack-of-all-trades, capable of wearing different hats and changing them in the blink of an eye. They know how to be lawyers to formalize contracts, financiers to manage invoices, sales directors to develop business on behalf of their clients and creative directors to adapt the brand briefing towards their talent’s narrative.

These influencer marketing wizards are an indispensable bridge when it comes to building understanding between brands and influencers. They comprehend the relevance of ‘brand safety’ and know how to craft a briefing, whilst at the same time being a full-time companion to influencers.

Not only do they know the routines and concerns of each and every influencer, but they are able to put themselves in the shoes of the brand. They are oriented towards the brand’s goals and will advise on the most appropriate activities to achieve results, on-time and on-brand. 

Their main objective? Giving influencers the time and space they need to shine, whilst ensuring that they stay on track. Overall, talent managers allow influencers to focus on crafting high-quality content and engaging with their audience, enabling them to reach and go beyond their full potential.

The 3 biggest challenges that talent managers face

But let’s keep it real, most talent agents follow tedious processes that lack any kind of automation. From creating media kits to content clipping and campaign reporting. With so many processes to follow (and hats to wear!), there are many challenges and concerns that agents face.

We spoke to some of the biggest talent agents and agencies in Europe to understand the causes of their headaches, here’s what they had to say.

Lack of autonomy

If you are a talent manager, you have been there: having to regularly request talent’s demographics and audience insights. If not, let them tell you: ‘when brands request demographics of our talents, we must ask for screenshots from influencers and patiently wait for their response’. Not only that, but they also have to rely on the talent to access the performance of each post.

Wasted time

Ever felt the pain of the tedious task of reporting? Talent managers who don’t use influencer marketing technology, need to request screenshots with the results of each published content and put it together in an excel sheet. They pretty much ‘dump’ all the information from the screenshots into an excel or pdf file at the end of each campaign. This translates into vast amounts of wasted time.

And with ‘wasted time’ we don’t only refer to working hours, but off-time as well. Many managers find themselves working during the weekends and enduring seemingly endless periods of time for an influencer to post a story and then take a screenshot for the clipping.

Lack of centralization

And by ‘lack of centralization’ agencies and freelance talent managers mean ‘the hassle of logging in and out of each influencer’s account, across every social media platform’. In some cases, influencers trust their agents and share login details with them, for them to be more autonomous. However, this gives agents the task of having to log in and out from each influencer account. The more influencers they represent, the bigger the struggle.

On How Influencer Marketing Platforms are Helping Talent Managers

And we don’t just mean the biggest talent agencies

IM platforms empower managers to handle daily tasks with ease, speed, and efficiency, meaning they get more return from every relationship. This is how an influencer marketing platform helps them in their day-to-day work in a more agile way:

On the one hand, thanks to influencer marketing platforms such as Primetag, managers are able to create and send reports autonomously. Never again will they have to ask for a screenshot late at night to update statistics.

It also allows them to work less while doing more at the same time. For example, Primetag includes real-time content monitoring, automatic content clipping and goal-oriented reports. So that talent agencies have time to focus on what really matters. Overall, technology allows them to upgrade their business and to offer all their clients a premium service, in a centralized manner.

The life of a talent manager can be chaotic: they must be prepared to improvise, adjust and change hats in an instant. Contrary to popular belief, there is affordable IM technology for all talent managers, big and small. 

Primetag helps them centralize their activity with talent and clients and gives them more time (and energy) for what is really important: building bridges and creating new business opportunities for their clients.

The post Talent Managers are Facing More Struggles Than You Know appeared first on Primetag Blog.

‘Coronavirus means isolation. And isolation means social media’

If your work in the marketing field, you probably already know that Covid-19 has led to a significant increase in Digital Media consumption.

People are confined at home, all outdoor advertising and physical selling channels have disappeared. As such, many companies have redistributed their budget and moved it into social media, most of them choosing to partner with content creators.

But, why?

Here are the main reasons why influencer marketing, with prudently-managed messaging and collaborations, can be a decisive factor in what companies will make it through the ‘C’ crisis.

More Time Means More Engagement

Times are tough and social media is more than ever serving as a distraction. Until recently, brands struggled to gain the attention of extremely busy users who, despite their compulsive use of social networks, had little time to analyze and filter thousands of commercial messages.

The availability of time through confinement and the predisposition to seek distractions increases the chances of your target audience interacting with your content on social networks. These interactions can happen either on your own account or through the amplifier of influencer collaborations.

The data speaks for itself. According to a recent study from ‘Obviously‘ there has been:

• A 76% increase in daily accumulated likes on Instagram #ad posts over the last two weeks.
• A 22% increase in Instagram campaign impressions from the last months of 2019 to the first quarter of 2020.
• And a 7% jump in engagement on average on the video content platform TikTok.

This growth is a direct answer to the increase in social media usage, but also of the public’s need to remain connected to other people at this time. Which brings us to the next point.

People Need to Feel Connected, Now More Than Ever

The reason social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok are growing is that they are based on human-to-human content.

In times of uncertainty, maintaining a constant flow of communication contributes to having a sense of normality within the new circumstances. And in digital times, an influencer can fulfill the role of a friend or, at least, (take this with a grain of salt) confinement-companion.

Citizens are adapting to a completely unusual situation, acquiring new routines and accepting the rules that are being established. Along with trusted organizations and close friends, users look to their preferred content creators to help keep them informed and entertained. They are a light-hearted alternative to the bombardment of information and the vast amount of fake news on the net recently.

Influencers that are agile and mindful in adapting their messaging to a community-driven approach, while still being genuine, add unlimited value to their follower base in times like this. Even niche content creators from the most challenged sectors, such as travel and hospitality, keep engaging with their audiences in a meaningful way.

It’s no wonder that not only brands but also public institutions, such as the Spanish Ministry of Health, are reaching out to renowned profiles to convince millennials to stay home and stick to government rules.

At the end of the day, influencers are ordinary people dealing with this unprecedented situation, just as we all are.

People are Sending E-Commerce Sales Through The Roof

Figures make it safe to assume that consumers are shifting to online shopping during isolation. In Italy, currently one of the most affected countries by the pandemic, online sales grew significantly during the first quarter compared to the same period last year.

Check the graph below.

As you can see, the e-commerce sector was largely impacted, particularly during the weekends. As a matter of fact, on March 8th, online sales registered an increase of 90% compared to the same period of the previous year.

It may be too soon to understand whether these consumer behaviors will remain after the crisis, but it is safe to say that influencer marketing, if not the most, is one of the most cost-effective online strategies. In other words: if people are buying online, then you need to advertise online.

The good news about having a full digital buyer journey is that you will actually have it easier to measure your ROI, as the customer journey is trackable. And the same comes with influencer marketing. Evolved tools, such as those provided by Primetag, provide companies with intelligent knowledge not only on their awareness campaigns but also regarding their conversion goals.

Conventional Content Production? You’ll need to go DIY

Or, in this case, IDIT, Influencers Do It Themselves.

As the filming and commercial photo shoots are being shut-down, your brand may be struggling to find alternative content production processes that are both safe and remote-friendly.

Influencer marketing can be a cost-efficient way of outsourcing content production, with all the positive secondary effects that come simultaneously, such as the social media distribution and reach of a segmented loyal audience. Not only influencers are already fully equipped to create quality content from the safety of their homes, but their DIY style has already built a fan base.

Of course, you can still produce your own content as home filming and webinars are still viable, but influencer marketing will take away the distribution piece from your worries cake. Just make sure you pick your content creators wisely.

Your Opportunity to Educate

If any other thing, confinement has become an opportunity for personal growth and knowledge sharing. Influencers – and brands! – are educating their followers in multiple ways. From helping share accurate information about the virus to creating and sharing informative content, brands are becoming an active contributor in helping audiences be cautious while working on new skills.

As an example, some of the initiatives that businesses are taking online include:

• Fitness centers are giving instructions on how to stay fit without leaving your home and doing Instagram directs on how to get in shape in 30 minutes from your living room.
• Some restaurants are giving ideas on how to cook or take advantage of the foods their audiences have at home, to prepare tasty meals.
• Many online businesses are giving advice on how to remote-work properly. From how to set up a lean home office to the key productivity tools that every remote worker needs.

Users Are Craving Binge-Worthy Entertaining Content

‘Now more than ever, brands need to listen to their consumers.’

Forget the ‘be concise, precise and direct’ rule in your social media content. At least for now. The new mantra is ‘entertain, entertain and entertain’. It doesn’t matter how long your next Youtube video or Instagram live will go, as long as you are able to grab your audience’s attention and hold it up. Your audience is craving for it.

These days, Instagram stories can be short and creators are shifting more than ever to the IG live format. Youtubers are being asked to upload longer storytime videos. Podcasters are putting out there one-hour ‘specials’, when they would usually limit their casts to just 20 minutes.

This is your chance to connect with your audience on a deeper level and an opportunity to deal with more complex messaging through long-lasting quality deliverables.

Takeaway

Don’t try to capitalize on this unfortunate situation, but strive to adapt your strategies and messages to the current uncertainty. Influencer marketing, with prudently-managed messaging and collaborations, can be an incredibly powerful tool to comfort your audience during ‘C’ times.

Don’t forget to show your stakeholders and potential clients that you are with them, giving them the support they need when they need it most. They will remember you when difficult times are over.

So bring your ‘A game’ in these extraordinary times, and ‘go hard or go home’ or in this case ‘go hard and stay home’.

The post Why Influencer Marketing is on the Rise in COVID-19 Times appeared first on Primetag Blog.

The novel coronavirus is undoubtedly affecting the economy. But does this mean the end of the world? 

Far from trying to capitalize on the situation that we are going through right now, companies must accept this new reality and adapt their marketing strategies to the new-established consumer behaviors.

With the disappearance of all channels related to live events and conferences, and the ever-growing barriers to physical business, companies’ ability to digitalize their marketing strategy will be the deciding factor to whether they will make it through this time of uncertainty.

We are here to show you the immense opportunities that lie in the online universe, through a curated series of articles.

You may also like: Most Insightful FREE Influencer Marketing Guides, Reports and Studies – Crunched

Covid-19s effect on the Digital Market

First and foremost, let’s understand what is going on in the digital media market. There are many anomalies taking place and it is inevitable to assume that Covid-19 will lead to big economic losses for both big and small companies.

Many advertisers have pulled marketing budgets to save in costs because of the uncertainty, and others are hesitant to advertise alongside coronavirus discussions for fear of associating their brands with a sensitive topic.

As people are confined at home and have limited mobility, outdoor advertising has been hit hard. Think about public transportations ads. If people don’t use shared commuting services, then your company will get fewer eyeballs looking at its commercial messages.

Cutting digital expenses, such as Facebook, Google ads or influencer collaborations, may also sound like a reasonable measure to be taken in favor of the short-term financial-well being of the company. However, making your brand disappear during this difficult period would imply missing out on a major opportunity to reach your target audience, right when your customers and stakeholders need it the most.

Making your brand disappear during this difficult period would imply missing out on a major opportunity to reach your target audience, right when they need it the most

There has been a massive increase in Digital Media consumption. And the term ‘Digital Media’ comes in every form. From Instagram to podcast audio formats, long and short video content platforms, along with instant messaging services or mobile apps.

No wonder why while the stock market is suffering from a major decrease, online-based services, such as streaming platforms, are seeing the paid user’s base grow in a way they would never dream of.

So, what are the online figures Covid-19 has left for now?

We know that people are furiously washing their hands and keeping safety distances, if not forcibly confined at home. But now, let’s try to understand how the crisis is affecting their digital consumption behavior.

Here are some key takeaways on how internet users are behaving online:

• There has been a notorious growth in the use of mobile devices, according to App Annie. Daily time spent on mobiles in China jumped to five hours a day on average from January to February, which means an increase of 30% from the previous year. Italy, with the second-highest concentration of confirmed cases as of March 15th, also had the second-highest increase at 11%.
  
  
• Keywords related to finance, media and basic supplies such as food and healthcare have grown in organic search according to digital marketing guru Neil Patel.

• Facebook has reported a major increase in traffic on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger,  as well as having more people actively use its feeds and stories on Facebook and Instagram.
  
  In the countries where the virus has spread the most, total messages have increased by more than 50% over the past month. Voice and video calls on Messenger and WhatsApp have more than doubled in those countries.  
  
  In Italy, particularly, the amount of time that users spend on Facebook platforms has increased by 70 percent since the coronavirus was detected in the country. Visits to Instagram and Facebook Live have also doubled in one week, as shared by the company. In addition, messaging increased by more than 50 percent, and time on group calls (calls with three or more participants) grew by more than 1,000 percent over the last month. 
  
  
• Twitter has increased the number of active users by 23 percent. As shared by Reuters, the total active daily monetizable users (mDAU) inside the microblogging platform has boosted to 164 million quarterly.
  
  
• Video sharing platforms are also on a rise. On TikTok, videos using the hashtag #coronavirus are up to 5.5bn total views on the app. In the case of Youtube, the spike of views has been higher than ever such that Google is temporarily defaulting all videos to standard definition for users across the globe. The measure comes as an effort to reduce the difficulties of internet infrastructure

• As more people are staying home and broadcasting more video, streaming platforms like Netflix are a ‘key beneficiary’ of the behavior change in digital media consumption. According to Credit Suisse, Netflix has seen a spike in downloads of its application in regions that have been hard hit by the coronavirus, a trend that could point to increased international demand. Moreover, the platform’s shares have risen 9.2% in 2020, while those of Disney, seemingly the unbeatable entertainment giant, have fallen 40%.
  
  
• Millennials are more present than ever in dating apps. Bumble active users grew 8% during the second week of March in the USA, according to App Annie. In-app calls and video chats recorded a 21% increase in the third week of March alone.
  
  
• Other apps, particularly those gaming-related, have also seen a huge increase in downloads. There are currently no reliable figures regarding Europe or the US markets, but the average number of downloads recorded during the first two weeks of February in China represents an increase of 40% compared to the figures for the whole of 2019.

*Notice that we are talking about an uncommonly fast-moving situation and figures may shift drastically in little to no time.

Takeaway

Times are tough and digital media is more than ever serving as a distraction. The online world, with prudently-managed messaging, can be a decisive factor to help enterprises leave the ‘C’ crisis with a stronger digital game than ever before.

It would be a huge mistake for companies to try and capitalize on the miserable situation that the world is going through at the moment. However, they must accept this new reality and adapt their 2020 marketing strategies to the just-established media consumption habits.

And, if the figures displayed above serve as evidence: never in the history of Social Media has there been such an available, engaged and interactive digital crowd.

The post The effects of Covid-19 on Digital Media consumption appeared first on Primetag Blog.

L’Agence has been present in the Portuguese market since 1988. With over 30 years of experience, they represent people in 4 different areas: Models, Talents, Commercial and Kids.

Vanessa Carmo has been working in talent agency L’Agence since 2005, working with Portuguese celebrities such as Raquel Strada, Jessica Athayde and Vanessa Martins.

Having been with the company for 15 years, Carmo describes her time at L’Agence, from the early days of social media to the blogger’s boom and on to the present day online extravaganza, she has been through it all.

Through our conversation, she lays down all her insider knowledge on working in a talent agency and selecting talent, whilst touching on the current and future trends she has observed, keep scrolling for all the details.

You may also like: Daniela Rodríguez, CEO of Soy Olivia: Upgrading Influencer Marketing in Spain

Vanessa, you have been working at L’agence for 15 years now. How has the industry evolved since you entered the agency in 2005?

So much as changed in every aspect. Starting with television that had a major step back, first with the appearance of cable TV and technologies that allow you to only watch what you want to at your chosen time, and then with platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and now Apple TV that are redirecting a large chunk of traditional TV and movie audiences. Nowadays, we don’t delegate preferences to anyone in regards to what we would like to see, but choose it ourselves.

As the Head of Talents in L’Agence, what does a day in your life look like?

I can’t complain too much about being fixed in a routine. Even at the office, the days are always busy with meetings, either with my team or clients, and I do get to travel a lot for shootings or events. Sometimes I actually miss being in a routine.

Who does L’Agence represent?

As an agency, we have been present in the Portuguese market for more than 30 years. The agency started mainly as a modeling agency, but throughout the years other departments were created to respond to market needs such as the Commercial and the Kids department, the Talents department and more recently, the Digital one.

What are the essential qualities any talent must have to be represented by your agency? Do you have any preference in terms of industry?

At the Talents department, we represent exclusively actors and TV presenters. We specialise in these areas to guarantee that we properly address all the needs of a talent’s career in this area. We look for both upcoming talents that we can help establish in the industry, but also for those who already have a career, that we believe we can take to the next level.

If you could choose any international public figure to add to your portfolio, who would it be and why?

That is a hard question because when you think globally there is a great range of outstanding professionals. I would probably choose Charlize Theron. I admire her choice of roles and brands she wishes to work with, and she seems to have a wicked sense of humor.

What criteria do you follow when choosing brands for your talents?

What we have learned over the years is that, when talking about an endorsement, it is mandatory that the talent who’s going to speak on behalf of a brand truly identifies with it. You’re not going to get good results if the talent doesn’t believe in it or is not an actual consumer. The audience is much more aware today than it was 5 or 10 years ago. Besides the performance market studies or focus groups, the brand’s first concern should actually be whether the talent believes in what they are going to endorse.

New social media platforms are booming in Europe. How far will they go in Portugal in the next 12 months?

This question is like playing Tarot cards. At this point, we are seeing new platforms arise month after month. Four years ago, it was the blog’s boom, then brands were very attracted to Facebook. At this moment it’s all about Instagram, but Tik Tok is starting to make a stand in the market. I believe that the near future is going to be more about short video content and having the ability to influence in a short time format.

Does this mean that Instagram will lose its reign, or will new social media platforms and established ones coexist?

I believe Instagram won’t lose its place because, more than Facebook, it’s the go-to place for those who want to share their daily life, something which is the true essence of social media. Despite that, other platforms will obviously arise and Instagram will have to adapt to the new competition.

From an agency perspective, what are the growing trends in Influencer Marketing for 2020?

As social media audiences get more and more aware of what paid content is, the future relies on making good matches between product and influencer. You can have an influencer that has a very high number of followers, but clients are starting to value engagement way more because that is the true power of social media. Of course, to have good engagement the products or brands advertised must make a good fit with the narrative the influencer establishes on a daily basis.

The post Vanessa Carmo, Head of Talents in L’Agence: from the blogger’s boom to the current online extravaganza appeared first on Primetag Blog.

Whether you’re a marketeer looking to grow your brand or just wondering how to become Instagram famous, here are the good, the bad and the ugly methods for increasing followers on Instagram. 

Influencer Marketing is here to stay. What seemed like a ‘fleeting trend’ has now evolved into a sophisticated technique with its own rules, processes and metrics for evaluation. 

However,  the market is still on a journey to reach its full potential. 

Some Instagram users keep turning to vanity metrics, such as the followers tracker, to justify the relevance of a profile.  Which, to be fair, makes sense: a large count of adherents will certainly bring an Instagram profile the benefit of social approval, a higher status, and, chances are, will lead to bigger payrolls. 

Whether you’re a marketeer looking to grow your brand or just wondering how to become Instagram famous, here are the good, the bad and the ugly methods to increase followers on Instagram. 

From the strategies that will help you attract a large audience that is genuinely interested in your content, to the ones that will transform you into (magic!) a walking ripoff.

Just bear in mind: the number of followers in the counter is the sparkling jacket that you rock at a party. It helps to get people’s attention, but then you have to master conversations that won’t scare your prospects away.

Organic Growth – You are legit!

Organic growth is derived from the influencer’s ‘own efforts’ – meaning that the growth strategy didn’t include any payment to reach a certain audience. 

Today’s social landscape has made it harder than ever to grow the follower counter without having to drip the wallet, particularly for businesses. Nevertheless, there are some key principles that, if taken into account, may guarantee a sweet and smooth boost in your fan base. 

If we were to summarize the key to organic growth in one single word, that would be ‘content’. Being content-centric doesn’t simply mean you should be creating high quality posts, but this is a good place to start from. 

Main strategies for organic growth include producing unique high quality content, paying attention to post frequency and consistency, as well as using trendy hashtags in order to attract new followers.

Other must-do’s for organic growth include engaging with your current and potential audience and producing content outside of Instagram that generates traffic to your account. Stay tuned for the 6 steps to Instagram organic growth.

Paid Growth – Tell me more…

Paid growth on Instagram refers to an account owner paying to boost its follower base – both through activities implemented inside or outside the platform. 

A legit paid growth strategy must never include fake followers.

The most recurring method for paid growth is to promote content and/or accounts using the Instagram Promotion feature. This will bring you the possibility of reaching a specific audience outside of your current follower base. Paid posts are often a technique used to amplify the reach of content that has already had proven organic success.

Hosting giveaways is another recurring paid growth activity. The term ‘paid’ is relative in such cases, since often the object of the raffle has been gifted by a brand to an influencer. In a classic giveaway, users are asked to tag friends and follow an account, leading to a peak in interaction and following. 

The key to success with this strategy is paying special attention to the prize, as this will determine the interest of the new audience. However, this kind of growth is not always easy to maintain. That is, a lot of people follow an account because of the giveaway, but after a few days they realize that the content is not interesting and, therefore, unfollow. It is important to implement a strategy of “came for the prize, stayed for the contents”. 

The key to success with this strategy is paying special attention to the prize, as this will determine the interest of the new audience.

Anderson from @196sonhos -who is currently pursuing the Guinness World Record of ‘Youngest person to travel to every country on earth’- used a giveaway inside his growth strategy. He hosted an Iphone giveaway as a growth booster, attracting 6000 new followers. Learn more about his growth strategy as a travel influencer.

Other less common techniques that involve opening the wallet to boost Instagram followers are: paying influencers with similar target audiences for shoutouts on their profiles or paid press coverage. Some influencers may seek professional consultancy by hiring a growth agency.

But wait: organic growth and paid growth are not an impossible match. They are two different strategies that – if carefully combined – can lead to an engaged follower base in a faster and more efficient manner. Paid growth is sometimes the only alternative due to the limitations for organic growth that the current Instagram algorithm has.

Social Climbing – We are all a big connected family

Social Climbing on instagram refers to creating partnerships with other influencers, or entities, to scale both your influence and audience. 

These partnerships lead to an organic follower exchange, since they are opening a window of consideration to their audiences. Social climbing on instagram can also affect the position of an influencer or brand. Reputation is contagious, and social climbing lays on this principle of relational marketing. 

This phenomenon may happen through buying shoutouts from influencers in the same industry, but it can also come naturally, by belonging to an influential circle – see Chiara’s squad – or through genuine synergies.

When choosing a climbing alley, there is a bliss point to be found:

Choose someone who has a different audience to yours -so that there is territory to be gained-, yet similar interests.

Hypothetically speaking, Tara, an american beauty guru who wants to work with UK brands, may want to collaborate with well-known UK makeup artists, Josh. This will ultimately help her gain exposure to beauty enthusiasts across Britain. 

Follow for Follow – Smells funny

Also known as ‘F4F’, the follow for follow strategy consists of following an account in hopes of being followed back.  

Although there’s a high chance of attracting legitimate accounts with this technique, there is little proof that the audience acquired through this process will be highly engaged. 

‘F4F’ is a very exploitable method since different solutions have appeared to automate this process, such as bots. These types of activities are likely to cost the user a shadow banning from Instagram.

The concept ‘Follow for Follow’ has now evolved to be ‘Follow Unfollow’, since most of the followed accounts return to their original state. The reason being that Instagram users seek to maintain a reasonable ratio between ‘Followers’ and ‘Following’.

Buying Followers – Exit the building

There are many websites where any Instagram user can pay and see their Instagram grow, both in followers or interactions. 

Common services will just unload the wanted amount of followers all at once into your account while others, more sophisticated ones, will inject followers in batches to arouse less suspicion.

Most of the fake followers are bots that try to impersonate real users through automated behavior, such as regular publications, crafted bios, and other features that make them look like real accounts. 

Instagram has tried to address the fake followers issue time and time again, yet fake accounts make up a significant amount of Instagram’s total population.

We support the fair game

In an unpredictable social media sphere that is dominated by algorithms, users are becoming increasingly more creative in their efforts to optimize their digital opportunities. As influencer marketing professionals, Primetag supports the fair game and develops technology for real influencers, helping them by backing their work with real data.

The post Increasing followers on Instagram — The Good, The Bad and The Ugly appeared first on Primetag Blog.

Primetag has officially landed in Spain! To celebrate the occasion, several representatives of the influence marketing industry joined us to discuss the steps needed towards the professionalization of the industry.

One of the protagonists during our launch event was Andre Freire de Andrade, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network. As the Keynote Speaker, he supported our #realfollowers movement with numbers: “Over the last year, 37 million euros have been invested in influence marketing in Spain, and by 2019 this number is expected to reach 100 million”. According to the CEO of the biggest media agency in the territory, the constant growth of influence marketing has brought an urgent need for professionalization in the market.

Leading Spanish talent agencies also joined us in the charming neighborhood of Gràcia. At the event, Luis de Val, CEO & Founder of YouPlanet, presented his collaboration with Primetag and showcased his first campaign with our technology. Big names such as Auronplay, with 16.9 million Youtube subscribers, are participating in the campaigns that YouPlanet is managing with our technology. “Primetag has allowed us to optimize processes and improve in the eyes of brands,” Luis explained to the public.

The CEO and cofounder of Primetag, Manuel Albuquerque, shared his personal story and why he believes in this industry. “Influence marketing helps brands humanize their message. Audiences relate much more with familiar faces they know and follow, like influencers”.

After, Patricia Onofre, our User Success Manager, showed the importance of having access to real data.  “There are digital providers that estimate influencers insights and put this information out there”, Patricia said. This lack of transparency affects every player within the influence marketing sector, “brands are making decisions based on estimated data, not real facts, and influencers are being evaluated based on information that is not correct”. 

As the main course, we gathered five Spanish influence marketing experts. The panel was moderated by Franc Carreras, professor at ESADE and creator of the Forbes-backed podcast, Masterminds.

In the panel discussion, Sergi Olba, responsible for influence marketing and management of Social Networks at El Corte Inglés, discussed the importance of measuring the results of influence campaigns.

Inés Arroyo, influencer and creative director of fashion brand Laagam, brought to the conversation the professionalization of the influencers. She commented that many influencers are going beyond digital, taking advantage of their audiences to create their own businesses, as she did with Laagam.

Daniela Rodríguez, CEO of Soy Olivia, also joined the table. She is the business mind behind the multi-million audiences of María Pombo and Grace Villarreal. Without her, the Spanish influencer panorama wouldn’t be the way we know it today.

Regarding the selection of the right influencer, she told us that what she values the ​​most when choosing to represent an influencer is “first, their loyalty to the content they create, their authenticity, and second, their engagement, the level of interaction the audience has with them.”

Carlos Vidal has implemented hundreds of campaigns as influence marketing manager of Equipo Singular, and shared his experience with the audience.

Among the event attendees were many well-known content creators specialized in different industries and platforms. Such as, Rafa Antonín, worldwide Instagrammer and Chef (358k followers), Barcelona based and beloved Fashion Instagrammer Ariadna Tapia (190k followers), and YouPlanet’s wildly successful Alex Gilbert (275k subscribers).

When the sun was about to set, the presentations transitioned into a cocktail party with the breathtaking views of Hotel Gerard rooftop. High-end content creators, brands, agencies, and agents had the opportunity to get to know each other better. The networking followed the rhythm, of course, of DJ and influencer Alex Vives, paired with wines from Viñedos Singulares (#MomentosSingulares).

The post #RealFollowers event in Barcelona: influence marketing leaders join Primetag in Spain appeared first on Primetag Blog.

From Kylie Jenner selling her stake in cosmetics to Instagram hiding likes, the events that marked the Influencer Marketing Industry in 2019

As the year is coming to an end, we are here to fill you in on some of the influencer marketing headlines you may have missed. From Kylie Jenner selling her stake in cosmetics to Instagram hiding likes, these are just some of the events that marked the industry.

Which headline do you believe has had the biggest impact on the market in the last 12 months?

Influencer Marketing Industry concerned about platforms estimating Social Media data

Along 2019, stakeholders in the influencer marketing industry have taken over Social media to complain about the digital providers that estimate influencer insights and distribute them on the internet. 

“This lack of transparency affects every player within the influence marketing sector: brands are making wrong decisions based on estimated data, not real facts, and influencers are being evaluated based on information that is not correct”, said Manuel Albuquerque, Co-founder and CEO of Primetag.

The importance of data certification by 3rd parties has come up in conversation now more than ever before in the last months. As Forbes said, “By partnering with agencies that have access to deep-dive influencer data, brands are better suited for optimizing their marketing efforts and driving consistent top-quality customer engagement”.

Instagram started hiding likes 

Instagram first announced that they would start hiding likes in its annual developer conference, in April 2019. The purpose behind this was to reduce pressure and help users focus on the quality of their content as opposed to their performance. It’s important to notice that while the number of likes is not public, the posting user still has access to that information. 

Instagram started testing this in Canada and by mid-July, they extended the trial to Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Italy and Japan. The worldwide test reached the Spanish and Portuguese markets in November, with Iberian brands, agencies and agents reporting they were no longer able to see the number of likes on some influencer’s post. 

With this move, Instagram has made it much harder for digital providers to estimate insights, since only those entities using Instagram-certified platforms will have full access to this key information. Learn more about how this game-changer will affect the influencer marketing industry in “Instagram is Hiding Likes. Don’t Panic!“.

IG rolling out the Brand Collabs Manager

Heading into the last 2 weeks of the new year, Instagram is launching the Brand Collabs Manager: a platform that will allow influencers to find and manage deals as well as automatically share insights with the businesses they work with.

Since the removal of the Like count, this dashboard will undoubtedly be an essential platform for businesses and influencers to work together and share insights and engagement details to measure the effectiveness of the campaigns.

Essentially, this will make IG the biggest influencer marketing agency in the world.

The three biggest game-changers to come out of this:

• Management agencies, the middlemen between businesses and influencers, will be cut out. This will allow influencers to make more money by eliminating agency costs.
• Influencers will now be able to share real insights directly with businesses they work with, subsequently reducing influencer fraud and inflated engagement stats.
• Management agencies will now have to be more creative with their services and strategies, rather than just acting as talent outsourcing agents.

As an influencer, you can join by adding your portfolio detailing your info, interests, and the type of content you produce.

TikTok – and other Chinese Social Networks – taking over the West

As Western social media platforms – such as Facebook and Twitter – struggle to get established in China, Chinese social media companies have stepped up and taken the opportunity to grow beyond borders this year.

The clearest example is the case of TikTok, which has already gathered 500 million active users and has been slowly gaining followers worldwide since it merged with Musical.ly in 2018. As stated by the TIME magazine in May 2019, almost 100 million users have now downloaded the social platform in the United States, and it was the number one non-game download in the U.S. in January.

Kuaishou (or Kwai), with over 700 million users, is also following the path to internationalization, with South America being on top of their priority list. The short-video platform has opened offices in Sao Paulo, Brazil, last November. The first numbers are in, and Kuaishou already features 7 million daily users in Brazil. To learn more about it, check “Kuaishou, the 700 million user social network you never heard of“.

Kylie Jenner selling stake in cosmetics company for $600m

Reality TV star Kylie Jenner launched her brand in 2015. In November 2019, Kylie Cosmetics was estimated to be worth $1.2 billion. Coty, the beauty giant that owns brands such as, Max Factor and Hugo Boss, paid $600 million for a 51% stake in the company.

Coty is betting on Jenner’s 270 million social media followers to attract a younger audience. In fact, her online influence is so powerful that she reduced Snapchat’s stock market value by $1.3bn when she tweeted that she does not use the app anymore.

Analyst Wendy Nicholson highlighted the dependence on Kylie’s image as one of the biggest threats: “The biggest risk to this acquisition, is that Kylie loses interest in the beauty business, or that her social media presence and/or popularity fades”.

VICE’s video on influencers having to pay to grow their social media accounts

VICE’s Sally Burtnick gave herself a month of 2019 to create a new Instagram account and become an influencer. The video, which features testimonies from different influencers and market specialists, reaches a bold conclusion: “You need to have money to grow on Instagram these days. You need money to pay for shoutouts, to get featured in other influencer’s accounts and stories”, as stated by one of the Influencers featured in the video.

With constantly-shifting algorithms and proven evidence in the profitability of social media, many ‘influencers’ are open to investing thousands of dollars a month to grow their following.

For more insight on ‘good, bad and ugly’ ways of growing in social media, check out our October article “Increasing followers on Instagram”.

Social Media is winning the battle for audience reach

As Millenials and Gen Z become the world’s most dominant tech-savvy consumers, these generations have increasingly avoided traditional advertising during 2019 and sought personalized and authentic experiences from brands, such as influencer marketing. To successfully reach and engage with this highly exigent demographic, TikTok, Instagram and Youtube, are the ‘must go’ platforms.

As Carlos Ramalho, Managing Director of Carat Spain, said at The #RealFollowers event in Madrid, “the reach of a publication by one of the most popular Spanish influencers is 1.7 million young people (18 to 24 years old), in 24 hours”. With the purpose of putting things into perspective, it’s worth mentioning that “a television advertising campaign should be on air for two and a half weeks to achieve the same reach in that same age group”. 

Estee Lauder investing 75% of the digital budget on influencers

Last August, global cosmetics company Estée Lauder, which owns up to 30 different brands including Bumble & Bumble, Clinique and Mac, announced that it will be investing 75% of its marketing budget on digital, particularly on social media influencers.

The company has made influencer choices from micro to worldwide celebrities, such as Kendall Jenner and Karlie Kloss who has been the face of the brand since 2018. The beauty company calculated that in 2017 the brand spent $675 million on influencers which they later assured was a complete global success. 

Lush “switching up social” for its UK business

Cosmetic brand Lush decided to stop their social media activity for its UK market in April. The decision highlighted the brand’s particular focus on influencer marketing. “You’ll start to see the rise of Lush personalities online”, said a Lush spokesperson according to INDEPENDENT. 

“Increasingly, social media is making it harder and harder for us to talk to each other directly,” said the brand via Twitter. “We are tired of fighting with algorithms, and we do not want to pay to appear in your newsfeed”. The brand stated that this decision wasn’t a replacement for the brand channels but an opportunity for their customers to connect one-on-one.

Carolina Herrera questioning influencers role

In November Carolina Herrera made controversial statements during the Latin American Fashion Summit, held in Cartagena de Indias (Colombia): “I don’t understand Influencers, they have no style. They are constantly shifting. They wear whatever they are given. They aren’t fashion’s style. They’re money’s style”, said the fashion designer.

The first influencer to respond was María Pombo, who defended that “We -influencers- have democratized fashion by bringing it to the streets, through our blogs and Instagram accounts. We have brought the catwalks and trends closer to people who didn’t understand nor followed them before”.

Aida Domenech, also known as Dulceida, shared: “When talking about ‘influencers’, people tend to generalize in a way they shouldn’t. In my specific case, if a brand asks me to wear something I don’t like, no matter what brand we are talking about, I won’t wear it”.

Social Influence Reports becoming a reference in the Iberian market

At the beginning of 2019, both Spanish and Portuguese Social Influence Reports were launched as a response to the lack of real data on Influencer Marketing. These reports provided an insight into Instagram’s most popular content and accounts among the national audiences. 

According to the Spanish Social Influence Report, Zara was one the most loved brands by Spanish Influencers on Instagram, followed by Mango and Bershka. Taking into account the location mentions, Paris, London and New York are the most admired international destinations by Spanish Instagramers. The study got coverage on El País, El Mundo and Marie Claire, among other publications.

#RealFollowers events taking over Spain

If we could sum up Primetag’s 2019 in one word it would be ‘Spain’. July and November were the chosen months for the Primetag crew to join the Influencer Marketing industry leaders in Barcelona and Madrid, respectively. #RealFollowers was the chosen name for this series of events, given after the company manifesto.

Hosted by ESADE’s professor Franc Carreras, Dentsu Aegis Network, YouPlanet, Soy Olivia and other Primetag partners addressed the need for urgent professionalization in the Spanish influencer marketing industry.

Carlos Ramalho, Managing Director of Carat Spain and KeyNote Speaker at #RealFollowers Madrid, announced that the expected total investment in Influencer Marketing for 2019 would reach 100M € (three times more than 2018). 

Among the main challenges for 2020, Ramalho mentioned the need for a data-backed tool to better monitor, evaluate, and audit influencers as a way to avoid fraud and overpricing as well as to promote transparency. 

The post Influencer Marketing Industry in 2019: Wrap-up appeared first on Primetag Blog.

Creative, enthusiastic and passionate, Daniela Rodríguez is no stranger to the world of Influencer Marketing. She founded the Instagrammer agency Soy Olivia in 2015, when influencer marketing was still perceived as a passing fad among Spanish marketeers.

Four years later, Daniela is a reference point to the national Influencer Marketing industry, representing, among others, María Pombo, Grace Villarreal and María Fernández-Rubíes.

She is also the strategic mind behind OnceUno, a creative agency dedicated to branded content that implements campaigns for Esteé Lauder, L’Oreal, Zadig & Voltaire and Bulgari, among others.

We spoke with Daniela at #RealFollowers in Barcelona. Keep scrolling for some general thoughts from a key player in the professionalization of influencer marketing in Spain.

You may also like ‘Inés Arroyo: from Influencer to Entrepreneur‘.

Daniela, how do you explain the recent growth of Influencer Marketing in Spain?

From my perspective, the growth that the influencer market has had can only be explained from a generational point of view. Millennials and centennials have taught older generations the dynamics of social media. Technology, which has developed at great speed, has led to immediacy, to a new way of communicating, where everything is extremely visual and simple to consume. These are the key points that turned social networks into the current media.

Back in 2015, you founded Soy Olivia, which has evolved to be one of the biggest Instagrammer agencies in Spain. What role do you play in Influencer Marketing?

At Soy Olivia we represent influencers. Our job is to intermediate and set the path for market professionalization. We help manage the requests that brands have and give them the guarantee that their money will be well invested in Influencer Marketing campaigns. In regards to the influencer, our job is to assure that they are doing work that benefits them from an image and business perspective. 

At Soy Olivia you represent some of the biggest national influencers. What do you mainly value in the influencers you represent?

There are two aspects to which we pay particular attention. On the one hand, we seek that the influencer is faithful to the content they are generating and that they are authentic when doing this. On the other hand, we also focus on the level of interaction that their audience has. Both points are correlated because when you see that an influencer has a high level of interaction it is usually because their followers enjoy the content.

How do you measure the results of your campaigns? In other words, which metrics are the most important for a brand to measure its ROI?

The most important metrics include the reach, number of interactions the influencer has generated in each publication (likes and comments), impressions, click on links and, of course, sales. Different techniques such as the use of links allow us to track the level of conversion, and for example, discount codes give us the possibility to measure sales.

From your professional perspective, what is the current status of Influencer Marketing in Spain, in comparison to other countries?

While 4 years ago the Spanish influencer market was running in diapers, it has now reached the level of other major countries. In general, Spain has always loved the world of ‘influence’. For example, celebrity magazines have always been very relevant to the national culture. This explains why influencers are generating much more curiosity and engagement from the Spanish consumers.

The post Daniela Rodríguez, CEO of Soy Olivia: Upgrading Influencer Marketing in Spain appeared first on Primetag Blog.

An international coffee brand wanted to implement an influencer marketing campaign for the launch of a new product in Portugal. In doing so, the Portuguese branch encountered various issues, ranging from a lack of control on insights to having no playbook, as well as finding it hard to measure ROI.

Whilst some of the difficulties were an unsurprising set back for the brand, it was evident for them that influencer marketing has a lot of potential but they lacked some basic knowledge of the industry. 

Using Primetag’s technology, the brand was able to monitor all influencer activity, campaign progress and ROI

Using Primetag’s technology, the brand was able to monitor all influencer activity, campaign progress and ROI, making the whole process safer for the brand. On top of this, Primetag’s playbook ensured that the brand had access to 7 pre-defined objectives and a prediction on the potential ROI. These tools had ultimately allowed for full optimization of their campaign and to successfully achieve a consistent ROI.

As in any well-structured influencer marketing campaign, here is the journey the brand followed while managing their campaign inside the Primetag platform. From setting up the campaign goals to monitoring and reporting.

Download the case study asset to fully understand how Primetag helped the Coffee Brand optimize its processes and scale its Influencer Marketing efforts like never before.

Have access to the step-by-step guide on IM optimization, including:

• Step 1: Strategy & Goals 
  Setting up a campaign basis.
  
• Step 2: Influencer discovery
  Finding the right influencers using real Social Media insights.
  
• Step 3: Evaluation
  Assigning the best deals by negotiating without wasting time.
  
• Step 4: ROI – Return on Influence
  Painless content monitoring and automatic real-time reporting.

Build a successful Influencer Marketing campaign

The post Executing a killer influencer marketing campaign: step-by-step guide appeared first on Primetag Blog.