Influencer marketing is professionalizing: 5 things brands should know

Marketing, management, values. The professionalization of influencer marketing is progressing rapidly in German-speaking countries. Brands and agencies need to know the maturity level of the tool so that collaboration with influencers is positive and their campaigns are successful.

1. influencers let themselves be represented

Successful influencers of all sizes are increasingly being represented by agencies, be they traditional artist agencies or influencer management agencies. The intermediaries change the cooperation with the influencer in terms of conditions, billing and communication. The bookability is also influenced: Influencers often conclude permanent contracts with management and brands. However, exclusive contracts between an influencer and a single agency remain the exception.

2. contracts become more complex

Contracts between influencers and their contractual partners are becoming increasingly complex. This is influenced by various factors, such as the intermediation of agencies and longer contract terms. In addition, rights to use content created for campaigns are becoming part of contracts. Images, videos and other content can be used for advertising purposes by brands through so-called buy-outs, for example for online display advertising or billboard campaigns.

3. lollipop against posting no longer works

With the increased demand, prices in influencer marketing are also rising. The remuneration of influencers has changed a lot in recent months. The principle of "lollipops for postings" has long since become a thing of the past and is also not appreciative of the protagonists. Influencers deliver a media and creative service in the form of profile, reach, active community and high-quality content in a wide variety of forms. This must also be remunerated accordingly. What an influencer marketing campaign costs can never be answered in a general way and depends on factors such as the size of the influencer and the services required.

4. quality assurance remains manual work

Quality assurance and brand protection must be ensured before and during a campaign. In the run-up, this includes, for example, an individual selection of suitable opinion leaders, detailed contracts and campaign briefings. Individual contracts and negotiations ensure the highest possible quality and security for all parties. During campaign implementation, those responsible must ensure constant monitoring, because acceptance of the content before publication is not always possible, depending on the social media platform.

5. from the individual campaign to integration in the marketing mix

In influencer marketing, most companies in Germany are somewhere between absolute newbies with a need for education and explorers who run test campaigns. Influencer marketing is therefore still strongly understood and implemented as an individual measure. This only superficially scratches the potential that the tool offers. The increase in standardization, especially in the area of KPIs, as well as tracking tools and case studies, will gradually dissolve the silo thinking. Companies would do well to further leverage the results of their campaigns. In the future, brands should incorporate influencer marketing into cross-media campaigns and into their overall communications strategy.

Lucky Shareman is an agency for influencer marketing from Hamburg and sees itself as a consulting and implementation partner for brands and agencies that want to realize individual influencer campaigns. Lucky Shareman takes care of the overall concept including the creation of storylines. Depending on the objective, the campaigns are implemented on platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, musical.ly or YouTube.