The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Influencer Marketing Marketing

Three-quarters of brands have upped influencer spend despite pandemic

Author

By John Glenday, Reporter

October 1, 2020 | 3 min read

73% of marketers have allocated more resources to influencer marketing this year, with spending most pronounced in the retail, legal and manufacturing sectors according to a new report from influencer marketing agency Takumi. Over August, 3,500 consumers, marketers and influencers were quizzed for the survey, which found that marketers are proving surprisingly upbeat amid the economic headwinds of Covid-19.

influencer marketing

Three-quarters of brands have upped influencer spend despite pandemic

A rising confidence in the market

  • A spending splurge has seen 73% of marketers throw more resources at influencer marketing – and particularly in the retail (79%), legal (79%) and manufacturing (75%) segments.

  • This comes as brands begin to work with influencers across more mainstream channels, such as OOH (83.3%), print (80%) and TV and radio (81.3%), as they become more confident in their ability to deliver ROI,

  • Indeed, the report itself suggests ROI for influencer marketing is higher than traditional advertising – a sentiment borne out of the 60% of marketers who agree.

  • Consumers too are broadly receptive to this change, with 38% happy to see influencers incorporated within traditional advertising.

  • This is especially true among the 16- to 24-year-old demographic, where 25% identify Instagram as the most likely advertising platform to lead to a purchase.

  • Mounting enthusiasm for influencer marketing translates to a growing willingness to explore alternative mediums, with 58% of marketers actively considering working with YouTube influencers, followed by 55% on Instagram, 35% on TikTok, 20% on Twitch and 10% on Triller.

Dissecting the data

  • Marketers are shrugging aside pandemic concerns to put their money where their mouth is as far as multi-channel influencer campaigns are concerned.

  • In the process, marketers are overcoming wide-ranging concerns relating to trust given that surveys indicate a paltry 4% of people trust what influencers say, with people in the UK and US being the most cynical.

  • Marketers must also surmount concerns over a failure of many influencers to properly identify advertising content to viewers, with both the Advertising Standards Authority and Competition and Markets Authority cracking down on rule breaches.

  • Reacting to the findings, Mary Keane-Dawson , the group chief exec at Takumi, said: ”With 73% of marketers upping spend in influencer marketing, it is a core pillar of any effective brand marketing strategy.”

  • She added: ”We’ve known for a long-time that being platform-agnostic equals success with influencer marketing, and it appears marketers are starting to realise this too. They are now exploring new social media channels – such as TikTok – and are integrating creator content into their wider marketing mix including TV and OOH in line with consumer appetites.”

Influencer Marketing Marketing

Content created with:

YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

Find out more

More from Influencer Marketing

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +