Going micro with influencer marketing

In recent US research, 63% of brands surveyed revealed they intended to increase their use of influencer marketing. Indeed, in another survey the channel is reputed to be a $10 billion market by the end of the year. So why is it still niche here in NZ? Why don’t media agencies take it more seriously?

Here at Chemistry, we’ve seen the success influencer marketing can provide on a wide variety of clients. Here are some insights to help you decide whether it needs more focus in your business.

Firstly, don’t think about using high-profile celebrity influencers anymore. The smart money is on what we call micro-influencers. They have smaller bands of followers – around 10,000 – and as a result work much harder to maintain bonds and engagement with their audiences. This is key because their posts get far more cut through and are more authentic. Just as importantly, they command much lower fees, so the channel is more affordable for test budgets.

If you are going to use micro-influencers it is also important to build a network to get an audience with appropriate scale – five micro-influencers with around 10,000 followers each makes more sense than one celebrity with north of 80,000. I guarantee they will perform more effectively too. Let me share a recent campaign so you can get the idea.

All Blacks Tours is New Zealand Rugby’s official All Blacks supporters travel provider. They offer fans a great range of tour options,
 with packages available for all of the All Blacks annual events and 
international fixtures. We needed a campaign to grow our email database, so we came up with a promo inviting fans to enter to become one of three fan ambassadors – we called them our Front Row ambassadors. We then ran an influencer-led campaign collaborating with two rugby players to create excitement and encourage entries for the competition. The campaign aimed to build positive brand awareness for All Blacks Tours in the New Zealand marketplace.

Using influencer content, we targeted the 25 – 55 year-old age demographic across Instagram, collaborating with two All Blacks to promote the Front Row competition. A mix of static images and videos allowed for thumb stopping, engaging content. Our two influencers brought their own creative approach and authenticity to their content pieces, so stories appeared natural, were of high quality and remained in-line with the influencers’
 existing content style.

Overall, the campaign content garnered 164,295 total impressions, 1,800 
swipe ups directly to the website, and a staggering engagement rate of 
20%, well above the industry standard of around 1-2%. Most importantly, the campaign grew our email database by nearly 20%, proving the value of influencer marketing for our key success metrics.

So if you operate in a fiercely competitive market and media budgets are under scrutiny, let us show you how micro-influencer marketing is worthy of consideration.