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"Influencer Marketing is here to stay"
25 de September de 2018
The Spanish Marketing Association held a new Management Conference entitled Marketing with Influencers.
Held at EAE's Madrid Campus, the session was divided into two distinct parts. The first part involved a presentation of the topic by experts, while the second consisted of an open debate. During the Management Conference organized by the Spanish Marketing Association, there was an in-depth discussion of the current situation of advertising strategies involving influencers, their impact and evolution.
Víctor Conde, the General Director of the Spanish Marketing Association, welcomed the attendees to the session chaired by Fernando Rivero, the CEO at Ditrendia and Member of the Board of Governors of the Spanish Marketing Association.
Luis Soldevila, the CEO of Brandmanic & MarvelCrowd, got the session under way with a presentation of a report entitled Influencer Marketing in Spain 2018. The report confirms the capacity of influencers as a link between the brand and their capacity to communicate in a relevant way on social media. The figures also reveal how influencers facilitate audience engagement, their capacity to lead opinions and how they have gradually been incorporated into brands' advertising budgets for their campaigns. "The differential value of influencers is their capacity to transmit content in first person" explained Luis, listing companies' objective when contracting an influencer: customer acquisition, building loyalty, relevance and engagement. To finish, the statistics confirm that, at a branding level, brands use influencers in their campaigns because the sector is increasingly more professional and prepared.
César Sepúlveda, the Marketing Director at Codan, shared his perspective of what an Influencer Marketing campaign involves from the point of view of a customer. César emphasized aspects such as empathy and trust. "An influencer is not a mercenary, but rather a professional who gets emotionally involved in a long-term project" explained César, who spoke about the emotional entropy between the influencer and the brand within the context of a market saturated with impacts. As far as César is concerned, an influencer has to be creative and energetic, break molds and generate interest. In fact, the emotional part of brands gains from working with influencers because they can change a company's positioning. The obvious power of Influencer Marketing still has a way to go in terms of professionalization, in Sepúlveda's opinion. He highlighted the need for corporate social responsibility; "they have to be long-term relationships and not simply be commercial in nature".
Marta Gutiérrez, the CEO at the agency SrBurns, analysed the perspective of Influencer Marketing and its importance in companies' digital strategy: helping to integrate followers on social media and generate traffic indirectly, so it must be integrated within a broader strategy. In a world of advertising impacts, using Influencer Marketing can help to set brands apart, although it also depends on each advertiser's strategy. "Influencer Marketing is here to stay" explained Marta, who defines an influencer as "an idea with legs, a person who has to integrate the values of a brand into their personality". In Marta's opinion, the pillars underpinning Influencer Marketing are creativity and credibility. She added that the influencers must be given freedom to take part in campaigns: "it is better to work with them directly on the idea to involve them and gain credibility".
Javier Ollero, an influencer and blogger, gave the attendees a first-hand insight from an influencer. Based on his own experience, Javier spoke about quality content that is of interest for the audience. He also emphasized the increasing professionalization of the sector. "As it becomes more professional, we can reach a more segmented audience" and its credibility. However, he warned of a lack of legislation on sponsored content. With respect to the present and future of Influencer Marketing, he agreed with Marta that "Influencer Marketing will increasingly gain more ground from conventional advertising", adding that the balance for brands will come from long-term relationships".
Fernando Rivero then went on to begin the round table discussion, which focused on values and responsible, professionalized and ethical marketing that really helps companies. Marta explained the situation as a two-way street , with ethics being part of the people who work for the companies and, at the same time, also part of the influencers. They went on to analyse the key role of the social media platform most widely used by influencers, Instagram, and the trend towards the hyper-segmentation of the sector. Within this framework, César spoke about the need to create an emotional bond between the influencer and the company at a more subliminal and less economic level. Marta gave us a more in-depth insight into the pedagogical role of these influencers and their integration in companies' marketing strategies,
The Management Conference held at EAE's Joaquín Costa Campus was brought to a close by Miguel Ángel Gómez, the editor and founder of Influencers Media Group, which organized the event in collaboration with the Spanish Marketing Association.