‘Influencer-generated content is more impactful than brand-generated one’

Audiences prefer to see influencer content and when they do they spend more time with it, they are more powerfully compelled by the message that it conveys. Therefore, working with influencers at scale is an extremely powerful tool for building Brands, says Dafydd Woodward, Global Managing Director, INCA, GroupM’s Influence and Content business.

Speaking at e4m-INCA Influencer Marketing conference held in Mumbai on Wednesday, Woodward underlines, “Influencer marketing has the benefit of being both creative and a performance medium. It presents brands with a way to create large volumes of content inexpensively and to generate outcomes throughout.”

Giving context to the emerging marketing vertical, Woodward says, “Influencer marketing, in one form or another, has been around for many years and has gone through many iterations in its evolution to what is today a 16-billion-dollar industry. With the advent of new social channels which introduced new formats, styles, tones of voices and allowed human content to be discoverable to wide audiences, this growth is set to continue.”

“When YouTube came in 2005, LA Times described it as pivotal in fundamentally altering how people consumed media. Later, the release of Instagram transformed the industry. Then over the following years, we've seen social channels like Snap and Pinterest, which further diversify what influencers can achieve. The number of places content can go has also grown significantly.”

“Over time, we've seen the establishment of content creators growing bigger audiences and expanding their reach beyond the limits. The influencers have grown into new mediums like podcasts, TV literature and even creating brands of their own. They spotted the possibilities of reaching new audiences in new channels very early on,” he explained in his concise yet immersive address.

The e4m-INCA influencer marketing report 2022 released on Wednesday revealed that influencer marketing would grow in India at 25% CAGR. It has been worth Rs 1,275 crore business in 2022 alone.

On impact measurement tools

Influencer-driven campaigns can be challenging and laborious to plan, execute and track; publishers, influencers and their content need to be manually identified, screened and managed to ensure quality and brand safety, while the rise of fake followers enabled by bots make it harder to tell if an influencer is a genuine and valuable creator.

INCA addresses these challenges to provide a trusted network of verified influencer partners and campaign management processes.

Woodward shared, “As the industry grew bigger, regulations came in such as authenticity and ads disclosure rules. Regulations and structures have forced the industry to adhere to new market standards but it also provided a level of assurance and legitimacy, something that INCA supports wholeheartedly.”

Woodward says the latest report confirms that influencer marketing has come of age and with maturity comes bigger expectations. He underscores that there will be a demand for more rigorous proof of “impact” even more so in challenging economic times. However, it's worth remembering that every media channel has been through this process before facing challenges to provide more data, become more versatile and integrated and to contribute more value ultimately.

“We believe that this maturing process presents possibilities and opportunities that we're very excited about. The reasons for this positive outlook are based on the data really. The influencer-generated content is innately more impactful than brand-generated content.”

He explains, “If we can just put it to work in more places across the media plan we can prove the impact of influencer content and we've already been doing work in this space. We have found that influencer content performs better wherever you put it and whatever outcome you are looking to achieve.”

Touching upon the contentious influencer and social commerce metrics, which are often disputed mainly due to the lack of good impact measuring tools, Woodward says, “With the cutting edge element of programmatic targeting and footfall reporting, we can make this a measurable accountable solution for brands at scale, he said, adding that the world's largest brands are demanding that we as marketers take these solutions across all regions and across all markets which is hugely exciting and we can take it further by partnering with Commerce platforms we can repurpose the content and distribute programmatically to specific audiences across markets and at scale.”

Subsequently, sales can then be attributed to specific pieces of content allowing us to understand which creators are driving the most commerce outcomes and really closing that loop in the reporting of commerce metrics.

He ended his speech with some predictions. “Influencer marketing will drive brand growth and deliver outstanding results across the funnel from awareness to consideration to conversion and sales.”

He also insisted, “Content creation remains at the heart of the process. Working with trustworthy and authentic creators that engage audiences in a meaningful way ultimately builds brand perception, influences behaviour and drives brand growth for clients.”