The video era of social media: how influencer marketing is shaping the landscape

We gathered again with experts from the influencer marketing industry to delve deeper into how brands and performance marketers can get the most out of the influencer partnerships.

Hosted by PMW (@performancemarketingworld) and co-moderated by Campaign Magazine, we were joined by India Sehmi (@theindiaedit), Head of Brand Partnerships at LTK (@ltk.hq), a global platform helping influencers monetise their content; and Emily Valentine (@officialemilyvalentine), business influencer and educator, who provides help and advice to others following her footsteps.

Emily commented about the IG live: “Having conversations around the fastest growing marketing sector with other key players is always exciting. It’s a dream to be working in the most hyper-changing and fresh form of advertising there is.

“The influencer industry pivots and creates new types of marketing opportunities multiple times a year. So brands would benefit from listening to conversations like these in order to ensure their campaign’s continue to align with what’s fresh and effective as well gaining more insight into how Influencers run their side of operations, as it’s still a baby and a very clandestine industry in many senses. 

“Brands are only skimming the surface”

The old advertising adage is poignant as ever as India and Emily pointed out: “When times are good you should advertise, when times are bad, you MUST advertise”. 

During the cost of living crisis, the panel discussed how brands must work harder at connecting with their audiences and influencers are an ideal way of doing so, having already nurtured a loyal following into an ‘influenceable’ community. 

However, measuring influence isn’t as easy as ‘likes’, click-through rates and sell-throughs. In fact, the numbers only represent the “worst case scenario”, said India.

“Brands are skimming the surface if they’re only taking into consideration the vanity metrics when measuring the ROI of a campaign,” explained Emily. 

She continues to explain the extra level of depth of how far the influence goes and that brands are missing it when looking just at the numbers.

India commented after the live: “With so much discussion around social networks and creators this week, it was serendipitous to reflect on the trends we’re seeing across consumer purchases and the brand and creator activity on LTK’s Creator Commerce platform. 

"Now more than ever, as brands face greater needs to rationalise their investments, they are leaning into trusted partners that drive sales and full-funnel performance. LTK’s most successful brands are investing in long-term, always-on creator ambassador campaigns with phased iterations to maximise the true ROI of their influencer marketing.”

Watch the full video here:

Add the date in your diary for our third and final IG live episode of influencer marketing and the symbiotic relationship between brands on influencers, US edition: Wednesday 23 August, 7pm BST. With ASICS’ Abha Gallewalle and influencer Cynthia Johnson on PMW’s Instagram page (@performancemarketingworld).

Watch the first episode here: “Keeping it reel”: differentiating between Love Island star and authentic influencer with Love Island’s Liberty Poole and Skinny Tan.