Influencer Marketing on the rise, as experts say it is “highly effective”

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Feb 7, 2016

An increasing number of fashion and beauty brands are investing in Influencer
Marketing, with 77% of marketing specialists claiming it is “highly effective”. According to a survey by Fashion Beauty Monitor and Econsultancy, based on 348 marketing specialists, brand collaborations with social media personalities are growing fast and filing a gap left by the decline of TV, radio and online ads.

57% of respondents said they are already using Influencer Marketing within their marketing strategy, recognising the power of some individuals to influence the buying decisions of their target audience. A further 21% said they are planning to get going with this emerging field of marketing over the next 12 months.

The report “The rise of influencers”, also found that despite rising levels of satisfaction, brands are still at the stage of building confidence in Influencer Marketing, with 42% of them saying that they spend less than 10% of overall marketing budget on these strategies.

The large pool of Youtube, Instagram, Pinterest and more social media influencers proves to be a challenge for fashion and beauty brands, which think that identifying the right figure is very time-consuming. Additionally, almost three quarters (72%) of experts think that relevancy in relation to subject area is more important that influencer reach, which means that a very well-known influencer or celebrity may not be the right fit.

Other key findings include the notion that influencer credibility is of ultimate importance, and that measuring ROI is one of the biggest challenges at moment.
This 2016, the field of Influencer Marketing is set to grow, with budgets for this strategy expected to increase for nearly 60% of the brands, found Fashion Monitor and Econsultancy.

“The rise of influencers” represents the US and the UK fashion and beauty industry.