Marketing Strategies are changing – Brands have to follow

The marketing success of President Marcos during the election campaign in 2022 has an influence on marketing strategies today. 

Influencer marketing firms get a seat at the table

In the past 18 months we have seen a major increase in ad spending by using influencer marketing. Companies are increasingly using influencer marketing agencies. The shift suggests that influencer marketing has become essential to brands – and might even overtake traditional marketing.

Chin up

According to Digiday, the explosive growth in influencer marketing explains the new demand by brands – and their respect for influencer marketing firms.

1. Last year, brands spent a whooping US$ 16,4 billion on influencer marketing, a big step up from US$ 13.8 billion in 2021.

2. Until recently, companies would hire general marketing agencies, and those agencies would hire influencer marketing agencies for individual projects. Now, however, brands are offering influencer marketing firms their own long-term contracts on an annual basis.

3. Why the shift? Brands may be looking to cut costs by paying marketing firms directly rather than through other agencies. More ad spent usually means more scrutiny from management.

Individual influencers are also seeing – and getting – more of these long-term contracts with brands.

Streak or cycle?

Some expect this trend to continue for a long time, with influencer marketing firms gaining more power in the marketing world. Others see this as merely a stage in a constant cycle of change, citing how brand ambassadors’ long-term relationships gave way to short-term creator/influencer relationships before the current long-term contract era.

Who knows, one day we might see the return of sandwich-board salesmen:), but for now, influencer marketers are in a good spot!

Another revolution happens suddenly and unexpectedly. Artificial Intelligence software (AI) has taken over the monotonous and manual activities from humans – and finally the jobs of the so-called knowledge workers. Programs like ChatGPT may not yet be able to completely take over countless tasks from knowledge workers, but they can at least imitate them in a deceptively similar way. ChatGPT debuted in November last year and gained wide popularity among millions of users. But let me add that ChatGPT has raised concerns about copyright and plagiarism.

No doubt, so-called generative AI is the next big thing; many companies intend to roll out generative AI across the company’s product range. Open Ai’s release of ChatGPT seems to have sparked a frenzy across the tech world as big names all try to find a way to compete. Google just announced their own Bard AI tool, Bing (Microsoft) is beginning to demo their ChatGPT-powered search, and even the question app Quora recently rolled out a rival AI chatbot app called “Poe.”

Many workers do not know whether AI will do them harm or benefit them. Employers should take up this uncertainty, address existential fears and look together at the importance of AI for their work and for competitiveness of their company.

The third change: Brands hire college kids to be their “chief TikTok officers”

TikTok content creation could now be the foundation of a college internship. As brands turn to young people to help them build their TikTok presence and generally navigate the app, they’re relying less on traditional marketing agencies to connect with Gen Z. Because most students use TikTok daily and know what resonates on the app, their raw videos (that they often star in themselves) could attract more Gen Z shoppers and ultimately drive more sales.

TikTok is the most frequently used social media platform by 12 to 17-year-olds, where they’re more likely than any other age group to start a viral trend. Gen Z understands what’s funny and relevant on TikTok, so who is better to navigate the platform for brands than them?

There is no doubt in my mind that we must take these developments seriously. I would appreciate your feedback – please contact me at [email protected]