What an eventful couple of days in the big smoke! The Influencer Marketing Show, which took place this week on October 15-16 was in full swing and packed to the rafters with exhibitors, speakers and attendees alike bursting through the doors for the two-day event to celebrate all things influencer marketing.
From hot topic sessions and heated panel discussions to great catch ups, drinks and frozen yoghurt (courtesy of Whalar); we’ve rounded up the key takeaways from a whirlwind show in the capital.
A data-driven approach to influencer marketing
Day 1 brought together a wide range of discussions around one of the industry’s most advancing channels in influencers. Spearheading the conversations was Danielle Lewis, CEO and co-founder of Scrunch who touched on the importance of data and audience segmentation for influencer marketing now the industry has matured, stating how brands should use it as an optimisation strategy before investing in potentially the wrong type of influencer for your brand.
Meanwhile, Whalar had a number of their team on stage, including their hosted Case Study Theatre which was full to the brim across the two days. The company’s chief growth officer Mike Hondorp provided his talk on the influencer marketing channel within the mobile climate while also mentioning the importance of relevance when advertising through brands through brands building authentic relationships; collaborating with the right influencers to tap into their loyal and engaged following to incorporate products that are most relevant to them.
On Day 2, Whalar’s managing director Emma Harman, alongside influencers @allthatisshe, @mossonyi and @lornaluxe, hosted a discussion on the purpose of influencer marketing while touching on one of the growing issues within the industry that is transparency and what the influencer marketing industry would like in Whalar’s creative utopia.
The right side of the law
Speaking of transparency, one of the busiest sessions at the Influencer Marketing Show was the panel session – Will Increased Influencer Marketing Transparency, Authenticity & Compliance Kill Or Cure the Discipline? – featuring Wura Sanusi from the Advertising Standards Agency alongside Scott Guthrie (CampaignDeus), Aiden Carroll (co-founder of The Colouring In Department) and Mark Dandy (ISAWITFIRST.com). Authenticity was a hot topic at the show and indeed the industry right now, and the session deep-dived into keeping on the right side of the law when partnering with influencers, affiliates and media owners with paid for content. The audience and the panel exchanged opinions and next steps into tackling fraud, image manipulation, CGI influencer and more in this exciting channel.
Elsewhere, Jules Lund, the founder of Tribe, touched on the decline of influencer fraud, which can only mean a positive sign for the relatively new and ever-growing influencer marketing industry. Lund’s hugely engaging session turned the audience into a creative agency to delve into a vision where consumers will be able to supply the creative for multi-channel brand campaigns.
Influencer marketing done right
Bringing data and influencers together, influencer marketing platform Tailify introduced a number of valuable findings, tips and tricks for brands to start engaging with influencer marketing today.
Hosted by Tailify’s influencer community manager Alice Pavin, she recommended advertisers to stop thinking of influencers as billboards and instead think of them as creative agencies as they create content suited to meet their target audience. In addition, Pavin said that brands should be looking beyond influencers just posting a product and engage more with them to build authentic relationships.
Looking into 2019, Pavin concluded that video will become the most consumed online content as people retain 90% of a message when that message is consumed via video versus just 10% when the message is read. With consumers spending 22% of screen time looking at influencer content, Pavin urged newcomers to combine the growth of video with the effectiveness of influencer marketing to reach strong media combinations.
See you in 2019!
What an eventful two days! The Influencer Marketing Show is set to return on October 22-23. You can catch up on all the best bits via searching the #IMSHOW18 hashtags on social media for the conversations. For further coverage from the event, view the full photos here.
