With PI LIVE Europe 2023 just around the corner, we caught up with James Eid, CEO of Sway Me Good, to discuss the launch of the influencer marketplace platform, which is kicking off on the first day of PI LIVE.
Eid dives into how Sway Me Good can help brands boost their influencer marketing campaigns by going beyond traditional sluggish transactions and fostering meaningful connections between brands and content entrepreneurs.
What exactly sets Sway Me Good’s approach apart from the traditional methods in the influencer marketing industry?
What we see are the sluggish transactions that happen within influencer marketing such as negotiations and drawn-out contracts, so this above-the-line mindset really takes influencer marketing into something where you can be efficient and transparent and engage at scale in an effective way.
What are some of these old practices and how is Sway Me Good replacing them with more efficient methods?
The first thing is working with the right influencers. Brands can do targeted searches with Sway Me Good’s influencer community, they can post jobs and find influencers there.
What happens in traditional influencer marketing practices is that you have a lot of outreach and prospecting and it just sucks away time from the marketing teams, and agencies, in-house or externally. What we've done is we've flipped it on its head so brands can post opportunities to work with creators on our Sway Me Good app. This essentially streamlines that whole process providing valuable insights as well as making it as simple as a click.
How does Sway Me Good ensure thorough campaign metrics for your clients, and how does this impact the decision-making process in influencer marketing campaigns?
We have integrations with the social media platforms that we're using. First of all, the data that's being pulled through from an influencer perspective is accurate, it's coming straight from those platforms in real-time.
Then, when we present influencer applications to a brand job through the platform, we have all those metrics there. We also have the Sway Me Good valuation, which is how we assess the influencers’ sway on the market and how much you should be charged for them to post on behalf of your brand. It's all a standardised way of really getting into the detail whilst having a top-level perspective.
How does your marketplace platform enable brands to purchase authentic ad space from trusted creators, and why is this so important for brands?
This is a really important question! We know already from our own research, but also common sense, that consumers really trust authenticity. Over six in ten consumers state that it's important that creators are genuine when they're recommending a product or service.
A key focus for us is how we can enable brands to make those right choices with the right credible and authentic influencers, and we do so by matchmaking. When you post a job we match you with the right influencers. Part of this is, we notify creators that there’s a job available that is relevant to them and they have the opportunity to apply. It's really about making sure you can do that at scale and authentically. It's very difficult for brands to do that manually without software, so we assist them with that process.
How does Sway Me Good tap into the 'untapped brand potential,' and what strategies have you found most effective in leveraging this influence?
The main thing is time and scale and we really try to make it as efficient as possible. We can cut the amount of time that brands are spending on starting up campaigns by 50%. We enable brands to spend their time and budget accurately and efficiently, coupled with our analytics to really prove what you're doing is working in the market and unlocking more of that budget.
We know at the moment, and it always will be, marketing budgets are tight, so we look at how we can maximise the efficiency of that spend. Doing that at scale is essentially one of the most important things we do at Sway Me Good.
Can you discuss any technological innovations or platforms that Sway Me Good is using to streamline influencer marketing processes?
We develop all of our software, and most of our team are software developers driving that force. We develop all of our own technology, what you use on our platform is very agile and now we can add new features quickly as demand comes from the marketplace, but it's also good to consider the future of technology as well.
We also use machine learning, which is part of AI, to help us recommend the right influencers for your brand and assess the posting potential, it’s essential for the Sway Me Good valuation.
What trends do you foresee that will continue to drive efficiency in the industry, and how is Sway Me Good preparing to adapt to these changes?
At the moment, AI is at the front of everyone's minds. There's a huge shift in the content that is made, so lots of companies are looking at generative AI to create something new. What is difficult to grasp is that most AI generative content is based on what's already out there.
One of the challenges and disadvantages of using generative AI with virtual influencers, for example, is that they’re going to be replicating content that's already out there, so the content is not always going to be new as it's based on something that's already existed.
That’s where content creation really becomes strong because it remains credible and authentic, it can't be faked. We have no issue with bringing AI or machine learning onto our platform to make influencer marketing more efficient, but I really would be cautious about only using AI generative content because there's a lack of new ideas coming through.
As a sponsor of PI LIVE Europe 2023, what can attendees expect from your presence at the event, and how will your commitment to efficiency be reflected in your involvement?
We're very proud to be sponsors of PI LIVE and Sway Me Good has a lovely stand that we've spent a lot of time working on. We have a few fun tools there as well, with some interactive kiosks for attendees to have a look at our platform, which is new to the market.
We are launching with a solid base to drive growth programmes for our creators and brands, so we have a few interesting things at the stand, such as a Sway Me Good leaderboard of who's got the highest valuation. You can interact with that screen and have it broadcasted on a giant screen which is going to be fun, and then we have the sales team and some of the technical team to answer any questions. You can sit down with us on stand 42, take a look at the demo of the product, and find out what Sway Me Good is all about!
What are you excited about at this year’s PI LIVE event?
I'm going to be looking at the sessions. We've also got a lot of customers already before we've launched who are joining us at the exhibition, so it'll be good to see them again and face to face.
We're having a mini celebration for our Sway Me Good launch at the event, we’ve got some bubbly as well if you want to join us for a meeting! But essentially, it’s about meeting people and networking, celebrating our wins, as well as getting ready for the future!
