Tapping Into the Creator Economy for Crisis & Reputation
The influencer match is afoot. It has been for a long time, especially on the consumer brand side of communications. The influencer space has grown immensely over the last five years. It has more than tripled in size, skyrocketing from $9.7 billion in 2020 to an estimated $32.55 billion. The market is on track to achieve a projected $40 billion. That said, it’s historically been a harder sell in DC, among the public and corporate affairs space.
Until recently, when the landscape shifted and reporters, podcasters and new media talent, along with engaged constituents, surfaced as influential voices to not only reach Congress and the administration, but mitigate crises and reputation issues, causes and policies impacting their day-to-day personal and professional lives. B2B influencer marketing also grew 47% year-over-year, with brands dedicating $4.1 billion to creator partnerships, and LinkedIn even just launched a “Creator Marketplace” tab for exploration. Further, on LinkedIn, ChatGPT cites personal profiles and individual posts more often than company pages.
And, as Axios’ Media Trends Executive brief states (and inspired me, along with a ton of related work, to write this piece), “Creator marketing is becoming essential business infrastructure. Companies are moving beyond one-off partnerships as creators take on a larger role in reach, relevance and commerce.” But how can organizations effectively break through in today’s crowded digital and influencer space? A few tricks of the trade that we’ve seen recent success with can serve as strategic and competitive campaign moves.
Influencer Op-eds on Offense
If you don’t know, now you know, op-eds (and corresponding spokesperson engagement) are nothing new. But it has become more and more challenging to place op-eds (only a handful of platforms accept them these days). Being able to quickly enlist in influencer talent to pen and/or sign an impactful piece can go a long way, beyond that of just a standalone short, sponsored social media message. Using an op-ed as a north-star for a campaign, be it a crisis, corporate reputation management, influencing the administration or legislative advocacy and action, can serve as an effective base which additional media hits and digital amplification can drive to (and from) to reinforce messaging.
Staging & Arming Influencer Amplifiers
Whether 1:1 outreach or partnering with established, trusted third-party paid influencer vendor networks, planning for an influencer campaign in advance is crucial. The more key messaging, preferred talent, budget, contracts, preferred dissemination platforms and campaign guardrails you have prepared, the quicker (I recently saw within minutes!) you can activate once that final approval hits or the op-ed lands. Especially in a crisis, there is nothing more reassuring than a fast (and successful) campaign launch. This avoids (what I’ve also seen) as long, drawn-out, back and forth client and stakeholder approvals that can take days, weeks or even months (yes I’ve seen it all – well I thought I had until the above-mentioned campaign that yes, really launched within minutes!).
Targeting Influencer Networks
Beyond working with influencers to create and amplify content, another strategic move is to ensure your influencers, and their networks of influencers are included in your paid media ad targeting strategies. Communicators should ensure they’re not only reaching the right audience, in the right place and at the right time, but that they’re also implementing an influential surround sound campaign to reach those within a given target influencer network (i.e. friends, family, co-workers, donors, staffers, neighbors, etc.) – all of the people who can impact the opinion of the influencer (or a lot of times in our case, the decision maker) at the end of the day.
Interested in learning more or applying these strategies? Get in touch with our team.
