Influencer marketing budgets are growing, as more and more brands look to tap into the popularity of online creators to boost their branding efforts.
Because these days, big-name YouTubers and TikTok stars are just as recognizable as TV and film actors, while there are also many niche-specific influencers offering more specialized reach, as well as platform-specific creative nous, which can help to drive your messaging with just the right audience.
Indeed, according to a recent report from Statista, the global influencer marketing industry is expected to grow 36% between 2024 and 2025, reaching close to $33 billion in total.
That shift is being largely driven by big-name brands, who are now re-aligning their budgets to follow the lead of emerging online stars like MrBeast.
As reported by Bloomberg:
“Unilever PLC’s recently appointed CEO, Fernando Fernandez, said he would hire 20 times more influencers as part of a social-first marketing strategy because consumers are ‘suspicious’ of corporate branding […] within the last year, Publicis Groupe SA bought Influential, the largest influencer marketing company in the world by revenue, and BR Media Group, a leader in Latin America that works with 80 percent of the region’s biggest influencers.”
These shifts underline the value of online influencers, who are now seen as your best bet for reaching the next generation of digital native audiences, who’ve never lived in a world where YouTube didn’t exist, and they didn’t have full control over their content intake.
That’s a significant consideration, while as noted, the added value here is that these creators know what works on each platform, and how to frame brand messages in a more audience-friendly way.
As such, partnering with the right influencers can significantly boost your brand promotion efforts, and help to align your content with a broader audience, particularly those in younger age groups.
Because while you may not understand the latest online trends, these creators are often leading those shifts, and can help to integrate your promotions with such. Influencer marketing shouldn’t be a side note anymore, it should be a key discussion point among your marketing team, with a view to aligning with the right voices to help boost your brand.
That doesn’t mean that every brand will be able to afford to work with the top influencers in their niche, nor that every business should be investing a significant portion of their marketing budget in this element. But it should at least be a discussion, in order to ensure that you’re aligning with the latest content trends and shifts.
The big-name brands are spending on these influencers for a reason, which is worth noting for your marketing efforts.
You can review potential brand influencers on Meta’s Creator Marketplace, TikTok’s Creator Marketplace, and Snapchat’s Lens Creator Directory, among others.
