Disclaimer: “Check on” is our new rubric where from times to times we’ll check on the advancement of certain subjects. The first article of this series is inevitably about the global pandemic and its effects on influencer marketing. 

As most of the industries were deeply impacted by the Covid-19 crisis, the influencer marketing business isn’t an exception. Even though people spent more time at home, browsing and scrolling around their social media platforms, influencer marketing has suffered from this situation. Indeed, most people faced some kind of difficulties, whether financially or mentally, which created an inconvenient context to promote any type of products/services as if nothing happened. Therefore, brands and influencers had to be meticulous and careful when posting online. Influencers are trusted, listened to and loved by so many people, so posting inappropriate content in this situation would be fatal for them. 

However, the biggest difficulties influencers encounter during the crisis is budget reduction. Among 237 brands surveyed, 69% of them expect an ad spend decrease in 2020 (Mention, 2020). Brands indeed reduced their marketing budget as brands partnerships on Instagram decreased by 37% in April 2020, compared to April 2019. Statistics on Instagram also showed that there was a 30% decrease in the use of “#ad” in April 2020, compared to the previous year. (Socialbakers, 2020)

It does not mean that brands are stopping any kind of influencer collaborations, on the contrary, they are allocating their money more wisely to ensure the highest return possible. Thanks to LDRS’ technology, brands are able to learn more about potential influencers and follow the progress of the campaign in real time. As a result of budget cuts and desire to target the right audience directly, brands are collaborating with micro influencers more than ever! With less followers than mega influencers, micro influencers are more authentic, trustworthy and reliable. Over the last year, 40% of all brands collaborations were with micro influencers and this number is expected to increase in the following years (Socialbakers, 2020). Learn more about the advantages of working with micro influencers HERE

Another important figure to look at is the influencer marketing efficiency. It’s defined as the ratio of average interactions on an influencer’s post mentioning the brand compared to a post published by the brand itself. The top three industries with highest marketing efficiency are Health Care, Finance and Telecom, with 4.2, 3.9 and 3.8 times influencers posts were more efficient than brand posts, respectively. At the bottom of the ranking, we can find the automobile, software and airlines industries with less than 1 (Socialbakers, 2020)

The following tables show the topics influencers were posting about between March 16th and May 18th 2020. The left table shows the interest growth and depicts on the top three insurance, mobile phones and recipes. Whereas the right table shows the interest decline with a top three including parties, sunglasses and music festivals (Socialbakers, 2020)

In conclusion, influencer marketing is not at a standstill since the beginning of the pandemic. However, we clearly see a shift in interests as people experience many difficulties. They want to follow an authentic, accurate and honest influencer rather than a shallow, money-oriented and unreliable influencer. 

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