When working with influencers on video content, retailers often struggle to strike the right balance between brand messaging and influencer content. Ensuring content remains authentic and interesting for the influencer’s followers is key to the success of any collaboration.
Here are my top tips for retailers to get the best value out of their influencer alliances.
Pick your influencer wisely
It goes without saying that the first step is picking an influencer whose values and content style align with your brand, ensuring anything articulated by the influencer – scripted or unscripted – is believable. Any kind of incompatibility between the retailer and influencer will be immediately obvious to the most long-term and loyal followers. The most successful collaborations occur when an influencer is already familiar with or a fan of the brand. For example, when Pretty Little Thing partnered with Molly Mae and we live streamed their competition to find hidden unicorns around Manchester City, the collaboration made sense as PLT’s audience is part of a demographic who strongly identify with and know of the influencer.
Aim for a long-term partnership
Longer-term partnerships are the most effective, with retail brands increasingly opting to select a brand ambassador to build long term relationships where both parties can grow authentically together. This will typically create a stronger association between the influencer and the brand, allowing your ambassador to integrate brand messaging more subtly and organically into their content in ways that feel natural to viewers. Products that influencers genuinely use in everyday life, are likely to resonate more with their audience.
Likewise, if appearances are frequent enough, influencers come to represent the brand itself – their mere presence a reminder of the business and the service they provide. Amazon Prime Video’s ongoing use of Twitch and YouTube influencer Jack Manifold as a presenter on their live shows such as ‘Drive In Dating’ is a great example of this. The production aligns perfectly with the content Jack creates on his own channel, making long-term projects viable and enjoyable for his audience.
Don’t overdo your brand messaging
Influencers must not let their own brand be derailed by the retailer they are promoting. Talking frequently about the benefits of a product can rapidly sound like they swallowed a press release. It feels unnatural for both the talent and viewer and can be damaging to your audience, causing them to disengage. Turn your influencer into a living ad, and you’ve lost your audience!
If it’s overly salesy, influencer-driven TikTok or Instagram videos can quickly be swiped away by viewers. Your target audience will likely skip through content from that influencer if they feel that their content is always overly promotional – meaning your brand is going unseen and your campaigns going to waste. To avoid this, it’s always better to go light-touch on the brand messaging.
Producing an ultra-slick product demo which is word-perfect can appear out of place if the influencer’s content is normally slightly chaotic or improvised. Give the influencer the freedom to discuss your product in their own style, providing only some broad guidelines.
Keep it real
Although there’s a general understanding that influencers make some of their revenue through advertising, consumers don’t enjoy feeling like they’ve been tricked into watching something promotional.
The repercussions of a forced and inauthentic partnership can be damaging not just for the retailer, but also for the influencer – who may decide not to work with a brand again if their following is negatively impacted by the partnership. It’s in both parties’ interest that the content produced to promote your business is as genuine and uncomplicated as possible.
Jake Ward
