British advertisers launch influencer research and toolkit

As part of ISBA’s ‘Influencer Month’ this July, the association organised an Understanding Influencers event on 25 July in London. The event was designed to equip marketers with the knowledge and tools to implement effective influencer marketing and understand how to avoid some of the associated risks including fraud.

During the event, ISBA launched new guidance to enhance their members’ understanding of influencer marketing.

The association presented the findings of a research they conducted earlier this year on how their members work with influencers in 2017-2018 and beyond. The research identified several trends in four key areas:

• Marketers mindset
  - Many ISBA members are still looking to ascertain how to make the most of the influencer opportunity and where it fits as a part of their wider media mix
  - 89% use influencers but 60% of them didn’t feel confident about working with them

• Use of influencers
  - 38% have run 5+ influencer campaigns in the last year
  - 65% select influencers based on the quality of their following
  - Top reasons to use influencers: Reach new audiences, enhance credibility, cost effectiveness

• Paying influencers
  - 80% of members are planning on increasing their influencer marketing budgets in 2018
  - 5% of marketing budgets are spent on influencer marketing

• Measuring influencers
  - Members are measuring success based on volume of likes (85%), sales (40%) and reach (66%)
  - Top concerns about influencer marketing are measurement and authenticity now that disclosure is mandatory and the industry is becoming saturated.

The UK study complements a recent WFA global research on influencer marketing. WFA found that 65% of the global marketers surveyed are planning to increase their spending on influencer marketing in the next 12 months but will only do so where standards on transparency are met.

ISBA also launched ‘Spot the Bot’, an online quiz which helps marketers understand the basics of bots and identify where marketers might be wasting their marketing money on, be it on fake followers or traffic or both.

For more information, please contact Bex Fisher.