Reimagining influencer marketing

VMLY&R Commerce explores how to turn likes into real business growth

Over the past few years there has been a noticeable shift across influencer marketing as brands move away from one-dimensional engagement.

Influencers are no longer seen as another way to drive brand awareness. Nowadays, advertisers consider their influencers to be content creators, maintaining authenticity and credibility for brands.

Influence is in a constant state of evolution and is now experiencing a shift towards commerce fuelled by the contribution influencers make to the decision-making process, as well as the impact they have on the last click. We’ve seen social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok introduce shopping features, formats and check-out functionality to help maximise the role of influencers and simplify the customer commerce journey.

Influencer marketing is being reimagined and has become intrinsically linked to purchase – this is influencer commerce; a channel accessible to any brand and making its way into social commerce strategies.

The effectiveness of influencer commerce comes from the credibility of the influencer to present a product or service regardless of the number of followers they have. This tactic is based on the alliance of peer-to-peer selling and paid media capabilities. It legitimises the influencers’ role in performance tactics by allowing them to sell products seamlessly from their brand partners to their community and beyond.

For more in-depth insight and analysis, download VMLY&R’s Reimagining Influencer Marketing