Mediaboss Marketing

ColumnistsTuesday August 23 2022

Influencers are social media users with a sizable following who partner with companies to market products which may be of interest to their followers, whilst the companies benefit by directly accessing the target audience of their products.

The influencers market the products or service by providing testimonials about the products or service to their followers whilst the company expects an increase in sales from this approach. In 2019, it is estimated that companies around the world spent $6.5 billion on influencer marketing. In 2021, that market is estimated to have grown to $13.8 billion.

To show how this market is growing at a very fast pace, brands are expected to invest $15 billion in influencer marketing in the US alone. This figure is more than the size of the market in 2021.

In Kenya, there is a growing number of personalities who are in the influencer marketing space making a tidy income, mostly on Instagram. Most of them are personalities who have amassed a big following from mainstream media (radio and TV).

One of the reasons for this fast growth is that brands find influencer marketing cost-effective. The pandemic has also pushed brands towards more influencer marketing after growth of social media users during this period.

But the informal nature of influencer marketing comes with its own dangers such as misrepresentation, miseducation, or deceptive marketing. Deceptive influencer marketing involving product misrepresentation, misinformation and non-disclosure of sponsored product is a source of a growing concern largely because consumers place trust in influencers making them vulnerable to deception.

This creates a dicey situation for regulators who have the task to protect consumers because the informal nature of influence marketing makes it difficult to track and regulate these various vices.

Just a few weeks ago, there was concern that a local Instagram influencer was marketing a product through deceptive claims. Now, its more concerning when it gets to health products or advertising to children and there is deceptive marketing and misbranding.

There are two approaches to regulating influencer marketing; first is on the influencers side where the regulator shouldnt be bothered much because it would be tiresome to hold individuals accountable for deceptive marketing.

Private parties are best placed to hold them accountable by litigating influencers. So, this leaves regulators to deal with companies and brands on the legal obligation to advertise honestly to consumers and that extends to social media influencers too.

Therefore, this means that there is need to educate influencers on their legal obligations so that they dont find themselves taken advantage of by shady brands in deceptive marketing campaigns.

For example, what would it mean to an influencer to market a tobacco product which is outside the Tobacco Control Act (2007) and Tobacco Control Regulations?

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Is it time to regulate the fast-growing social media influencer marketing? - Business Daily

Paid Social Marketing Manager

Senior SEO Content Marketing Manager

Senior Paid Media Account Manager

About Summit. The Hull company was founded 22 years ago and remains a changemaker in performance marketing and online retailing.

It works with some of Europes most successful retailers and brands, helping them to transform their online business, growing their customer base and making them more money from retailing online.

Staff get a discounts and benefits platform; flexible working; 250 each year towards learning something new; free city centre parking; Royal London Pension; Bupa Health Cash Plan; and Life Assurance.

Paid Social Marketing Manager

Youll be working in Summits awarding-winning client management team to lead on the strategy of paid social campaigns for some of the UK's biggest brands.

As a Paid Social Marketing Managerat Summit, you will take responsibility for ensuring the team deliver client objectives across multiple social media platforms.

Youll assist the Senior Account Manager and Account Director in developing relationships and maintaining strong communication with clients.

Senior SEO Content Marketing Manager

Youll lead your SEO Contentdelivery team, devise content strategy, own the day-to-day executive and ensure delivery of projects on-time and within budget.

Youll be the main point of contact for the client, ensuring your team are delivering the strategy in line your clients KPIs and challenging their approach where necessary.

Support and manage channel execs and managers, assisting and mentoring their development.

Senior Paid Media Account Manager

Youll be overseeing the strategy of blue chip clients whilst managing and supporting the delivery team.

With support from the team, you will develop and executive campaigns in line with client objectives, guiding inputs and coaching your team along the way.

You should have at least 3 years experience of managing paid media campaigns across Google and Microsoft Ads.

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Jobs open this week in the North of England - Prolific North

A restorative justice program for survivors of domestic violence. A plan to reduce readmissions at one of the areas busiest hospitals. A strategy to expand a mobile food market that combats food insecurity. A guidebook to help caregivers assist aging relatives.

These are just a few of the projects that UBs Social Impact Fellows developed this summer alongside 10 local organizations. Their work, as the name of the fellowship promises, is already making an impact in the community and is poised to do so for months and years to come.

Now in its fifth year, the Social Impact Fellows program brings together students from the School of Management, School of Social Work and College of Arts and Sciences to create social innovation in Western New York. Working in teams of three with one graduate student from each school, the fellows collaborate to research a problem facing a community organization. Then, they devise a solution and pitch their project in the hopes of winning funds for the organization to implement it.

This years Pitch for a Cause competition wrapped up the program on Aug. 5, as the fellows, UB community members and organization partners came together to hear more about their summer of impact.

I applaud each of you for contributing to the greater good, and in so doing, embodying UBs values, President Satish K. Tripathi told the fellows at the event.

Our fellows meaningful service is core to UBs mission of excellence, Tripathi continued, addressing the audience. A true measure of the success of the Social Impact Fellows program is the impact our students make on community organizations. We know that many of our partners have integrated into their business practices the innovative solutions developed by our students.

I hate to be clich, but I definitely signed up to make social impact in the Buffalo community, MBA student Kennethea Wilson says of her decision to join the program.

With teammates Maria Rothaupt and Abhipsa Chakraborty MSW and PhD in English students, respectively Wilson interned with the South Buffalo Community Association. The team created and distributed a community needs assessment, and using that data, got to work creating a business plan for a food pantry and delivery service that would address residents greatest concerns: food insecurity and transportation.

Wilson says the program cemented her career goals of working for community organizations and being an advocate for change.

After this experience, I feel affirmed in my career path I am going to be a leader, she says. I know I will step into a leadership role having the training to know what it means to be a leader, how to manage a team setting and how to create a timeline and execute it.

Alex Bakke, a PhD student in Spanish language and literature, also came away from the program with a newfound understanding of how his skillset could align with career opportunities. Bakke and his teammates, MSW student Kiara Owen and MBA student Michael Mankiewicz, worked with the nonprofit Open Buffalo on a business plan for an urban ecology center that would address environmental racism in East Buffalo.

At first, Bakke says it was a challenge to figure out how his background in linguistics and research fit in with such a project. But by collaborating with his teammates, he discovered how their skills and perspectives complemented one another and enhanced the final deliverable.

Its been an eye-opening experience for me, Bakke says. I learned how I can translate my skills into the private sector, nonprofits or to give back in my free time. All in all, having this experience just makes me more marketable.

In addition to interning at their partner organizations, the fellows came together several times during the summer for sessions with management and social work faculty, and to visit mission-driven organizations throughout the region.

The entire program is built on the idea of social innovation that to tackle societys greatest challenges, organizations and individuals from many sectors must come together to find solutions.

Social innovation is imperative for the next generation of leaders, particularly because you get an opportunity to address the complex challenges facing todays society, Ananth Iyer, dean of the School of Management, told the audience at the Pitch for a Cause competition.

Speaking directly to the fellows, Keith Alford, dean of the School of Social Work, agreed: Social innovation and experiential learning are key initiatives of the university. Your interdisciplinary focus in solving the challenges of today through creative innovation is certainly outstanding and will be needed more than you can possibly imagine in years to come.

In total, 10 teams of fellows delivered pitches representing the following organizations:

Presenting in random order, each team had five minutes to describe the problem they were addressing and their solution, followed by three minutes of rapid-fire questions from the judging panel.

This years judges were Esther Annan, program officer, John R. Oishei Foundation; David Femi, head of multicultural banking and diverse market strategy, M&T Bank; Dharshan Jayasinghe, UB Alumni Association president and CEO, bizWin Strategies and Triad Health Care Recruiting; and Rene Petties-Jones, president, National Federation for Just Communities of Western New York.

The team from ECMC Alyssa Ruminski, MSW; Muhammad Ashraf, MBA; and Thaddeus Okon, PhD in linguistics took second, collecting a $1,000 prize to help the medical center implement their project to lower readmission rates for complex care patients.

Finally, to thunderous applause, the winning team was named: Andy Whitehead, MSW; Elizabeth Ramirez, MBA/MSW; and Samantha King-Shaw, PhD in global gender studies, representing the Matt Urban Center. Throughout the summer, they created a curriculum, marketing materials, a recruitment guide and other tools for a workforce development program that teaches participants culinary skills and kitchen fundamentals, leading to certifications and employment opportunities.

Now, thanks to their victory and the $2,000 prize, the teams idea for the Above Ground Culinary Arts Training program may eventually become a reality.

Social work has to combine with business thats how were going to create successful programs and organizations, Whitehead says. A lot of social workers come to school to do micro-level work, but this opportunity gave me a different perspective and showed me that I can work on the business side and use my social work perspective to contribute to a successful program.

The Social Impact Fellows program is made possible through the generous support of many partners, individuals and organizations, including Fred and Donna Saia; Steven H. Shepsman and Debra A. Shepsman; and Sujata Yalamanchili and R. Kent Roberts.

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Social Impact Fellows use diverse perspectives to create change - UBNow: News and views for UB faculty and staff - University at Buffalo

Yes, I know that you were burned by the final season of Game of Thrones, in which your favorite character did something so inexplicable that it ruined all seven seasons or preceding development, to the point where you can hardly bear to look at a map of Westeros ever again

But Game of Thrones is about to make a comeback, albeit in different form, with the prequel House of the Dragon set to premiere on HBO this weekend.

And past traumas aside, it could be good (George RR Martin says that its much more aligned with his original vision), and either way, we do get to see those amazing dragons on TV once again.

Which is the focus of the latest campaign on Snapchat, which enables Snap users to transform themselves into dragons via various AR activations within the app's Lens tools.

Which looks kind of cool but even more interesting, from a social media marketing standpoint, is this element of the latest HBO/Snap campaign:

Snap and HBO Max have also coordinated with members of Snaps Lens Network from around the world to build custom Landmarker AR experiences in their local markets. This is the first partnership to pair a brand with a diverse group of Lens Creators at a global scale.

In what could be a new consideration for large-scale launches, or even for smaller brands looking to collaborate with a range of creators in different regions, Snap has facilitated a new, global partnership, with various Lens makers, to enable new forms of localized engagement with these Lens activations.

In order to execute the campaign, HBO Max provided the Lens Creators with AR assets for each dragon to build the new Landmarker Lenses. Each Lens Creator personally selected the location for their individual Landmarker Lens, bringing a powerful local element to this global campaign.

The Lenses will be available at the following locations once the show begins:

Whats more, the activations will evolve throughout the season, with new dragons that appear in the show also becoming available in these displays.

Its an interesting expansion on the usual Lens campaign approach, with the more localized approach potentially helping to improve engagement, and get even more Snap users engaged in the show.

Which, as noted, could be a hard sell but then again, if the show is actually good, that could help to wash away at least some of the bad taste left in fans mouths after the terrible Game of Thrones season finale.

And from a digital marketing perspective, it could highlight a new way to work with Snaps growing network of creators to build more inclusive, regionally relevant, engaging experiences.

More than 250,000 Lens Creators have already built over 2.5 million Lenses through Snaps Lens Studio AR creation tool. Thats a lot of potential for broader integrations via Snap campaigns.

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Snapchat Launches New Localized Lens Promotion for 'House of the Dragon' - Social Media Today

The study - published in the Journal for Studies on Alcohol and Drugs found that packaging helps shape perceptions of the product, drinker and drinker experience: saying it has a significant impact in creating appeal among young people.

The findings come as the Scottish Government prepares to launch a consultation on alcohol marketing later this year.

The new study which was supported by Alcohol Focus Scotland sought to explore how young adults, aged between 18 and 35, viewed and engaged with alcohol packaging. Fifty current drinkers, from Scotland, participated in eight focus groups in which they engaged with a range of alcohol products.

Participants discussed seeing alcohol packaging in different settings typically shops and drinking venues and via marketing, particularly advertising. They frequently recalled seeing it featured in the media with most reporting exposure on television, in movies, on social media and the internet.

Most recalled packs that stood out in shops were considered appealing for being different, interesting, or aesthetically pleasing. Some participants reported purchasing alcohol products solely on pack appeal, with one saying: I dont actually like beer, but I bought it specifically because I liked the packaging.

Packaging design such as colors and graphics is central to appeal, as is structure, with most participants drawn to sleek or distinctive shapes, note the researchers.

The size of packs is also important: larger packs, for example, were considered by participants to be more cost-effective and preferable when intending to consume a large quantity of alcohol. Meanwhile, smaller grab and go packs were thought to enable and encourage consumption in public settings, such as on trains or at concerts, and help avoid unwanted attention from police and security.

On-pack promotions such as gifts and prizes contributed to appeal, as did sponsorships, for example those linked to sports, festivals, and television shows. Meanwhile, most felt that price marks on packaging were indicative of inferior products.

Limited edition packs were considered eye-catching and seen as an incentive by several participants, thought to encourage trial, collection, and upcycling with most having retained expensive or cool empty bottles for display or collection.

We found that, for young adult drinkers in Scotland, alcohol packaging can capture attention, create appeal, and help shape perceptions of the product, drinker and drinking experience, said lead author Daniel Jones from the Institute for Social Marketing and Health (ISMH) at Stirling. Five main themes emerged from our data: the ubiquity of alcohol packaging; its appeal and ability to catch attention; its association with particular occasions and activities; its ability to inform perceptions; and its engagement of both visual and non-visual senses taste, touch, sound and smell.

The findings provide pause for thought about the contrast between unrestricted designs in alcohol packaging, and the plain packaging legal requirements for cigarettes.

Further research should consider potential benefits of stronger regulation of alcohol packaging and labelling, as well as public support for such changes, the researchers say.

Previous studies have suggested that including prominent warnings on packs could reduce the appeal and increase awareness of alcohol-related risks and support a decrease in consumption, with supporters suggesting mandatory health warnings on alcohol products would help counter the attractiveness of packaging and address the low levels of knowledge about alcohol harm.

However, the study also notes that theres a dearth of research around the promotional role of packaging and how it should be regulated, as attractive features could, conversely, limit the effectiveness of warnings.

The study can be found here.

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Study assesses influence of alcohol packaging on young people - BeverageDaily.com