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Influencers Are Taking Over Advertising
The future of marketing // Illustration by Kate Walker with Magnific
More than 250 influencers are attending this year’s Cannes Lions advertising festival, which kicked off on Monday.
Why It Clicks: The advertising industry has shifted dramatically in recent years, with content creators taking center stage. Consumers today are interacting with media in different ways, and traditional broadcast advertising is no longer working.
Behind the Screens: According to EMARKETER, 88.7% of established companies in the US plan to invest in influencer marketing this year, with a projected $12.42 billion spent in the space. Less than a decade ago, that percentage was under 40%.
Margot Hauer-King, a representative for UTA, said, “When I was first going to Cannes, if you saw Martin Sorrell walking down the street, that was the big-name celebrity.” Now, people like Alix Earle are drawing all the attention.
YouTube creator Dhar Mann said that when brands work with traditional advertisers, the process can take months, with back-and-forth meetings making it difficult to keep up with “the speed of culture.” Influencers and content creators, by contrast, are the culture, allowing them to move in ways traditional advertisers cannot.
Rather than pursuing traditional advertising strategies, marketing execs are now competing for $200,000 brand deals with YouTube creators.
Closing Deals: Content creators are more involved than ever in how brands sell products and market themselves. As a result, the power dynamics between creators and brands have shifted. Companies are looking to learn from creators, and instead of influencers competing for brand deals, brands are increasingly competing for influencers.
The Future of Marketing: As creators continue to become the center of the advertising ecosystem, brands may find themselves competing for influencer partnerships much the same way they once competed for prime-time ad slots.
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Today’s email was written by Deena ElGenaidi and Kait Cunniff.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.