One of the most notable moments of the recently concluded Cannes Lions festival was the reaction of some brands against bad practices in influencer marketing, highlighting not only companies and influencers but also platforms that operate in that market.
Audiense is part of this ecosystem and we are committed to relevance in influencer marketing; much better a few niche influencers linked to the target audience than a celebrity with millions of followers but little or no engagement with the brand. "I’d rather not just use influencers, but the people that use our products be the people we market", said in Cannes Samsung CMO, Marc Mathieu.
So, we wanted to identify the most relevant players for the audience of this edition of the festival, as a practical example for companies interested in implementing an influencer marketing program or in order to develop a specific campaign with brand ambassadors and also to enlighten their PR strategy and/or media planning.
As this is an example focused on B2B, the influencers found are not consumers or users of a product or service but journalists, columnists, agency professionals, the agencies themselves, media with large audiences and others more niche (to understand the differences between influencer marketing for B2C and B2B we recommend this article). Using Audiense Insights and our Influencers report we have identified the most exclusive profiles and with the most affinity with the festival audience.
While in the top 10 agencies there are many companies, amongst the agency staff four of the 10 most influential people are from Ogilvy. Amongst the most relevant media for the sector, those most focused on marketing and advertising (with smaller and niche audiences such as Campaign Media or CMO.com) may be more attractive in a media strategy and earn more investment than more general media.
The journalists identified should be the subject of more detailed research: what topics are their latest articles about?, which articles have had most resonance in social media?, what are their audiences like?, is the journalist a staff journalist or only a collaborator?
Another point to take into account is the identification of those journalists in the media which are more focused on news about the sector in question, usually professionals with a lower media profile and more accessible. It is about using social data in all the stages of a marketing and communication action, from strategy and planning to post-campaign analysis, through execution and even creative development.