What future for influencer marketing and influencers?
What will influencer marketing look like in the coming years? As aninfluencer agency, So Bang has a front-row seat to observe the market, its trends, its growth, and its key players. However, it would be very difficult for us to provide a definitive answer to this question, as the field is constantly and rapidly evolving. It must be said that the power of social media for brands is such that even the most ambitious predictions could fall short of the reality to come.
Influencer marketing, back to the future
It's a well-known fact that to try and understand what the future will look like, you must first look to the past. However, even though influencer marketing as we know it today is a recent phenomenon, its concept is not new.
In particular, the use of opinion leaders (those now called influencers) to promote a brand, event or service dates back to the mid-1950s with the work of sociologists Paul Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz.
Even back then, the power of influence fascinated advertisers with its ability to create connections and, above all, to convert customers. From then on, they would constantly use it to sell brands' products and services. But of course, social media didn't exist at that time, and nothing could have predicted their emergence, let alone how they would exponentially increase the potential of this marketing practice.
The emergence of new influencers
Influencer marketing has not only found a second wind with the emergence and rise of social media platforms. It has completely reinvented itself with increasingly sophisticated and complex codes and practices.
Of course, the principle remains the same, but this time, a clear distinction is made between online opinion leaders (influencers) and offline opinion leaders. Today, there isn't a single influencer profile, but rather several types (top, macro, micro, nano, etc.), and each category of these ambassadors is further subdivided into subcategories.
In short, the typology of influencers has continued to grow and evolve over the years, and it's highly likely that this will continue in the coming decades. For example, we're seeing a broadening of the age groups involved in the phenomenon, both within the communities themselves and among the influencers.
In Asia, seniors (also known as Generation Silver) have significantly increased their presence on social media following the pandemic. As a result, brands are increasingly targeting these connected seniors, perceived as more mature, more authentic , and also more "hip" (in the literal sense). For example, 79-year-old Chinese influencer Grandma Wang is considered the queen of livestreaming with over 16 million followers. In May 2020, she even broke sales records, generating over 5.3 million CNY for several brands on the social network Douyin.
More and more new markets to conquer
Speaking of brands, influencer marketing will undoubtedly continue to expand into a whole host of sectors we might not have considered yet. It has already conquered fashion, wellness, automotive, health, sports, fitness, food, entertainment, and more. But what will the markets of tomorrow be?
Today, it's safe to say that numerous opportunities will emerge in B2B, the non-profit sector, construction, NGOs, and other non-governmental agencies. In fact, with influencer marketing, the possibilities seem limitless. It's then up to each sector to adopt its existing practices or invent new ones to develop creative influence strategies that will be successful on social media tomorrow.
So, what will influencer marketing look like in the next 10, 20, or 30 years? As you've gathered from this short article, no influencer marketing agency can definitively predict it. We can only sense trends, make growth projections, and so on. Oh, but perhaps one thing: influencer marketing isn't going anywhere anytime soon!
Proof of this confidence in the future of influencer marketing (if there were any doubts), the growth forecasts for the influencer marketing software market are expected to see a significant increase by 2030. Clearly, everyone wants to be ready to ride the next wave. Consequently, there's a growing trend towards predictive technology, including algorithms, artificial intelligence, and so on. Deciphering the evolution of influencer marketing to try and anticipate its future forms is one of the major challenges ahead.
Are you ready for the future of influencer marketing and social media? If the answer is YES, our influencer agency, So Bang, can help you ride the wave of the right trends, connect with the right influencers (our platform boasts 10,000 influencers with diverse profiles), and, most importantly, design and implement the right strategies at the right time. That's what we do every day with our clients.