How Can Brands Stop the Scroll? By Getting Influencer Marketing Right

Modern audiences are smart. They instinctively and very quickly sense when their time is about to be wasted online. They can feel it in the first few seconds of a TikTok, or the frustration of a thread that’s much longer than it needed to be.

And audiences know what they like. That’s precisely why influencer marketing can be so potent when it’s done right. We know that we like certain content creators and thought leaders because we’ve chosen to follow them - we like their tone, their jokes, their subject matter or maybe just their style. It’s a deeply authentic connection that is rare, if not non-existent, in other more ‘traditional’ forms of marketing. And the potential for brands to tap into this space is enormous.

To be successful in the influencer space we know it’s critical to build your influencer strategy from the bottom-up with as much attention to detail as possible. At Five by Five, everything we do in this space is geared towards authenticity, ensuring that the connective tissue between brand, influencer, and audience is organic, genuine, and relevant.

The great promise of influencer marketing grounds a brand firmly within the lived world of its intended audience. It puts products and services in the hands of people whose audiences have watched them grow, with whom they have developed loyalty and trust, and who are often able to communicate with numbers that rival those of the flashiest celebrities in TV ads. And this influencer trust transposes to the brand, when its influencer strategy and execution are delivered authentically.

When it’s done badly, it undermines the relationship between creator and viewer and leaves audiences skipping ahead of - or worse, scrolling past - their favourite influencer’s content. On top of that, it leaves a brand connected to a feeling of disappointment.

So, what’s the formula for ensuring success for your brand?

 

Relevance

Firstly, you need to establish a genuine connection between your brand and your influencer. That might sound obvious, but it’s incredible how many times you see a paid partnership fall at the first hurdle because smart audiences can easily detect a thoughtless cash-grab.

And there’s a lot more nuance to this than simply spotting a clear line between a brand and an influencer’s content. If you’re a food brand, for example, your first instinct might be to connect with a ‘foodie’ influencer. Maybe that’s right - perhaps there is a foodie influencer out there whose tone and audience demographics align perfectly with your brand.

But there are other things to watch out for, too. For example, maybe there’s a gaming influencer whose content, tone, and audience match up to your brand and importantly your brand’s target audience. There’s nothing wrong with having an out-of-the-box influencer become an ambassador for your brand - in fact, it can help you connect with people who might never see you otherwise. But it has to feel like a surprise that makes sense on the influencer’s terms. If it doesn’t, you can rest assured that the content won’t make sense to their audience either and you’ll have missed your opportunity.

Which leads us on to the next crucial ingredient of any successful influencer partnership:

 

The value exchange?

In the now-forgotten past of 20 or so years ago, brands could be confident that their advertising was reaching the eyeballs of its intended audience with regularity, so long as they hadn’t left the sofa to pop the kettle on in the middle of the X-Factor final.

But today, with the advent of multi screen viewing and the scroll, the media landscape has become exponentially more competitive and thumb stopping content is king. We’re no longer only competing with other brands or other content creators - we’re competing with our audience’s own attention spans. So grabbing their attention within the first few seconds (in fact according to Warc it’s 1.7 seconds) and stopping the scroll is essential, and influencers can help us do this. That pre-installed sense of connection and trust they have with their audience means that there is an immediate recognition of a value-add for an audience that holds back that temptation for the dopamine hit of the scroll.

The most successful influencer partnerships will be built on the foundation of quality content that adds value. That doesn’t mean it needs to be expensively produced - just smart, engaging content that introduces a brand to that influencer’s audience whilst reminding them why they enjoy that content creator in the first place. Ultimately, the most important factor in deciding success or failure will be whether your brand is providing value be that entertainment value or financial value with an offer.

We applied all of our expertise to our latest work with Screwfix. An influencer-focused campaign which enabled a deeper, more authentic engagement with their customers with thumb stopping entertaining content via the influencers they loved in a truly authentic way.

Alongside the influencers, we also incorporated some famous faces from the world of football to further drive reach and engagement. At first glance, Screwfix obviously isn’t a sports brand but we know their customers are huge sports fans, so the challenge was how do we tap into this passion point authentically with a relevant brand story. 

An approach, rooted in entertainment, worked for Screwfix. But it might not have been right for, let’s say, a health brand. In this instance the value-add was entertainment, but it can also be informative or utilitarian or financial. The most important thing is that the audience don’t feel cheated out of their time.

Get the fundamentals right in terms of both relevance and value add and you have the makings of a successful influencer campaign. And, long-term, the benefits will be exponential. If someone has watched, enjoyed, or engaged with your paid influencer partnership then the sheer logic of digital algorithms means that they’ll be more likely to encounter more content from your brand. 

With the right strategic and executional approach, influencer activity is a brilliant way to bolster your campaigns to drive authentic engagement with your target audiences. In fact when done well (with the right expertise and imagination) it can create new brand advocates who organically continue to engage with your brand.