How influencers could become brands’ most valuable media
Ryan Detert, CEO of the influencer marketplace platform Influential, breaks down the evolving landscape of influencer marketing, the shift from mass celebrity to niches, and what AI means for audiences and creators.
Spend any time on a social media platform and you can see how influencer marketing is outpacing social ad spending and challenging traditional TV’s dominance. Ryan Detert, CEO of influencer marketplace platform Influential, expects the creator economy to eclipse the $60 billion traditional TV ad spend in just a few years. Acquired in 2024 by Publicis Groupe, Influential matches brands with 4 million social media creators. As people increasingly watch content on social platforms, Detert believes influencer marketing gives brands more engaging and measurable ways to woo consumers.
Kate MacArthur: What are the biggest changes you're anticipating for brands?
Ryan Detert: For brands, the biggest change will be the idea of a creator-first focus for getting their brand voice out. By doing so, brands can take advantage of the algorithms on the platforms, which perform better when a person-to-person connection happens rather than brand-to-person.
MacArthur: What about for metrics?
Detert: Metrics are where we’ve seen the biggest change. In the last five or six years, metrics focused on whether [content] drove online or offline sales or foot traffic to a location, or TV tune-in. These are now measurable through the name, image and likeness of a creator married to paid media, which is the amplification you'll see on your feeds from a brand.
MacArthur: What makes someone more influential in driving conversions?
Detert: In the last seven to 10 years, it went from the mass influencer, which is the biggest YouTube, Twitter or Instagram star, into the niche or micro-influencers that are the most believable, the most authentic in their audience. Those that usually have a majority of their audience specific to a certain interest perform better.
MacArthur: Will AI get smarter than people at persuasive techniques?
Detert: As the technology gets indistinguishable between AI and humans, AI would have an unfair advantage of knowledge of what has performed in the past. That does not necessarily mean that's what we want, because a dopamine hit to your audience may be good for a video. But if you always do that, then you change the composition of your audience. It would have to level out over time where people would start thinking that it's just purely like junk food. You need to have a mix of your vegetables.
MacArthur: As technology advances, what methods do you anticipate influencers will use to build trust?
Detert: In the last seven to 10 years, it went from the mass influencer, which is the biggest YouTube, Twitter or Instagram star, into the niche or micro-influencers that are the most believable, the most authentic in their audience. Those that usually have a majority of their audience specific to a certain interest perform better.
For brands, the biggest change will be the idea of a creator-first focus for getting their brand voice out.”
MacArthur: Our research shows younger people are more influenced by stories about someone they don't know compared to older generations. Why is that?
Detert: There is now an unlimited number of people that are “famous,” depending on the vertical or niche. So maybe there's kind of a face blindness at this point, and they simply just go toward whatever archetype fits well with what they care about.
MacArthur: How will we measure and quantify influence in five to 10 years?
Detert: If the way you consume content changes to headsets or more immersive scenarios, then it may be more view time. Maybe it's being more immersed in something and buying things in the app, which could make TikTok Shop’s framework really helpful in the future. But I would imagine it will still be some level of views, clicks and conversions.
MacArthur: What should brands consider for the future?
Detert: Today, the smartest brands are creating a center of excellence to house all their talent, all their brands, and assess how they're performing. As they bring in new creators and vet them, or even if it's AI creators in the future, it's the same methodology. You have this baseline. You’ll treat creators as media to hit an audience at scale and amplify them toward wherever your consumer journey needs to be. And then you ultimately measure it on a comparable basis.
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