Influencers function as broadcast outlets in the digital landscape.
Influencer marketing has experienced remarkable growth, with the UK industry projected to reach a value of £1.3bn by 2029. The channel has firmly embedded itself in media plans, playing a significant role in enhancing brand awareness and driving long-term sales. However, despite its increasing importance, influencer marketing tends to remain isolated within the broader marketing mix.
Anna-Lee Bridgstock, executive director of data and product at Jungle Creations, emphasizes the need for influencer marketing to be integrated more strategically. For optimal results, it should be planned alongside traditional and digital media within a unified media and creative strategy. Media agencies have jurisdiction over ensuring influencers are on the media plan, with content active at ideal times and optimized for the right levels of spend. However, specialist social and influencer agencies play a crucial role in delivering effective strategies and campaigns.
Monica Majumdar, head of strategy at Wavemaker, considers influencers as a potentially influential media touchpoint. While they may be used organically to convey unique selling points, influencers can engage and reach consumers effectively alongside paid, owned, and earned channels. Media agency expertise lies in combining brand and performance across all touchpoints to drive growth. If influencers are considered a measurable media touchpoint, then media agencies should have jurisdiction over them.
Anton Jerges, CEO at We Are Collider, views influencers as an integral part of the marketing mix. However, he questions the feasibility of media agencies having jurisdiction over them, as the power of influencers lies in their uniqueness and authenticity. If controlled by media agencies and treated as commodities, that power would be eroded. Tom Sneddon, managing partner at Supernova, defines influencers as any person with measurable impact on an audience. Yes, they can be a media channel—with spend, cross-platform usage, and bespoke assets able to be tracked, measured, and optimized—but they also require originality, craft, and creativity for any media value.
Callum McCahon, executive strategy director at Born Social, believes that creators should not be reduced to just another media buy or treated as a mere placement on a media plan. Their value lies in co-creating, leveraging authenticity and emotional resonance. When influencer-driven content is amplified with paid media, it reaches a wider audience, ensures precision targeting, and drives measurable results. Alicia Van Coillie, social director at Greenpark, argues that influencers are people who create relevant content for their audience. They should not be used like billboards, or their credibility will be compromised. Instead, influencers should be treated as opportunities for brands to enrich their audience’s lives.
To ensure regulatory compliance, ethical marketing practices, and strategic effectiveness, media agencies are well positioned to have jurisdiction over influencers. Such oversight offers legal compliance, ethical oversight, strategic expertise, and brand reputation protection. Thus, media agencies' jurisdiction over influencers is essential in managing the legal, ethical, and strategic dimensions of influencer marketing effectively.
- Influencers, as measurable media touchpoints, can be managed effectively by media agencies to ensure legal compliance, ethical oversight, strategic expertise, and brand reputation protection.
- For optimal results, it's crucial to integrate influencer marketing strategically into a unified media and creative strategy, alongside traditional and digital media, as emphasized by Anna-Lee Bridgstock.
- Influencers, with their unique power derived from authenticity and originality, may lose their essence if they are controlled as commodities or treated like mere media placements, as pointed out by Anton Jerges.
