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The Cannes Lions Festival is currently in full swing and the ideal atmosphere for discussion and insights into trends, challenges and forecasts on all things creativity as it intersects with branding, diversity, technology and notables. In terms of tech, while last year's fever-pitch around the advent of blockchain has taken a noticeable backseat and discussion around artificial intelligence is slowly building. However, dialogue around good, old-fashioned social media and its place within the branding hierarchy has had a few definite high-points thus far into the week's activities.
Indeed, model, author and television personality Chrissy Teigen was the subject of a lively stage discussion held at Twitter Beach during the Festival entitled #AskChrissy. Dubbed the Mayor of Twitter, Teigen was interviewed by Twitter Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Berland and spoke about her constant engagement with the platform. "I'm on it most of the day," Teigen explained to the audience as she recounted various threads of users, their comments and their reactions to her numerous posts as well as her thoughts and responses to their posts.
Teigen approaches the social media platform truly from the heart and gives a remarkable amount of attention to detail to her exchange that no social media manager of any brand could ever possibly hope to attain. Teigen is constantly connected. She's also a kingmaker-of-sorts, as well. Teigen spoke about watching how followers and re-tweets can climb just from one mere re-tweet by her of users with even the thinnest of followers. From such passion, dedication and organic reach, it's quite easy to see why she is a major influencer who can generate massive interest in a click about a particular behavior, word, product or even, yes, fruit.
"What's great about Twitter," explained Teigen, "is that you can become a part of a number of communities." She does so to the fullest extent, and brands recognize her power. Coupled with trust, influencers such as Teigen can connect with potential consumers in ways that simply supersede that of a corporation's due to the genuine digital relationships aficionados wield with skill, humor, wit but most of all, empathy.
As the importance of culture's impact on brands and advertising continues to build, it is no wonder that renewed focus on social media influencers is a strong underlying thread at this year's Festival, on a global level. At an earlier breakfast panel from MediaLink and DoubleVerify on "The Internet As A Sustainable Marketing Channel," a panelist mentioned the fact that many brands in the U.S. are still putting their biggest social media spends behind sponsored content but the action is really around that of user-generated contact. A bit of a disconnect, to say the least. But not so in all parts of the world. Indeed, Ashley Galina Dudarenok, author and China marketing expert explains, "Influencer marketing is such a focal point of brand strategy because it's a lot more powerful than many other methods." She continues, fresh from the stage at the Palais de Festival speaking about culture, technology and advertising at Cannes Lions, "In China, we say that Chinese KOLs (key opinion leaders) are the only influencers globally that actually sell. No matter whether you are a big or a small brand, in 2019 you can’t market in China without investing 20-70% of your marketing budget into influencers."
Dudarenok points out that the bridge such KOLs serve for cultural connection is invaluable. She adds, "According to PWC’s report, 29% of Chinese consumers, as compared to 13% globally, actually use social media to see what brands or products KOLs and celebrities are endorsing now, so it's a phenomenon that just continues to balloon."
Yet, new practices are already being developed to advance the influencer industry. UK-based company Dooply is working to connect business leaders and influencers between cultures. The company has two divisions. One which helps its clients build global social influence and the other, Dooply Societe, which serves as an elite club-of-sorts that is actively connecting its members globally off-line, by interest while also building a bridge between cultures and entertaining its members. The company was founded by a team of entrepreneurs with experience in influencer and digital marketing and is headed by CEO Jad Mawlawi.
When it comes to influencer marketing Mawlawi believes, "In the age of AI and over-saturation in emerging technology, brands are becoming more focused on real human to human engagement. Influencers are fellow humans with an established following and therefore consumers can better relate." He says that such relatability naturally helps to build more efficient trust between brands and their target audiences. "And because of all this, the influencer marketing industry is evolving fast," Mawlawi explains.
Indeed, Dudarenok predicts, "Platforms will change, influencers will stay. There will also be more and more self-brands launched by KOLs. In fact, big global brands, by cooperating with KOLs, are actually in the process of creating their own future competitors ."
Mawlawi adds, "Watch for the trend in the coming years to involve brands, businesses and individuals investing in their own influence. This means instead of engaging influencers to act as a bridge between them and their audiences, their personas will become the bridge between the consumers and the brand. In simple terms the trend is not influencer marketing, it is influencer making.”
He cautions, echoing Dudarenok, "Keep in mind, influence today can neither be destroyed nor created. Instead, this is about a power that is simply transferred from an entity to another."
