Dubai: If social media influencers can’t do it on their own, they can always call in the specialists to help them cash in. “Influencer marketing platforms” will make the connections with those brands that want to use their names to good effect. And given the current trend of influencers holding sway across categories, the IMP business model sure makes sense.
In this space, there are both local/regional IMP entities — such as Influencers.ae — and those such as Niche, owned by Twitter and whose operations span boundaries.
Name: Reema Abdalla | Nationality: Saudi
Instagram: reema_abdalla | Category: Presenter
Followers: 226K
“Unlike an agency that represents the individual interest of influencers and tries to book them accordingly, at Influencers.ae we are influencer-agnostic,” said Clark Williams, Chief Operating Officer. “Our platform provides the data on influencers and the marketer decides which influencers are most relevant for their brand and campaign.” (Influencers.ae currently lists 1,750 names with a combined 640 million followers from within the GCC.)
In the last six months and more, the number of instances where brands have called in influencers to highlight a particular launch — from malls to personalcare products — or give exposure to a particular activity the brand wants to be known for has grown exponentially. And influencers — depending on where they stand in terms of fan following — can bank some sizeable paychecks in putting their photogenic selves forward. These workdays can turn into windfalls of Dh10,000 and over for a few hours of social media exposure. And the influencer-led marketing revolution is only starting.
“When a creator joins Niche, we authenticate each of their accounts via an API which connects all their social posts into one place,” said Luke Towsin, who heads Niche’s operations across Europe, Middle East and Africa. (A “creator” is how Niche’s defines their influencers.)
“This allows the creators to view their data across all platforms,” Towsin added. “When he/she is put forward for a brand proposal, Niche conducts a review of that particular creator’s data — to get an understanding of the authenticity of their engagement data, as well as greater detail around the demographics of his/her audience.
“We could find a set of creators on Instagram, who are based in Jeddah and are interested in lifestyle, with an audience of a 25-35 year female age group.”
Name: Abdulaziz Bakr & Abdullah Bakr | Nationality: Saudi
Instagram: Saudireporters | Category: Entertainer
Followers: 1.2M
Niche — acquired by Twitter in 2015 — currently lists 45,000 creators on its platform. While clients include HP, its creator portfolio has names such as the Emirati motivational speaker Anas Bukhash, Saudi Arabia’s tech expert Faisal Al Saif and the Egyptian puppet character Abla Fahita.
The sheer number of influencers out there can boggle the minds of the best clued on brand marketers out there. And the number of influencers — and their fan base — are growing by the day. These days, name any consumer facing sector and chances are you will find an influencer giving their opinions on trends within it.
But for brands does it make sense just to go in for an influencer purely going by the number of those who follow him or her?
Name: Zahra'a Ashkanani | Nationality: Kuwaiti
Instagram: zori_ashkanani | Category: Fashionista
No Followers: 881k
“Influencers have earned their follower count based on them producing meaningful and engaging content,” said Williams. “We provide detailed information about each influencer and their followers that is not available publicly to any potential marketer.
“For example, Sodos Al Qattan, a Kuwaiti beauty expert with 2.3 million followers, is an influencer that a marketers might know of by her Instagram postings. Our platform provides much more data on the influencer so that a brand or agency can determine if they are relevant for a potential campaign.”
