Social Media Influencers: Engage With Paid Media Opportunities
If you’re a media professional, chances are you’re familiar with the PESO model.“The PESO model takes the four media types — paid, earned, shared and owned — and merges them together for an integrated and measurable communications program.” Nowadays, these different media types can be seen in all shapes and forms, but for today’s purposes we’re going to be looking at paid media, and specifically how social media influencers have changed the scope of it entirely.
This article by Werner Geyser makes some excellent points on why it’s so crucial for brands to maximize influencer impact with paid media opportunities:
Influencers provide the trust and validation to drive sales, while the targeting power of paid social ads helps amplify influencer content, enabling brands to reach the right customers, with the right message, at the right time.
At every turn, audiences have made it loud and clear that they prefer influencer created content — and influencers have demonstrated that they can reach audiences brands can’t and in a way that brands can’t.
In the digital era, the power of word-of-mouth and social proof has been amplified. Nearly every purchase is preceded by the search for reviews, testimonials and recommendations — all of which provide validation based on a human experience. When brands team up with influencers, they get to borrow that person’s reputation and create a human-centered experience that drives sales.
As a media professional who loves scrolling through Instagram, I find that I get drawn towards paid, branded, or sponsored content the most when it’s strategically seamless with an influencer’s own content; in other words, branded content that has the true authenticity of the influencer who is sharing it. Here are two paid media examples that I’ve come across that do an incredible job at balancing both company and influencer tone and message:
1. LIVE TINTED x Barbie
At first glance, I had no idea that this was a lipstick advertisement; I was simply too excited over the fact that I was seeing a South Asian Barbie for the first time! Deepica Mutyala, founder and CEO of LIVE TINTED posted this to her own Instagram to commemorate the launch of her lipstick collaboration with Barbie.
I love how Deepica’s initial focus with this post had nothing to do with the lipstick, but rather the message of this branding, and specifically how impactful it is to now have a South Asian Barbie figure. The story behind the campaign is what drew me in the most.
2. Aavrani x Sruthi Jayadevan
Sruthi is a lifestyle blogger who recently modeled in the very first South Asian New York Fashion Week, and let us follow along in her evening unwind routine with her favorite Aavrani skincare products.
Sruthi effortlessly showed us an inside look into her beauty routine, putting an emphasis on how the products make her feel great. Aavrani is a South-Asian skin care brand, so its clear that Sruthi strategically chose to plug their products at the end of the South Asian Fashion Week event.