The State of Influencer Marketing in South Africa

In our latest series on the State of Influencer Marketing in South Africa, we caught up with leading Public Relations practitioners, Influencer and Brand Managers, as well as various industry leaders to hear their thoughts on the current state and future of the industry. In the first installment of this series we chat to Public Relations Practitioner and Guide to Celeb Influencer Editor, Noluthando Dlamini, PUMA Sportstyle Marketing Manager, Hayden Manuel and the Humanz AI team.

Noluthando Dlamini: Public Relations Practitioner and Guide to Celeb Influencer Editor

Q: Please give us an overview of Guide to Celeb and the role it plays within the local Influencer Marketing landscape.

A: Guide to Celeb is a platform whose mandate is to engage readers on the behind-the-scenes action of the "Business of Celebrity" which now includes influencers and content creators as the new-age celebrities. We use our industry expertise to shine the spotlight on the most memorable moments in the business of celebrity and influence through the website and our new launched Instagram video segment.

Q: Is there an oversaturation of influencers and content creators locally, or is there still room for many more within a rapidly growing industry?

A: There can never be such a thing as "oversaturation" in a creative market that is still in its toddler years. When the concept of "influencers" was introduced in South Africa, we were only looking and hearing the names of a select few; you could count them on one hand. But as the space grows with demand, it is very indicative of just how much room there is to play. There might be influencer and content-creator fatigue but not necessarily an oversaturation.

We find difficulty with each campaign we work on with the shortage of male influencers in the space. This just goes to show that there is still space for more influencers and content creators to come in and set a new precedent. There is also the fatigue of the same influencers and content creators being used across multiple brands. This is another indicator that there needs to be variation within a category of influencers and content creators. We can't always look at Sarah Langa or Mihlali Ndamase when there are 20 other fashion and beauty influencers that we can tap into and give time on the field to play.

I consume both local and international influencer content and the international market has so much playing field that we somehow do not allow the local influencer fraternity to have. The international influencer market has so many girls and guys yet you will always find someone new every other day and there is so much room for all of them to participate and find success.

Q: What do brands and agencies look for when evaluating influencers for paid campaigns?

I cannot speak on all brands and agencies as they all look for something different. As someone who manages influencer campaigns on several brands, I always look for authenticity. I look at influencer and brand work from a consumer perspective and I always have to ask myself "will I believe this" when evaluating and selecting influencers for a brand.

There needs to be an element of authenticity, selling power, and engagement power that comes into play. It goes beyond how many followers you have; it’s about how much "influence" you hold within that following.

Q: What is the one mistake influencers and content creators make when approaching brands?

A: The one mistake that most influencers and content creators make when approaching brands is not being fully aware of their own personal brand, their brand power, and their brand contribution.

Brand – Every influencer and content creator is selling their brand and there needs to be a clear distinction and indication of what your brand is. You need to know who you are as a brand unequivocally and what it is that you stand for.

Brand Power – Your reach and engagement are part of your currency as an influencer or content creator. Ultimately, brands are looking for someone who will translate buying power. You need to be able to present your brand power as one that is strong and scalable.

Brand Contribution – What can you do for the brand that you're approaching? Don't think of what the brand can do for you but what you can do for them. What are you bringing to the table? What are you going to do differently to the people they are already working with? How will you improve their visibility, awareness, sales? Those are all the important factors that go into brand contribution.

Q: What advice would you offer aspiring and emerging influencers who want to monetize their content offerings?

A: Firstly, all aspiring and emerging influencers need to understand that this is a long game. The first mistake you will ever make is getting into this for the money and not the passion. That mistake can be extremely detrimental to the trajectory of your career as an influencer or content creator.

The best way to monetize your career is to have a rate card. It's the best equipment you can carry with you into the battle. It will be of immense help when negotiating for your content offerings. Brands tend to approach Nano and Micro-influencers with little to no remuneration for their involvement in campaigns. Your rate card helps you in opening the remuneration conversation which will then prompt them to give you a base offering instead.

And that is how monetizing your content offerings start.

Q: Exposure vs Trade Exchange vs Paid Campaigns: Should content creators who want to establish a relationship with a brand consider working for exposure or trade exchanges, or should financial remuneration be insisted upon from the beginning?

A: Like I said previously, this is a long game and everyone has to start somewhere. In the beginning, you need an exposure gig here and there so brands and agencies can know who you are. You need a trade exchange here and there to cement and solidify yourself in the market. The only difference is not allowing that to define who you are as an influencer or content creator.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with taking a trade exchange to establish a relationship with a brand. A lot of earning influencers and content creators have taken trade exchanges to build long-term relationships with clients and brands who end up ultimately putting them on retainer or paying them the big bucks. Building relationships is very important. It occurs across the board in this industry from PR agencies to Media houses; it is not a practice that is unheard of. What matters the most is how you take it to cultivate your journey and career.

Q: Which local brands do you think are excelling with their approach to Influencer Marketing?

A: Brutal Fruit has been truly outstanding. When they launched their Ruby Spritzer influencer campaign, they had a pretty slow start but as the variant gained popularity and became a firm favorite, their influencer alignments evolved as well. They undoubtedly have one of the greatest groups of influencers I have seen work on a brand. They are authentic, they are fun and they are so creative. There hasn't been an instance where #SpritzerSaturdays hasn't given me the kind of content that makes me want to open up a Brutal Fruit Spritzer, even during lockdown. Owning the Saturday brunch/lunch occasion with a group of young, beautiful, and dynamic ladies was the most impressive play I have seen a South African brand undertake.

Q: How do you believe Influencer Marketing in South African will evolve over the next 5 years?

I believe that Influencer Marketing in South Africa will evolve in leaps and bounds over the next 5 years. We’ve already come so far and with more work put into building this fraternity, we can shatter the glass ceiling. However, there is unity and transparency that is needed that will help not only the influencers that are already making strides, but also those who still wish to get into the game.

The international influencer marketing space has shown us that there is a huge pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and we are starting to see this occurring within our own space. Influencers have ventured out into building their brands and moving from just being influencers to being brand builders and owners. From Aimee Song, Camila Coelho, and Negin Mirsalehi to Mbali Sebapu, Thandi Gama, and Sinovuyo Mondliwa. There is a progression that happens in Influencer Marketing for both the practitioners and the talent. Influencers always need to have an end game and should always use their platform to help build a legacy for themselves.

HUMAN AI

Q: Please give us an overview of Humanz AI and the role it plays within the local Influencer Marketing landscape?

A: We are an international technology start-up devoted to growing influencer marketing by making it work better for both marketers and advertisers. While there is a huge amount of interest in influencer marketing from both parties, it’s still a relatively new sector, rife with misconceptions, day-one gurus, fraud and limited data on what makes collaborations work or fail. We’re trying to help solve these problems and accelerate the growth of the industry through our technology, content and services.

We have created tools for marketers that help them not only to identify the best potential influencers amongst all potential candidates in a given country but also makes it simpler to collaborate with influencers from brief to contract and payment, as well as track the results and actual returns of their investments.

We have also created tools for influencers that give them interesting insights about their audiences across different platforms, help them learn from one another and connect with one another for collaborations, promote their interests and best work, and find interesting campaigns to work on.

Q: What do brands and agencies look for when evaluating influencers for paid campaigns?

A: There seems to be a journey and maturity curve that most advertisers or agencies follow when considering influencer marketing. At the onset, most marketers seem to care primarily about the reach influencers can provide through the size of their audience on social channels; after a few campaigns, they tend to focus on the quality of the content produced by the influencers; and after a while, they eventually want to start tapping into the influencers’ knowledge of a specific topic or market segment for research, insights or even product design. The answer is therefore different depending on where the marketer is on their own journey through influencer marketing and how willing they are to use it strategically.

A few of the key questions that brands always ask themselves when looking at influencers, however, are:

a) What topics is this person influential in?

b) Who is the person actually influencing?

c) Will a collaboration with this person look good for my brand?

Q: What is the one mistake influencers and content creators make when approaching brands?

A: Ouch, you are asking me to pick just one? There are a few that come to mind but I think many people underestimate the true value of being professional. The marketing and agency community is small, well-connected and a little incestuous. Word gets out really quickly about influencers who are great to work with and those who don’t deliver or are a pain to deal with. Don’t underestimate how much your client will value being able to rely on you and wants to actually enjoy the process of working with you.

Q: What advice would you offer aspiring and emerging influencers who want to monetise their content offerings?

A: In the short-term, aspiring influencers may get away with just building large audiences online and selling them to marketers that are new to the game and don’t know any better. But long-term, this strategy won’t work. Get to know your followers so well that you can start telling stories about them and answer the question “who are you influencing?”

Aspiring influencers should also be clear and consistent in terms of the topics they post about or comment on, to answer the question “what decisions are you able to influence?” Focus on specific topics, and build a unique voice and content style that people will recognise.

Q: Exposure vs Trade Exchanges vs Paid Campaigns: Should content creators who want to establish a relationship with a brand consider working for exposure or trade exchanges, or should financial remuneration be insisted upon from the beginning?

A: Influencers who create value for brands need to get value too or be remunerated for it. It’s hard work. But value doesn’t always have to be cash. Would you accept a free holiday for a few great posts? Or free VIP tickets to a concert you want to go to? Brands naturally like influencers who accept trade exchanges because it shows they genuinely like the product or service and will be able to honestly talk about it and recommend it.

But there is a risk for the marketers too. Roughly 5-10% of influencers who receive products in a trade exchange then fail to deliver anything. They take the product and disappear! It’s why we always recommend always including a cash payment too at the end of the campaign as an incentive even in a trade exchange.

Q: How do you believe Influencer Marketing in South Africa will evolve over the next 5 years?

Covid and lockdown are bringing really rapid change to business, marketers and consumers. 5 years is way too long a window to try to peer through; I have no idea what will happen in 12 months from now, given how fast changes are happening right now. “Social selling” is one of the big buzzwords in marketing currently, along with “community building”, two things that brands struggle with but influencers are naturally good at. This is also leading to the lines between marketers and influencers blurring; many of the more innovative influencers are leveraging the platforms they have built to create their own consultancies, services, stores or even manufacture their own products. The barriers to doing so are eroding really fast as technology becomes more accessible and people consume more and more of their content from other people. We hope to help accelerate that process sometimes in the future as well.

Hayden Manuel: PUMA Sportstyle Marketing Manager

Q: What are your thoughts on the current state of Influencer Marketing in South Africa?

A: It is kind of weird in my opinion. The art of influence is subtle, the audience is not supposed to know they’re being influenced but in SA everyone talks about it which kind of negates the power of it.

Q: Is there an oversaturation of influencers and content creators locally, or is there still room for many more within a rapidly growing industry?

A: No. I think there is an oversaturation of people wanting to be seen as being as. I think people love the idea of being one but don’t know how to do it. The “influencer/creative” has become an aesthetic haha. There are lots of people with “reach” but don’t actually move the needle for a brand. If you’re really talented then there’ll always be a place for you.

Q: What do brands and agencies look for when evaluating influencers for paid campaigns?

A: I think that the longer influencer marketing exists, the more brands will need to find the “magic”. As a brand, finding the stuff our money can’t buy like authenticity is the goal. If it’s only about reach then we’d just invest in the tried and tested digital media and pass on humans as a whole. I know this might sound cliché but credibility and authenticity. I’d rather invest in someone who’s craft is A1 with a small following than someone who tried to sell me flat tummy tea the month before.

Q: What is the one mistake influencers and content creators make when approaching brands?

A: I think people don’t understand how to speak to fashion/cultural brands. It’s a different world with many nuances and I think the whole generic one size fits all approach is a stumbling block.

Q: What advice would you offer aspiring and emerging influencers who want to monetise their content offerings?

A: You have to be the best at what you do. The world is changing and information/tech is being democratized at a rapid pace. This means there are no excuses for average output. The bar to entry is low which means there is so much more competition. Your shit has to bang, bro.

Q: Exposure vs Trade Exchanges vs Paid Campaigns: Should content creators who want to establish a relationship with a brand consider working for exposure or trade exchanges, or should financial remuneration be insisted upon from the beginning?

A: From a PUMA POV, we have Nomzamo Mbatha and Nasty C as the faces of our brand which means that’s our standard and benchmark. To work with us it puts you indirectly next to them which in turn means you get more from us than we get from you. These are all considerations when evaluating a potential new relationship. Also, in the fashion space one wrong influencer in your product can mess up everything really quickly so to answer your question, if you’re looking for a quick bag then this is not the world for you. You have to build the relationship over time.

Q: How do you believe Influencer Marketing in South Africa will evolve over the next 5 years?

A: Much better than it is right now. Gen Z will change the game. The clean aesthetics we have now will move to gritty, grimey and grungey. Most brands will struggle to fit in as they don’t have a position/pov on the world which is super important for the socially conscious next generation. As brand custodians, we will have to be brave as the kids will have the power.