The world of marketing has rapidly changed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, as marketers switch to online influencers to push their brand content on social channels. However, there’s still a lot of asymmetry between brands and influencers.
To narrow the gap, Rainmaker, a blockchain fan reward engagement platform, aims to allow direct interaction between influencers and brands in a bid to reach audiences more organically and efficiently than traditional advertising.
As we head into the second year of dealing with COVID-19, it is hard to imagine what the world looked like before the global pandemic struck, let alone the marketing industry. Physical retail businesses closed shop and physical events were canceled in line with governments’ COVID-19 guidelines, which left marketers and brands scrapping at solutions to boost their sales and how to advertise their products to consumers.
Across 2020, a lot of brands were forced to postpone their ad campaigns, or cancel them completely as creators were unable to film content from bars, gyms, events, restaurants, and other physical locations due to lockdown measures put in place. With the brick-and-mortar retail advertising canceled, brand marketers needed to reconsider how to reach their audiences to boost consumer adoption despite the pandemic.
Luckily, the global lockdowns led to increased social media usage, especially across Generation Z, as a swath of users joined platforms such as Instagram and Tiktok to kill the boredom away. This represented a huge change in consumer behavior hence the need for brand marketers to quickly turn pivot in order to push their content to the masses.
Most businesses turned to online channels to reach a wider audience, employing the services of social media influencers to push their branding content to the world.
Generation Z in influencer marketing
Influencer marketing has been on an exponential growth curve since 2016. Statistics from the Annual Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report show the industry market size has witnessed at least 50% in yearly growth rates for the past half-decade. In 2020, over $9 billion was allocated to influencer marketing by brands and businesses. This figure is expected to grow to $13.5 billion and $15 billion in 2021 and 2022, respectively, according to Business Insider Intelligence, based on Mediakix data.
The main target and providers of influencer marketing are young people, many of whom have placed trust in influencers and carved out role models from them. According to Morning Consult, 86% of Generation Z and millennials surveyed are willing to use their social media accounts to post a brand and get paid. A further 54% of the surveyed stated they would become influencers if an opportunity arose for them.
An opportunity on Tiktok?
Since 2019, Toktok has witnessed unimaginable growth, ranking as the highest growing social media platform in the world today. With over 2 billion app downloads and nearly 1 billion users worldwide, according to DataReportal, Tiktok has welcomed people from all walks of life to create, snip, knit, and share short video content on the platform.
According to a 2020 report on Tiktok, the platform recorded over 100 million active users from the USA alone, showing its power in the social media game. As is expected, most of the active users are Gen Z (ranging from 8-24 years), with over 67% of these users aged below 18 years old.
Tikitok is rapidly becoming the cradle for influencer marketing, for example, Khaby00, a little-known Italian-born influencer, was able to amass over 100 million followers on the app for simply making short and relatable videos. The popularity of influencer marketing is set to continue across this decade but not without a fair share of challenges to deal with.
The narrative of influencer marketing, however, has a dark side attached to it as newer or niche players often are neglected amid the hype and buzz of the hottest influencer. High barriers to monetization and exploitation by brands are a common occurrence for upcoming influencers. Whether it is stealing images, writing legally unsound contracts, non-payments, or coercing influencers to work for free, influencers find it difficult to grow in a closed industry.
Tiktok, for instance, still faces huge challenges in rewarding content creators and brands that use the platform. Additionally, it is hard not to talk about how the platform offers content creators and influencers no help in furthering their career or any incentives for creating unique content. From content creation to execution, influencers tend to take responsibility for most of the work in a campaign, and they should be fairly compensated for their work.
Connecting influencers and marketing campaigns via blockchain
Raiinmaker, a blockchain-based social influence value app, aims at solving the issues facing influencers on social apps such as Tiktok and Instagram by bringing together marketing budgets, smart contracts, brand marketers, and influencers on one platform. The platform allows brands to directly connect with influencers and reward them for their content using a unique consensus, ‘Proof of Influence’.
The app will revolutionize the traditional influencer marketing industry, changing how brands and organizations entice their consumers to buy products and services. The platform will further allow influencers (both established and new) to create and share viral content that will create conversations for the products and services they are marketing.
Built on a blockchain, Rainmaker also automates the matchmaking and reconciliation of influencer management processes allowing companies to select the best fit for their products. This results in spending less per influencer engagement while providing an audience to a previously untapped market.
Since launching its beta in 2020, Raiinmaker is in contact with a number of projects looking to launch on the app including the film Atari, produced by Vision Tree Media and Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions, and Moby Fox, a smartwatch content and accessory company with licensing deals for Star Wars, Disney, and Marvel.
The future of influencer marketing lies in blockchain technology whereby companies can measure influencer return on investment and engagements. The technology offers great transparency for brands looking to find authentic influencers and helps them calculate their ROI.
Furthermore, influencers can also tokenize their content – earning each time a consumer interacts with it or shares it. In the same vein, brands can also tokenize their transactions with content creators.
Blockchain promotes the growth of micro & nano influencers
As blockchain technology takes over the influencer market, nano and micro-influencers will have more freedom to work on their content and solidify their follower base. Typically, nano influencers enjoy a following of up to 10,000 followers on social media. These influencers share their authentic experiences when they feel passionate about a brand. Gradually, they build a well-networked community around it.
With the power of blockchain, influencers and marketers can connect without the need for an intermediary, making it easier for nano and micro-influencers to be seen by larger brands. Additionally, brands will be able to calculate the return on investment by a specific influencer, giving an opportunity to smaller and profitable influencers.
Finally, blockchain technology gives a voice to influencers who wish to use their platforms for social good. Influencers who wish to speak out for a cause they believe in, even when contrary to the values of the brand, will now be able to use their platforms without huge repercussions. Blockchains remove the need for excessive content moderation giving freedom and autonomy to the content creator, engendering greater engagement with fans.