Current Trends
Influencer Marketing in Kenya
Marketing
As the digital transformation continues, one of the most important aspects for brands to focus on is their influencer marketing strategy.
Following our most recent ‘ISA Round Table Breakfast’ hosted on 6th July 2022 at Strathmore Business School- the main topic of conversation revolved around Influencer marketing and how it has evolved in a local and global context.
Brands are now looking for ways to engage with and grow their audiences through influencers instead of traditional advertising channels.
How are brands working with influencers?
In this section, we will explore how brands are using influencer marketing to reach their audiences and what tools they are using to do so.
The benefits of influencer marketing have been well documented, for example in the USA, for each dollar spent on influencer marketing, businesses have been making about $6.50 on average with the top 13% earning about $20 or more. Furthermore, in Africa, young people between the ages of 18-35 years say that their purchase decisions have been influenced by influencers on social media.
Influencer Marketing in Kenya
Locally we have companies like Wowzi who are helping brands amplify their stories by matching them with a perfect pool of influencers. This breaks the influencers role and clearly helps to define their output while ensuring the brand is reaching the right target audience via the chosen influencers.
We’re currently tracking a total of 12,460 premium influencers in Kenya with between 1,000 and 10m followers.
Who are Micro/ Nano Influencers?
Kenya also currently boasts about 20,000 active nano influencers with the rest 35,000 seeking out brands to work with and amplify their brands for. We expect this trend to continue in 2022, with the new addition and focus on “nano premium” influencers–these are tested, reliable creators who may still have a limited following, but are high-quality content producers on their own–highly skilled production houses utilizing their own tools, but producing content that rivals studio production. These creatives have become much more visible over the past year through repeat engagement by Wowzi and are now specifically requested for campaigns by various brands.
The word “influencer” is thrown around a lot these days. But what does it really mean? And how do we measure its effectiveness?
Influencers are people who have influence over a specific market and can reach that market through their content, networks, or both. They may be bloggers, journalists, social media personalities, or other types of content creators. Their followers trust them to show them the best products and services in their niche.
There are two ways to measure the effectiveness of influencer marketing: by the number of followers an influencer has and by the number of engagements (likes, shares, comments) that they get on each post.
In terms of engagement, marketers and brands suggest that engagement is their primary key performance indicator KPIs. Therefore, when marketers are looking for potential influencers and brand ambassadors, their levels of engagement are more substantial than the number of followers they have.
Legislation in the Influencer Marketing Industry
Legislation around influencer marketing is a hot topic in the marketing world. The Federal Trade Commission (USA) has been cracking down on influencers who are not disclosing their relationships with brands. This has caused brands to rethink their strategies and how they work with influencers. Brands are now more careful when it comes to working with influencers and making sure that they disclose any potential conflicts of interest.
Within the Kenyan context- is it time we have a body that brings about a level of legislation amongst our community? Where do we cross the line between endorsement and actual usage of a product or service?
We would love to hear your thoughts.
Written by: Gacheri Koome for ISA Africa