Stop Snickering: Influencer Marketing is Serious Business
The problem I see in the marketing landscape is that many brands treat influencers like an afterthought. Something to get around to after they’ve done their real marketing.
Brands, I’m going to be that girlfriend who tells you when you have kale in your teeth. It’s tough love from the heart. Stop treating influencers like a point of purchase impulse buy, that sample size of lip balm that you throw in the cart at the last minute. It’s time to start paying attention to the influencer world, not treat it like a novelty act unworthy of your focus. Because influencer marketing is BIG business for your brand.
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More Followers = More Influence, Right?
I’m on the phone with brand managers every day, helping them launch marketing initiatives with celebrities and influencers. And often, I’ve noticed that these brand folks get fixated on one number: followers. They presume that their investment decisions should correspond to this single data point.
Their logic is easy to understand. The funny thing is, many celebs, even the A-List ones, can’t compete with the biggest influencers when it comes to followers. Miley Cyrus has 8.4 million TikTok followers; Loren Gray has 50 million Case closed, right? Wrong.
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Little-Known Secrets of Successful Celebrity and Influencer Brands
You’re famous and fabulous. Congrats!
Go ahead - stick your name on a product! Any product will do. Then sit back and enjoy the show. It’s called “Dancing Dollars Do The Conga Line Into Your Bank Account.” Care for champagne while you watch?
SPLASH. That’s me, throwing water in your face.
Sorry, had to do it. Here’s a towel. Now listen up carefully, because I’m only going to say this once. Or definitely not more than ten times: Big names do NOT guarantee a big brand.
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Check out the Cool Ways that Brands and Influencers are Marketing Around Covid
The silver lining to marketing during a pandemic is this: we’re all being forced to come up with radically creative workarounds for La Vida Lockdown.
After some sobbing fits and therapy sessions, brands are adapting. Marketers are getting innovative. And it’s turning out….ok! And, while painful, this mental game of Rubik’s Cube is surely a character-building exercise that’s generating tons of new brain cells.
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The Single Most Important Piece of Advice for Brand Marketers
With the world reeling, celebs and influencers are talking to their communities in different ways. They’ve downshifted from pure aspiration and upleveled to a place of more heart. And therein lies the modern-day secret of all brand marketing. (Drum roll, please....)
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The 3 C’s of Brand Marketing Right Now
Ah, simpler times. Let’s jog down memory lane, shall we? All the way back to...January. When none of us brand marketers had a care in the world. Oh sure, maybe we thought our jobs were complicated. But compared to now, 2019 feels as quaint as the milkman delivering glass bottles of Bessy’s freshest on your front porch.
Don’t get me wrong. The headwinds of a pandemic haven’t stopped my agency from creating marketing liftoff for brands by connecting them with celebrities and influencers. But - understatement alert - the rules of the game have changed.
So what’s the secret to connecting with consumers during an apocalypse? The biggest piece of wisdom I’m sharing with clients is this: no more shortcuts. Forget about a magic formula for brand marketing. Today, it’s all about the 3 C’s.
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3 Positive Ways That Some Brands Are Responding to Black Lives Matter
It was morning drive time with "On Air with Ryan Seacrest," and the famous host was in the hot seat.
Seacrest's guest was DeVon Franklin, a celebrated producer, author, and motivational speaker. The two men - one white, one Black - discussed the Black Lives Matter movement.
Then, Franklin had a question for the host.
He appreciated that Seacrest had offered his professional platform to highlight the movement. But why had Seacrest remained silent on his personal social accounts?
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Celebrity and Influencer Marketing is Shifting from Aspirational to Inspirational, Just Like Your Brand
Once upon a time, like three months ago, we all dug the glam lifestyles of celebs and influencers. Now those lifestyles are sheltering at home and looking an awful lot like everyone else’s, roots and all.
And even if traveling was still a thing, lots of followers just aren’t in the mood to flip through dreamy shots of celebs traipsing through exotic locales at the moment. The public appetite is craving inspiration more than aspiration.
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Attention Hollywood:Generation Z Is Leaving the Building. (Here’s what will help them stay.)
If Hollywood has been nervous about Millennials, it’s petrified about Generation Z. For years, online platforms have been shifting the viewing habits of young people, steadily eroding market share from feature films. As teens increasingly entertain each other on mobile platforms and apps, they’re simply losing interest in films. The most important demographic to Hollywood - 18-to-24-year-olds - is abandoning movies faster than any other group.
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