Dive Brief:
- Media technology company RhythmOne launched a new branded website, RhythmInfluence, designed to formalize its influencer marketing offering while giving advertisers a place to learn about the company and category, as well as connect directly with its influencer marketing experts.
- The website will feature RhythmOne’s more than 45,000 influencers, including high-visibility celebrities, thought-leaders, tastemakers and niche content providers.
- Chuck Moran, vp of marketing for RhythmOne, explained to Marketing Dive that, "The new site focuses on the power and potential of influencer marketing – and shines a spotlight on the influencers and brands that have been successful using this tactic."
Dive Insight:
Influencer marketing is a hot topic in the ad community, and as it keeps gaining traction, marketers will look for more information before testing the tactic. Despite issues around metrics and the space becoming fragmented as influencers pivot from social platform to social platform, influencer marketing is only just hitting its stride.
Moran told Marketing Dive the company has been in the influencer marketing business for over five years now, and the new branded website came about because of its success in the space. For those new to the tactic, Moran said the RhythmInfluence can serve as something of an ice breaker.
He explained that "not only can advertisers meet some of the influencers we work with, they can read best practices, review our industry-leading benchmark studies, and see concrete examples of how other brands are partnering with influencers to create content that is exciting and engaging."
In 2015 its campaigns averaged $11.20 in earned media value for every dollar spent in paid media, Moran added.
Influencer marketing as a tactic is a bit mixed in terms of actual effectiveness with one issue being a measurability and proving actual ROI marketing value. At the same time vendors such as RhythmOne point to the impressive level of earned media value from influencer campaigns. Recent research by Twitter and Annalect found that 49% of Twitter users rely on influencers for product recommendations as well as leading to a 5.2 times increase in purchase intent when branded tweets were coupled with influencer tweets. Though being an early-adopter is a risk, it can reap great rewards for the brands and marketers who dive in early.