Brainstorming think-tank lunch – Influencers

One of our favourite venues, the charming Santiago de Alfama boutique hotel, once again hosted another lively and interesting brainstorming think-tank lunch, this time around the subject of “Influencers” whilst touching on several related topics, including:

Legal and Regulatory framework of co-responsibility of Brands, Agencies and Content Producers (aka influencers) with regards to the result and its conformity (or not) with advertising standards, and a general agreement that there was some way to go to fine-tune regulation to the technological reality and real live influencer behaviour in the field.

Expertise on this aspect was kindly provided by Madalena Bettencourt from the Auto Regulação Publicitária. Supporting this, reference was made to a recent article in the BBC about Influencer liability in Financial Services https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-60787296

On the issue of costs, pricing and other forms of considerations for Influencers, it seems that most agreements tend to be time limited, circumscribed to a single event or series of events and with view to a specific outcome.

A general discussion evolved around Influencers’ ability (or not) to stay “on message” and “on brand” and several approaches seemed to be taken by different parties. Whereas some Brands provide a “brand book” guidelines, others adopt a more laissez faire approach with the point of view being that Influencers know their target and grow their audience by being faithful to their identity.  There was however a general agreement that good quality creative and relevant content on a regular basis is required for online marketing and that engaging Influencers is one of the more interesting and cost-effective way of achieving that goal. There appeared to be general agreement that there is a fine line to be managed on a case-by-case basis between the Brand on one side, and the creative freedom of the Influencer on the other, so as to manage the appearance of merely commercial posts. In addition, a discussion developed around Macro vs Micro vs Nano influencers and a general agreement that the “long tail” niche micro and nano influencers can sometimes provide more traction as they are highly targeted.

Overall, there was consensus that advertising has become much more about “listening” (data analytics) than just “speaking” (advertising) or even “shouting” (big media buying). The prevailing notion in this segment of the discussion is that a good online media professional is actually a person with a deep level of data analytics skills, and that without this, it is difficult to know how to choose specific influencers and how to measure their impact.

This event was one of a series of brainstorming think-tank lunches where the Chamber invites a select group of Chamber members to debate themes which impact on the business landscape.  Members are invited to propose themes for future editions and to engage in a convivial setting where they can enjoy a session of curated networking amongst like-minded businesspeople from a cross section of complementary disciplines. Contact Chris Barton if you would like to participate in a future lunch.