It's an old adage that 'people buy from people' and influencer marketing is rooted in this belief. In March, Adobe took 65 influencers to its Adobe Summit in Las Vegas, a diverse group of creatives that ranged from an award-winning Generation Z actress through to vloggers to a bunch of marketing experts. The aim was to create a wealth of thoughtful content on topics that matter to Adobe and its users.
As Rani Mani, head of social influencer enablement at Adobe, says "Influencers are extremely strategic as to how we do business because they humanise our brand by being names, faces and personalities behind our logo. They are also so much more believable and authentic because they are technically not on our payroll, and yet genuinely use our products and services."
Influencer marketing is a growing area. It is one of the top four tactics marketers plan to adopt during 2019 according to a survey of IT marketers by Spiceworks. The survey shows influencer marketing getting more attention than, say, analytics powered by artificial intelligence or marketing chatbots.
It is important to draw a line between influencers in the consumer space, such as a Kardashian who will thrill over a packet of diet tea in exchange for a chunky fee, and the very wide range of roles that make up influencers in the B2B space. In a business context, the term ranges from 'micro-influencers', such as local IT consultants, to celebrity achievers who resonate with target groups, such as Buzz Aldrin as used in Dell's recent Dear Tech advert.
Ideally, influencers should be a two-way communication channel, providing honest feedback from the marketplace that can help a company improve both products and messaging. Ms Rani believes its influencers give Adobe an "outside-in point of view" on what's going on in the world, what matters to them and their communities and how the company is faring in relation to the competition.
Quantifying the value of influencer impact can be challenging. Alicia Tillman, CMO at SAP, says two of the most important ways the company measures RoI on influencer marketing are brand awareness and brand lift. Influencers make up 30 per cent of overall share of voice on social media during major events such as SAPPHIRE NOW, SAPs annual conference for users and partners, and the company sees a significant increase in its SAP brand channel numbers during these events. "Influencers are certainly contributing to that" says Ms Tillman.
But Adobe's Ms Mani maintains the biggest RoI is the influencer relationships themselves. "Having a trusted cabinet of advisors on speed dial is priceless" she concludes.