Somewhere along your YouTube journey, you're going to encounter this concept called a brand deal. This is when you and a brand work together in some sort of way, whether it's a free product or whether it involve some sort of a campaign. Now we all want those opportunities because this allows us to transition into a full-time career on YouTube.
But how do you go about getting those brand deals? How do the brands actually find the influencers that they want to work with? What actually happens behind the scenes once you reach out to a brand? All these questions will be answered on today's episode of TubeTalk, the YouTuber podcast.
This week we talk to an industry insider willing to spill the beans on brand deals. Komal Parikh is the VP of integrated media at Weber Shandwick, which is a global public relations firm. She deals with brands and influencers and has lots of tips and tricks to share with us.
The New Influencer Marketing: The Consumer Holds the Power
Komal confirms there has been a dramatic shift in marketing over the past few years. And this is where YouTubers can benefit. The power that brands used to hold is starting to change and now consumers really hold the power. They've got access to the internet and all sorts of social media platforms in their back pocket. As brands continue to stay relevant and look to be top of mind to consumers, they're realizing that their tactics need to evolve with these changing trends. Marketing itself, if you break it down into its fundamentals, it's ultimately about engaging with consumers where they naturally gravitate. As people start to shift where they're spending their time, marketers are starting to pick up on that.
Consumers are now spending more time on social media and brands are trying to figure out how to cater to consumers on those platforms. But there's always this tug of way between consumers and brands - consumers don't necessarily want to be marketed to and marketers really want consumers to buy. The shift in marketing is now more of an authentic relationship where brands are trying to give consumers what they need, when they need it, and are trying to make it easy for them to make purchasing decisions, or decisions on what type of services to use. It's about developing a relationship rather than just speaking at somebody.
What Do Brands Look For in YouTuber Influencers?
Komal confirms that it truly depends just because each marketing campaign is so different. The needs of each industry vary, and while influencer marketing is the most common in the CPG, fashion, and retail sectors, there are a lot of industries ranging from banking to B2B companies who are looking to leverage the power of influencers. A lot of them may not know how to do that because influencer marketing is starting to evolve. It's not just about paying customers anymore. It's about relationship building.
it's all about building those authentic relationships between influencers and their communities. Consumers can smell an ad a mile away, and they know when they're being targeted. It comes down to a brand being able to communicate to a consumer the way they need to and it comes down to authenticity.
At one point, brands were looking for ROI in famous influencers, and they were reaching out to people who had these huge social followings. Now those may not be those authentic relationships, because it's not about just broadcasting your message but it's finding those individuals that have followings that may even be in the hundreds, maybe in the thousands, which are so much more smaller but they reach out to their niche communities. The reason they're small is because they're having that one on one relationship with their audience. That's what's so important to brands.
If brands are going to spend dollars to connect with an influencer and really be able to have them market on behalf of the brand, they want to make sure that they're reaching the right person. That targeted approach really lends itself well to building those authentic relationships. In fact, today 70% of teens trust influencers more than traditional celebrities!
Brands also want to spend their dollars with people that are already maybe avid fans of that product or service. Creators that maybe aren’t even looking for compensation, they just . love the brand so much that they would post about it. There isn't anything more authentic than someone who naturally loves a brand, a product or service. Marketers will lean into that to work with them, because the community already knows that if they put sponsored behind something it's not because they're getting just paid to do it, but they already really enjoyed that product or service. That just goes such a long way.
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