The rise of influencer marketing

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines an influencer as a person who exerts influence or guides the actions of others.

The term is nevertheless often used to describe a person with the ability to generate interest in something especially a consumer product.

Meanwhile, influencer marketing translates loosely to social media marketing involving endorsements and product placement from influencers.

Over the last decade, Kenya has seen the rise of budding influencers, though many did not emerge first as influencers but rather as content creators.

Today, social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok are awash with influencer marketing content with tens of Kenyans eking out a living off the trade.

Giant streaming platform YouTube also features as a go to source for both influencers and businesses seeking influencer based marketing.

Also Read: Digital marketing agencies in Kenya

Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) centered consultancy Viffa recently engaged in a survey to map out the state of the influencer market in Kenya in an exercise involving 53 respondents.

From its results, the consultancy established that influencer marketing is largely grounded on trust built by the social influencer over time.

“Influencer demography in Kenya is varied from music, radio and TV celebrities, bloggers, vloggers and experts among others. Further, influencer marketing has become mainstream with major brands in Kenya dedicating varying degree of marketing resources towards this type of marketing,” notes the survey.

About 41 per cent of social media influencers/ content creators prefer Instagram as their social media platform of choice citing the medium’s focus on pictures and its popularity among young people.

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok , websites (own source) and LinkedIn make up other top social media platforms by preference.

82 per cent or about 8 out of every 10 influencers have a following of between 1,000 and 50,000 with the remainder, a premium 18 per cent having between 50,001 and three million followers.

Curiously, firms have had a bias of influencers with a lower following as a risk and cost containment measure.

“There is a trend by companies seeking to market their products through influencer marketing of using multiple influencers with followers of less than 50,000 to spread risk as well as manage cost vis-à-vis going for influencers with over 50,000 followers who charge higher fees,” adds the survey.

A sizable 23 per cent of influencers tag their ‘expertise’ in and around beauty products ahead of cooking at 19 per cent and fashion at 10 per cent.

Travel, entertainment, investment, finance, economics, communication, lifestyle and faith make up the remainder of the expertise fields.

42 per cent of respondents in the survey indicate they charge between Ksh.100 and Ksh.10,000 per endorsement while a majority 55 per cent of influencers have a rate card of between Ksh.11,000 and Ksh.100,000.

An elite list representing three per cent of influencers ask for more than Ksh.100,000 per endorsement.

Product endorsements for a one off fee feature as the most used revenue model by influencers ahead of selling own product, payment by host platform, in-kind payments for product placement, commission based payments on product endorsement on incremental sales and events.