LOS ANGELES — Modern content creators have ushered in a “new wave” of influencer marketing for brands in 2022.
GRIN Director of Community Katya Allison and Kay Snels, who manages influencer marketing and creator partnerships at Bev, discussed the gradual shift at E-Commerce Day 2022 in Los Angeles on August 12.
Snels explained how influencer marketing as we know it today began with online bloggers, many of whom operated under a pseudonym. But as Instagram gained momentum, brands began to recognize an opportunity to leverage content creators as the “face” of their brand to help drive awareness and sales.
But there was one problem.
“People saw an opportunity and hopped on it. But over time, it got a little too salesy.”
-Kay Snels, Influencer Marketing & Creator Partnerships at Bev
The point of influencer marketing isn’t to emulate traditional forms of advertising. The strategy is really about leveraging authentic creators to share your brand story and generate genuine product endorsements for their audiences.
And many creators, Snels said, saw TikTok as a way to reignite their passion and partner with brands they love.
“TikTok is giving a lot of people the freedom to go back to being themselves. And that’s what I’m looking for in creators in 2022.”
-Kay Snels, Influencer Marketing & Creator Partnerships at Bev
For Snels, choosing the right creator comes down to brand alignment and strong engagement with their audience. But a partnership can’t proceed until a creator passes the “gut test.”
“Metrics are always important. But we’ve all had that feeling when something just doesn’t feel right. You can feel it in your gut.”
-Kay Snels, Influencer Marketing & Creator Partnerships at Bev
Snels takes a full-funnel approach when onboarding creators to her roster. Some are best for brand awareness. Others drive sales, and some are just experts at creating content that resonates.
And when it comes to implementing the right mix of creators based on audience size, there really isn’t a sweet spot for all brands.
“I feel very strongly about this. It’s like any other growth channel—you have to test. You have to throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks.”
-Kay Snels, Influencer Marketing & Creator Partnerships at Bev
But how can you go about finding these creators in the first place?
For bootstrapped brands, typing keywords into TikTok can be a good place to start. You can also look at your competitors to see what works for them and what kind of creators they are partnering with.
But eventually, every brand needs the right tools if they want to scale their program. And for Snels, the solution came with GRIN’s leading Creator Management platform.
GRIN helps Bev find creators similar to its highest performers so it can get the type of content already proven to resonate with its audience. GRIN’s end-to-end platform also enables Bev to organize all of its creator content to easily repurpose it across the brand’s entire marketing mix and analyze results for how each piece performs.
At the end of the day, GRIN helps Bev find creators it can trust to be the face of the brand.
“It’s about trusting them. Because believe it or not, they actually know who to target better than you do.”
-Kay Snels, Influencer Marketing & Creator Partnerships at Bev
GRIN is the pioneer behind the world’s first Creator Management platform built to support every brand’s journey to connecting with consumers through authentic creator relationships. Thousands of the world’s fastest-growing brands—including SKIMS, Warby Parker, Allbirds, Mejuri, and MVMT—use GRIN to make creators feel like trusted, empowered partners and work with them to build their brands into household names.
Visit grin.co for additional resources and more information on the world’s leading Creator Management platform.
Bev is a canned wine supplier based in Venice, California. As a women-owned and run business in a male-dominated industry, Bev believes that real change will come when women and men work together as equals and hold each other accountable in social spaces.
Visit DrinkBev.com to learn more about the brand’s mission and products.
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