Influencer Marketing Lab

Comment and curation on the evolution of influencer marketing by Scott Guthrie

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Tim Sweeney on Epic’s metaverse - https://on.ft.com/3y3YZhw via @FT

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Gen Z look to other sources for product recommendations. Fifty-one percent of Gen Z consumers say that official social media accounts of consumer brands are one of their top three sources of influence, while 44 percent count bloggers and online influencers among their top three sources of influence. Gen Z value these sources of information more than Millennials and Gen X. Key opinion leaders (KOLs) who resonate with Gen Z are driving this trend, such as Li Jiaqi, whose forthright opinions can make or break a beauty brand or product, and online sales superstar Weiya, whose interactive livestreams on Taobao have helped sell billions of RMB of products. Apps such as Dianping and Meituan that offer reviews, discussion forums, and group buying options are also popular among young Chinese consumers.

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Was Will Smith channelling James Charles?

Starting around 2016 scandal content ruled on YouTube. To get noticed on the video-sharing platform you had to be outrageous. The more outrageous, the more views. The more views, the more YouTube would pay you via your Adsense cut. Think Logan Paul filming in Japan’s suicide forest or his brother Jake falling out with Disney and then Team 10 or the many James Charles fake feuds.

Scandal content and fake feuds ruled until around 2020 when everyone, everywhere got cancelled. Think James Charles, Jeffree Star, Shane Dawson or David Dobrik.

What if Will Smith is actually dusting off an old YouTuber playbook and repurposing it for the 'gram? The Fresh Prince actor gained 5m Instagram followers straight after Slap-gate.

Check out the graph below:

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China's big tech switches push from more users to more revenues from existing users

"Alibaba’s latest results gave us clues on how China’s largest tech corporations are coping, a year into Beijing’s bruising internet crackdown.

On Thursday, China’s largest e-commerce company reported 10% topline growth for the December quarter, the slowest pace since its 2014 listing. Its bread-and-butter customer management revenue – where it charges merchants marketing and other service fees – contracted for the first time on record, while a 20% expansion in the cloud business – billed as a new growth engine – missed expectations.

After unfurling the numbers, Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang admitted what many industry watchers had suspected anyway: that the aggressive land-grab commonplace across China’s internet arena was a thing of the past. “We have substantively captured all consumers with purchasing power in China,” Zhang told analysts on a call. “Our focus will shift from new user acquisition to user retention and ARPU growth.”

By ARPU, he meant average revenue per user. Instead of growing the pie, Alibaba will try and milk more out of its existing one billion users. While this doesn’t come as a huge surprise given the company’s sheer size, Zhang’s comment perfectly sums up a new normal of low growth for China’s internet giants".

Citation: Bloomberg

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How not all creator funds are created equal

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Instagram passes 2 billion MAU

Internal documents show that Instagram now has 2 billion monthly active users. Tactically Facebook doesn’t break out either Instagram's revenue or its active users - presumably to disguise the waning power of the Facebook app. The last time MAUs were shared was to announce 1 billion MAUs. That was back in June 2018. More here

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Weibo fined again by China's internet regulator

Weibo has been fined 3 million yuan ($470,000) by China's internet regulator for repeatedly publishing illegal information.

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said Weibo had violated a cybersecurity law on the protection of minors as well as other laws but did not give further details.

This is the 44th penalty this year for Weibo from CAC. The firm paid 14.3 million yuan in fines for the year to November according to Reuters.

The big tech crackdown is in the pursuit of a "civilised" internet which includes clipping the wings of influencers and internet celebrities.

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Casey Neistat launches $249 film school

Renowned YouTuber Casey Neistat has teamed up with Monthly to create a one-month filmmaker and storyteller class. Follow along with Neistat’s creative process and finish the class with 2 shareable films of your own. In an accompanying promo YouTube video Neistat promises the course will be dynamic but not technical. “If you wanna know how to use your camera - Google it or whatever” he advises the viewer. “If you want to get a lot of views on YouTube ask MrBeast if that’s your goal.” Instead, the course aims to show how video can be the ‘ultimate tool for self-expression.” Neistat is looking to build scale. The 30-day on-demand course costs $249. It starts January 10 - enrollment closes December 27.

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Jodee Rich (Cofounder and Producer) NFT.NYC 2021 Opening Address

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Whistleblower says Facebook mislead investors over reach

Facebook concealed a years-long decline in younger users in the US, and misled investors about audience size, according to documents shared with the US Securities and Exchange Commission by product manager-turned whistleblower, Frances Haugen. Worse-case scenario planning by Facebook showed that a lack of enthusiasm in the platform from US teens could cause US daily user decline of 45% between now and 2023. More on the story here by the Financial Times.

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YouTube Shorts rolls out its creator fund to over 30 countries

YouTube’s chief product officer, Neal Mohan, has announced that creators in more countries are now eligible for a slice of the platform’s $100m Shorts Fund. Creators in over 30 countries, including the UK, Australia, and Italy, as well as Iraq, Lebanon, and Morocco, can apply.

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Facebook takes a half day

Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp all suffered widespread global outages this week. That left Twitter as the platform of choice for people telling each other that Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were suffering outages. The company explained away the outage as being the result of a routine update gone wrong to the company’s Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) records. Some conspiracy theorists have posited that this is Zuckerberg’s way of showing the world how dependent they are on his suite of products.

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8 tips to make workplaces more accessible

October is Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM). Keely Cat-Wells, CEO of C Talent, a full service talent management agency representing high-profile deaf and disabled creators, shares 8 tips to make workspaces and employment more accessible and inclusive beyond compliance. Keely’s colleague, Dan Edge, will be speaking about how disability is represented within influencer marketing at the Influencer Marketing Show later this month.

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The influencer marketing firm practising influencer marketing

This is a bit meta. This week, Jason Falls’ Winfluence podcast interviews Rich Keith, CEO of Fourth Floor. The two discuss this newsletter (ah shucks) and the mainstream allure of gaming. The episode also covers the difference between an average influencer’s content and an exceptional influencer’s content. Rich has interesting insights about TikTok’s pluses and minuses, too.

We also talked about the next wave of growth for influencers and their audiences in the coming years. That’s well worth taking into consideration.

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Captiv8 expands gender, ethnicity & sexual orientation ID options

Captiv8 is also expanding gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation identification options within its platform. This will allow creators to self-identify in the most representative manner, and allow brands to partner with creators to diversify initiatives.

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Captiv8 launches DEI initiatives for BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ Small Businesses

Captiv8 has pledged to help Cr8 Change through a grant for minority-owned SMBs. The firm’s Influence Change Grant is a twice-yearly SaaS grant to support BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ owned small-to-mid-sized businesses that are positively impacting their communities. Those selected will be provided free access to Captiv8's SaaS influencer marketing platform.

In order to qualify for the grant, applicants must be US-based and not-for-profit or be a business with a turnover of less than $10m.