Stacy Landreth Grau - Celebrity 2.0: The Role of Social Media Influencer Marketing in Building Brands

Celebrity 2.0

Celebrity 2.0

The Role of Social Media Influencer
Marketing in Building Brands

Stacy Landreth Grau

Celebrity 2.0:
The Role of Social Media Influencer Marketing in Building Brands

Copyright Business Expert Press, LLC, 2022.

Cover design by Charlene Kronstedt

Interior design by Exeter Premedia Services Private Ltd., Chennai, India

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations, not to exceed 400 words, without the prior permission of the publisher.

First published in 2022 by

Business Expert Press, LLC

222 East 46th Street, New York, NY 10017

www.businessexpertpress.com

ISBN-13: 978-1-63742-208-3 (paperback)

ISBN-13: 978-1-63742-209-0 (e-book)

Business Expert Press Digital and Social Media Marketing and Advertising Collection

First edition: 2022

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is for my teenage daughters, Ellie and Maddy,
who are content creators in their own right and who taught
me the power of social media for Generation Z

Description

Social media influencers rule the world!

Gone are the days of worshipping movie stars and athletes only for their talent. Everyday people are fast becoming the new celebrities and thus influencers for Millennials and Generation Z. In the past few years, social media influencers dominate pop culture and brands are eager to work with them to build their brands. From music to gaming; from fashion to sports; from wellness to lifestyle branding there are more than 50 million people calling themselves creators and many are influencers amassing a highly engaged community. For brands, what are the most effective ways to identify and cultivate influencers and support content creation?

This book is for anyone who wants to understand the landscape of influencer marketing with an eye for collaborations between influencers and companies. Perfect for brand managers and agency professionals, up and coming influencers, and students wanting to enter this exciting field of marketing, this book combines practical advice and examples with an overview of the academic insights to date. Topics include creators and the creator economy, typology of influencers, how to work with them, considerations for campaign design and implementation.

Celebrity 2.0: The Role of Social Media Influencer Marketing to Build Brands is a great primer to the influencer marketing ecosystem and the influencer marketing relationship framework to learn how content marketing, native advertising and content marketing all come together.

Keywords

influencer marketing; social media influencer marketing; influencers; content marketing; native advertising; influencer marketing agencies; influencer marketplaces; authenticity; expertise; trust; source credibility

Contents

There are so many to thank. Of course, huge thanks to my husband and daughters for their sincere patience and enthusiasm while I wrote this book especially when they would rather be doing something else. Thanks for support from my parents. Thanks goes out to my friends who reviewed drafts of the chapters (Tracey) and who designed some great visual content (Sydney) and to friends who simply supported me through the journey. Thanks to my Happy Hour crew of Susan, Laura, Jessica, Hettie, and Lynn and my partners at IdeaFactoryCedric and Trish. To my mentor, Amanda, who started me on this journey 20 years ago and still inspires me to do it. To the patience of the folks at Business Expert Press who were so kind while I worked through this during the pandemic (while teaching a full load at the same time). To the amazing people I talked to on this journey and who I am looking forward to connecting with again. A special shout out to Addi Hall McCauley who really helped me start the ball rolling with this. And last, to all my amazing former students from TCU who were instrumental in getting my interviews. It is astounding what you have all been able to do.

Launching a New Brand Using Influencers

Can a new brand build its growth and build its brand image using primarily social media influencers (SMI)? New brands come and go and often have a tough time unseating the category leaders, especially in extremely competitive spaces such as beauty and skincare. However, indi skincare brand Tula (which means balance in Sanskrit) has been able to increase awareness and sales primarily through building their marketing foundation on authentic social media influencers and paid social advertising boosts. In 2020, the brandwhich is based on the intersection of wellness and beautygarnered $56 million in earned media value. The skincare brand unveiled its #EmbraceYourSkin campaign in October 2020 and reached more than 120 million consumers and recorded more than one million engagements through the end of the year.

Tula (www.tula.com) is a digitally native and social media first brand with a majority of its revenue coming from direct to consumers (DTC) with three times revenue growth in the past three years. The brand was first launched in 2014 by Dr. Roshini Raj, a gastroenterologist and internist who focuses on probiotics and superfoods in her practice found the same benefits for skincare. She launched Tula with cofounders Ken Landis, cofounder of Bobbi Brown cosmetics, and Dan Reich, a tech entrepreneur, to maximize the benefits of natural ingredients for skincare for all types of skin issues. In 2017, the company garnered significant capital infusion to scale revenue and growth. In the past two years, Tula has seen several successful product launches. In April 2020, Tula launched a gel sunscreen that was the most requested products from customers and was one of the most successful product launches for them. In October 2020, Tula and gymnast Shawn Johnson partnered in a limited edition So Pumpkin exfoliating sugar scrub, which sold within hours of its launch. As a result of this launch, Tula earned $6.1 million in earned media value in October alone, ranking number two among skincare brands.

Perhaps, part of it was timing. When the pandemic hit, customers found themselves increasingly concerned about health and wellness (and more people embraced the no makeup look since everyone was home). As part of the #EmbraceYourSkin campaign, Tula tapped social media influencers Tess Holliday, Tennille Murphy, Nyma Tang, Chizi Duru, and Weylie Hoang to create kits to address specific skin issues. Interestingly, this stable of influencers was the result of an intentional effort where Tula recruited influencers based on a revenue sharing model similar to Avon. As part of the campaign, influencers interacted with followers using video tutorials and engaging in conversations about skincare. Conversations happened both on Tulas social channels and within influencers social channels. CEO Savannah Sachs said, Were proud to shine a spotlight on the work and impact that these women have had in the industry, specifically for ageless and natural beauty, size representation and skin tone diversity.

Why are influencers so effective for Tula? One could argue that Tula was effective at getting attention. Tula was able to capture the attention of enough customers who then made purchases. However, as Amanda Russell argues in her book