Year after year, studies like Edelman’s “Trust Barometer” show that trust drastically decreases in a variety of industries and scenarios when, at the same time, trust in peers, or “a person like yourself”, keeps on climbing. Peers are now seen as one of the most (if not the most) credible source for information about a company, and as a consequence, influencer marketing has tremendously gained in popularity over the last few years.
But there’s a massive gap between knowing that you need to do something, doing it, and doing it strategically.
That’s why, in 2017, we teamed up with Brian Solis, Principal Analyst at Altimeter, to find out how influencer marketing was put into practice and how to connect the dots between “influencer marketing” as it existed then and “influencer relations” of the future, aka, Influence 2.0. The move from Influence 1.0 to 2.0 represents a significant shift from transactional IM to a more human-centered strategy that integrates throughout the entire customer journey.
This year we asked ourselves, “how far are we collectively progressed towards Influence 2.0?”
Which is why we partnered again with Brian Solis this year to assess the “2018 State of Influence 2.0”, gathering feedback from 118 digital marketers at global enterprise organizations in both B2B and B2C industries, including Adobe, Cartier, Dyson, Google, L’Oréal, Melia Hotels International, Microsoft, Nissan, and Siemens. It’s clear that the shift to Influence 2.0 has only happened in a small percentage of organizations who are paving the way forward. For many organizations, we see the tendency to get stuck in the “tactical trap”.
By reading the report and featured stories from 6 senior IM professionals running programs for forward-thinking brands, we hope to provide guidance for organizations who are ready to move beyond isolated campaigns and transactional influencer (aka Influence 1.0). Consider this your guide book for escaping the tactical trap and reaching Influence 2.0. In the report we cover:
- The evolution of IM ownership and the emergence of centers of excellence
- The characteristics of the most advanced IM programs
- The role of agencies and the difference between how advanced organizations leverage agency partners compared to the tactical level.
- The reason why it’s so important to lead with measurement in order to achieve scalable results.
In addition, you’ll discover key findings, including :
- Marketers value owned and earned first; see paid as means to amplify
- This year marketers are 30% more likely to use some form of influencer technology
- Among the most advanced companies, 65% manage IM through internal teams
As Brian would say, the disparity between experimentation and maturity in influencer marketing at global enterprises is still vast, but our research demonstrates the desire and intent for Influence 2.0 to take root in organizations. Discover more and join the movement by downloading the “2018 State of Influence 2.0”.