Brands and Companies Need Influence Now, More Than Ever!

I have been predicting the death of retail sadly for two years now. It just seems like such an antiquated means to purchase products. You are in your car, using gas, polluting the planet and taking up your valuable time. Of course online sales isn’t perfect. Nothing is. But, we can all agree this Pandemic has shown us all the weakness in the supply chain and the opportunities that exist selling Direct to Consumer (D2C).

My new agency The Digital Renegades was launched 2 weeks ago. Trust me, not by design but by need. My sports marketing agency that repped social media influencers didn’t make sense anymore. I needed to modernize my brand and recruit more influencer talent. The Digital Renegades provided me the means to my end. Having signed 10 incredible content creators to go with my existing client base, we now are seeing over 20 leads a day from fitness, food, cooking, beauty, lifestyle and music.

What brands have spent on in stadium advertising, out of home advertising, ads associated with experiences that no longer exist have been re-directed to digital advertising and influencer marketing. Influencer marketing was slated to be around $9.9 Billion in 2020. It will in all likelihood go over $12 Billion. If you are an apparel company and your have tens of millions of dollars in stores that won’t open their doors or even worse filing for bankruptcy, sure you have insurance but how long is that going to take? Years? It’s time to make moves with your current inventory. Influencer marketing and digital advertising in unison is the ONLY answer!

Show me another way? Where can you get the impact? But here is how the market has changed overnight. Influencers from Nano to Macros no longer care about “affiliate” programs where they can only get paid on sales. That was PP or Pre-Pandemic. Today, they are a commodity like any other. Their price rises and falls with supply and demand. Brands, agencies and marketing people can feel comfortable or even cocky they can always find someone to take their offer. That might be true. But you get what you pay for! Free is free and comes with no creativity, no commitment and probably no passion for your brand, product and/or service. If that is the bar you have set, I promise you will be looking for a new job in 3 months.

Influencers want a lot more than 12% on sales. They want to be like Paige Hathaway or whomever is an important person in their community. They want to be provided education. They want encouragement. They want digital ad support for their posts so they produce. They want to be featured on the company’s social and website. Feels a lot like a company spokesperson doesn’t it? Well, there is a good reason, because they ARE!

Brands and companies need social media influencers now more than ever. But it is not business as usual. We have created very sophisticated executions for our corporate clients and influencers. There is no time for mistakes. Contact us to discuss how we can assist you at a time of such dire need. /">Christina Brennan VP, New Biz Dev or myself can be reached here, DM or via our website!