14th DECEMBER, 2022

Despite rapid and exciting growth ($1.7bn in 2016, $16.4bn in 2022 and expected $22.2bn by 2025), the Influencer Marketing industry is still an incredibly young one. 2023 looks to be another developmental year in its maturing journey… another year where brands opting to to give it a miss in favor of more traditional and better understood marketing techniques, will risk being well and truly left behind.

Predicting trends in this space has always been difficult as the Influencer Marketing industry grows alongside the equally dynamic digital-social sphere. Most recently, foresight has been even more of a challenge with such global events as Covid, the War in Ukraine, Recession and Socio-cultural upheaval throwing everything in the air. Social media feels the reactions of the masses, so Influencers and brands alike must be on their toes to handle each wave coming their way.

In reaction to the current state of the world, I see 2023 as the year of major shifts for the Influencer Marketing industry. With greater exposure, and greater global uncertainty, comes even more unpredictable and thrilling change in this space. But, I also believe the power of our Industry grows with this too; if brands harness it correctly, they can align with pillars of comfort, education, advice, stability and entertainment at a time when people need these influences more than ever.

If you're a brand who has, so far, avoided the realm of Influencers and Creators - make 2023 the year you experience their power first-hand. If you're a brand who's dabbled without direction and are still on the fence, let 2023 be the year you engage strategy for real results. I've pulled together 4 predictions and trends I see for the coming year in this space. Arm yourself with these as you start building your killer Influencer Marketing Strategy for 2023.

To bypass Influencer marketing as a central marketing tactic, is to undermine the potential for your brand to stay absolutely relevant going forwards.

1. Will We See Creativity Reclaim its Throne in the Social Sphere?

Ironically, with the increase in creative platforms, the overall level of truly unique creativity in the social world seems to have dropped. What began as a photo sharing app with inbuilt editing features, encouraging visual curation and production has become, to many, a conveyorbelt of trend-following, generic content with the same music. Why? Well, many would blame the social algorithms which favour trending content and push it out further. As a result, there’s a divide between the ‘OG’ creators standing their ground and putting their unique work out there despite poor social performance, and the creators they see as ‘selling out’. I.e. engaging the “if you can’t beat them, join them” attitude and hopping on the trends in order to grow their profiles and careers - at the potential expense of their true creativity.
But, there is a revolution stirring in the creator world - a desire to return to the freedom of expression. To quote content creator and photographer, Mel Hager, “Social Media makes us trend-hunters. Copycats. “Be faster, serve the mass.” Never forget that mass means average. … Attachment to outcome leads to an outcome-focussed process and takes away from actual freedom… the process of making free art. Ultimately, art itself.” With audiences also growing bored and sceptical quickly, could the downfall of ‘trends’ be on the horizon? I foresee the return of true creativity in 2023 - brands and Influencers will need to find a balance between their own expression and mass-attracting content if they want their stories to remain relevant.

2. Cancellation watchouts

With this rise of individual expression, along with the various social and cultural issues currently at play in the world, the risk of making a mistake in the digital space is higher - not only are there more potential mistakes to make, but the reactions may also be higher. To simply ignore a situation is to appear out-of-touch (see nipping to the Savoy for hot water during a cost of living crisis). To say the wrong thing is to be fully canceled (see anti-sematism comments from Kanye). This sounds intimidating and off-putting, I’ll admit. However, where there is risk, there is also opportunity. For brands looking to harness the power of Influencer Marketing in 2023, research and vetting is going to be more crucial than ever. Study the trends, the feelings, the conversations taking place online. Check the history of the creators you partner with. If you don’t have the capacity for this level of rigor, engage an agency who knows the space inside-out. (Hint hint, nudge nudge!) Have clauses in your contracts that protect you from sensitive scenarios and allow you to exit a partnership-gone-toxic. But, at the same time, lean in! Be a part of those conversations - align your brand with the positives by partnering with creators who share comfort, entertainment, education, advice etc to their followers. A brand needs a personality to tell its story and it needs to be a part of conversation to develop that personality.

3. Forget breaking through the noise… become a part of it!

With social conversations more copious and more intense than ever, brands need to work even more strategically for their stories to be heard in 2023. Long gone are the days of basic product placement (I hope!) - it is crucial to become a part of the content audiences are actively consuming, rather than interrupting it and becoming a skipped-over annoyance. Partner with influencers and creators who totally understand their platforms and their audiences, these are the ones producing the noise and the conversation. Lean on them for the ideas that their followers will welcome and incorporate your brand story into the content they’re already producing. I.e. become a part of the noise. 2023 may reveal opportunities to get even deeper into those conversations with the rising popularity of subscription services. Close Friends; OnlyFans; potential Instagram Subscriptions- all these platforms allow creators to have a closer ring of followers. These people are in the inner-circle and, naturally, those on the outside feel an element of fomo. This hype-tactic leads to an intensely engaged, closed group. If brands can form true, personal, long-term relationships with their ambassadors - they may be given the opportunity to tell their story to this gold-tier audience. 2023 will also be the year of rising UGC-style production - engaging influencers on a pure-creator basis to produce social-centric content for brands to be sharing on their own channels. Thus, brands can adopt the voice of those who understand content-creation better than anyone, to amalgamate into the noise with their own story.

4. Harness the Hype

Speaking of hype tactics, 2023 will see the popularity of physical hype-culture rising in the Influencer Marketing space. Hype has been at the heart of this industry since its inception, but as we finally start to look at Covid Lockdowns in the rearview (touchwood!!), physically producing this phenomenon has become a bold move by brands such as Jack Wills (the champions, IMO). Whilst Influencer events have been useful tactics in the past, they have often been tainted by the overly-stylised, illusion-style of Instagram. A style that has been losing popularity amongst audiences craving raw, real and entertaining content - i.e., the TikTok-style. So, could 2023 be the year of the TikTok House? We’ve seen it in action in previous years, but Covid has put pains to its momentum - I think this is the year we’ll see it truly rise as an intensely powerful tactic. The key is gathering creators who are already friends/inhabit a similar space on the internet. Their rapport is easy and they share many of the same followers. Put this group into a physical, gently-branded space/event/activity/house and allow them relatively-free reign on their content - the key mandatory being that your brand is tagged. Your brand story hits the same eyes over and over and over, in highly authentic content and from several different angles. The result? A strong sense of fomo from those outside. And the key to join in that hype group? Your brand.

Whilst it may change its tactics in 2023, the Influencer Marketing industry is definitely not going anywhere. Indeed, it poses an even greater opportunity for brands than ever. To bypass it as a central marketing tactic, is to undermine the potential for your brand to stay absolutely relevant going forwards.

Keen to make 2023 the year your brand story enters the social space with true vigour? Uncertain how to start or what a success-oriented Influencer Marketing strategy might look like? Get in touch with us today... we'd LOVE to help you tell your brand story through the perfect Influencers and Creators!