CHAPTER 3

Celebrity Endorsement and Influencer Marketing

An Overview

The Revolution of Rockstar Energy

Energy drinks as an overall category have not changed much. They are associated with males and extreme action sports. As such, the category needed to expand, and Rockstar Energy, a subsidiary of PepsiCo, wanted to be part of that expansion. Rockstar decided to tap into the “hustle” culture. They defined it as “striving headstrong and voraciously toward a goal” and created the Hustle On campaign which launched during the pregame for the 2021 SuperBowl featuring Lil Baby, skateboarder Chris Joslin, and gaming icon and 100 Thieves founder Nadeshot. It also included real people who are hustling to their greatness. The entire effort celebrates the hustle mentality of Rockstar Energy’s target audience.

One of the key strategies was to engage a variety of influencers in a variety of ways. Rockstar Energy decided to build its internal team to establish and cultivate its most important relationships with influencers. They wanted to give their brand a “face” and show that they care about the creator. Rockstar Energy does work with agencies but felt that this move was important and has yielded several benefits for the brand. Their strategy includes a tiered approach to influencers where at the top they are establishing connection and cocreating with influencers and expanding audiences and at the lower tiers they are looking at those who they can build relationships with. “It is like a farm system. The top two tiers are the major league, and the other two tiers are the farm system,” said Gabe Alonso, head of digital platforms and community at PepsiCo in a talk at Adweek’s Social Media Week LA in June. He cited that both tiers are really important to Rockstar Energy.

Alonso also mentioned that it is important not to cling to strategy when it needs to be loosened up. In the Hustle On campaign, he talked about a partnership with Frank Cook that developed a Varsity Jacket for the Hustle Collective, a group of influencers who embody the brand. Many people wanted the jacket, but Alonso said he stubbornly stuck to the original strategy until it was clear that there was a better way. As such, he opened some creative control and that has been instrumental in developing a relationship with 100 Thieves and its leader Nadeshot on Twitch, expanding the gaming world to Rockstar Energy. Last, Rockstar Energy knows that influencers cannot do it alone and ensures that content can be amplified with a media investment. Going forward, Rockstar Energy is expanding its use of micro- and mid-tier influencers to tell their hustle stories backed by a media investment for the best content.¹

Opinion Leaders and the Evolution of Influencers

In the beginning of the book, I introduced the concept of influence. Opinion leaders are people who exert influence on the attitudes and behavior of others,² and the concept of influencers and opinion leaders have garnered extensive research attention, especially as it pertains to why people purchase certain things. The two-step communication model generally says that people are not influenced directly by media, but rather are influenced through intermediaries who act as opinion leaders in specific areas. Opinion leaders have gained their influence through mass media (in the past) and social media (in the present). Social influence is created through the transmission of opinion leaders’ attitudes and opinions to their followers, typically resulting in a form of social persuasion. Two broad research streams for opinion leadership include (1) what characteristics do influencers and opinion leaders possess and (2) how to identify who is influential.³ When examining influencer characteristics, it is important to understand the type of information that opinion leaders (referred to influencers from here) transmit via their communication to their followers and the domain in which their perceived expertise lies that makes them influential. The literature suggests that influencers can be monomorphic (meaning their expertise lies in one specific domain) or polymorphic (meaning their expertise spans multiple domains).⁴ For social media influencers (SMIs), domain knowledge can be based on a specific product category (makeup) or industry (fashion). Over time, some influencers may begin with a singular area of expertise and then expand into other areas (some related; some not), thus making these influencers attractive to a larger number of brands. Sometimes, the information is more utilitarian; other times is not. When considering the type of information transmitted via influencer marketing campaigns, opinion leaders and SMIs can serve as endorsers for brands that offer hedonic value by increasing followers’ personal attachment with the brand and/or brands that offer more utilitarian value by providing them functional information.⁵

Generally, opinion leaders come from a variety of demographic backgrounds and, at least initially, have some perceived expertise in a specific area. In fact, expertise has been seen as an important antecedent to social influence and opinion leadership. Early research on opinion leaders shows that typically they can garner media attention, likely to be extroverted, seek the acceptance of others, and are especially motivated to enhance their own social status. They are willing to stand out from the crowd and are generally seen as trustworthy.⁶ As such, they are powerful marketing tools.

The second broad research category revolves around how to identify opinion leaders and influencers. While there has been extensive debate on how to identify opinion leaders and influencers in many different contexts, research is starting to identify some of the attributes that are important when determining who an influencer is and relatedly and how to select the most effective influencers for marketing campaigns. While some of the practical ways of identifying influences are discussed in the following, the more strategic decisions will be examined in the next chapter.

Using the theoretical framework of opinion leadership and social influence, marketers have long used “famous” external endorsers in their efforts to sell products. This chapter dives into these efforts by first examining the role of celebrity endorsers in marketing for more than 60 years. Researchers have given celebrity endorsement attention providing a broad spectrum of insights. The point is to examine the newer types of endorsers—namely SMIs—along with the ways that practitioners are designing campaigns and the recent academic research in this area. There are areas of overlap between traditional celebrity endorsers and SMIs. However, there are also some areas where SMIs differ. There is still much to be learned. But first, let’s understand the importance of celebrities and marketing.

Celebrity Endorsers and Marketing

Companies have used celebrity endorsements as part of advertising and marketing strategies since the late 19th century.⁷ Generally, the use of celebrities has proven to be effective at gaining consumer attention and interest as well as garnering positive consumer attitudes and intentions.⁸ Generally, celebrities are perceived as credible, attractive, and well liked and have positive effects on brand evaluations. Given their ubiquity, recent research has reviewed the effects of celebrity endorsers.⁹

But first, what exactly is a celebrity? Historian Daniel Boorstin defines a celebrity as a “person well known for their well knownness.”¹⁰ This concept of being well known can be translated into celebrity capital defined as the “accumulated media visibility through recurrent media representations.”¹¹ Based on this foundation, celebrities can convert their celebrity capital into economic capital through endorsements.¹² Cultural anthropologist Grant McCracken defined celebrity endorsers as “any individual who enjoys public recognition and who uses this recognition on behalf of a consumer good by appearing with it in an advertisement.”¹³ But this definition is somewhat dated given that (1) the variety of marketing communication tactics has increased in the past 30 years and (2) the idea of public recognition has changed with the rise of social media, and relatedly, people who are influencers on social media. To take into consideration these changes, a new definition emerged. A celebrity endorsement is “an agreement between an individual who enjoys public recognition (a celebrity) and an entity (e.g., a brand) to use the celebrity for the purpose of promoting the entity.”¹⁴

Given this new conceptualization, the concept of a celebrity and who qualifies as a celebrity is much broader. Both traditional celebrities acting as endorsers and SMIs who are endorsing products hold symbolic capital primarily due to their number of followers and other cues. A key difference is how each gain celebrity capital. Traditional celebrity status is attained outside of endorsements (e.g., independently through prior achievements in a given domain like sports, music, or acting), whereas SMIs center on the Internet and social media by using it to boost their profile.¹⁵ In many cases, SMIs are known for a specific area (e.g., beauty and gaming), and their “knowness” was built online by developing content and a persona on social media platforms such as You Tube, Instagram, and TikTok. Given the ubiquity of social media, marketers need to better understand the differences between celebrity endorsers and SMIs and how best to capitalize on their effectiveness. Researchers have just started to develop a deeper understanding of theories and models from celebrity endorsers that can also shed insight into the effectiveness of SMIs. As such, this attention has led to the explosion of influencer marketing.

Influencer Marketing

While celebrity endorsement has a long and rich research history, influencer marketing—specifically within social media contexts—is much newer. So far, influencer marketing has been under researched,¹⁶ and since influencer marketing is relatively new (at least in the form that it’s currently being used), there are several definitions of influencer marketing, from both academic researchers and marketing practitioners. Table 3.1 highlights several definitions of influencer marketing.

When taking all definitions of influencer marketing into consideration, there are several key concepts to consider. First, the concept of influence (e.g., the power to produce an effect without force or command) is central. This influence is often in the form of friendly recommendations through engaging content as opposed to a direct sales pitch. Second, the influencer’s existing community of followers is an important target audience for the brand.¹⁷ While follower size (called ties) is important, it is not the only issue to consider. Trust is a key component of the relationship between the influencer and his or her community. Third, since influencers create and share branded content, influencer marketing describes content that exists on social media platforms in a seamless way and is related to branded content and native advertising.¹⁸ Fourth, influencer marketing takes advantage of the fact that influencers typically have a specific niche(s) that they are known for. This helps them position their content as credible and helps brands identify potential SMIs. Fifth, there are several marketing goals that can be attained using influencer marketing, not only sales. Last, influencer marketing is a form of paid media (as opposed to owned or earned) since influencers are compensated for their content creation and posting on social media. Compensation can be in several forms: money, in kind, or free products, trips, or services.¹⁹ Given this foundation,

Table 3.1 Influencer marketing definitions

Organization	Definition
Hubspot	Influencer marketing is designed to tap into an existing community of engaged followers on social media. Influencers are specialists in their niches. These individuals have influence over an audience you might be trying to reach and can be helpful marketing to those buyers (IZEA The Ultimate Guide to Influencer Marketing)
Buffer	Influencers act as a mutual friend connecting your brand with your target consumers. Moreover, an endorsement from an influencer has the power to drive traffic to your site, amplify your message across social media platforms, and even directly sell your product through their recommendation (IZEA The Ultimate Guide to Influencer Marketing)
Forbes	Influencer marketing should be honest and authentic. An influencer speaks about your product not because they are paid to do so, but because they want to. Ideally, you want an influencer to endorse you because they find your company interesting (IZEA The Ultimate Guide to Influencer Marketing)
Moz	Influencer marketing is the name we give to the process of developing relationships with influential people. Such process can lead to their assisting you in creating visibility for your product or service. This type of marketing depends on your having something great to offer your potential customers and the audience of the influencer, and it also depends on your building a great relationship with the influencer as well (IZEA The Ultimate Guide to Influencer Marketing)
Influencer Marketing Hub	At is most basic, influencer marketing is like a hybrid of old and new marketing tools, taking the idea of the celebrity endorsement and placing it in a modern day, content-driven marketing campaign. Moreover, the main difference is that the results of the campaign are usually collaborations between brands and influencers (IZEA The Ultimate Guide to Influencer Marketing)
IZEA	The process of promoting, selling, or distributing a product or service using indirect or intangible means, or without direct exercise of command (IZEA The Ultimate Guide to Influencer Marketing)
Campbell & Farrell 2020	At its most basic level, influencer marketing is the practice of compensating individuals for posting about a product or service on social media
Yodel 2017	Influencer marketing is a form of marketing where brands invest in selected influencers to create and/or promote their branded content to both the influencer’s own followers and the brand’s target audiences

For brands, there are several benefits to adding influencer marketing to the overall marketing strategy. First, influencer marketing content is more organic and authentic than brand-sponsored content. In fact, traditional advertising (print, television) as well as digital advertising (banner ads) has proven to be less effective than in the past and is particularly ineffective with younger audiences. Having influencers generate and distribute content is also an incredibly effective way to design messages that resonate (and provides the brand with quality and trustworthy content that can be repurposed for other needs). Given influencer marketing allows brands to reach a specific, targeted audience—the elusive Generation Z—and allows brand to reach niche audiences that would be difficult to enter without the help of influencers. Second, influencer marketing provides long-term and short-term value. Overall influencer content generates eight times more engagement on social media than brand content. But it depends on the influencer’s audience size. Research shows that in many cases as an SMI gains followers they tend to also have lower levels of engagement with them meaning that micro- and nano-influencers who have smaller, more specific audiences may be more beneficial for a brand to reach. Influencer marketing has a high return on investment. A Tap Influence Study found that influencer marketing has a return on investment (ROI) that’s 11 times greater than other forms of digital marketing and as such, 9 of 10 marketers believe that ROI achieved from influencer marketing is superior to other marketing channels. Third, younger audiences trust and follow advice from SMIs and relate to them more than they relate to traditional celebrities. Last, audiences use SMIs to discover brands which ultimately end up in a purchase.²⁰

Social Media Influencers

Social media influencers (SMIs) are also defined in several ways, and despite the recent attention, there is still no standard definition. However, there are several common themes. First, SMIs are a new type of celebrity endorser that is different from traditional celebrity endorsers. Sometimes called “micro-celebrities” with large followings on social media platforms,²¹ the difference is that SMIs are seen as regular people but are also different from the average social media user.²² This makes SMIs both influential to many, but still seen as “real.” Second, SMIs also command varying audience sizes on social media platforms such as You Tube, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and blogs but that is extent of their influence sphere for all but the top SMIs. In other words, they built their brand online. Third, SMIs possess some element of influence and/or opinion leadership capabilities. Researchers described them as a “new type of third-party endorser who shapes attitudes through … the use of social media to gain earned social capital.”²³ SMIs have cultural sway based on their use of their self-branding practices to build this influence.²⁴ Relatedly, most have built their reputation and expertise in a few niche areas and possess specialized knowledge and expertise. Fourth, SMIs create and disseminate content and as a result have created a platform where brands can engage with the audience via that SMI. First and foremost, content generators have a status or expertise in a specific area, have cultivated a sizable audience, and have marketing value to brands by regularly producing and disseminating content via social media.²⁵ Given these themes, SMIs can be defined as “a new type of endorser who creates and disseminates category specific content that is valuable and trusted by his/her community of followers on one more social media platforms and who has the ability to influence that community to act.”

As mentioned, SMIs differ from traditional celebrity endorsers. Traditional celebrities have gained their fame through external pursuits such as sports, music, acting, and politics and gain a following through their work, traditional media, and interviews.²⁶ Not all traditional celebrities (even those who endorse products) have strong social media followings. And reality stars are a particularly interesting case since their fame comes simply through reality television, but most of them maintain a strong social media presence, and as such, they become an SMI in many instances. But typical SMIs are everyday people who develop their personal brand through content creation and engagement with followers that have helped them to become the new brand endorsers based on their perceived credibility, authenticity, and relatability.²⁷ SMIs tend to have loyal audiences that they earned by carefully cultivating and creating valuable content that inspires, entertains, informs, and connects with their community of followers. They can ultimately drive conversations and engagement and set trends. SMIs have difference audience sizes and reach, rely on a variety of social media channels (although few command equal power on each platform), and work in a variety of categories.²⁸ SMIs can be known as (1) Instagrammers, (2) YouTubers, (3) Bloggers, (4) TikTokers, (5) Twitch Influencers, and (6) Snapchat influencers. While traditional celebrities can be influencers on social media (and indeed those with the largest followers are in fact traditional celebrities), the focus on most of newer research is gaining a better understand how “regular” people can become effective endorsers online.

Influencer Typology

Influencers are generally categorized into two primary tiers—the micro-influencers and macro-influencers.³⁰ The categories are based on two main issues. First, the number of followers is one way to categorize the influencer types. Second, whether the influencer has influence outside of social media is also an important indicator as to where he or she would land in the influencer category. As the industry has grown in the past few years, it became apparent that there needed to be more structure. The Standard Terminology in Influencer Marketing (STIM) defines tiers of influencers primarily based on their ties with followers (Figure 3.1).

Figure 3.1 Standard terminology in influencer marketing

The top of the influencer pyramid includes celebrities who are well known as athletes, musicians, actors, artists, and other areas. These are typically people with more than five million followers on social media platforms, namely Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Twitter. These include top Instagram influencers such as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Kylie Jenner, and Christian Ronaldo. For influencer marketing purposes, someone in the celebrity category should be known for something outside of social media and have a large social media following. The celebrity influencer is a natural extension of celebrity endorsers.

Mega Influencers

Mega influencers are those people who are not necessarily known for something outside of social media (but they may be, and as such could be considered minor celebrities). Mega influencers are typically experts in a niche area (e.g., fitness, cooking, and beauty), and social media helped them to become minor celebrities in these areas. Mega influencers are people with between one and five million followers on social media platforms (typically focused on one or two platforms). Examples include many well-known influencers such as Lele Pons for lifestyle, Sommer Ray for fitness, and James Charles for beauty. Mega influencers can also include influencers who are not necessarily tied to an industry niche. These include David Dobrik on YouTube and Charli D’Amelio on TikTok. Others have created channels on YouTube that have large audiences such as Swedish YouTuber PewDiePie who is known for meme reviews and has 102 million subscribers or Ryan’s World known for toy reviews with 22.4 million subscribers.

Reality stars are sometimes a special case of mega influencers. Reality stars are like celebrities in that they are famous for something outside of social media. But that is typically for being an “actor” on a reality television or digital show. As part of reality shows, participants also use social media as well, especially as their popularity increases. Many of made the transition from reality star to influencer (e.g., Kim Kardashian and Rachel Lindsay from The Bachelor). For example, Amanda Stanton from the Bachelor franchise has worked with brands like ThredUp, Sperry, Herbal Essence, and Rockbox. Others have used the fame to launch lines and businesses (e.g., Bobby Flay and Teresa Guidice). The primary example is probably the Kardashian/Jenner clan.

Macro-Influencers

Macro-influencers are people with between 500,000 and 1 million followers on social media platforms in a specific niche area. Macro-influencers are used for their large, broad, and diverse audience. Typically, these influencers work across several areas (as opposed to a single niche) and as such can partner with more brands. They are typically part of a larger advertising and branding effort and show higher brand lift and chosen for their visibility. Examples include Whitney Simmons, a top Instagram fitness influencers, and Rachel Levin (RCLBeauty) who shares beauty tips on YouTube.

Mid-Tier Influencers

Mid-tier influencers are typically those with between 50,000 and 500,000 followers who typically have a relatively small niche. These are influencers who fit in between—they don’t have as large of an audience as macro-influencers but have larger audiences than micro-influencers. They tend to drive high levels of engagement and are still known for niches. They are in a transition phase—between macro and micro, but given their moderate prices tend to generate positive ROI. Examples include the Old Navy holiday gift giving campaign which partnered with photographer and mid-tier influencer Matt Crump who is known for the #candyminimal movement.

Micro-Influencers

Micro-influencers typically have between 10,000 and 50,000 followers and are local and diverse in their niche areas. They focus on areas such as beauty, travel, and photography and are often found on Instagram. They post consistently and typically create high-quality content. The use of micro-influencers has been popular since they are able to reach small, targeted, and active audiences and tend to be more relatable. However, they do have less reach and lower levels of brand lift. Examples include Florida fashion blogger Chelsea Owen and the Kentucky Gent Josh Johnson who is a lifestyle influencer.

Nano-Influencers

Nano-influencers engage a small audience and typically have been 1,000 and 10,000 followers. Recently, nano-influencers are the sweet spot for brands. These are local and great for small campaigns and local businesses. Typically, nano-influencers personally know almost all their followers and as such have a high level of engagement and authenticity. Additionally, they are inexpensive—in fact, monetary compensation is not as important to them. Consider them like popular friends. They also tend to be easy to recruit and work with. For larger campaigns, brands may be able to deploy hundreds of nano-influencers and be incredibility effective.³¹

Employees

One special type of employees that don’t specifically fall into traditional categories include a company’s employees and leadership. Some companies are beginning to create and leverage employees in so-called employee advocate programs. However, this is still in its infancy. There could be some legal issues involved for some brands. But for those companies who can, tapping employees can be an amazing way to expand the brand’s community. Think about it—employees already have brand affinity and can speak with authority in an authentic way. And each has a social media following of various sizes and engagement. But more importantly, employees hold a unique position since brand impressions are largely the result of interactions with people.

Using employees as influencers can provide a few ways to try things and experiment, especially for smaller, local brands who are in service business.³³ One such example is West Gissinger in Dallas, Texas (@westgissinger on Instagram). She has 5,292 followers and is a Pilates instructor at Session Pilates. She posts about Sessions and her ab attack routine and works with a few other fitness brands. “Part of being a successful fitness professional is being active on social media. It comes with the territory. In boutique fitness, once you have earned your class spots you have gained a platform and it is up to each fitness professional to use it how they want to his or her advantage,” said West Gissinger. “Social media is one of the easiest and most direct ways to create excitement around the classes I teach as well as the other events at the studio. I use my social media to communicate my weekly class schedule, educate people on proper form, show what reformer Pilates is all about, ask for feedback or movement requests, and pull back the curtain on who I am beyond being on the microphone.” She also added that social media training is part of the instructor training and Sessions expect its instructors to post across social media. Sessions give employees a lot of creative freedom to do that. “Your instructors are our biggest brand ambassadors,” said Gissinger. “They are walking, talking, living, breathing embodiment of the brand.”³⁴

For business-to-consumer sectors, a great example is the Peloton instructors discussed in the following box. In fact, for many people, the instructors are Peloton. In this case, the Peloton instructors have amassed thousands of followers on Instagram with high engagement levels which contributes to the overall vibrancy of the community. Additionally, Peloton has spawned people who create audiences based on love for Peloton. The Pelobuddy on Instagram is a good example. The Pelobuddy set up the account to follow and post news about Peloton like new instructors, new features, and reposts from One Peloton, the official Instagram account as well as from instructor account.

For business-to-business (B2B) sectors, influencers can be clients, employees, or CEOs. Companies such as Prudential Financial and Cisco have leveraged employee advocacy programs.³⁵ Salesforce is a great example of a B2B who maximizes the influence of CEO Marc Benioff who is very active on Twitter. In 2015, IBM created an influencer program that allowed employees to share content on their social media platforms.³⁶ Regardless, though, the content must be more authentic and less promotional that with traditional influencers.

Everyday Fans

Many brands are realizing the value of their customers as influencers. For some brands, they are downright fans! Brian Salzman, the founder and CEO of relationship marketing agency RQ, said “the fan is the ultimate influencer, and leveraging their power is the best influencer marketing tactic around.”³⁸ Emily Weiss of Glossier (see Chapter 2 for her story) knows the value of using their own customers as influencers. In addition to using traditional influencers (e.g., Beyonce), Glossier also created an engaged community of fans who are now formal representatives (e.g., brand ambassadors) who endorse the brand on social media and IRL (in real life). Glossier’s only requirement is that they share values and produce content that the brand likes and who have something interesting to say about the products. They also want people from diverse backgrounds and locations. Their program has grown from 11 girls to more than 500. Other brands such as Peloton, Kylie Cosmetics, and the Ordinary are others who have tapped the power of community as influencers.³⁹

Influencer Selection

So, how does a marketing manager select the best option? Each influencer tier has advantages and disadvantages depending on the brand and goals for the campaign. If a brand is trying to reach a mass audience, it makes sense to use mega or macro-influencers (provided there is enough budget). Micro- and nano-influencers tend to have high levels of engagement with audiences and as such tend to have a lot of loyalty. Some brands use a mix of several influencer types based on campaign goals. As stated earlier, more and more brands are looking to micro- and nano-influencers given engagement rates and costs.

But is this system even the best way to categorize influencers? Doubtful. There is a lack of consensus on how many tiers there should be and how they are defined. It is also important to understand that simple quantitative measures like number of followers (or ties representing degree or centrality) or the ratio of vanity metrics such as likes, shares, comments to the total base (frequently used to measure engagement) cannot be the only consideration when selecting an influencer or evaluating a campaign.⁴⁰ Neal Shaffer argues that brand affinity is another way to differentiate influencers. The first level of brand affinity is employees. Customers and fans are the second level and last, and influencers are the last tier of brand affinity.⁴¹ He argues that in some cases, the first level of brand affinity is the most effective and then goes down from there. Some research examines influence in a more macro-way referring to “perceived opinion leadership,” leaving even more confusion on how to measure influencers. Research shows that influencers who follow fewer people convey a greater sense of autonomy which is seen as a positive signal of influence.⁴² Findings vary from a clear connection of followers and opinion leadership⁴³ to the number of followers simply being a proxy for popularity rather than influence.⁴⁴ So, this issue is still open for debate.

Platforms and Industry Categories

There are hundreds of social media platforms (and more being created regularly). Some come and go (remember Vine?). Some platforms are better for influencers (e.g., Instagram) than others (e.g., Snapchat). As platforms rise and fall, from a marketing perspective, the most important thing is to understand how people use social media platforms, what they do on them, and what content is best suited for platforms. Currently, people use social media platforms to (1) communicate and socialize with family and friends, (2) communicate and socialize with people unknown people but with whom there is a shared or comment interest, and (3) access and contribute to news and opinions (through user-generated content). Each of these cases represents a form of WOM marketing.⁴⁵

Currently, the top social media platforms for influencer marketing are Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. All three of these platforms share traits in common—all visually based (photos or videos), all are open where it is easy to find influencers and follow, and the content remains on the site. Contrast that with Snapchat where the communication is more intimate between friends and is not automatically archived on the site. Facebook, while it is still the largest platform (and maybe because of it), does find itself in the same influencer category. On Facebook, content can take on several forms. LinkedIn is an interesting case as well. While it may not have the pop culture attention, people in business use it to create and disseminate “thought leadership” which can be considered a specific type of influence.

Most influencers—especially nano- and micro-influencers—have a primary social media platform. Currently, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitch dominate the landscape. Some influencers do distribute their content across multiple platforms, but typically their influence is not equal across all of them. This is primarily due to the nature of the platforms, and how each matches influencer content. Instagram has highly visual, curated content with some video through Instagram Stories and IGTV. Influencers on Instagram are primarily lifestyle, fitness, beauty, and travel. YouTube and YouTube creators focus on longer form video, which is best for comedy, beauty (especially “how to” videos), automotive, technology, and lifestyle. Bloggers create long-form written and visual content, and platforms like Medium and SubStack are growing. Twitch is primarily livestreamed gaming and TikTok is short-form video.

There are several product and brand categories that use influencer marketing. And more types of brands are getting in. Some of these categories make a lot of sense. For example, beauty and fashion brands have used celebrities and models for years, so the addition of SMIs is a natural extension. The top niches for influencers include beauty, fashion, travel, luxury, lifestyle, parenting, health and fitness, and pets and animals. Brands can then connect with influencers in these categories that make the most sense for their goals. Table 3.2 outlines several of the categories where brands connect with influencers.

Nonprofit organizations are also able to use influencer marketing effectively. There are several examples of celebrities using their platforms for good. Emma Watson is a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador and Orlando Bloom is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. But other nonprofits have tapped noncelebrities too. WWF partnered with travel photographers for their campaign #Toolatergram where the photographers posted photos of natural beauty spots that have already been affected by climate change. During the pandemic, influencers were also able to provide support for parents facing similar challenges. This was in collaboration with UNICEF and WHO.⁴⁶ The process for influencer marketing with nonprofits is essentially the same. However, the compensation issues may be different. According to Addi McCauley of IZEA, “when nonprofits are working with influencers a lot of times they are not necessarily paying influencers like brands have to. Essentially the influencer is saying ‘I care about the cause and I want to partner with you because I have a platform to help spread your message.’” The challenge for nonprofits is that many times they want to equate influencer marketing with donations and that does not always happen. “Influencer marketing is not at its core a direct response marketing tactic, so I think a lot of it is more about the storytelling. It works better when the influencer brings it to their network versus the other way around,” McCauley added.⁴⁷

Table 3.2 Key categories for influencer marketing

Category
Gaming	Video game livestreams, E-sports, player tips, unboxing consoles, gaming product reviews
Family	Parents and family, relationship advice
Health and fitness	Fitness, yoga/meditation, health, wellness
Fashion and beauty	Luxury, clothing, styling, makeup tutorials, makeovers
Home	Luxury, styling, makeovers
Technology	Technology reviews; how to guide
Travel	Travel, backpackers, adventurers, photographers
Automotive	Car enthusiasts, auto repair guides
Music and entertainment	Singer, songwriter, musician, bands, videos, reviews of movies, shows, music
Finance and insurance	Banking and personal finance advice, investing advice, insurance advice
Pharmaceuticals and other regulated industries	Medical information about drugs and recently vaccines

As more brands capitalize on influencer marketing strategies, brand managers need to know more about how to design effective campaigns and how about they work. While is important to understand the “what” behind influencer marketing campaigns, academic research attempts to examine the deeper questions of “why” and “how” influencer marketing works. The next chapter examines this research so that marketers can get a solid foundation for their strategic decisions.