[Marketing Week] Bob Koigi: Influencers redefine advertising and brand positioning

In a world where consumers are increasingly becoming skeptical of traditional advertising, marketers are turning to influencers to create authentic content, connect with customers and position brands.

The value of authenticity cannot be overlooked. According to research dubbed Aligning Marketers and Influencers: Shifting Perspectives on Influencer Marketing Across the Funnel by impact.com, the partnership management platform, in partnership with WARC, an international marketing intelligence company, 85% of influencers and 67% of marketers ranked high levels of trust and authenticity as the first and second most (respectively) significant strengths of influencer marketing, which, over time, creates stronger partnerships.

The report found that 75% of marketers leverage influencers for brand awareness and 73% for brand engagement. 

Still on marketing, Smartly.io, the social advertising automation platform for creative and performance marketers, has announced it is TikTok’s first-to-market campaign and ads partner to launch TikTok’s new ad solution, Shopping Ads, for advertisers to begin testing ahead of the 2022 holiday season.

This launch builds on Smartly.io’s Beta product for TikTok launched earlier this year, bringing its tools and automated workflows to Shopping Ads to enable scale, optimization, and testing that drive real results.

The marketing space is gaining interest among young professionals. New research from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) reveals that three fifths (60%) of young people (aged 16-21) consider marketing a career choice. The research comes as A-Level results day and the clearing process across the UK puts a focus on the age group’s careers.

The survey, which looks at the views of 500 young people (16-21) and over 500 parents in the UK, shows that despite the younger generation’s eagerness, parents’ negative attitudes towards the profession may act as a barrier to them entering the marketing industry.

In advertising, Yahoo has announced a partnership with ComScore  to give Yahoo DSP advertisers additional and enhanced brand safety and suitability controls for connected TV (CTV) campaigns. Additionally, contextual segments - leveraging categories like TV genre - support campaign relevancy and reach within identity-less CTV app environments.

PubMatic, an independent technology company delivering digital advertising’s supply chain of the future, has announced an expanded supply path optimization (SPO) partnership with Havas Media Group (HMG) North America.

The partnership makes PubMatic a preferred SSP for the agency’s brand clients in North America, bringing publishers and brands together through the HMG proprietary Converged platform, which enables buyers to connect their data more directly with that of publishers.

And MGID, the global advertising platform, and PubMatic, an independent technology company delivering digital advertising’s supply chain of the future, have announced a new advertising partnership.

PubMatic’s clients benefit from direct access to quality, brand-safe native video and display placements across MGID’s exclusive roster of premium global publishers, with an addressable audience of over 900 million unique monthly users.

And within the sustainability front, Sasol Chemicals, a business unit of Sasol Ltd., plans to double its use of green steam from a first of its kind biomass cogeneration facility adjacent to its Brunsbüttel, Germany facility.

Sasol Chemicals will lease land adjacent to its plant to Hamburger Energiewerke, Hamburg’s municipal utility, which plans to build the facility by the end of 2024. 

This, as German multinational chemical company BASF announced it had reached its goal of sourcing all palm (kernel) oils certified from sustainable sources by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in 2021.

Based on a voluntary commitment, the company purchased 242,946 metric tons of certified palm kernel oil in 2021, representing 100% of the total procurement volume. BASF also made further progress in developing transparent supply chains: Almost 96 percent of the company’s global oil palm footprint – a total of 441,107 metric tons – can be traced back to the oil mill where it was produced. Compared with conventional sourcing, BASF avoided more than 330,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions.

Bob Koigi is an editor at Marketing Report EU

www.marketingreport.eu

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