Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is far from being a new concept and has seen major transformations since its beginning. Traditional advertisers will date earliest influencers back to medieval times when the ruling class deeply influenced (or dictated) the behaviour of their subjects, before the influencer emerged from the film, music, sports and reality TV sector. Today we still see evidence of such influence embedded in our media and industries. Yet influencer marketing is no longer what it used to be. The popularity of social networking sites has prompted many businesses to switch from placing significant investment into traditional media like TV, radio and posters in favour of social media platforms. Despite recognition that influencer marketing dates back before the twentieth century, it is mostly recognised as a modern digital marketing term to promote products or services (Belanche et al., 2021; Campbell & Farrell, 2020; De Veirman et al., 2017; Farivar et al., 2021). Thus, influencer marketing has become an essential part of digital marketing strategy for marketing purposes and profit generation. Industry reports have indicated an increase in the use of influencer agencies. The influencer marketing agency Linqia (2019) reported that 86% of brand marketers used influencer marketing in their advertising campaigns in 2017 and 92% of them found it effective. Another agency, Mediakix (2018), reported that 89% of companies saw a better return of investment with influencer marketing than other marketing channels and would continue to increase their influencer marketing budgets in 2019. Once a minor movement, the investment and market size of influencer marketing in the digital era worldwide reached US$148 million in 2019, and this is expected to exceed US$373 million by 2027 (Statista, 2020).