MUST READ - Marketing Via Paid Online Influencers Sees Dramatic Growth in Survey Paid endorsements by online influencers is now used by 52 percent of online marketers -- a number that is rapidly closing in on display ads (58 percent) as the top paid avenue for online advertising. The explosion was registered in the 2014 State of Sponsored Social Report conducted by Halverson Group on behalf of influencer marketing firm IZEA. It’s not just the fact that sponsored social is second on the list of channels used, it’s how quickly it rose to popularity. When asked how they feel about various marketing channels vs. how they felt a year ago, marketers showed a far greater gap between then and now in sponsored social against any other channel. In fact, sponsored social’s momentum was almost twice that of experiential marketing and more than twice that of online display ads. It destroyed traditional channels. Official sponsorship status in standard TV spots and ads in radio, magazines and newspapers all scored negative momentum from last year (meaning they are less favorable now). When asked about the leap, even the industry’s biggest supporter of sponsored posts -- IZEA CEO Ted Murphy -- was surprised. “It floored me, to be honest,” Murphy says. “I think we have been watching the industry and kind of seeing this happen, but I didn’t realize the support would be quite that strong.” Murphy, whose IZEA serves as a platform to connect interested brands with willing social influencers and publishers, says the results surprised the research team at Halverson as well. He says what they think is happening is earned media, paid media and content marketing are beginning to blend. Sponsored social offers so many benefits across channels -- public relations, media and marketing -- brands get more benefit for the investment, according to Murphy. read on: entrepreneur/article/238602
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 12:00:00 +0000
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