10 Trend Predictions for Influencers and Influencers in 2020

2019 was the year when major internet celebrities shined. Li Jiaqi earned 200 million yuan, Li Ziqi became popular overseas, and Kuaishou Simba's sales exceeded 11 billion yuan...Looking for internet celebrities to bring products has become a new trend in brand marketing and a new wave sweeping the global marketing field.

Recently, the editor has read domestic and foreign industry data, opinions of big Vs, relevant reports and other materials, and boldly predicted 10 trends about internet celebrities/influencers in 2020.

I hope everyone can gain something and be inspired. If you have different opinions or suggestions, please leave a message in the comment area.

01

The Internet celebrity economy will continue to expand

In the Internet era, the development speed and commercial potential of the Internet celebrity economy are constantly refreshing people's cognition:

Papi Jiang, who became famous for her funny short videos, sold 22 million for one advertisement in 2016.

Zhang Dayi, who was a model, set a record of sales exceeding 100 million yuan in 28 minutes, and became the first internet celebrity to ring the bell on Nasdaq in April 2019.

Taobao anchor Wei Ya guided a transaction amount of up to 134 million yuan in her New Zealand traceability live broadcast in August 2019.

Li Ziqi, who has become popular overseas, achieved online store sales of over 20 million during her store anniversary celebration in 2019. The annual income exceeds 100 million.

Li Jiaqi, who earned 200 million yuan in 2019, recently became a hot topic for selling 100,000 packs of ham in 5 seconds.

…

In the future, the internet celebrity economy (including internet celebrities on e-commerce platforms, e-sports anchors, and short video internet celebrities) may continue to expand.

For e-commerce influencers, with the increasing acceptance and recognition of e-commerce live streaming and the formation of live streaming consumption habits, the market size of influencer e-commerce live streaming will further expand. According to the forecast of domestic research institution Crawford: In 2020, the e-commerce market size of the internet celebrity economy will reach 300 billion yuan.

Figure: "2019 Internet Celebrity E-commerce Ecosystem Development White Paper" TopKlout

According to the forecast of Frost & Sullivan, a well-known foreign research institution, the total scale of the internet celebrity economy (including e-commerce revenue, online rewards, knowledge payment, endorsements and commercial performances, etc.) will also reach 340 billion yuan.

Source: Frost & Sullivan "Statistics and Forecasts of China's Internet Celebrity Economy"

02

Internet celebrities may replace traditional media and become a key platform for brand investment

Online influencers are gradually replacing traditional marketing methods such as television and print media.

On the one hand, the millennials (mainly those born in the 1980s and 1990s), whose purchasing power is growing, are tired of the “carpet bombing” or “forced recommendations” of traditional advertising, and they prefer to refer to the opinions of their followers when making consumption decisions. According to data from Ogilvy & Mather Cannes, only 6% of millennials believe in traditional marketing advertisements, but 92% believe in influencers.

Image: business insider

On the other hand, it is because social media, which is constantly being optimized and popularized, has gradually seized a lot of consumers' time. Under the impact of the Internet and social waves, the 4P theory in the context of traditional advertising is not as efficient as before, and the "one-stop" approach of traditional advertising is no longer realistic. Internet celebrity marketing can deliver brand information to target consumers faster, more accurately, and with greater stickiness.

Brands are also paying more and more attention to the role of Internet celebrities in marketing. For example, Estee Lauder has announced that it will invest 75% of its marketing budget on Internet celebrities in 2020. According to foreign media mediakix's forecast: In 2020, global influencer marketing spending will reach 10 billion US dollars.

Image: mediakix

03

Internet celebrities are no longer just planting grass

In the past, brands might seek out influencers just to create a topic/hot topic, increase brand awareness, or just let KOLs promote their products to their fans.

In the future, when brand owners are looking for influencers to work with, they may ask them to conduct more comprehensive and in-depth marketing (including brand promotion, product recommendation, personalized customization, interaction with users, and increasing user repurchase rates).

Figure: "2019 Internet Celebrity E-commerce Ecosystem Development White Paper" TopKlout

At the same time, Internet celebrities will naturally become long-term partners of brands. In the future, once a brand determines that an influencer’s fans are highly matched with the target consumers, it may continue to run advertisements on the same influencer more than a dozen times.

Image: influencermarketinghub

In the future, the bloggers/up hosts/anchors you follow may promote a brand over a long period of time and frequently, and collect information during the interaction and provide feedback to the brand.

04

The life cycle of influencers is facing a decline

New platforms and new forms have created a large number of new Internet celebrities, and the life cycle of Internet celebrities is also constantly declining. Looking back at the internet celebrities that were popular last year, many of them have faded out of people’s sight. For example, the popularity of Lu Chao and Xiongying Gaofei has dropped significantly, Daigula K is hard to find on Douyin, and there has been no news about the wandering master Shen Wei for a long time.

Picture: Eagle flying high

After users become accustomed to the styles and routines of old influencers, their attention will quickly be drawn to new and fresh influencers, just like they paid attention to the old influencers in the first place. In recent years, users have increasingly higher demands for creativity and aesthetics, making it an increasingly severe test for internet celebrities to maintain their popularity.

05

More virtual influencers emerge

Virtual characters, due to their greater plasticity and fun, spread faster, are easier to recognize, and have stronger marketing capabilities.

Now, some CGI (computer-generated images) virtual influencers have emerged. For example, LilMiquela, the most popular virtual influencer on Instagram (an overseas social platform), not only has more than 1.8 million followers on Instagram, was invited to attend the Prada Fall/Winter show, but was also selected as one of the top 25 influencers in the world by Time magazine together with Trump. (The third person from the right in the picture below)

Another virtual internet celebrity, Noonoouri, not only cooperated with Tmall, but also participated in the fashion brand Valentino 2019 early autumn fashion show under the Chinese name "Nunu", and wore the same clothes as Yang Mi. She also filmed a commercial with Yi Yang Qianxi in 2019.

Photo: VogueMe

With the development of technologies such as AI, the modeling and production costs of virtual internet celebrities are declining rapidly. More and more fashion brands have begun to try collaborating with virtual influencers. In the future, the potential of virtual influencers will be immeasurable.

06

The potential of middle- and lower-level influencers

Mid- and low-end influencers have two major potentials: natural traffic and more active interactions.

Recommendation algorithms (algorithmic recommendations for content) are likely to be the mainstream traffic distribution mechanism in the future. This mechanism means that in addition to being affected by the scale of the Internet celebrity, the "right" content of the Internet celebrity will also bring a lot of traffic. At the same time, Douyin and Kuaishou platforms are increasing their support for mid- and low-level influencers, distributing more traffic to them and "empowering" them.

Specifically, after the application of recommendation algorithms becomes popular, targeting suitable mid- and low-end influencers at a lower cost may have better effects than targeting top influencers, and with luck, you may even come across a hit.

on the other hand. Overseas research organization Later, after counting the activity of fans of influencers of various fan levels (bloggers with less than 50,000 fans), found that mid- and low-end influencers are also worthy of consideration by brands. Although they do not have many fans, their fans are more active.

Image: Later

07

The verticalization of influencers is still a trend

Compared with mass internet celebrities, the content delivered by vertical internet celebrities is more professional and in-depth, the monetization methods are more diverse (e-commerce, advertising, training, rewards, etc.), and the monetization efficiency is also higher.

For example, military influencer Zhang Zhaozhong started selling T-shirts, cups, mouse pads and other influencer-related products during the live broadcast. This method of monetization is relatively difficult for ordinary internet celebrities.

In the field of e-commerce live streaming, the verticalization of internet celebrities' content will also be a major trend, because in the future, platforms will pay more attention to the needs of certain specific user groups. There will be more new opportunities in the live streaming e-commerce market segment, and brands will also actively support the growth and operation of internet celebrities in more segmented vertical fields. (In the vertical field of e-commerce influencers, more influential anchors will emerge, similar to the "Lipstick King" and "Taobao Queen", becoming the "King" and "Sister" of XX categories, but it is difficult to reach the popularity of Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya.)

08

Internet celebrities will be more precise in their fan operations

The influence of internet celebrities is not omnipotent. For example, Li Jiaqi’s sales of men’s beauty products and Li Xiang’s sales of mink coats both failed unexpectedly. In the future, Internet celebrities may target precise user groups, match corresponding services and content, and meet personalized and customized needs.

In addition to paying more attention to personalized and precise services, crowd, order and traffic data will be further integrated to obtain more accurate fan insights. The classification standards for fans will also become more diversified and precise, and products will be presented to fans in richer forms. The right content will be delivered to the right people in the right context.

Figure: "2019 Internet Celebrity E-commerce Ecosystem Development White Paper" TopKlout

09

Internet celebrities become branded, and brands become Internet celebrities

In the future, more and more internet celebrities will become their own brand owners, serving their own brand advertising and e-commerce conversions. For example, when many netizens purchase products, they may not care too much about the brand of the product itself, but instead look at the attributes of the anchor’s brand (whether the anchor is reliable, the anchor’s bargaining power, the anchor’s product selection style, etc.).

Interestingly, in the future more brands will consider incubating internet celebrities from within the company.

The internal here refers to employees and customers. Their marketing potential has been underestimated. Although they may not have many fans, their understanding of the company's products and their enthusiasm for recommending them are unmatched by Internet celebrities. Moreover, the almost free promotion cost provides brands with more room for error. (For example, Weilong Artist on TikTok brings a lot of free traffic to the brand)

10

New technologies bring new forms of sales

The maturity and commercial use of technologies such as 5G have made interactive forms such as live streaming more diversified, and Internet celebrities will improve their efficiency in selling products through new interactive methods. Gamification attributes will also account for a larger proportion in the process of influencers bringing products.

For example, in the future, when you go to an offline store to shop, the clerk will use VR/AR equipment to bring the contracted internet celebrity to you, allowing you to understand the product's marketing information in a more realistic and interactive way.

Author: Michael from Meihua.com

Source: Meihua Event