6 Trends Shaping Influencer Marketing in 2024
A new year has arrived, and with it new trends that will impact your approach to influencer marketing. Keeping up with evolving platforms, changing consumer behaviors, and the sheer amount of influencers in the game can be quite the dizzying experience, especially with how quickly the digital landscape keeps shifting. One thing has remained the same, though: harnessing the power of influencers brings amazing benefits to brands.
What will influencer marketing look like in 2024 and how should you respond? Is the key to tap influencers with the largest following? Or to do one big promo blast to generate huge buzz for a product?
We’ve got answers to those and more! Here’s what the Near team is seeing in influencer marketing for 2024:
1. Budol hauls? So last year.
2023 was a time when everyone’s Instagram and TikTok feeds were filled with shopping hauls and budol finds, especially in time for big sales on e-commerce platforms. It’s been fun and all, but Ella Sarol, our Head of Customer Success, suggests it’s time to say goodbye to budol content in 2024.
It had its time, but now that audiences are bombarded left and right with shopping content, it has reached a point where people are just growing tired of being told what to buy. So, hard sell? Hard pass.
Tip: Allow your influencers to naturally integrate product promotions into their content. Give them space to get to know the product and then develop content that promotes your brand in a way that is true to their personalities.
Take this example from one of Near’s very own campaigns for Emma Sleep. We tapped husband-and-wife team Kath and Gene, who injected a promotion for the mattress in their room reveal video in a fun way.
2. Community > Following
Using following or even engagement rate as a criteria for influencers can reap great results, but it isn’t the real factor that influences a campaign’s success. Based on the Near team’s observations throughout our campaigns, we have seen that what truly matters is to look for community.
Partnering with influencers who produce high-quality content can lead to meaningful engagement and high conversions because their community truly values their input and what they have to say is relevant to their market. If the product you’re promoting resonates with the niche influencer’s audience, then they are more likely to check it out.
Tip: One way to look for community is to check comment threads to see how followers are responding. Another is to see if the influencer engages and responds with other peers or even with their followers. When they also have a lot of mentions or tags, you know that followers are reposting them.
One example of an influencer with a highly specific market is Angelu. Their content isn’t simply centered around lifestyle and home life, but more specifically on living alone content that their followers find interesting and relatable.
Here’s one of their many TikTok videos sharing some tips on moving out and living alone!
Another micro-influencer with content catering to a highly specific audience is Jasmin Legson of Dear Moms PH. She makes content that revolves around a Pinoy mother’s typical day-to-day responsibilities, making her a go-to influencer for fellow moms.
3. Death to the Cookie Cutter
If your influencers are executing the same brief in the exact same way, you’re never going to stand out and pull off authenticity.
Something our Customer Success team at Near emphasizes is that people can tell when an influencer isn’t being sincere. Whether it’s the tone of the content or quality of the output, viewers notice. So in 2024, remember that people are looking for real, honest content to consume.
Create a brief that allows influencers to truly express who they are, and show the talking points and brand USPs instead of telling. For example, if a shampoo brand wants influencers to mention that they get smooth silky hair, maybe smooth can be expressed in different ways based on the influencer’s personality.
One possible execution is by tapping an influencer who creates content that centers around dating. They can create content about the best and “smoothest” pick-up lines to use on a first date, which can then segue into the shampoo promotion.
Tip: Put less emphasis on aesthetically pleasing content and more on authentic slice-of-life content, especially for TikTok promotions.
Nico Bolzico’s creative videos featuring his “wifezilla” Solenn Heusaff are a perfect instance of branded executions done in the unique voice of the influencer.
Check out this ad he did packaged into a short video of his life as a “bullied” husband.
4. In It for the Long Haul
Here’s the thing: when you partner up with influencers, you have to be prepared to play the long game. What we mean by that is it won’t do a brand well in the long run if you just focus on creating hype in one go and then hoping for the best.
Generating hype is just part of the challenge. You also need to figure out how to sustain that hype. It may feel tedious, but our Influencer Marketing Strategist Sabi Santos says that although the process can feel like a bit of trial and error at first, when you tap tried-and-tested brand ambassadors (Remember: quality over quantity!) to work with long term, you will end up with good, credible content to promote your product with.
Working with them long term also shows your audience that the influencer truly has a relationship with the brand and that they use the product and that it’s not just a one-off paid execution.
Tip: Patience is a virtue. Maximize the impact of brand ambassadors with long-term influencer partnerships. And remember that results don’t come immediately. Let your content marinate before it gets picked up by algorithms.
5. Niche-crossing
You’d usually tap a beauty influencer for a beauty brand. Or a food content creator for a food brand. Recent campaigns have shown that crossing niches can be a successful strategy.
The most creative campaigns of 2024 will involve niche-crossing. This means influencers and brands from different industries will team up to create exciting and original campaigns that will not just be buzzworthy, but also potentially introduce a brand or product to an entirely new market that isn’t as obviously relevant to them.
Tip: Brainstorm with your team and look into the less apparent interests of a brand’s market. You may find influencer marketing opportunities in niches you haven’t previously considered, and then tap into a new market for the brand you’re promoting.
For a campaign Near did for PUMA Suede Classic, we partnered with 60+ influencers across the niches of music, art, sports, and fashion and it produced over 3 million in reach!
Here’s one post from musician Gabba Santiago for the My Suede, My Way campaign:
One cross-industry campaign that was all the buzz this year is the collaboration between Hailey Bieber’s Rhode Skin and Krispy Kreme. For the partnership, Rhode Skin launched limited edition lip treatments inspired by Krispy Kreme’s strawberry glaze donuts, while the donut brand announced it was relaunching its strawberry glaze donut in stores for a limited time only.
And hey, if you think about what makes the best lip glosses and donuts so appealing, doesn’t the word glaze come to mind? So, genius collab choice, as far as we’re concerned.
6. Trend Setting > Trend Following
Tracking pop culture events and emerging trends will help you produce trendy content before social media gets saturated with it. But in 2024, it’s time to take a proactive approach on trends. Even better than being the first to jump on a trend is to be the one who sets it. As TikTok becomes more and more prominent as a place for brand promotions, you also have to find more interesting ways to stand out.
Our Customer Success Associate Mika Tionson notes that trends that people are eager to follow are typically ordinary activities, but done with a touch of novelty. One content creator who successfully did this was Tricia Ambeguia. She turned your typical TikTok content (a makeup video) into something new and fun to replicate by adding the challenge of doing it with eyes closed.
The trend was unique and funny, but it was also accessible enough to viewers that it was easy to try for themselves.
Tip: Get creative. Start your own trends with original and interesting TikTok-friendly content and tap the right influencers to spread the word. This way, people will get excited to pick it up and reproduce it.
Key Takeaway
2024 is the year to be strategic and intentional with your influencer marketing campaigns because the market will only grow more and more dynamic and competitive as time goes by. Campaigns that are well-thought out, well-planned, and well-executed will make all the difference. Don’t be afraid to be inventive!
Looking to tap the best influencers for your influencer campaigns? Contact us at Near Creative and we’ll help you out!
