Almost a third of brands signing deals with influencers over the last 12 months had no such deals in 2023 or 2022 according to tracking by sports and entertainment intelligence platform SponsorUnited. Of those brands, 96% entered into one partnership with a top 100 celebrity influencer (determined by social media following), while the remaining 4% entered into multiple partnerships.
Despite the appeal of celebrity influencers, SponsorUnited noted many brands gravitating towards non-celebrity influencers because of cost-effectiveness and better engagement. “The data is clear,” said Bob Lynch, founder and CEO of SponsorUnited in a release. “The more endorsement deals someone takes on, the more their engagement drops. Brands are constantly seeking the next big, untapped voice — and today, that’s almost always an influencer.”
Why we care. Trends in the marketing space may take a few years to fully establish themselves — then suddenly they’ve become part of our everyday lives. Influencer marketing is everywhere now, just as paid social ads, shoppable ads and live streams and retail media networks are also coming into their own.
The two trends to note here are brands still entering the space for the very first time and the way in which some brand categories are making the shrewd decision that an engaged, knowledgable advocate has more relevant reach than, oh, Taylor Swift — and costs less.
Which new brands? Almost 40% of the brands new to the space fell into three categories:
- Consumer products.
- Food products.
- Apparel and accessories.
Brand activity overall. Of all brands tracked, cosmetics and skin care saw the highest number of deals (65), closely followed by non-sports apparel and footwear. L’Oreal and Walmart headed the pack, each securing six new deals.
Celebrities v. influencers. Preference for celebrities over influencers (or vice-versa) varied by brand category:
- Luxury apparel and accessories leaned towards celebrities.
- Influencers dominate in tech categories including consumer electronics.
When it comes to influencers, brands favor younger ones with those aged under 34 representing some 80% of deals in the influencer category.
The winners. While celebrities tend to have more brand deals than influencers, two young influencers had the most new deals in this report: YouTube make-up star James Charles (12) and TikTok-famous Charli D’Amelio (11).
Perhaps the most astonishing statistic in the report: The top 100 most followed celebrities/influencers gained 825 million new followers over the past 12 months. Those with the biggest gains among celebrities were Italian football journalist Fabrizio Romano (22 million) and Dwayne Johnson (10 million), while among influencers, YouTuber MrBeast [sic] attracted no fewer than 182 million new followers.
Here’s the full report. Celebrities are distinguished from influencers based on their “primary source of public recognition.”
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