The latest data from Sensor Tower pertaining to Pakistan shows that half of the top ten apps downloaded in Q1 2021 were social media apps such as SnackVideo, Snapchat, TikTok, StarMaker, and Likee. These apps allow their users also known as social media content creators (SMCC) to upload videos, clips, and images of themselves in a range of creative activities, attract a following and monetize their audiences through deals with media agencies and advertisers. The tactic of using SMCCs to help advertisers raise awareness, grow trust, and lift consideration is proving to be an effective component of business-to-consumer (B2C) tools. Popularly referred to as influencer marketing, the repeated use of the tactic has spurned Pakistan-based platforms such as DEN, Walee, Amplifyd, and Bradri. In speaking with researchers at firms such as Ipsos and Kantar, it was told that considering the findings from post-campaign effectiveness research exercises which include conjoint analysis, Zaltman metaphor elicitation technique, netnography marketers are learning that one-way advertising is gradually declining in terms of recall, positioning reinforcement, and engagement. These include television commercials, as well as advertising on the radio, print, and out-of-home advertising, with the marketing community actively seeking alternatives. One such alternative appears to be using SMCCs who create seemingly off-the-cuff and unpolished content, appear relatively relatable and approachable to the Generation Z populace. The extent to which the salesperson was perceived to be likable and similar to members of the buying firm and frequency of business contact with the salesperson had significantly positive effects on the trust of the salesperson, said celebrated researchers Patricia Doney and Joseph Cannon in their critically acclaimed 1997 paper An Examination of the Nature of Trust in Buyer-Seller Relationships in Journal of Marketing Vol. 61. In general, trust of the supplier firm and trust of the salesperson influenced a buyers anticipated future interaction with the supplier. Applying the rationale that the new normal in Pakistan with Generation Z suggests high signals of trust with SMCCs, the incoming investments from the largest online marketplace in Pakistan and the largest media investment company in Pakistan are about to disrupt the current status quo by which SMCCs can earn the title of influencer. Executives from the largest media investment agency in Pakistan have shared that their influencer marketing campaign management solution INCA will roll out for large, medium, and small advertisers nationwide by Q3 2021. As marketers, you always continue going back to the drawing board in terms of your value proposition, said Naveed Asghar, CEO of GroupM Pakistan. From time to time, you see brands doing a launch or relaunch in order to strengthen the overall value proposition. The same is the case with us that we have seen the market for influencer marketing grow leaps and bounds across the globe and even here in Pakistan. In 2017, GroupM introduced a campaign management tool called MFluence which allowed advertisers to view a database of SMCCs, including their self-reported audience insights, and pricing. While executives from GroupM would not disclose whether an application programming interface (API) would be used to bridge SMCC accounts with INCA, they did say that the tool would rank SMCCs based on engagement rates instead of follower counts. This mirrors the approach used by G&B, an influencer management firm.

The initial screen test to see about fake followers is the engagement to follower ratio, said Kyle Hjelmeseth, the founder & CEO of G&B. A lot of fraud detection tools use this as an initial screen of whether or not an account bought followers. But, its important to analyze that sample properly and take a statistically significant sample of the influencers followers and then determine how many are fraudulent accounts or bots. The leading online marketplace. Daraz.pk is tapping into SMCCs such as Tabish Hashmi as the face of a new content marketing initiative which will help the business retain eyeballs and drive contextual sales on the back of a shopper-entertainment experience. Within the Daraz app, the company plans to publish programs in the genre of comedy, cooking, fashion, and game shows, all of which either display a product that can be purchased in real-time on the Daraz app or will proactively offer viewers through the app a chance to either win one or win digital cash that only is redeemed on the platform. TV viewership has decreased year on year, billboards have also decreased, traditional advertising consumption is decreasing, said Pireh Shafiq, the public relations and user communications lead at Daraz. Only the first ten seconds of video content is consumed on digital assets as well. Advertising needs to be more consumable and relevant, consumers are avoiding advertising, we need to adopt more entertainment-based marketing. Content marketing is a growing area for marketing and education as well. Content marketing is far more than what we are doing. It will be the impact SMCCs have on moving GMV which will truly result in them earning the right to call themselves influencers, which is a term this scribe actively avoids using when covering SMCCs due to their value being measured by advertisers based on vanity metrics. The SMCC with a million followers and the ability to move a billion rupees of GMV will be much more valuable to advertisers than the SMCC with ten times that following and one percent of that commercial influence. Think of it as the average revenue per follower. At scale, this decision by Daraz could fundamentally change the way advertisers and media agencies price SMCCs, including the role they play in the buyer decision process by virtue of GMV, moved and the recorded average revenue generated per follower.

As a marketer, do you think Daraz and GroupM would be able to disrupt influencer space? Is the strategy developed sound enough to sustain? Discuss.