Brand before product! Therein lies the new power in influencer marketing

At a certain point in human history, people had to be told how to use baking soda. They didn’t know before. We can all imagine what that looked like: A too-long black-and-white film, probably from the early 1960s, a model family with an even more presentable wife, who describes in solid rhyme, but only with the help of her husband, how she survives Sunday thanks to Dr. Oetker – from today’s perspective, at best to be consumed as nostalgia. Otherwise, however, it is boring in every way, backward and certainly quite annoying overall. What can I say? The average influencer marketing from the year 2024 makes exactly the same impression on me:

The feed as a shopping spree

The first TV commercial that flickered across the box, the first jingle that played on the radio, the first advertising pillar that stood in someone’s way – they certainly attracted attention back then. However, the measures have lost some of their intensity over the decades. As groundbreaking as the first discount code that readers of a blog once found somewhere was, it no longer stops today’s users from scrolling on.

Since the major app update in November 2020 at the latest, Instagram has also officially become an online store. We encounter influencer marketing here more often than we see ourselves in the mirror. The outcome of such a partnership is correspondingly uncertain for companies. Influencers are no longer a guarantee for greater reach and the development of new target groups. Why is collaboration still more exciting than ever?

The influencer as a brand

From “I would like to introduce you to a new project” to “I have been testing it for 3 weeks” to “With the code 0815 you get 10 percent” – the good old influencer co-op at best provides the attention that one of many shop windows in the shopping center gets. If, as in the marketing of the 1960s, the focus is on the products, their application and evaluation, it is mainly the users who are interested in the product group anyway who are activated. The opportunity to reach an influencer’s entire community and create completely new points of contact with a target group is not being used to its full potential.

The simple solution is: brand before product! And this does not mean the company’s brand, but that of the influencer. What is it that unites all of an influencer’s followers? It is the love for the person, the love for the content of this person. And this is exactly the content we want to see.

Crunching time

For my part, I love Caitlin Reilly. The actress got her start as a TikToK comedian during corona and has since established video after video with numerous characters who talk about their lives in crazy monologues. How does influencer marketing work with her? Does she do an unboxing story and then list the benefits of the product? Fortunately not!

The example shows that the provider was not interested in talking exclusively about the product. Rather, Google Play has understood that an influencer cooperation means the opportunity to see its own product in the guise of another brand and to reach viewers through humor. As a follower of Caitlin, I see exactly what I want to see despite the advertising partnership. The prerequisite for influencer marketing like this is, of course, to select influencers who have a recognizable brand in the first place.

The NoAngels are also doing it right

It was the comeback of the millennium. The NoAngels have been back since 2021. To mark the band’s 20th anniversary, BMG, the Angels’ record company, really got the nostalgia advertising drum beating. And where better to do that than with galerie arschgeweih?

What was the collaboration like? The same goes for all postings by the three Viennese. A clip from the early 2000s is put into a new, everyday context with just a few words, making it suddenly funny. The post fits seamlessly into the feed. While product-oriented collaborations always run the risk of reach and interaction suddenly flopping, a brand-oriented collaboration guarantees that the respective influencer’s community is addressed to the same extent as the rest of his or her content.

Fashion coops can be cool too?

If you are looking for innovative content, you will often find it in the fashion scene. This is also the case with the Young Emperors. The outrageously attractive “matching couple” from New York became famous for making the most of the reels and filters provided by Instagram. What does it look like when they advertise fashion?

Which brand it is, which collection, how much it costs – no idea! There isn’t even a discount code or competition. The cooperation partners are only mentioned in the markings. Have those responsible for this cooperation been asleep? No! They, too, have understood what playgrounds open up for their products when they allow their cooperation partners to do what they do. The reward: they see their product in a completely new light.

Influencer marketing 2.0

The truth hurts, but the followers of your cooperation partners weren’t waiting for you and your product. The feed of one or another is therefore no longer suitable as a place to show all the facts about the product. If the content is convincing, they are just a click away anyway. These examples show that influencer marketing remains exciting and full of possibilities and that the real challenge lies in choosing the right partners. Your future customers will thank you for it. They have grown out of the traditional form of influencer cooperation – just like our grandparents grew out of the Dr. Oetker commercials.