A woman who pays Instagrammers and YouTubers for brands like Cosmo and Esquire explains why working with influencers is 'almost guaranteed' to increase sales in a way TV and print ads don't
- Brittany Hennessy is the senior director of influencer strategy and talent partnerships at Hearst Digital Media.
- Hennessy told Business Insider that paying influencers to promote products through social media posts can lead to increased sales for companies.
- Media agency Magna predicts digital advertising sales in the US will increase by 15% in 2018 reaching $108 billion.
- Hennessy said $100,000 spent on influencers can "almost guarantee" sales for businesses, but doesn't buy that same return on TV or in print.
Influencers are the new cash cow for businesses, according to Brittany Hennessy, the senior director of influencer strategy and talent partnerships at Hearst Digital Media.
"People scroll through 300 feet of [social media] content everyday. That's double the size of the Statue of Liberty," Hennessy told Business Insider. Her job is to find and manage social media influencers to promote Hearst's digital brands, including Cosmopolitan, Esquire, and Harper's Bazaar.
Research from media agency Magna predicts digital advertising sales in the US will increase by 15% in 2018, reaching $108 billion, with the most advertising dollars spent on paid social content, followed by video and search. Meanwhile, Magna projects national TV, print media, and radio ad revenues will be flat or decrease this year.
According to Hennessy, companies are shelling out big money to work with "top" influencers - the ones who have proven they're able to "move product."
"It's people that are the target demographic talking to the target demographic. And that's what makes influencer content so much different than something a brand would make," she said.
"You hear all of these YouTubers and beauty bloggers that do these collaborations that sell out in 24 hours. They're moving like a million dollars worth of product," Hennessy said. "And for those deals, [the influencers] are probably getting a pretty hefty sum, like $100,000, $250,000, or a smaller number, then they make a percentage of how much they sell."
Hennessy said her favorite example is beauty YouTuber Jackie Aina who collaborated with Artist Couture to make highlighters. Aina announced her products would be available for pre-order and "by the time that post came down my feed, which must have been 10 minutes later, it was already sold out," Hennessy said.
She said working with top influencers can be a more reliable driver of sales these days than traditional print and TV ads. Hennessy said $100,000 spent on influencers can "almost guarantee" sales for businesses, but doesn't buy that same return on TV or in print.
"A $100,000 [budget] doesn't buy you that guarantee on TV, on print, it doesn't buy you that anywhere. And so there are some girls who have proven that they can move product and that's what you're spending the money on," Hennessy said. "And if you're a brand, there's no amount of advertising you can do in traditional media that can guarantee [sales] like that."
In February 2017, PageFair reported that the US is a top advertising market, yet 18% of Americans have ad blockers on desktops and mobile devices. Hennessy said that traditional advertisers are spending money to make ads and distribute them, but their target audience isn't getting the content. "Nobody's blocking influencers - they're opting-in to that," she said.
At the end of the day, Hennessy said, influencer marketing requires less leg work for advertisers and the pay off is substantial.
"You can work with 50 partners to raise awareness, or you can pay this one influencer what she wants and have to do less work, less partnerships, less contracts. It's less paperwork and have the same result and it's almost guaranteed," she said. "Some people have perfect track records of selling things out and that's why you hire them. To move product."