- Brands and influencers are quickly shifting social-media strategies in order to appropriately connect with consumers during the coronavirus pandemic.
- Many marketers are turning to influencers to help them speak to consumers authentically and avoid appearing tone deaf during a global health crisis.
- Business Insider spoke to the influencer-marketing agency Linqia to learn how the firm is guiding brands and digital creators on how to create sponsored content during a crisis.
- Here are seven key takeaways from our interview with Linqia's chief operating officer, Daniel Schotland.
- Click here for more BI Prime stories.
Brands are still figuring out how to run marketing campaigns during the coronavirus pandemic without appearing insensitive or opportunistic. Many are leaning on influencers to strike the right tone.
"Brands are being very sensitive not to be tone deaf at this time," said Vickie Segar, founder of the influencer-marketing firm Village. "When you're working with influencers, they take every product and they put it into context. Their context right now is they're stuck at home."
Ad industry professionals in all categories are modifying their communications strategies to more appropriately reach at-home consumers. The auto brand Toyota swapped out TV ads about "extended financing and zero APR" in favor of a branding campaign around unity. The PR firm Weber Shandwick sent a memo to its employees warning them about sending out "tone-deaf" pitches to reporters. And the backpack brand JanSport hired a Gen-Z "think tank" to create an influencer-marketing campaign focused on its charitable giving to the nonprofit World Central Kitchen.
Influencer marketers say social-media creators are particularly well-suited to introduce brands into the conversation during a crisis because they know their audiences better than most and can offer a degree of authenticity.
"This is such a time for finesse," said Amber Venz Box, president and cofounder of the affiliate-marketing firm RewardStyle. "When an influencer can humanize a brand and place it in the appropriate context for the consumer, you can't replicate that. It's just so different than putting out an ad."
The influencer-marketing agency Linqia recently released guidance on how brands and influencers should message to consumers during the current public-health crisis. Business Insider spoke with Linqia's chief operating officer, Daniel Schotland, to understand how the company is advising advertisers and creators to approach sponsored posts during the coronavirus outbreak.
Here are Linqia's seven key takeaways for running sponsored content during the current public health crisis:
1. Refrain from mentioning the virus by name, including 'coronavirus' or 'COVID-19.'
"We're talking about coronavirus and association with coronavirus without mentioning it," Schotland said. "We want to make sure that influencers are saying things like, 'In times of uncertainty, here's something that I am doing,' rather than mentioning coronavirus."
Ensuring that a brand avoids association with the word "coronavirus" is - controversially - part of the marketing playbook in other major ad categories like programmatic advertising.
2. Focus on telling a story and not driving a transaction.
"We're talking to influencers around making sure if there is some sort of call-to-action, obviously, it's about an online destination, it's about getting more information, it's about providing knowledge or helping people kind of better educate themselves," Schotland said. "That destination, of course, would provide a means to make a purchase, but not necessarily calling it out directly."
3. Call-to-actions shouldn't direct anyone to leave their homes.
Linqia is advising its influencer and brand clients to use affiliate-marketing links from companies like RewardStyle and its partner, SmartCommerce, to encourage at-home purchases rather than having them leave their homes. The affiliate marketing category has seen a bump in sales in recent weeks as more influencers and marketers follow this playbook (though some brands have suspended their programs).
4. Influencers should emphasize their emotional connection to a brand in their sponsored post.
"Make sure influencers are really talking about the relationship they have with a brand," Schotland said. "It's more than a sponsored post. Some sense of common value or bond and pride in working together at this time."
5. Make sure sponsored post imagery is 'real' and honest and not about perfection. This is a time to be as authentic as possible.
"A lot of brands were really focused on and have generally been on finding the Instaperfect influencer, heavily polished," Schotland said. "Have some guidelines around imagery being real and honest. Staged and perfect and high-polish isn't necessarily what we're going for now. It's about real."
6. Use existing (and positive) hashtags on sponsored posts.
Here are some of the hashtags that Linqia recommended influencer marketers use for promoted posts related to the coronavirus pandemic:
- #flattenthecurve
- #wfh
- #stayhome
- #togetherathome
- #socialdistancingnow
- #stayactive
- #istayhomefor
7. Brands should ask influencers what they should and shouldn't be saying on social media.
Linqia sends out surveys to what it calls "influencer councils" to ask the thousands of influencers in its network how brands should be communicating on social media. Here are some of the questions the company has sent to influencers to help brands prepare for campaigns in recent weeks:
- Based on the brand's objectives and positioning, what kind of story and content would feel most natural to you and authentic to your audience?
- Does the call to action make sense?
- What are some trends we should we be taking into consideration for this brief? (i.e. including a challenge, stickers, hashtags, etc.).
- Where do you see the risks or what should the brand avoid communicating?
- Are there any channels that you feel would resonate better with your audience during COVID social distancing versus before?
- What do we need to take into consideration in your ability to respond to the requirements of the brief? (i.e. more time for product to arrive, can/can't go into store, no scope to include friends however can Zoom them in).
For more information on how brands, creators, and marketers are adjusting to new consumer behavior during the coronavirus outbreak, read these Business Insider Prime posts:
- JanSport hired a Gen-Z 'think tank' to help launch a TikTok influencer campaign during the coronavirus pandemic without appearing tone deaf: The backpack brand JanSport hired 10 TikTok creators to generate buzz around its donations to the nonprofit World Central Kitchen.
- A top social-video data firm made a 22-page report on how the coronavirus has changed viewer habits on YouTube and other platforms. Here are the 5 takeaways: Tubular Labs put together a 22-page report on YouTube and Facebook video consumption during the coronavirus outbreak.
- 'Double-edged sword': How YouTube's business could be both hurt and helped by the coronavirus pandemic: Business Insider spoke to analysts at Jefferies, Edward Jones, Evercore ISI, and MKM Partners to learn about the coronavirus' impact on YouTube.
- Instagram and YouTube stars are shifting strategies as some influencer-marketing sectors hit a 'standstill,' focusing on income streams like directly selling products and online coaching: We spoke to several influencers and industry experts about the impact of the coronavirus on the industry and what new strategies they are applying.