creative use, hired California-based Rubicon Consulting to leverage a
vertical market through an influencer marketing programme designed to
select, recruit and develop an advisory group of influential users.
Adobe wanted to find low-cost ways to market one of its flagship
products, photoshop, to vertical markets. The company knew there was
a substantial revenue opportunity. Traditional vertical marketing is costly,
requiring an in-house marketing team of three to four (frequently more)
for each vertical. Influencer marketing leveraged enthusiastic customers
and electronic communications to get the benefits at a fraction of the cost.
Influencers were defined as early adopters who make purchase recommendations
and channel comments and ideas from a market to the vendor.
The desired goal was interaction at decisive moments of trust. By making
influencers into informal, extended members of the marketing team, the
firm would reach its target consumers as those moments occurred.
There were four phases to the resulting project:
Target determination: Rubicon documented goals and expectations.
An internal audit and data analysis were performed.
The market segment to be pursued was determined. The deliverable
was a written report recommending which vertical to pursue and
success metrics with 90-day, 6-month and 1-year benchmarks.
Pilot plan creation: Rubicon determined programme steps and
resources required. The programme was designed to educate
influencers about Adobe’s products and services, and to provide
tools for ease of information sharing with influencers. The project
would determine how, where and when opinions were being
shared in the market, identify targeted key influencers and then
create engagement programmes to leverage influencers.
Approaches included:
& Develop tools to make ‘telling a friend’ easier.
& Create forums, feedback tools and an influencer advisory group.
& Create blogs and other tools to share information.
& Participate openly on non-Adobe online blogs and discussions.
& Work with social networks. Host discussions/message boards about
products.
Support independent, grassroots groups that form around a product.
& Provide recognition and tools to active advocates.
& Track/respond to conversations by supporters, detractors and
neutrals.
& Metrics and ROI measures.
Pilot plan execution: Rubicon deployed the pilot (using proprietary
methods and tools), identified groups and individuals, then tested
the tools, programmes and resources for 3 months. Influencers
were recruited. A critical factor was selecting people likely to share
their opinions and create a multiplier effect.
Recommendations for next steps and documentation of best practices:
The firm received documentation on what worked, what
didn’t and recommendations for the future. A key employee was
debriefed, after which they took on programme management inhouse.
Rubicon concluded that influencer programmes must adapt to the
unique needs of the market and that communication must be calibrated
to methods preferred by the influencer group. Recruiting of influencers
should be performed in two phases to ensure the proper mix of
productive advisory group members. Insights gleaned from the first
round of recruiting should be leveraged during the second round to
achieve a mix of influencers that reflect all product subgroups. It is
important to ensure that influencer group members are active, not
silent.
It also found that influencers want companies to provide leadership in
setting standards. Firms employing influencer marketing techniques must
identify an in-house individual who will maintain relationships and
momentum, and to measure responses and effectiveness to make sure
that goals are achieved.
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