Influencer Marketing is marketing that usually relies on individuals, though in reality it may also use brands, organizations, or other entities that are considered influential or trusted by a brand’s target audience. These influencers serve as intermediaries for communicating information about the brand under specific objectives or campaigns.

In an age when digital has become part of everyday life and social media serves as a primary source of information, more and more people have individuals who influence their thoughts and beliefs, whether they realize it or not, because they regularly follow such information both online and offline.

It is therefore undeniable that in this era there are many kinds of online influencers. Moreover, those people or brands have concrete numbers of followers that can be used, to some extent, as measurable indicators. Many brands use follower counts as the first measure in deciding who qualifies as an influencer.

At the same time, research on digital-era consumers—who increasingly resist all forms of advertising—has pushed brands to rely more on influencers to help with marketing. Through careful planning, brands want campaigns to appear as though they are being talked about naturally, as a result of their rising popularity.

Influencer marketing is therefore a challenging matter of strategy for both brands and influencers, because both sides contribute to whether brand campaigns achieve their goals. And although many Thai influencers became famous by accident, when brands choose to use influencer marketing, the selection must be deliberate.

Tanapon Subsomboon, Chief Executive Officer of Adyim Co., Ltd., a leading Thai digital agency that provides total A-to-Z solutions including content marketing, video production, influencer selection, and campaign creation, commented on influencer marketing as follows.

He personally had experience with two influencers before and after they became known: "RAP IS NOW" and "Toffy Pen Toot Som Com." The creators behind both had previously worked at Adyim and became influencers by accident, even though both had earlier tried hard to become famous. Ironically, the moments that made them well known on social media—and later useful to many brands as influencers—happened unexpectedly in both cases.

"RAP IS NOW had been doing this for a long time without becoming famous. Then by chance one fan edited clips of them into a single video and posted it. That clip became hugely popular and went viral. They became famous by accident, even though they had wanted fame before and never got it—and the video that made them famous was not even professionally edited."

This was the first case of accidental fame. Today, they are known as artists who are influencers on YouTube, highly influential among the younger audience they most want to communicate with, by turning teachings and ideas into songs that are easy to understand. Beyond that, they have built a business that generates income for themselves through Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, while also running offline activities.

"As for ToffieIsITSupport, he is a bearded man who worked in the IT department and could repair computers, which is where the page name came from. Before becoming famous, he had some work, but the thing that made him famous by accident was a trip to a sunflower field with friends. His friend took a photo of him wearing a Japanese schoolgirl outfit, and somehow the image was shared tens of thousands of times, all the way to Vietnam and Taiwan, even though he had intentionally tried many things before and never become famous."

If we are to summarize what most influencers come from, Tanapon —drawing from these two examples—believes that most of them begin with a desire to become famous, even if they ultimately become famous unintentionally. This is similar to many other influencers he has seen, such as people imitating celebrities for fun and then suddenly becoming well known. One example is Nong Sai-Benjaporn Jetsadakan, the queen of low-cost creative cosplay. These kinds of people usually have creative ideas and are particularly talented in their own way.

"One or two years ago, people were obsessed with going viral, but it did not answer business needs, because you might get huge view counts without knowing what to do next. Sometimes sales did not move at all. It is like what one agency creative once said, which I really liked: when a client briefs you to make something viral, it is like asking you to buy a lottery ticket that will definitely win first prize—you cannot guarantee how famous it will become. Using influencers is better. Instead of an agency taking the risk of creating content on its own with no base and no followers, I can let influencers do it instead. But first, we must be sure that each influencer’s target audience matches what we want. That is the agency’s job—choosing correctly—because most clients do not specify; they just want certainty."

Tanapon added that the goals for using influencer strategies vary, but the working process of brands is usually similar. Most begin by creating buzz through celebrities. Once awareness starts to build in the target audience, they follow with online influencers, bloggers, and net idols. Then they move into building the voice of the consumer.

"Influencer marketing is largely about creating buzz, usually from the top tier downward. Especially in a big campaign, it often comes as a full set in that sequence."

The case of Unilever’s Magnum ice cream is one influencer marketing example that impressed Tanapon. The campaign used an 80-million-baht budget to build buzz and followed the influencer sequence he described, beginning with celebrities such as Chompoo Araya and Ananda, then moving down to online influencers such as Momepaplearn and Pearypie, until it created a trend that made consumers feel Magnum was not just ice cream but a lifestyle. It looked stylish in photos, and the campaign ultimately affected sales, which was the brand’s highest goal.

"These things have to be done naturally. For example, the way Adidas became popular again recently was through influencer marketing. Their approach did not focus only on stars, but on selecting many people whose personalities fit the brand, people with strong followings. The method was simple: find ways to contact them, send messages, call them, offer them free shoes. Once you do it repeatedly, people begin to feel it is trendy and start following along. We can see that fashion and beauty products use influencers quite heavily."

However, influencers are like brands—they rise and fall. Many Facebook pages that were once very famous have faded or even disappeared, whether because of content popularity or Facebook’s algorithm. Therefore, brands must consider timing carefully when choosing to use them. For a digital agency like Adyim, which balances technology, advertising, and marketing services, one strength is having tools that can analyze and recommend influencers who truly match the client’s target audience.

"Our tool analyzes and selects influencers for us, often more than the number a brand will actually use. Then we review their profiles further to see whose personal brand and character truly match the brand. Most clients ask us to help recommend who to choose, depending on each company’s strategy and objectives, which are never exactly the same."

Today, Tanapon says the company’s database contains around 800 Thai influencers, each with different numbers of followers starting from the tens of thousands upward. That affects selection because price is a factor—some people charge very high rates according to follower count, while a brand may be able to use several slightly smaller influencers for the same budget.

As for pricing, there is still no clear standard for influencers. In Tanapon’s words, it is "very random." Most influencers set their own prices. Celebrities usually have clearer rates per post, often similar to their fee for one event appearance, though that should not necessarily be the same standard. Lesser-known influencers may charge only in the thousands of baht per post or per review.

"I have met people with hundreds of thousands of followers who charged only a few thousand baht per post, because some of them do it just for fun and only happened to be contacted as influencers. So the price depends entirely on their own satisfaction. Some compare themselves with others they think are at the same level and set a similar price. But overall there is no real standard."

Influencer marketing therefore seems to have no fixed ruler either. The success of most campaigns depends on the thinking and skill of the brand team, the agency, and the influencer—all working together with the right selection, a clear direction, and a process that keeps pace with the speed of the digital era.

What should be considered when hiring an influencer?

1. 1. The influencer must understand your brand well enough.

2. 2. The influencer must not only have a good image, but also be able to persuade people.

3. 3. Do not force yourself to use an influencer just because you personally like them, and do not try to change their identity to fit your brand.

4. 4. Study the influencer’s background carefully—whether they have had any damaging scandals or have previously worked for a brand very similar to yours.

5. 5. Always assume consumers are smart and selective, so influencer marketing should be made as natural as possible.

Source: Codebee Co., Ltd., September 2016.