The global influencer marketing industry is set to grow to an astonishing $22.2 billion by 2025. If anyone ever doubted its staying power, this figure makes it clear: influencer marketing is here to stay.
In fact, according to the latest The State of Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report 2024, this growth is not just a global experience. In South Africa, the landscape is evolving rapidly, with local brands poised to capitalise on this growth through digital strategies and meaningful connections with consumers. The report reveals that 60% of brands that already budget for influencer marketing plan to increase their spending over 2024, demonstrating the sector’s intrinsic role in modern marketing strategies.
Influencer marketing continues to outperform traditional marketing channels. The report highlights that 85% of survey respondents believe influencer marketing to be an effective form of marketing, a clear increase from previous years. This confidence is driving more brands to allocate larger portions of their marketing budgets to influencer partnerships.
TikTok leads the way, utilised by 69% of brands engaging in influencer marketing, far surpassing Instagram (47%), YouTube (33%), and Facebook (28%). The appeal of these platforms lies in their ability to deliver visually compelling, short-form video content that resonates deeply with audiences.
A significant shift towards smaller influencers is also noted, with 44% of brands opting for nano-influencers (1k-10k followers) and 26% for micro-influencers (10k-100k followers). These influencers, known for their higher engagement rates and authentic connections with followers, are becoming key players in brand strategies.
“South African brands are increasingly recognising the value of these partnerships, diving into niche markets and forging deeper connections with their audiences,” says Pieter Groenewald, CEO of the Nfinity Influencer Group.
Local brands aren’t just following global trends; they are setting standards. Albert Makoeng, MD of the Nfinity Influencer Group, says: “South African brands have always been at the forefront of innovation. The nature of influencer marketing presents an incredible opportunity for brands of all sizes to connect with consumers in more meaningful and impactful ways. By leveraging the unique qualities of our diverse influencer community, brands can achieve remarkable results that represent their innovative ways.”
The report further reveals that nearly a quarter of respondents intend to spend more than 40% of their entire marketing budget on influencer campaigns. This significant allocation underscores the growing trust and reliance on influencer marketing as a primary strategy for brand engagement and sales.
However, despite the promising potential, there are still challenges. Identifying the right influencers, measuring ROI, and managing campaigns effectively remain top concerns for brands. Yet, advancements in AI and machine learning are providing solutions. 63% of brands plan to use AI in executing their influencer campaigns, with 55% using AI for influencer identification. These tools are essential for providing detailed metrics on engagement rates, conversions, and influencer media value, ensuring every campaign’s success.
Groenewald adds: “We’ve developed sophisticated tools to help brands navigate these challenges. By providing detailed analytics and insights, we empower brands to make data-driven decisions and maximise their influencer marketing ROI. Our platform connects brands with the right creators, ensuring that every collaboration is strategic and impactful.”
Looking ahead, the report predicts continued growth in the use of AI and machine learning to enhance influencer marketing strategies. These technologies will enable better influencer matching, campaign optimisation, and deeper insights into consumer behaviour.
The State of Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report 2024 tells a promising story for the future of influencer marketing. With its high ROI, growing platform preferences, and the rise of micro and nano-influencers, the industry is set for significant growth.
For South African brands willing to embrace these opportunities, the future holds immense potential. As Makoeng aptly puts it: “The real challenge isn’t just to keep up with trends, but to stay ahead of the curve. With influencer marketing, brands can build genuine relationships with their audiences and make a significant impact in their industry.”
Op:Ed By Jhene Nel, Divisional Head of Sales at Webfluential
A few years ago, as whispers of artificial intelligence (AI) began permeating the marketing sector, there was a palpable buzz. Part excitement, part scepticism. Across industry gatherings and in hushed conference calls, professionals half-joked about AI potentially rendering traditional skills redundant. However, as we ventured into this new terrain at Webfluential, our initial apprehension gave way to a profound realisation: AI wasn’t here to replace us; it was here to enhance our capabilities and extend our reach.
Reflecting on this, a quote by author Joanna Maciejewska comes to mind: “You know what the biggest problem with pushing all-things-AI is? Wrong direction. I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.” This insight beautifully encapsulates the ideal role of AI in influencer marketing – not as a creator but as an enabler, allowing human creativity to flourish.
The Benefits of AI in Influencer Marketing
Enhanced Targeting and Personalisation:
We know AI excels in processing vast amounts of data, in marketing this is a game-changer in identifying precise audience segments. It enables marketers to tailor their influencer campaigns with unprecedented accuracy, ensuring that messages are delivered to the most receptive audiences, significantly boosting campaign relevance and effectiveness.
Efficiency and Scalability:
AI-driven tools streamline campaign management from influencer discovery to performance tracking. This efficiency allows marketing teams to juggle and manage multiple campaigns simultaneously, scaling their efforts more effectively than ever before, and ensuring consistent performance across all initiatives. Gone are the days of one campaign per quarter.
Predictive Insights and Proactive Adjustments:
AI doesn’t just analyse current trends; it predicts future behaviours. Quite accurately, when done correctly. These predictive capabilities allow brands to stay ahead of market shifts, adapting their strategies proactively to maintain engagement and relevance.
The Irreplaceable Human Touch
The Psychological Need for Human Connection:
Despite the digital revolution, the fundamental human need for connection remains unchanged. Influencers fulfil this need by acting as relatable figures who share personal insights and experiences. They bridge the gap between a brand’s digital presence and its human audience, turning abstract brand messages into personalised interactions.
During a talk on the impact of AI at Suits & Sneakers, Richard Mulholland shared a powerful insight, reflecting on a personal experience that highlighted our human advantage. He noted: “Good service is defined by how well you do your job. Great service is defined by how well you do your ‘not my job.’ It’s the things that people don’t pay us for, that we do, that they remember us for. The machines can’t do this. That’s the unfair human advantage”.
This sentiment captures the essence of what machines can’t replicate: the unexpected, deeply personal touches that forge lasting connections and memories. In influencer marketing, this human element – our ability to go beyond the expected and genuinely relate – remains our greatest asset.
Authenticity and Trust:
Influencers are the human face of modern digital campaigns, providing a level of authenticity that resonates deeply with audiences. They build trust through personal stories and genuine interactions, which are critical in converting followers into customers. This human element creates a loyal customer base, as consumers are more likely to engage with a brand that feels familiar and trustworthy.
Emotional Intelligence:
People excel at understanding and conveying emotions, a nuance that AI has yet to master, and many suspect, never will. Influencers use this emotional intelligence to connect with their audience, crafting content that is not only relevant but also emotionally engaging, thus deepening the impact of marketing messages.
Strategic Integration of AI and Human Creativity
As businesses increasingly rely on influencer marketing, the collaboration between AI and human creativity has become a necessity. AI enhances campaign precision and efficiency, allowing brands to harness deep insights and scalability. Yet, the success of these campaigns still heavily depends on the nuanced, emotional intelligence that only humans can provide.
Delivering Data-Driven Insights in Influencer Marketing:
Influencer marketing thrives on data-driven insights that allow brands to react and adapt in real time. The industry increasingly relies on AI to sift through complex datasets, enabling marketers to refine their strategies for better engagement and ROI. Speaking from experience at Webfluential, we use AI to translate vast amounts of data into actionable insights, helping our clients understand and harness the dynamics of their campaigns effectively. This approach not only boosts campaign precision but also empowers brands with the agility to make informed adjustments as market conditions evolve.
The Role of Human Insight in a Data-Driven World:
Authenticity, which is central to the influencer’s appeal, cannot be manufactured by algorithms. This is why, even as we integrate sophisticated AI tools to enhance our campaign strategies, we maintain a strong focus on human creativity and intuition. The balance between machine efficiency and human empathy is crucial, ensuring that our technology enhances rather than replaces the personal touch that audiences value.
Finding Balance Between Technology and Personal Insight:
Successfully integrating AI with human insights does not just enhance operational efficiency – it enriches the creative process, making campaigns more effective and resonant. In practice, this means leveraging AI for its analytical strengths while still depending on human understanding to craft messages that truly speak to people. We strive for this balance, ensuring our campaigns achieve not only technical precision but also emotional depth, which is often the hallmark of influencer marketing success.
Conclusion
In the end, the tools and technologies at our disposal are just that. Tools. They are designed to enhance our capabilities, not to overshadow the irreplaceable human elements that are the bedrock of meaningful communication. As we look to the future, our focus at Webfluential remains steadfast on nurturing these human connections, ensuring that every campaign not only reaches but truly touches the audience. It’s in this careful balancing of technology and personal insight that the true art of influencer marketing lies.
And as someone who has seen both the possibilities and the pitfalls of this dynamic field, I believe our greatest successes will not be measured by the data we analyse but by the human moments we create and cherish. Let us not forget, in our rush to embrace the new, that sometimes the most cutting-edge tool at our disposal is a simple conversation, a genuine story, a moment of real human connection.
X (formerly Twitter). (2024). x.com. [online] Available at: https://twitter.com/MarkSham/status/1760909612478325021 [Accessed 12 Jul. 2024].
Cook, G. (2013). Why We Are Wired to Connect. [online] Scientific American. Available at: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-we-are-wired-to-connect/.
Three iconic apples have profoundly shaped human behaviour over the centuries. It began with Eve’s fateful bite, symbolising our innate temptation for social status. Then came Newton’s apple, revealing the gravitational forces that exist between objects and people. Finally, there was Steve Jobs’ Apple, putting a powerful handheld window to the world in our palms – allowing us to seamlessly connect, purchase, and share our lifestyles like never before.
From the garden to the orchard to the Apple store, this trinity of apples has converged in the rising phenomenon of social commerce. Their symbolic undertones of status, social influence, and mobilised consumer behaviour have manifested into a meaningful shift in how we interact with brands and make purchasing decisions today.
As someone immersed in the tech world, I’ve become fascinated by the convergence of community, technology, commerce, and creativity. This intersection represents more than just intrigue – it’s a paradigm shift in how we engage, influenced by the same temptations and forces that the three legendary apples set about.
Our recent analysis of creator metrics on traffic, trust and conversion revealed social commerce’s powerful impact first-hand. Like Eve’s apple, the illustrated social status of the influencers we follow taps into our desires for mimicry and ultimately, product purchase. It delivers authenticity through the trusted voices and stories of influential creators that hold gravitational pull in our social orbits, and like Jobs’ ground-breaking devices, social commerce allows these influencers to mobilise consumer behaviour with incredible immediacy and seamless shopping experiences.
The Social Commerce Revolution
This transformation extends far beyond simply adopting new digital tools or chasing trends. It reflects a fundamental shift in how brands, creators, and consumers interact. The era of shopping as a passive, disconnected activity confined to physical stores or basic e-commerce sites is over. Social media has blossomed into vibrant digital communities and marketplaces where creators don’t just carry influence – they cultivate relationships, tell stories, and drive purchases directly through the gravity of their resonance and reach.
Consumers aren’t just buying products anymore. They’re buying into authentic narratives crafted by people they feel drawn towards. Creators have turned their social feeds into modern-day apple orchards, blending product showcases with personal storytelling to make every interaction shoppable and gratifying on a primal level.
Social commerce’s power lies in this perfect mashup of ancient tendencies and modern convenience: It delivers on our aspirational indulgences, through gravitational influences, and is seamlessly executed through engaging experiences aligned with how people prefer to make purchases today.
The Rapid Rise of Social Commerce
While the tendencies behind social commerce are rooted in humanity’s earliest eras, its recent growth has been staggering. Live-streaming commerce alone is massive, valued at around $774 billion globally. This scale underscores how adeptly social platforms can influence consumer behaviour by harnessing age-old psychological forces.
In South Africa, local brands aren’t just participating – they’re pioneering live-streaming as a way to transform passive viewers into active shoppers. By broadcasting engaging product experiences through trusted creator voices, brands are reinventing the customer journey as an immersive, instantly shoppable event. It’s that Verimark experience we used to watch on TV, with a “click to purchase” convenience right on our phone.
The opportunity extends far beyond live shopping, too. Shoppable posts that tag purchasable items directly in photos and videos are enhancing the act of scrolling our social feeds. What was once simple browsing of friend’s life experiences and enhanced photos, has become large-scale industrial level-harvesting, allowing consumers to effortlessly pick and purchase any digital apple that catches their eye.
Seizing Social Commerce’s Low-Hanging Fruit
While significant opportunities exist, the South African market has been slow to fully embrace social commerce’s potential. Many companies remain heavily invested in traditional media strategies despite digital’s proven ROIs and consumer gravitations. This adoption rate has partly been governed by internet access and online purchase comfort, but is being accelerated by competitive behaviour between marketplaces such as the recently launched Amazon.co.za, Temu and Shein.
Closing this gap requires a digital-first mindset, one focused on not just advertising alongside social content but embedding commerce capabilities directly within these authentic digital communities where consumers already cultivate relationships with brands organically.
Here’s how brands can start harvesting social commerce’s benefits:
Audit your digital presence and realign it with where consumers truly spend their time.
Partner with creator communities that resonate with your brand to amplify your narratives through voices that carry real gravity.
Measure your efforts not just by followers or likes, but by how effectively social interactions translate into tangible sales.
At Webfluential, we understood from the beginning that authenticity breeds influence. This philosophy has perfectly positioned us to cultivate social commerce, designing our platform to connect brands with creators who can help them grow naturally within digital communities through genuine storytelling and relationships.
Every interaction on our platform represents not just a digital touchpoint, but an opportunity for brands to blossom and bear new commercial fruit. Because in today’s world, the real temptation isn’t a single apple, but entire orchards of shoppable personal narratives waiting to be plucked.
The three legendary apples may have originated in different contexts across the centuries. But their collective impact on human behaviour has paved the way for an era where community and commerce not only harmoniously co-exist, but are becoming inseparable. For brands willing to embrace this reality, the opportunities are ripe for the picking.
