30-second summary:
- The marketing and advertising industry is bracing itself for a slowdown, with analysts steadily adjusting ad spending forecasts. Marketers will keep a close watch to determine what drives the most value.
- Influencer marketing has surged in popularity recently, and investment was expected to hit $15 billion in 2022, according to pre-pandemic forecasts. However, COVID-19 has skewed the current picture for influencer marketing.
- To better understand what survival looks like, we’ll examine two distinct brand scenarios that enterprises are experiencing at this moment, how these different circumstances are likely to impact their influencer strategies, and what they can do to get the most out of influencers going forward.
As millions of Americans continue sheltering in place and weekly unemployment numbers continue to bring bad news, it’s clear that the COVID-19 pandemic is having a negative effect on the global economy — the U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased 4.8 percent[1] in the first quarter of 2020.
The marketing and advertising industry is bracing itself for a slowdown, with [2]analysts steadily adjusting ad spending forecasts[3]. Different components of marketing and partnership plans may be impacted differently by these changes in spending, but marketers will be closely examining all of their spendings throughout the year to determine what drives the most value.
Influencer marketing in the age of recession
Influencer marketing has surged in popularity recently, and investment was expected to hit $15 billion in 2022[4], according to pre-pandemic forecasts. Even with this level of interest, influencer programs are likely to face scrutiny amid shrinking budgets. To ensure their survival, partnership managers will need to fully grasp the ROI of their influencer programs and leverage them to the fullest, ensuring that they can reach engaged, receptive, attentive audiences,