Digital Marketing
Influencer or Celebrity? What Does Your Brand Need?
You have probably heard of Celebrities starting their YouTube channels or TikTok influencers holding their first meet-and-greet. For many, these instances blur the line between the two. However, for those looking into crafting an effective influencer or celebrity marketing strategy, it is necessary to understand the difference between the two.
Influencer vs. Celebrity
What is the difference, really? Brands pay both sizable fees for their message to get out there. Well, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, a celebrity is someone well-known, particularly in the entertainment industry, while an influencer is a person compensated by a business to promote its goods and services on social media. So, now that we have defined the two terms: Influencer and Celebrity. Let us discuss the difference between Influencer Marketing and Celebrity Endorsements:
Influencer marketing uses individuals that are well-known in particular areas. They usually have a specific niche like lifestyle, beauty, fashion, etc. Influence marketing generates word-of-mouth advertising. It is a method brands use to enhance their reputation in a specific group or community.
Celebrity endorsement is utilized by brands when they want the audience to associate their brand with the celebrity's fame. In this way, the brand reaches an audience provided by highly-idolized individuals.
In a nutshell, both methods require well-known and highly-influential people. However, how they are executed and perceived is how they are differentiated.
But there’s more!
Before choosing between Influencer marketing and Celebrity endorsement, it is necessary to understand other online marketing terms associated with the stated subjects, such as KOL marketing and Content Creation.
What you need to know about Key Opinion Leader (KOL) marketing is that it pertains to working with individuals who have extensive knowledge on a specific subject. However, it is not enough for them to be knowledgeable. Individuals who do KOL marketing also have to be influential. After all, not all experts can be influential, especially when all they do is study and do not have the right skills or resources to effectively influence others.
Influencers can alter other people's perceptions. So, ideally, you'd want all influencers to be Key Opinion Leaders. However, not all the influencers we see everyday are experts on the topics they choose to focus on. As a result, people view KOLs as highly trustworthy and reliable.
Then there is Content Creation, the overall process of producing the digital and physical content we see everyday. Individuals belonging to this industry are pertained to as Content Creators — the individual in charge of producing and curating content or information, whether digital or physical. People in this field must have the skill, knowledge, talent, and creativity to produce numerous content.
So… back to the question, what does your brand need?
Whatever you choose for your brand will depend on your current objective. Any of the stated methods is effective in its own way as long as it is used properly and strategically.
Luckily, there are firms that specialize in this type of marketing that can aid you in your first Influencer marketing campaign like PurpleBug's Influencer Circle!
With Influencer circle's services, you can get a list of influencers that is tailored to your company's needs.
