2022 Influencer Marketing Trend Predictions.

Now that 2021 is behind us, we can look back on another year of growth within the influencer space and look forward to how this will continue into 2022. Clearly money talks as as according to a report by Business Insider Intelligence, brands are expected to spend up to $15 billion on influencer marketing in 2022, up from $8 billion in 2019. With all this extra cash, brands need to know exactly where they should be putting it. 

That’s what our job is as an influencer marketing agency, showing our clients not just which influencers are right for them but understanding what platforms are set to be the next big thing, trends to be jumping on and how to maximise ROI. We are definitely in the 48% of marketers that say the ROI of influencer marketing is better than the ROI through other channels. 

So what can we expect to see this year? Well in the ever evolving world of social media, there is plenty!

Continued rise in short-form video content

Please tell us you also spend your day scrolling through TikTok and Instagram reels? You do?! Phew. 

We’ve seen it a lot already but short-form video will continue to dominate and perform well for both reach and engagement in 2022 – better than still imagery. So, IG Reels are worth considering if your brand isn’t TikTok ready just yet. 

Relatability and authenticity are key to brand success when partnering with influencers, and none more so than when targeting Gen Z, for whom this type of content is everything. There are now talent agencies who specialize in TikTok creators and even actual houses where these creators live and breathe the social platform.

Don’t think that by using this style of content your brand will be restricted to a certain age group though, 22% of Americans in their 30s and 40s now use TikTok, and 14% of those in their 50s. 
These short-form videos give us what we need in 60 seconds or less. As can be seen in our own work with Madame Tussauds. We were tasked with making the attraction a more fun place to visit for Gen Z and domestic, non-family audiences. We did this by partnering with influencers such as Lara Adkins and Molly Marsh who tapped into culturally relevant themes such as Squid Game and viral TikTok sounds. The result? 262% of forecasted impressions achieved and 6.8% average engagement rate, smashing industry standards.

Instagram will continue to introduce new features

When you think about it, there isn’t really anything that Instagram doesn’t have the ability to do. As we mentioned, they jumped on the short-form bandwagon, they got stories after Snapchat became a thing (and then quickly didn’t, remember THAT Kyle Jenner Tweet?) and you can even do your Christmas shop on there – see next trend. 

There have been so many new introductions to the app since 2020 alone. At the end of last year, they introduced Instagram Guides, a way to display longer forms of content like blog posts. This year they made it so that even average Joe’s with less than 10k followers can link in their stories (bye bye to the swipe up). Then there was the announcement that being able to upload photos and videos via desktop will be introduced. 

It’s almost as if they don’t want you to leave the app… and honestly, a lot of us don’t. Instagram has over one billion monthly active users – a figure which TikTok recently hit too. 

We predict even more updates, new features and ways to up your influencer marketing game in 2022. 

Social commerce

The next trend is social commerce – or immediately clicking ‘add to basket’ after you see it on social… 

TikToks and Instagram reels can really help turn a scroll into a purchase with 71% of consumers actively shopping on Instagram for festive gifts last year, and another 31% on TikTok. With trends like #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt exploding this year, and TikTokers more likely than average to buy from brands they have seen on social media, now is the time to be active on this platform.

Whilst we aren’t quite at a stage where live shopping is dominating just yet, this is a trend that we will start to see over the coming 12 months off the back of this, social commerce is. Trackable links for gifts as well as the new IG and TikTok shoppable features are both effective ways to run an ecommerce campaign and push conversion around key shopping dates and campaigns. 

Personal storytelling

We’re all hoping for a more ‘normal’ year this time around, where we can finally see family and friends in person more regularly, sing our hearts out at concerts and check if that payday treat is just as tempting IRL. So, this is the year for brands to return to those genuine and heartfelt stories that audiences can relate to.

Partnering with the right influencers that align with your ethos as a brand can ensure that messaging and recommendations feel real and authentic, and can tap into the interests of your target audience. 

Make sure you take the time to source creators you believe can really hit home around the wider messaging for your brand. Then let them be real about what this time spent with loved ones means to them, and how that ties in to your values as a brand. By marrying those two up – and it isn’t easy –  is when you can start seeing serious results. 

We saw it ourselves within our work with Birmingham City University who wanted to raise awareness and prepare prospective students for Uni clearing. By working with influencers such as David “Sideman” Whitely and F0urBr0thers who actually live in Birmingham and can truly voucher for the university, we were able to deliver a successful campaign with extremely high impressions (more than double our target!). 

Micro is the new mega

Did you know that micro-influencers made up an average of 93.9% of all brand partnerships in 2020? Influencer sizes are defined differently by everyone but typically, a micro influencer is a creator with 10k-50k followers. To some brands, this might not seem like a lot, but the value of talent in this space is second to none. 

These smaller creators also tend to have higher engagement rates, their following may be lower but their followers are dedicated. They aren’t just someone people follow because they’re well known, they follow them because they genuinely love the content.

In fact, half of the influencers that brands partner with are in the micro and mid categories, which shows that the most effective campaigns are run with smaller-scale influencers. 

As more money is spent on influencer marketing in 2022, we expect to see a big portion of this remaining in the micro-mid categories. You only need to look at this post from Jariatu Danita who we worked with on ECCO shoes to see how good the results can be, she achieved an outstanding 109% impressions rate and 10.67% engagement rate. 

2022 promises to be another exciting year for influencers and we’re so excited to be along for the ride. 

What trends do you think are on the way? Let us know on socials!