Quick summary
- Korean influencer marketing can be a real boost for your brand
- Trends like running make for the best timing
- Story-telling incorporates your products organically
- Shared values and established authenticity are key
- Focus on credibility and long-term sustainability to succeed
What is influencer marketing, Exhibit A: Running Trend
Korean influencer marketing can hold a great power when incorporated right in your marketing strategy. Reach out to influencers, with the goal of collaborating with them and to have them introduce the brand’s products or services to their audience is even more effective when the theme goes along with a current trend. Very recently, health and fitness have become widely popular topics, with a particularly strong love for running. Ever since the pandemic, running has become more popular than ever. People appreciate how accessible it is, how the sport is very affordable and how it offers both solitude and easy social contacts, offering a comfortable setting for everyone.
Trends represent a very helpful way of anticipating people’s attention. With a rise in the popularity of self-care and health, running has become the definition of living a healthy lifestyle and goes far beyond the simple time spent in workout gear. Being an active runner suggests that you care about your body and your overall well-being which translate into other areas of your life, like eating habits or even overall fashion sense. Taking the running trend as an example, let’s dive into what makes or breaks effective influencer marketing.
What influencers bring to the table
One of the most beneficial aspects about influencers is that they enter the collaboration with an established audience. Depending on how influencers structure their content, that audience may already be rather narrow and deep, following along the influencer’s own interests in life. An influencer that has an audience that mainly follows them for one aspect, in our example running, said audience already has an established sense of purpose and is more likely to invest in related products or services.
The interest in the topic is a given and the audience goes into the influencer’s content with an open mind and a willingness to take inspiration and improve their own life, following in the influencer’s footsteps. Brands do not need to build trust in the audience themselves, since when done right, they automatically earn trust, based on the audience’s trust in the influencer.
If the influencer aligns well with the brand and can incorporate the product or service organically in their regular content, now that is a success story. In addition, influencers hold one of the most powerful tools in marketing in their hands: story-telling. Stories are their bread and butter, especially when looking at topics like fitness, health and lifestyle, where the content is so deeply embedded in the real life of the influencer.
What makes for a successful Korean influencer marketing candidate
Choose the right influencer
Simply collaborating with an influencer is of course not a bullet-proof guarantee for success. The right person matters, timing matters, content matters and circumstances matter. This also goes hand in hand with another incredibly important aspect: authenticity and trust.
Brands are best advised to collaborate with an influencer for their Korean influencer marketing that already holds the same values.Taking running as an example, brands benefit from choosing an influencer who already showcases consistency and who has an already implemented daily routine as part of their content.
Vlog-style content and a frequent upload routine make it easy to weave in ads and product placement without disrupting the influencers flow while ensuring sincerity at the same time. If a brand intends to deliver more information focused content, for example a certain type of shoe to prevent injuries while training, choosing a known expert or athlete secures credibility and content expertise.
Come up with the right content and the placement
While the audience already has a high level of trust in their favorite influencer, the introduction of a product that seems forced and out of place can very quickly harm the influencer’s positive image and make the audience lose all trust in them. Brands are advised not to alter an influencer’s presence online but rather to choose the right placements that blend in seamlessly with the existing content. For influencer marketing to work, it needs to be authentic. Content and ad placements need to be woven in naturally to create and uphold credibility.
For example a running influencer already posts regular vlogs, documenting their training schedule, give recommendations for products that help them achieve their goals and possibly also post about what they eat to fuel them for their active lifestyle, product placements like running shoes, supplements or apps to track training results can be incorporated in a very subtle way without disrupting the content flow. After all, consistency is key!
Go beyond the digital landscape
Of course, the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of influencers is the online component. That is not all though. Influencers actually present a great opportunity to build a bridge from online to offline marketing.
Say the running influencer takes part in a popular race or a local running club, they can create direct contact with their audience, giving them even more credibility when showcasing the advertised product in real life.
Authenticity and apps
Trust and belief are beautiful things, yet sometimes, it does take a little bit of proof and cold, hard numbers to fully win an audience over. Documentation of real success makes the effectiveness and quality of a service or product even more tangible. In the running community, apps like Strava or Nike Run Club noticed a considerable increase in downloads as a result of the popularity of the sport.
Challenges like 21 days of running or a training schedule for the next upcoming marathon can easily be tracked in the apps while monitoring success and performance. Tying a product to this performance showcases the effectiveness even more by making it verifiable, creating a positive link between the influencer, the product and the brand. In order to establish sustainable influencer marketing, this is exactly what you need.
Conclusion
Knowing your way around the world of influencer marketing and trends presents an incredible opportunity for any brand. With the consideration of a few key principles, these relationships between influencers and brands can be very profitable for both sides while offering the possibility of a sustainable foundation for effective product placements. Keep your finger on the pulse and make your Korean influencer marketing your own success story!
Are you looking for a partner that can support you on your journey of influencer marketing in Korea? Waterbe specializes in influencer marketing and can offer a variety of insights into the Korean market. Contact Waterbe at info@waterbecorp.com to kick-start your Korean influencer marketing strategy.
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