‘Influencer’ specialists POPS Thailand stands out
TO CASH in on the popularity of “Influencer Marketing” in the domestic market, POPS Thailand believes it is on the road to success through its use of well-known influencers for online campaigns as it promotes brands via the YouTube platform.
POPS also points to its use of highly experienced teams to professionally run the campaigns, along with using a customer-centric approach with right target selection. And it touts its proven accomplishment in achieving 50 per cent growth, trebled sales growth and over 200 campaigns in 2019.
Bani Tan, regional director of POPS Thailand Co Ltd, says that the company is the leading digital entertainment provider of the current era, using YouTube and other social media platforms with a focus on influencer marketing. This approach involves taking a person, net idol or celebrity who already has fame, credibility and a large following on their own online platform, and then bringing them to endorse the product or promote the brand on social media such as Instagram, Facebook or YouTube.
It is all the rage in 2019, with 50 per cent usage growth. Many brand managers and marketers have seen a noticeable shift to this new alternative, preferring content creators on YouTube for their strategies. Influencer marketing can not only create brand awareness among consumers but also build brand credibility and persuade consumers, leading them to purchase at last. Using such trends has allowed POPS Thailand to grow three times, with over 200 client campaigns from various industry including fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), tourism, airlines and other sectors.
With Facebook and Instagram changing its terms and regulations, as well as decreasing ad reach, YouTube’s popularity has increased, and its traffic and views has shown increased consistency. That has led many influencers to shift from other social media platforms to YouTube, especially actors and celebrities who previously use Instagram as their main channel. The payment rate for a YouTuber or content creator has thus escalated, especially for a top-tier YouTuber who can early around Bt1.2 million per video. Mid–tier YouTubers, are meanwhile the focus of a price war in the market right now. The record as of March 6, 2019 shows six channels with 10 million subscribers and 200 channels with 1 million subscribers. Statistics show that every three days one channel reaches 1 million subscribers. There are currently 2,500 channels with at least 100,00 subscribers each, with another three channels added daily. However, despite the rise in the industry’s payment rates, the top-tier YouTubers remain popular and are in high demand. This is because it the investment and cost per view is still low compared to video production and advertisement costs.
Bani noted that brand managers and marketers make “conversions” their priority, rather than reach or views by target consumers. Identifying and selecting the right influencer is the key factor in the campaign in order to create a conversion when applying the influencer marketing strategy. The brand must be able to choose a high-quality content creator who knows how to create branded content, an influencer whose image and position align with the brand’s communication direction, an influencer with a sizeable audience of followers and who has the same profile with the brand’s target consumers, and an influencer who is highly popular.
Lastly, an experienced and expert management team is another important factor. That is because working in this market is not all about understanding the demographic of each influencer. The best way to use influencer marketing is a deep understanding that goes beyond demographic analysis. For example, developing a strategy for the “kid segment” is complicated due to age restrictions on some social media platforms. Kids might use their parent’s account instead. Solely analysing demographics will definitely mislead target selection. But an experienced and expert management team that thoroughly knows the target audience of each influencer is able to identify and select the right influencer for each brand and campaign.
“Though influencer marketing is a highly competitive marketing approach, POPS Thailand continues to invest heavily in resources to ensure a high-quality branded campaign execution and delivery,” Bani concluded. “We are actively working to ensure ‘brand safety’ and ‘kid-safe’ in our POPS kids channels. As a result, 65 per cent of our clientele is our long-time clients who come back for more of our service.”
