As of last year, social media superseded TV with regards to the attention span of the consumer in major markets in Latin America (LATAM). With 103 million social media users, the time spent on social per day in Brazil is 3.3 hours, versus 2.4 hours watching TV. In Mexico, there are 60 million social media users who spend an average of 3.2 hours on social vs. 2.1 hours watching TV. Yet, in the United States, consumers spend only 1.5 hours per day on social, versus 3.2 hours watching TV.
This shift has led to a massive reallocation of marketing resources away from traditional ad channels towards new categories that can capture social user attention.
As a leading indicator of this change, influencer marketing is one of the fastest growing marketing categories in the LATAM region. And that’s because influencers matter to consumers. Let’s take a look at LATAM’s culture of influence so you can learn the keys to success for this new category.
Influencers Have Cracked Consumer Attention in LATAM
Even more so than social, influencers have cracked consumer attention in LATAM. In major markets like Brazil and Mexico, a culture of influence exists where consumers turn to trusted peers and experts for recommendations. Since social media has accelerated this cultural aspect, marketers are now enabled to micro-target meaningful communities via working with influencers.
Keys to Executing Influencer Marketing in LATAM
But how does influencer marketing work and what are the keys to success? To explore ongoing practices of influencer marketing among key regions in LATAM, we turned to the experts in the field, our customers at Weber-Shandwick in Brazil and Media Option in Mexico. From our conversations we picked up on three key themes: Focus on the right people, build on-going relationships and use the right technology.
Engage with Influencers in a Genuine Way
To get a pulse on how brands should engage with influencers, we spoke with Everton Schultz, Head of Digital and Creativity – LATAM at Weber-Shandwick in Brazil. With over 15 years of experience, Everton has created marketing and communication strategies for digital ecosystems.
Everton noted, “Marketers need to engage with influencers in an organic and genuine way. We should not look at influencers as a media platform that can be bought with an investment but understand that the number of followers should not be the only aspect to create my influencers mailing list. The fit with brand values, the true experience with the brand, and the fit between the brand audience and the influencer’s followers should also guide the choice of influencers.”
Leverage the Right Tools for Success
According to Hubspot, identifying the right technologies is one of the top two challenges for marketers in LATAM.
To discover more about overcoming these challenges, we chatted with Fernando Alba from Media Option, one of the leading media agencies in Mexico. This agency was locally founded 16 years ago, handling media responsibilities for over 25 advertisers in a wide variety of industries that range from food to consumer goods, from technology to high-end retailers and from hospitality to real estate.
Fernando commented, “The Mexican consumer seems to be more responsive to social marketing initiatives. Over the course of the past few years, we as an agency have identified an extremely enthusiastic response from consumers towards brands that take the time to build strong relationships with their audience, with the digital channel being the best platform to accomplish this. And also very important to mention is that having the tools for identifying where the opportunity lays becomes instrumental in this process.”
What’s Next for Influencer Marketing in LATAM?
We estimate the TAM (total available market) for influencer technologies in LATAM to be $300M within 3-5 years (about 1/6th of US market). That said, the global nature of social media (where boundaries are defined by affinity and language rather than physical borders) makes the market size a secondary consideration to enabling global brands to run global programs. And the growing popularity of influencer marketing brings the need for efficiencies and scale in the practice.
We at Traackr are excited to announce our expansion across Latin America, starting with Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia. If you are running marketing initiatives within the region, we encourage you to learn more about your potential gains with influencer marketing. Talk to us.