At Web Summit 2021, Influencer co-founders Ben Jeffries and Caspar Lee discussed how the pandemic has leveled the playing field for everyone creating content, while also encouraging brands to hand more ownership to creators when running influencer marketing campaigns.

Influencer co-founders, CEO Ben Jeffries and CVO Caspar Lee joined Condé Nast Director of Influencer Anna Anderson at Web Summit 2021, to discuss influencer marketing in 2022.

The conversation opened with an honest discussion about the ways in which the pandemic has changed the influencer marketing industry, with Lee commenting that it had created a level playing field for everyone creating content, for two reasons. Firstly, the pandemic forced celebrities and nano creators alike to begin creating content from the bedrooms and the removal of large-scale production studios meant that if you had the talent, content became much the same quality. Secondly, we saw a huge boom in the use of TikTok, a platform for which, as Caspar noted, you only need a phone to create content.

This leveling of the playing field has also led to more honest and intimate content post-pandemic, something that Anderson hopes will continue into the future. “The content that was created during the pandemic was much rawer, much less polished than content seen previously and this resonates far more deeply with the audience, helping to build genuine relationships between creators and their followers,” agreed Jeffries.

The panel also explored how TikTok is changing the way that companies think about their users, and subsequently how they think about targeting. TikTok recently announced that, as opposed to focusing on Gen Z or the other traditional demographics, they were focusing on Generation T, or Generation TikTok. This means they will now be targeting users with content that is based on their interests and mindset, regardless of their age, location, or other more traditional demographics.

Discussing their predictions for the future of influencer marketing, Ben, Caspar, and Anna shared their excitement about the future of live shopping, which has been huge in China and other Asian countries but is yet to blow up in quite the same way in the West. They discussed how this may be down to the different ways that creators engage with and sell to their audience. “Obviously it wouldn’t be an influencer marketing panel without the mention of the word ‘authenticity’ but I feel like this is one of the most authentic ways that creators can work with brands to market their products to their followers there is,” said Jeffries.

For more information on running a successful influencer marketing campaign, head to influencer.com.

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