Growth is the basis for success. This truth is probably familiar to everyone who has ever had something to do with business. No matter how simple this might sound, it’s not always so easy to actually make it happen. Especially when growth can mean different things to different people. We decided to dedicate our PING Studio in January to growth and the latest trends in influencer marketing – and of course talk about how to use these trends to ensure growth.
Our keynote speaker, Essi Ahtola from Embassy of Design gave us an insight into the three pillars crucial for growth. One of these is strong brand with a loyal customer base. Supporting this is one of the most important tasks for marketing. Polished surface is nevertheless not enough, since one of the most important things a brand can be is authentic. Customers have realized that if it looks too good to be true, it is most likely the case, and this kind of false advertising can do serious damage for the brand – and of course keep the brand from growing. But how to combine these two? How to grow but still keep your integrity?
Everything for everyone has outdated badly as a marketing strategy. Even though it is tempting to think everyone is a potential customer, there is also a huge risk of planning another marketing campaign that just doesn’t work. Instead of grabbing everyone’s attention, you might end up grabbing no one’s attention. Even of those who might be just the right ones for you and might pay attention to something more targeted.
This is why it is so crucial to be true to who you are and who your target group is. If your customers are young and in the middle of their studies, there is no point in creating content that would suit better to middle-aged people living in their own town houses. And vice versa: the social media channels and influencers familiar to young people will not speak the same language as the parentsof the youngsters.
Tuomas Vuori from Videolle and Joona Haatainen from Troot presented a campaign made for Kauko reminding people about the need to renew their air-source heat pumps. By choosing the right channels (Facebook, internet TV) and an influencer familiar to the target group (Arman Alizad, a Finnish reporter and TV persona), it was possible to gain success to the campaign within the potential customers.
The second case of the Studio proved the same point. Tommi Viitala from Veikkaus presented a podcast called #mahdollisuuksia (#opportunities), which was meant for the audience in their 20s. The podcast was accompanied with an influencer campaign which was executed together with PING Helsinki. The key was to do something which would seem authentic in the eyes of the young people, and that’s why the planning and the content was made by target group to target group. It was important to do with passion something the creators themselves would want to listen to, instead of telling them what they should want to listen to.
You have to know yourself if you want to recognize your own tone of voice and find the right influencers to match that. How to make sure that it is indeed the perfect match? The key is to have similar values. By finding collaborators who share the same values, it is more likely to create something that seems genuine and credible. And those are the things that will attract most audience.
Genuinity takes trust – and is the perfect way to obtain it. This was noticed when Bonfire Agency and Tallink Silja teamed up to create series of videos called #kasvuanäkyvissä (#growthahead). The purpose of the series was to create awareness of organizing a B2B-event on Tallink Silja’s cruise ships. By giving free hands to the B2B influencers starring in the videos concerning the content and the topics, it was possible to make the videos look like they were the influencers’ own content.
This made it easier for them to share the videos in their own LinkedIn-channels and get positive feedback. If the content would have seemed fake it would have been impossible to have that impact. The B2B world is also taking part in the humane revolution: a customer is, in the end, always a human being and wants to hear experiences of other human beings.
Without trust the projects would not have succeeded – or at least would not have gotten very bright results. But it’s not essential for the companies to know their own values. To ensure successful collaborations the influencers should also think what kind of values they represent. We finished the Studio with a Q&A session in which influencers Inari Fernandez, Laura Satamo and Pauli Waroma. Each of them agreed that the influencers should take part in collaborations that feel natural. Brand audit is also a handy tool for the influencers! Like Pauli said, marketing is true and that’s why it is always easiest to be yourself – whether you are a company or an influencer.
Once again we would like to thank our Studio partners: Embassy of Design, Bonfire Agency, Veikkaus and Videolle. The delicious breakfast and the comfortable space was provided by our home base Sofia Future Farm! If you wish to get to know the modern creative co-working space a bit better you can apply for a free day ticket via this link!
Photo: Veera Papinoja
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