Do You Have What it Takes to be Tomorrow’s Influencer?

Over the past 10 years, Influencer Marketing has mirrored the demise and almost entirely replaced the use of print advertising for brands. Companies have long had the problem that their advertisement campaigns are perceived properly anymore.

Hard to believe, right? Here’s why:

• Cost-effectiveness: Businesses are making an average of $5.20 for every $1 spent on Influencer Marketing. Larger brands are seeing a return of $20 per $1 spent.
• Hyper-targeting: With social media advertising, you can set your budget and timeframe; you can even target based on location and interest.
• Performance trackability: Perhaps the biggest down-side to traditional advertising, is it’s lack of trackability versus the cost. You’re forking out more money but unable to track your returns properly.

In fact, 67% of marketing and communications professionals engage with Influencers for content promotion (https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-statistics/).

The Pendulum Swings Back to Authenticity

Influencer Marketing converts through credibility and authenticity. Customers trust their favourite creators to give their honest opinions about products. This is the real value of each Influencer. Without this trust between creator and community your campaign is likely to yield poor results.

So why the gaming space?

With esports growing at 38% year on year and gaming growing at 10%, it’s safe to say that content creators (as they like to be known in this industry) are on the rise, with no end in sight.

Back in the day, the term Influencer seemed to come out of nowhere. Now, 78% of young people (aged 6-17) are looking to become an Influencer of some sort. The problem is that low barrier to entry means that the average gamer, with the right personality and level of gameplay can build a career earning millions with zero education on how to represent brands and partners, how to build their brand for longevity and how to get the best deal out of their partnerships.

Chances are you’ve seen great big headlines splashed across the Internet, where Influencers have been involved in some sort of scandal. You only have to head to your Twitter feed to find examples, like Tfue, DoubleLift who have been fined or sued for a contract breach. It’s scary stuff.

The same goes for esports. Brands engage the team and the team manages the players, but do the players know how to represent the brands correctly?

Media training and education around your online public image is important, especially as the age our children get online, gets younger every year. And especially in our current “cancel culture”.

At GGWP Academy, we recognise the need for education and accessibility in this industry. We want the next generation of gamers to understand the importance of their brand from an early age and provide a pipeline where they can develop their talent even further. By providing support, learning and opportunity on their road to success, we aim to legitimise and grow the industry with professionals so that brands can get further involved.

Brands don’t want to, nor have the time to educate. They want brand awareness, reliability, communication, creativity, representation and engagement. The bottom line? They want a return on their investment. That’s where we fit in, we connect Smarter Influencers with brands, to foster long-term relationships. We turn passions into a full-time career.

A Bite-Sized Approach to Education

Behind every major brand there is a highly knowledgeable marketing team who were hired to positively impact sales with their ideas, messaging and content. This is the same expectation for any Content Creators or Influencers that they work with.

We’ve developed our core training modules to be between 2-5 mins in length and with a short quiz at the end of each module to test your knowledge. As attention spans are getting shorter, so has our content. It’s a quick download of information on the bus or after class, and then straight to the practical components of our platform. Each module consists of 5 videos each, which were put together with the minds of experts in the industry and other content creators who have made gaming their full-time jobs.

That’s why our education is built into our algorithm for sorting Influencers. We want brands to know who they’re spending their marketing money on. And brands certainly want to know the same.

We want educated, responsible content creators to be the norm for the wider industry, making it more investible for the likes of Adidas, Coca Cola and Sephora.