2023 KOL MARKETING REVIEW - ASIAKOL INTEGRATES 5 MAJOR HIGHLIGHTS AND BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES IN 2024 | AIE KOL EVALUATION DATABASE
Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) marketing remains one of the important trends in 2024. According to DEPT, 67% of marketers will significantly increase KOL marketing spend by 2024. However, several questions need answers: How should brands collaborate with KOLs? How to choose a suitable social platform? Where to find the correct KOLs? By looking back at the KOL market in 2023 and predicting the new marketing trend in 2024, brands can create a plan for the coming year. AsiaKOL has gathered the top 5 trends and highlights from last year in KOL marketing to help brands stay ahead, including "How to avoid KOL controversies", "The growth of short videos collaboration", "The trend of KOL co-branding", "The rising of KOCs", and "Silver-haired KOLs/Virtual KOLs and new opportunities”. These highlights can be used as references for brand owners to effectively plan their KOL marketing strategies in 2024.
1. The Controversies Surrounding KOLs In 2023: How To Avoid KOLs With Negative Images?
There were several issues related to KOL's shattered false persona or controversies that happened in 2023. These scandals not only tarnished the image of the KOLs but also heavily impacted the popularity of the associated brands. In this case, brands should pay attention to KOLs those who have had scandals in the past 6 months. If the KOLs have poor reputation, they may receive negative feedback from their followers, potentially damaging the brand's image and impacting its overall revenue. In the past, a prominent KOL got involved in a controversial issue, resulting in the cancellation of a promotional event and causing significant losses for both the KOL and the brand. With AsiaKOL’s AIE system and Quickseek’s public opinion database, we can evaluate the public opinion toward the KOLs, help brands seek suitable candidates, and avoid those who might damage the brand image.
2. The Replacement Of Long-form Videos To Short-form Videos: Reels Open New Opportunities
Due to the change in user habits, traffic to long-form video content declined, marking a new era of short-form video content. Many YouTubers who used to dominate the platform, such as @EYECTV, @AshanKouki, and @thisgroupofpeople both announced their quitting in 2023. Microsoft highlighted in a 2016 report that the human attention span has decreased to just 8 seconds. This has led to an increasing preference for short-form and engaging content, causing the influence of short-form video content to continue expanding. After the launching of Instagram’s Reels in 2022, monthly active users have reached 235 million to date. More than 90% of users watch IG videos every week, and Reels advertising can reach 700 million people.
According to the statistics from Statista, the average number of interactions for Reels on IG has surpassed that of IG posts in 2023. Meta pointed out that, through AI recommendation engine optimization, about 20% of news feeds are now recommended by AI. This means that content from accounts that users have not followed may also be displayed. This helps brands reach a wider audience beyond their followers, increasing brand exposure. In today's market, brands must seize the traffic opportunities presented by IG Reels to reach more potential customers and boost conversion rates.
As the era of short-form video content has changed the marketing model, to help brands capture the secret of traffic, AsiaKOL launched a whole new solution – IG Reels Marketing Solution. In the past, AsiaKOL used to deliver an exclusive marketing service for the well-known department store chain – The Galeries Lafayette – called KOL Christmas Giftbox Unboxing Campaign. The campaign was crafted to amplify the brand's presence on social media using Reels, which effectively boosted brand awareness and engagement.
3. KOL Traffic Monetization: Co-branding And Group Purchasing Expand More Collaboration Opportunities
2023 is said to be the golden era of KOL traffic monetization. Several KOLs launched personal brands, co-branding products, group-purchasing events, courses, etc. Especially KOL co-branding, there were dozens of collab campaigns in 2023. According to the exclusive data from AsiaKOL, most of the KOL co-branded products last year were in the fashion and food categories, while the types of KOLs span fun, food, cosmetics, and skincare categories. The strategy of co-branding with KOLs in 2023 has achieved remarkable results. By collaborating with KOLs and other industries to repackage or launch new products, brands can expand their customer base and boost market visibility. In 2024, co-branding with KOLs possibly remains one of the beneficial strategies. Brands can make full use of such a strategy to seek more cross-industry collaborating opportunities and expand popularity.
4. The Segmentation Of Followers: The Power Of Nano KOLs and KOCs
2023 witnessed a decline in interactions of several well-known macro KOLs. Social media has shifted towards a focused ecosystem, where interactions of nano KOLs and KOCs are gradually overshadowing macro KOLs and gaining prominence in small communities. Based on the statistics from Demandsage, the interaction rate of an IG Reel from a KOL with fewer than 10,000 followers is 3.74% to 3.81%, significantly outperforming KOLs with more than 10,000 followers. Now this is the era of micro-KOLs! The type of collaboration with KOLs has evolved. Thus, brands do not need to insist on partnering with macro KOLs. Moreover, it is not advisable to select KOLs based solely on the number of followers, as some KOLs may have artificially inflated their follower count. In comparison, the social interaction rate is a more accurate evaluation indicator that brands should focus on. AsiaKOL used to work with the spinal chair brand Hengstyle in our Micro-KOL Marketing Strategy, helping the product successfully gain widespread response in the community.
5. The Rising Of New KOLs: A New Door To The Market Of Silver-haired and Virtual KOLs
New categories of KOLs, including granfluencer and virtual KOLs, emerged in 2023, and their impact continues to grow. Most of the silver-haired KOLs transform from artists, or have family members working as self-media operators who take them into the community and help them become KOLs. Therefore, in terms of business cooperation, it can not only reach the customer base of the silver-haired KOL's age group but also the younger consumers. Moreover, the age difference can easily arouse consumers' curiosity. On the other hand, the business opportunities of virtual KOLs shouldn’t be ignored either. According to the survey of over 1,000 Americans conducted by The Influencer Marketing Factory, 65% of followers of the virtual KOLs used to buy the products promoted by them. From the rising trend of the mentioned types of KOLs, we suggest brands change their mindset of finding young KOLs to collaborate in 2024. Instead, brands can explore new collaboration forms as well as business opportunities based on certain product attributes to expand a larger market.
From The Marketing Process In 2023 To The New Strategy In 2024
In this article, we have listed 5 major KOL marketing trends of 2023 to assist brands in planning their 2024 KOL marketing strategies more comprehensively. KOL marketing will still flourish next year. The only changing factor is the marketing trends. AsiaKOL shouts out to brands that, besides keeping up with the popular social trends, they can invest part of the marketing budget in a professional influencer marketing company for effective enhancement of product and service visibility. AsiaKOL can help brands select and review KOLs based on interaction rate and favorability. Additionally, AsiaKOL can comprehensively evaluate the obstacles and potential crises that may be encountered in KOL marketing. From public opinion data analysis to marketing strategy formulation, we can assist brands with achieving strong results in KOL marketing.
AIE - KOL Evaluation Database
The AIE – Asian KOL Evaluation Database can search for KOLs in specific fields with various categories, and analyze the important reference scores of KOLs such as interactions and breadth of influences, helping brands locate the “dream type” of KOLs, enhancing the accuracy of marketing campaign. If you want to know about community performance of Taiwan or international influencers, contact us for more details!
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