Micron Technology's Craig Smith, Senior Director of Integrated Marketing, shares strategies for overcoming consumer skepticism of advertising by cutting through the crowded influencer market.

According to Forbes, the global influencer industry is worth approximately $250 billion annually and is projected to double to $500 billion in the next few years. Influencer marketing can significantly enhance brand visibility, generate awareness with new audiences, and drive sales. For brands that are not necessarily household names, it can cut through the noise and bring credibility to their marketing message, increasing awareness and adoption of products.

However, in a crowded market where consumers are increasingly skeptical of being marketed to, how can brands provide value to their audience, maintain authenticity, and seamlessly integrate their message across various platforms and strategies?

Selecting the right influencer to infuse personality and ensure a cohesive, consistent message is crucial. This decision requires a blend of tools and analytics to understand reach, engagement, and audience relevancy, alongside an assessment of personality fit. For brands to be successful, focusing on long-term partnerships that give influencers the creative space to be themselves is more likely to achieve consistent results, continuity, and trust.

At Crucial, Micron’s 28-year leading consumer brand targeting gamers, creators, tech enthusiasts, and general PC users with memory and storage solutions, we have found great success in partnering with micro-influencers. These collaborations often start organically through a connection on one of our social media channels, resulting in more relatable content for our customers. Ideally, you want to work with individuals who genuinely love your brand and products, rather than those who are paid to love them. We are also fortunate to work with a few macro-influencers who have been long-term advocates of the brand, allowing us to enjoy the best of both worlds, and using a combination of paid and organic activations.

When it comes to campaign strategy and execution, a consistent and truly integrated approach is essential to extend reach. Identifying, securing, and funding the right influencer is only the beginning. For the campaign to be successful, it requires collaboration across visual media, graphic design, content writing, social media, digital advertising, web, and agency teams. All these elements must work together with function-based goals and KPIs that align with the overarching purpose. This ensures that content is not only leveraged consistently across all customer touchpoints but is also adapted in the most suitable way for each platform.

Crucial launched the 'Versus' series in late 2023, partnering with several influencers to demonstrate how our leading product portfolio empowers tech, gaming, and creative professionals to overcome obstacles and reach their full potential. By combining research-based selection, authenticity, and an integrated campaign structure, we achieved the highest reach and engagement in the brand's campaign history. This led to a significant influx of visitors to our website and brand pages at e-tail partners who were previously unaware of the brand. This success also garnered national recognition within the advertising industry, securing organizational buy-in that upper funnel tactics like these have a significant impact on the bottom line and require ongoing investment for growth.

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