The influencer business model has been built on digital talent creating revenue streams through ads and product promotion in a pay-for-play model. But today’s savvy influencers see themselves less as “promoters” or “spokespeople” and more as their own lifestyle brands. Any talent with an engaged following has the opportunity to turn likes, follows and shares into so much more through brand extensions and licensing.
Just look at some of today’s biggest brands:
• Disney, the top licensor in the world, made $53 billion in consumer products last year — nearly eight times its box office revenue. Although its scale is massive, Disney enables fans to experience its content beyond the screen.
• Queen-fluencer Kylie Jenner is the poster child for this trend in brand-building talent. Not only has she built one of the fastest-growing beauty brands ever, but she’s also the youngest self-made billionaire in history.
Here are three steps to activate a brand through merchandising and physical products:
Step 1: Assess your brand.
Martha Stewart is an example of a living brand who has always been authentic to who she is and what she stands for. Martha represents decorum, sophistication and elevated style. When you think of Martha Stewart, there’s an image that immediately comes into your head. Digital brands and talent can likewise create their own images in consumers’ minds.
Identify and develop your brand early. Create a brand bible or style guide filled with core values, key messages, visual identity and essence. These are the North Star for any budding brand and help each action stay authentic and consistent.
We work with organizations to develop brand guides that reflect a property or the company’s values, personality, vision and services. These guidelines help provide the framework for the day-to-day activities and content of a brand — everything from logo usage, marketing and sales materials to email signatures and social media posts. The guide is used both internally and with third-party partners. The goal is to avoid having to reinvent the wheel every time new content is created. Having a brand guide helps keep the entire team on track and consistent.
Step 2: Be smart about sub-brands and products.
Brand development and licensing can be a great way to strengthen a brand. Ryan from Ryan’s Toy Review is just one of many influencers who has created successful brand extensions. Like Ryan’s toy line, the products associated with your brand should feel organic and authentic. It’s critical that they resonate with your audience and provide a new way to experience the person behind the brand.
Every interaction with a branded product should deepen the connection with fans — not just be a cash grab. The challenge is licensing the brand without compromising authenticity. Businesses have a tendency to see dollar signs and slap a logo on a t-shirt. Proper licensing and merchandising require listening and deep-rooted relationships with your audience.
Before upping the offering, you must first determine the brand architecture. How closely associated are the products (or sub-brand) with the person or umbrella brand? Is it a house of brands or a branded house?
There’s a huge opportunity for talent who have built a following online to branch out to publishing, apparel, toys or other consumer products. However, it can be tricky to forge the best consumer products partnerships, so consulting an expert to leverage connections and insights to put the right deals in place is always an option. Just because something can be merchandisable doesn’t mean it should be.
Step 3: To retail or not to retail?
Baby Shark started as a YouTube sensation and matured into a brand with a toy line, apparel and more. There are hundreds of brands, talent, games and intellectual properties (IP) with massive built-in audiences and direct lines to their fans, but not all are keeping up with the demand for new product opportunities. Consumers’ expectations for these cross-category products have increased by 28% year over year, yet brands have only been able to keep up by 7%.
If you have a built-in audience reachable through social media or other methods, tapping into a direct-to-consumer opportunity has never been easier, thanks to new platforms such as Shopify and Instagram’s shopping feature. For talent, there’s a third option to partner with another influencer and launch a single product that extends the brand slowly and deliberately.
That doesn’t mean influencers should avoid traditional retail. It can provide added marketing muscle for a product line. For example, Arielle Charnas of Something Navy created her clothing line exclusively with Nordstrom. Her latest collection sold out rapidly and even brought down the Nordstrom website.
Hybrid models — combining both licensees and direct-to-consumer — can also work effectively to set up product programs. Omnichannel commerce and the concept of making your products available both online and at retail is the holy grail when there’s massive consumer demand. Whether it’s a company like ours or another expert in the space, it’s ideal to focus on what you do best and collaborate with someone who has the licensee, manufacturer and retailer relationships to handle the contracts, royalties and management.
When looking for the right licensing team, there are a number of things to look for, such as experience, relationships with the retail channels and a diversified portfolio of case studies and past success. But the most important factor is to make sure they are innovative and aren’t just in it to make a buck. The retail landscape is changing rapidly, and you need a partner that’s aware of the latest and greatest trends.
Next Steps For Talent
Anyone with enough followers can become an influencer in our Instagram culture. Converting that “digital currency” into a solid brand has never been easier, but it is still challenging. It takes careful planning, dedication to authenticity over profit and the right licensing and marketing partners to create a lasting brand that can successfully cross over from the digital world into the physical world.
