The creator economy is rapidly accelerating as brands expand the ways they are growing affinity and sales through influencers. LTK, the global influencer marketing platform that works with more than 5,000 brands to power Creator Commerce™, released its annual Brand Influence Forecast for 2022 to share the top five influencer marketing trends. 

The LTK Brand Influence Forecast is based on qualitative interviews with marketers from leading brands on the LTK Brand Platform and quantitative analysis using the LTK Influencer Benchmark™, a tool that identifies creator and shopper engagement, brand share of voice, impressions, clicks, items sold and sales across industry verticals and creator-led marketing disciplines. 

“Creator marketing is no longer a single tactic sitting in one portion of a brand’s marketing funnel,” said Kristi O’Brien, general manager of LTK Brand. “It has become a multi-layered strategy consisting of audience targeting, an understanding of the market landscape and testing into new channels. Sales are still a top focus, but marketers are beginning to rely much more on creators to meet a variety of objectives.” 

LTK Brand, is a division of LTK that powers influencer marketing campaigns for hundreds of global brands, has seen an acceleration in retailers and brands of all sizes turning to influencers to drive innovation, hyper targeting, content-first awareness campaigns and word-of-mouth significantly more than in prior years. 

Influencer marketing can generate 11x the return on investment of traditional marketing, according to Influencer Marketing Hub. And Forbes projects $15 billion will be spent on influencer marketing in 2022.

Here are the top influencer marketing trends for 2022.

1. Content-first creator campaigns and influencer boosting are accelerating as they outperform traditional marketing.

Retailers are seeing double-digit engagement increases in offer and awareness messaging using user-generated content (UGC). This is driving a significant increase in demand for UGC, both for use in brand advertising, but also in boosting creators’ placements wherever they appear, sometimes doubling or tripling their reach.

2. Co-op creator influencer marketing will expand as retail media groups grow.

As retail shifts, co-op media will extend more deeply into digital influencer marketing, quickly becoming a part of the co-op marketing mix. Co-op marketing is when each entity contributes marketing dollars to invest a larger spend, directly benefiting each organization. Retail co-op is a growing trend in retail marketing and creator marketing will continue to follow. 

3. Influencer benchmarking will increasingly inform influencer strategy.

As investments increase, brands will focus more on tracking influencer industry benchmarks across categories with the goal to become more strategic and to better own areas of influence. As more dollars are flowing into creator marketing from other channels, understanding a brand’s positioning within the influencer ecosystem is imperative.

4. Gen Z partnerships are a top priority. 

Partnering with influencers who appeal to Gen Z is a top focus for brands as they realize how heavily this group depends on influencers for their purchasing decisions. The 2021 LTK Gen Z study found that 92 percent of Gen Z shoppers rely on influencers to inform their purchases across virtually every category.  This, coupled with the influence Gen Z has on the general population, has brands disproportionately focused on the coveted audience.

5. Video content will continue to drive greater engagement and conversions.  

LTK has seen a significant rise in video content across social platforms and in the LTK shopping app for its ability to dimensionalize influencer content and make shopping more engaging. As discovered in LTK’s 2021 Influential Shopper study, the social platforms most used by influential shoppers heavily revolve around video content and include: 

1. Instagram 
2. Facebook 
3. Youtube 
4. TikTok

TikTok in particular is performing well as it allows creators’ short-form video content to remain up longer, giving creators more time to reach their audience. Video continues to drive significant engagement on the LTK consumer app as well.

About LTK
LTK is an influencer marketing hub built on creator innovation. LTK drives more than $3 billion in annual brand sales by uniting brands, influencers, and shoppers through the power of distributed original content.  It is the one-stop influencer marketing hub that fuels influencers and their businesses through  Creator Commerce™. More than 165,000 fashion, beauty, fitness, home and lifestyle creators use LTK to monetize their content across the entire social ecosystem—all through their flagship Shop on LTK. 

LTK partners with over 5,000 brands across the globe where products are curated and organically promoted through platforms that shoppers are already utilizing for inspiration. LTK brand partners are provided end-to-end strategic guidance and in-depth data to drive maximum impact. LTK has also forever changed shoppers’ buying experience. Strong relationships between creators and brands, generate more curated content for the 8 million in-app shoppers. The LTK creator ecosystem benefits more than brands. It provides a more accessible and streamlined retail experience for shoppers across the world. So what are you waiting for? Apply now to join this network of entrepreneurs. 

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