The Context Marketing Revolution
How to develop influencer marketing to deal with the new order created by the digital revolution.
Author(s): Mathew Sweezey
Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
Date of publication: 2020
Manageris opinion
Since 2009, consumers have been producing more content on the Internet than companies. They thus have a much more powerful influence than advertisement discourses. This new reality is shaking companies’ conventional marketing strategies. How can brands adapt to this new reality?
First, by relying on consumers to relay their messages. Next, by abandoning the intrusive nature and the hammering aspect of previous forms of advertisement. To remain audible, the promotional discourse must provide the consumer with a real service, when and as he/she needs it. This is all the truer since, nowadays, technological tools exist to target these consumers and anticipate their expectations—a piece of information, of advice, a tutorial, etc. From then on, it becomes possible for the company to position brand contents in the purchasing journey of the consumers, while being perceived as useful rather than invasive. Additionally, it thus maximizes its chances of seeing its contents made theirs and circulated by the consumers themselves—which further increases their influence.
The Context Marketing Revolution is an enlightening reading to better understand how influencer marketing—in a broad sense—works, and to open to the new possibilities that are made available by the digital revolution.
