Berlin’s Brandnew IO has a new influencer marketing platform that helps brands chase people who have become big on social media.
Above: Brandnew IO can find influencers.
In an age when user acquisition costs are soaring, and the effectiveness of ads is in question, marketing to people with a lot of social influence is “in.” Influencers who endorse brands and products can be seen as more authentic than traditional advertising, and that leads to stronger engagement with potential customers.
The end-to-end platform provides brands and agencies with tools to identify relevant influencers for a specific market. They can use the tools to manage key relationships and measure the effectiveness of influencer campaigns.
Brandnew IO says the platform reduces the amount of manual work required and eliminates many time-consuming elements of influencer marketing. That frees the brands and agencies to focus on more important aspects, such as building influencer relationships and developing engaging concepts.
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Brandnew CEO Francis Trapp started the company in 2013, when the concept of influencer marketing was still fresh. The company realized that as social media sharing skyrocketed, influencers were rising in importance, and it could be much more effective to manage all of the influencer contacts though a single platform. Brandnew IO works with influencers in 60 countries and handles anyone from small targets to big celebrities. The company has partnered with big brands such as Adidas, Uber, and Benefit Cosmetics.
“Brands and agencies really want to work with influential people in social media,” Trapp said. “The market has shifted in recent months as brands and advertisers become more educated. We offer the chance to build sustainable relationships on our software-as-a-service platform.”
Using the Brandnew platform, brands and agencies can coordinate global or localized influencer marketing campaigns. Product features include a vetted influencer network across 60 markets, the ability to onboard existing influencers to the platform, automated profile tracking, influencer analytics on engagement and audience breakdown, simple campaign setup, and influencer communication.
“We help identify the right influencer for a brand,” Trapp said. “Customers can search for influencers based on key words. They can monitor how the social media presence of an influencer changes over time.
Benefit Cosmetics, Universal Music Germany, and other international brands used the platform during beta testing. Those brands are able to pull a lot of data about influencers and examine the quality of the content, engagement rates, and other data.
“We partner with a lot of influencers around the world, so the ability to bring our database together and manage relationships is extremely useful”, said Kamila Wabnik from Benefit Cosmetics, in a statement. “We particularly like that we can onboard influencers we already work with to the Brandnew platform to have an overview when planning new cooperation. It evolved to our influencer management tool of choice, as it is easy to use and provides a high level of functionality.”
Rivals include Tapfluence, but the market is getting fragmented. Brandnew IO uses web-based services to get the job done. And Trapp said that making brands realize the importance of influencers is key.
“Brand advertisers are spending more budget on influencers as a constant pillar in their marketing mix,” said Trapp. “It’s a very different kind of marketing. The content is way more authentic, and the way the story gets out is different. Engagement in response to an influencer can be very high.”
As for who the influencers are, it’s a wide range of people, from YouTubers to Instagram power users.
“Influencers are influential people whose influence can be quantified and tracked on social networks. They collaborate with brands in ways that journalists or politicians can’t.”
Over time, Trapp said, he wants to make the marketing system more programmatic and based on real-time bidding. Brandnew IO has about 25 people and has been funded by angel investors.
Above: Brandnew IO can track the social media growth of influencers.