The influencer economy continues to surge and is projected to hit $33 billion this year, a 35% increase over 2024. If those numbers alone don’t illustrate the impact influencer marketing is having on traditional media, consider this: Rolling Stone just released its list of the Top 25 Influencers, and Unilever announced that half of its media spend will now go to influencer marketing.
In my conversations with station sales teams, we’re seeing the same trend play out locally. Community A-listers are leveraging their personal platforms to compete directly with broadcasters for advertising dollars.
So what are influencers doing to grow their business? Looking through the advertiser’s lens, we see that their success comes down to four things: relationships, agility, plain talk, and hustle.
Relationships
Steph Ross, from the influencer agency Born Social, notes that companies justify paying higher rates because influencers build long-term partnerships with brands.
“We’ll be working with creators on a three-month or six-month contract, and then the same people that we’ve already worked with will then be planning for the next year — and we are seeing that creator’s follower count getting bigger and them becoming more successful,” Ross said.
Influencers are cultivating relationships that move them beyond the cost-per-point and cost-per-thousand game and into a more strategic role with advertisers.
Agility
Creators/influencers in long-term contracts with advertisers have developed the relationships with the advertisers so they can react quickly to viral trends, rather than having to plan a campaign out months in advance. That immediacy is a huge advantage—when a cultural moment pops, influencers can create, post, and connect within hours, while traditional campaigns might still be waiting on approvals. Advertisers value that speed because it keeps their brand in the center of conversations as they happen, not weeks later.
Plain Talk
A cottage industry has emerged to support influencers’ sales efforts, and a big piece of that is the Influencer Media Kit. (Yes, it’s a real thing.) Take a look at a couple of examples to see the commonalities.
The best influencer media kits are:
* Simple
* Focused on the essentials (bio, audience metrics, brand partners)
* Free of irrelevant stats like audience share or ratings, rankings, or jargon advertisers don’t care about
In other words, they speak the advertiser’s language directly.
Closing Thought
As local and national influencers continue to carve out a larger share of the ad mix, broadcasters need to borrow from their playbook. That means tightening presentations, talking less about “how big we are” and more about “what we can do for you,” and building partnerships that are flexible, responsive, and built for the long haul.
What makes broadcasters special, trust, legacy, and reach, are still unmatched. When paired with the agility and clarity that influencers have mastered, traditional media can reassert itself as the most compelling local partner advertisers could ask for.
Along with his duties at Jacobs Media, Chris develops revenue opportunities for jācapps’ mobile apps clients.
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