The influencer-marketing industry was already flourishing, but the coronavirus pandemic gave it a full bloom as many brands had to cut their advertisement production costs and resort to influencer-marketing strategies via channels like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
However, recently Influencer Marketing Hub published a report which analyzed the state of the influencer marketing industry and the Influencer Media Value (IMV) in the recent months of the pandemic. To analyze the brands that are spending the most on influencer marketing on YouTube, they collected data from more than 20 million YouTube videos in the US and Canada. They made some comparative analysis between YouTube videos which are sponsored by some brands and ads placed by Google programmatically in the ad breaks.
A sponsored YouTube video is one in which the creator promotes a brand within the video and gives appropriate links for the brand or product in their video too. This kind of influencer-marketing has become very famous as it allows the creators to earn exceptionally well.
Sadly, due to the pandemic, it has been observed that many brands have started cutting on their influencer-marketing budgets also. Some industries kept doing well in the first quarter of 2020 but traveling and tourism-related industries started seeing the biggest downfall since January 2020, when their viewership started declining tremendously, with less than 1 million views on YouTube. This was probably a side-effect of sponsoring only fifteen videos during the 1st quarter, and by March 2020, even that came down to zero.
Surprisingly, the Food and Drink related industry also started seeing a decline between January and February. Later on, March onwards, all other industries also started seeing a decline in viewership.
However, brands that kept spending money on influencer-marketing saw impressive results too. Some greatest spenders on influencer-marketing through YouTube in the first quarter of 2020 include ‘Epic Games,’ the famous video game software developer, and publishers who are behind games like Fortnite. They are the highest spending brand on YouTube! They have spent a whopping $10 million on sponsored videos, and this has resulted in the Gaming industry seeing a great bloom amid these challenging times.
Gaming alone makes up to 42% of Influencer media value amongst the 6 most flourishing industries, and 30% of the total influencer media value for all the other top-spending industries.
The second most spending brand is ‘Bang Energy,’ the energy drink company, which has spent around $8 million for more than 141 sponsored videos on YouTube.
Skillshare has spent around $3 million, ExpressVPN has spent around $2.5 million, NordVPN and Amazon spent $1.8 million, Squarespace has spent around $1.4 million, while DLive, GFuel, and Blue Chew have spent around $1 million on YouTube sponsorship videos from January till April 2020.
So, these are the industries that makeup around 70% of the overall $90 M influencer media value.
It is not surprising that the industries with the highest IMV also saw better returns in investments from their influencer marketing campaigns, especially Gaming, Tech, Beauty, Fashion, and Food, and Drink industries. The high performance of these industries has set a framework for successful influencer marketing in the remaining months of 2020. But with the ever-changing situation due to the pandemic, nothing can be predicted with absolute certainty.
The decline in viewership for many industries was noted during March 2020, and it is still possible that the industries that have shown some growth due to their relatively uninterrupted viewership until now may also see a decline in the following months of the second quarter of 2020.
Read next: Mobile Gaming Is Going To Have A Blockbuster Year 2020, Beating PC And Console Gaming
However, recently Influencer Marketing Hub published a report which analyzed the state of the influencer marketing industry and the Influencer Media Value (IMV) in the recent months of the pandemic. To analyze the brands that are spending the most on influencer marketing on YouTube, they collected data from more than 20 million YouTube videos in the US and Canada. They made some comparative analysis between YouTube videos which are sponsored by some brands and ads placed by Google programmatically in the ad breaks.
A sponsored YouTube video is one in which the creator promotes a brand within the video and gives appropriate links for the brand or product in their video too. This kind of influencer-marketing has become very famous as it allows the creators to earn exceptionally well.
Sadly, due to the pandemic, it has been observed that many brands have started cutting on their influencer-marketing budgets also. Some industries kept doing well in the first quarter of 2020 but traveling and tourism-related industries started seeing the biggest downfall since January 2020, when their viewership started declining tremendously, with less than 1 million views on YouTube. This was probably a side-effect of sponsoring only fifteen videos during the 1st quarter, and by March 2020, even that came down to zero.
Surprisingly, the Food and Drink related industry also started seeing a decline between January and February. Later on, March onwards, all other industries also started seeing a decline in viewership.
However, brands that kept spending money on influencer-marketing saw impressive results too. Some greatest spenders on influencer-marketing through YouTube in the first quarter of 2020 include ‘Epic Games,’ the famous video game software developer, and publishers who are behind games like Fortnite. They are the highest spending brand on YouTube! They have spent a whopping $10 million on sponsored videos, and this has resulted in the Gaming industry seeing a great bloom amid these challenging times.
Gaming alone makes up to 42% of Influencer media value amongst the 6 most flourishing industries, and 30% of the total influencer media value for all the other top-spending industries.
The second most spending brand is ‘Bang Energy,’ the energy drink company, which has spent around $8 million for more than 141 sponsored videos on YouTube.
Skillshare has spent around $3 million, ExpressVPN has spent around $2.5 million, NordVPN and Amazon spent $1.8 million, Squarespace has spent around $1.4 million, while DLive, GFuel, and Blue Chew have spent around $1 million on YouTube sponsorship videos from January till April 2020.
So, these are the industries that makeup around 70% of the overall $90 M influencer media value.
It is not surprising that the industries with the highest IMV also saw better returns in investments from their influencer marketing campaigns, especially Gaming, Tech, Beauty, Fashion, and Food, and Drink industries. The high performance of these industries has set a framework for successful influencer marketing in the remaining months of 2020. But with the ever-changing situation due to the pandemic, nothing can be predicted with absolute certainty.
The decline in viewership for many industries was noted during March 2020, and it is still possible that the industries that have shown some growth due to their relatively uninterrupted viewership until now may also see a decline in the following months of the second quarter of 2020.
Read next: Mobile Gaming Is Going To Have A Blockbuster Year 2020, Beating PC And Console Gaming
