Influencer marketing is the new kingmaker for brands. In Goa, influencers have been creating content towards increasing their following for the past few years. Many restaurant and hotel brands recognise their ability to magnify their digital footprint and invite them for a barter collaboration.
With growing competition amongst influencers, they are challenged to offer more deliverables to brands. Initially, there were only a few renowned influencers with a following of more than 5k but now with budding influencers, brands have more options of influencers to invite for barter (or free) collaborations on a regular basis. However, simply inviting more budding influencers for barter collaborations may not yield the expected result. Seasoned influencers create better quality content which positions luxury brands favourably. In this blog post, we would like to encourage brands to pay for influencer collaborations to gain extensive benefits at fairly reasonable costs.
We spoke to a few influencers to get their perspectives on barter versus paid collaborations.
Nyeree Viegas, a well-established lifestyle and fashion influencer said barter collaborations helped her in the beginning of her career but now with her experience, so much goes into creating good content, that it’s only fair that seasoned influencers get paid for their time and efforts. From ideating engaging posts to execution; coordinating photography/ videography; outfits and aesthetics to the editing process; it takes a lot of efforts in creating content.
At times, even renowned brands decide to replace a paid collaboration with a barter collaboration, if they find one at the last minute. She prefers to do paid collaborations unless it is a barter of some really good products which may be useful to her.
Prominent food influencer, Fernando Da Silva had a different opinion. In the beginning, he felt that it was easier to pitch for a monetary exchange as the market was not as saturated with tons of influencers. Earlier, the market wasn't influencer-driven but rather, blogger-driven. He thinks that in today's market, there are a lot of crossovers of the brands. For example, there are a lot of Asian restaurants coming up in Goa and creating unique content for every Asian restaurant, differentiating it from others is the real talent of a seasoned influencer and for that they should be paid. He also pointed out that instead of paying for a newspaper review or an ad which only lasts for a day, brands can pay influencers to create content that will remain in the digital space for a long time while the engagement keeps growing.
Roma Bharne, another food influencer, also puts her heart and soul into her content so she thinks that she should be paid for her hard work and skills. But if it is a well established brand that looks good on her profile, then she would consider a barter.
Trevon Dias, a lifestyle and fashion influencer said that he barters if the brand name is reputed globally since it adds value to his profile… It's like work experience on his resume. He thinks digital marketing is outgrowing traditional marketing. Influencer marketing is now specialised and if the brand aesthetic or campaign does not suit his image, then he has to compromise his content. He would only do this if he was getting paid.
These days it is difficult for the brands to magnify their presence on Instagram without influencers. It is time that brands view influencer marketing just as legitimate as traditional advertising and influencers spend their time creating quality content for monetary compensation and not just for a good time.