The Attention Economy in Influencer Marketing with Blaine Doherty (Fiverr)

0:00I would definitely say creator economy is a subset of the attention economy that really prioritizes trust, authenticity, authenticity, and being engaging engaging.

0:14Hey, Blaine, welcome to the show. How are you? I'm very well, Alessandro. Thank you for having me. Of course. Very excited to talk about today about very practical, you know, tips and tricks for people listening. I think that is going to be a very packed, valuable episode today. And I can't wait to get into that. But before doing that, I always like to have the guests to present themselves. and we use this thing called the map. Basically, it's divided in three sections. It's the mission. So basically, what do you aim to achieve with your work? Achievements, anything that you're really proud of could be in your career, could be in your life or both.

0:49And the last one is the purpose. So why do you do what you do? I'm Blin Doherty, Senior Influencer Marketing Manager at Fiverr. What I aim to achieve is to create engaging influencer content that drives brand performance for the Fiverr brand. achievements i would say moving to new york was a pretty huge milestone in my life uh been here for three years but speaking at south by southwest about influencer marketing is probably being a professional high point and then purpose i do what i do because i really love it i hop skip and jump into work every day i enjoy working in the content creator space and love the opportunity to be creative and create engaging content.

1:34Fantastic. And, you know, funnily enough, I do remember, like, I used to use Fiverr since the beginning when actually the things were only$5. And, you know, before the, you know, the new, like, redesign of the past years. So I've been, you know, an aficionado customer for a long time now. And it's great to see what happened, right, to the business in just a few years when the gig economy, right, It was at the beginning was like, oh, you know, just a bunch of people doing something for$5. And then you have now pro people, right? And great freelancers and professionals on the platform. So, yeah, just like, you know, again, I've been a big, big fan of it for a long time now.

2:11And I wanted to discuss with you today about, again, as I was saying at the beginning, a few very practical, right, tips for people listening today. And the first one, it is about how to reorganize, right, the work when it comes to, you know, influencer strategies and campaigns. We all know that every day, especially these days, there is all the time a new event happening. There is a new whatever day, pizza day and donut day and so on. So basically there are so many happenings. These key calendar moments, or sometimes there are also short term deadlines, and we have to rush to get everything possible to create all this content.

2:47So can you elaborate a bit on these key calendar moments and how brands basically can reframe, right? This strategy around them in order to not doing them just because they have to, but still being successful when they activate them. No matter what the brand is, having that calendar is incredibly important, but ensuring those moments you're supporting line up to your KPIs overall is, it makes complete sense. So for us, we have our product release in the summertime and wintertime, and we want to drive people to landing pages that increase awareness of the new products that Fiverr is launching. We also have International Freelancer Day as an example on October 19th.

3:31That's another key moment for us. So planning around those moments is incredibly important. Our KPIs are well-established. You want to ensure that influencers are set up to drive towards those. We're able to measure against them. But I think there's two other ways that people can help ensure those key calendar moments can be supported because sometimes things can go awry. I would say that maintaining a list of friendly content creators to your brand is always really important. And what I mean by friendly is these are people who have helped drive performance previously. They understand your brand, they keep messaging, they can communicate it, it's the right audience.

4:13You know, all the stars align. Because they have this understanding, the ability to create content could be quicker. It could be more nimble. Yes. Free will can be quicker, et cetera. And then I would say another key thing to really keep in mind is sort of establishing different moments for influencers to support. So I approach it in three ways. We have tentpole, which is major celebrity partnerships. We have brand moments, which are the International Freelancer Day. And then we have always on. And with this kind of tiered approach to influencer partnerships, we always have an influencer partnership underway that is able to support whether it's a last minute product, whether it's a last minute thing, whatever it is.

5:01And that enables us to be nimble to support those key calendar moments if they pop up at the last minute. And I think that approach could help many other brands out there. but I appreciate, you know, it can be sometimes very different for different brands. And I like, especially when you say, you know, to get back and use again, people that already know about your brand or your product, right? They might already, and also like, you know, in addition to them knowing already about your product, their followers, right, already heard about it one time. And we all know that, especially these days, we are bombarded with all this messaging.

5:36Only one time might not be enough, right, for you to sediment, right, the messaging. But if you see from the same creator or influencer or freelancer, professional, B2B expert, right, that is going to tell you about five or maybe five times, then at the fifth time, most probably going to check it out, right? Or maybe I already know it and then it's going to be like, in that moment, I don't need it. But maybe after two months, I hear about it again. And then now I'm ready, right, to look first for a freelancer, for instance. So absolutely a great message there. and you know after the calendar moments something also important is that then when you execute what happened after and during it is basically managing also like all the metrics right all the all the all the kpis and so on also that is very important so i was wondering like you know first of all why it is important right when it comes to a data-driven approach to influencer marketing and also do you have any tools or metrics that you find valuable and you look usually look at and be like okay this was a successful campaign because of these metrics?

6:31I'd say the first data approach that is really important is, and I mentioned it previously, is just establishing your KPI. What are you measuring against? So you're set up to track against that. For me, whenever I'm looking at an influencer on behalf of Fiverr, it's using data to understand if they're the right fit for us. Do they reach the right audience? Are they creating engaging content? Are they active on the right channels, etc.? So certain tools can help us look at that, whether it's Tagger, Creator IQ, those are probably really well-known examples. But I would say whenever it comes to judging an instance or partnership, we look at two things, the social performance and then the brand performance.

7:14So social, straightforward, likes to use, comments, et cetera. The brand performance, we look at promo code usage as well as UTM link, trackable link data. And we track that via Tableau, which is a platform we use internally. Many companies use it as well. And from that, we're able to understand, okay, which influencers have really driven performance and which audiences have really resonated with the messaging and the content we created. And that's how we can get to that list of fiber-friendly influencers who are really driving performance for the brand and can be reliable, authentic, engaging influencers moving forward.

7:55And specifically on this, you know, so to go back a second on, you know, using people that you already know and that you basically like created a stronger and long term relationship. Do you have any other tips or pieces of advice when it comes to building a successful business and influencer partnership? Right. Because of course, the brand has a certain, you know, like criteria and guidelines. On the other side, the influencer wants to keep their messaging authentically relatable. How do you find the balance there? For me, it's really important to look at three things. So we need to understand where the audience, brand, and influencer interests kind of intersect.

8:36And at that point, we're able to create engaging, authentic content that communicates the brand clearly, but is still relevant for the audience, is engaging, it's aligned with what the influencer creates, so it's authentic. and I feel that that type of content is where we are able to build that brand love, brand engagement, potential conversions for the brand. And personally speaking, I think that that approach can extend across any brand. That's not just for Fiverr. In that case, do you have any either past projects or campaigns that you run that you think were a good example at Fiverr? We definitely nailed it when it came to this type of successful campaigns between, again, you know, business and infrastructure?

9:20Is there anything that comes to your mind? Yeah, I would say we have a current partnership which is underway with Bobby Burke, who's from Queer Eye, the show Queer Eye. We offer architecture and interior design services on Fiverr, wanted to promote awareness of them. Bobby Burke is perfect because he has authority in the space, he's relevant, he's engaging, et cetera. And as a result of that, we built this long-term partnership that authentically mentions Fiverr. when Bobby has a use case for floor plans, 3D renders, landscape design, whatever it is, Bobby is now able to recommend those services to his audience.

10:00And I would say that to kind of extend that partnership, we've partnered with Bobby across PR opportunities. He became a freelancer on Fiverr to offer people interior design advice. We really thought how we could integrate Bobby across different ways, again, to help us achieve our KPIs. And that's a really good example of a partnership that considers those brand, audience, and influencer interests and has found the point of which those three different things meet. Hello! Is your brand ready to amplify its reach? Well, the Influencer Marketing Factory is here to do just that. We are a global influencer marketing agency helping brands ignite their growth from influencer identification to campaign strategy, handling legalities and agreements to managing shipping and logistics.

10:50We have it all covered. We work with hundreds of brands across different verticals from Fortune 500 companies to DTC brands. And we don't just stop there. With detailed ROI analysis, we help brands like yours measure success, transforming impressions into actionable conversions. You can find us at theinfluencermarketingfactory.com or just search the Influencer Marketing Factory on Google. And, you know, also something I wanted to ask you is that we covered all the importance of metric. We covered the importance of understanding moments when to publish and what to publish. We went through like, you know, the partnership amount to make it successful.

11:25I'm also wondering when it comes to the creative economy as a whole, right? Is it part of the attention economy? Are they two different things? Because in another episode with the CMO of MasterCard that we were discussing that, But, you know, many people say that the attention is, you know, the new currency. But, you know, Raja, there is CMO. Masgar was saying, actually, he thinks that, you know, trust is one of the most important thing. So in your opinion, what is more important is the trust. It is the attention. So try to get the best content out there to keep the eyes in front of the phone.

11:54And if one of the two or both, right, how do they go under the credit economy, right? Is this something that is only going to be about, you know, attention? or do you think it's going to change in the next years to something that is not necessarily all about the attention, but about maybe other values or stuff like that? I think that it should focus more on trust. So at Fiverr, we're trying to communicate how freelancers can be used by businesses to build brands. And we need a lot of trust for that. So trust is 100 % a key objective for us. I think that the creator economy is part of the attention economy, I would say it's a subcategory of that.

12:33And I think that, yes, influencers, content creators are ensuring we keep our attention on certain social media platforms. But the creator economy is different because it's based on trust, authenticity, authority. And I think that creators enable that authenticity, that creativity based on the content that they're creating that appeals to the audience. They're prioritizing what is engaging for their audience. The attention economy as a whole is very different because that could just be one thing that's engaging at one point in time. I think creator economy has more longevity to it. And we can see that like Amazon Prime now working with Mr.

13:19Beast to launch his brand new game show. We can see that these people, content creators, are building such engaging formats that major streaming companies and I understand the importance of this and leveraging that for their own form of the attention economy, keeping people engaged on their platforms as well. So I would definitely say creator economy is a subset of the attention economy that really prioritizes trust, authenticity, and being engaging. No, it makes sense. It makes sense. And, you know, it's also interesting to see where is the attention, right? I've seen some videos on TikTok about Gen Alpha that have five screens in front of them, right?

13:59So they are scrolling on TikTok. They're watching a YouTube video. At the same time, there is like, you know, a Twitch streamer, right? Playing a game. I know that it might be a bit exaggerated, but at the same time, right? That is what is happening with new generations. So a lot of things happen at the same time. so I'm also like you know wondering how do you see either the you know the combination these days of long form and short form right because we all know that TikTok made a revolution there but then you know of course Instagram really also also understood the importance and that YouTube shorts like myself I've found many times during the day just scrolling on YouTube shorts and I personally love it because if I have a lot of content that I already love on YouTube right and then if there is you know the little button that if I want to watch the full video you know So I get a little snippet in YouTube shorts.

14:40I click on the link and I go to the full video. So also for discovery, I think it's fantastic. How do you feel these days about short form versus long? How, as a content creator, can you work on both? Should you focus on one or the other? Should you do both of them? Tell me a bit more how you see the current landscape when it comes to content. I'm much like yourself. I love going on YouTube shorts. I love TikTok, Instagram reels. But then I also love that longer form YouTube. I think both long form and short form can partner really well for brands. So as an example, if you're working with an influencer to create a longer form YouTube video and it's super involved, it's very engaging, YouTube shorts could be a perfect way to show behind the scenes type content.

15:29It's just another way to engage audiences. I think short form content, like you just alluded to, could be a great way for discovery as well. So if you are posting shorter form snippets of your longer form video out there, it's a great way to drive interest potential further eyes to the content you're creating. I think short form, in my opinion, is better used on social. So if you're looking at YouTube as a whole, YouTube's become huge in the streaming space now. So creating longer form content where people want to sit down, maybe watch a recipe video, or watch maybe like a 25 minute long video, quite your brand and its impact, then you might want to consider using longer form to reach the cord cutters, the people who aren't online as much, but are still engaging with the streaming aspect of YouTube.

16:27So longer form can have certain benefits, shorter form can have certain benefits, but I really think that pairing them both is a great way to reach audiences. And are you seeing any other trends, like any other things happening there? You already covered some of them, but is there anything else that, I don't know, in terms of even behavior of users, right? Going from short form to long form and vice versa. Are you noticing something? And if so, do you have any also recommendations there? Well, the main thing I've actually seen recently is we have been creating more architecture and interior design content off the back of our Bobby Burke partnership.

17:03And these projects can be super involved when a YouTuber is talking about building an aspect of their home or whatever the project is. and we have seen that certain youtubers the majority of their viewing audience tends to come from youtube tv streaming youtube on tv so including a clickable link in a description doesn't work anymore so we are now started to include qr codes within videos at strategic points which can help ideally convert that traffic and be help us enable tracking of that streaming audience as well. So I would say that's kind of one thing that I've seen recently. And that's how we're reacting to it, to be able to enable that tracking and prioritize data capture.

17:52I'm excited, especially when I think that, you know, watching something on YouTube and I'm on the sofa, right? And then if I want to bring that advertisement on my phone, I can, as you correctly said, like just, you know, I scan the QR code that is on my phone and there is like integration and especially also for tracking and reasoning like you know you can just go in there and see that actually the person that saw it on the tv is the same person also like that brought like the same link on your phone and that if they convert you got able to see all the funnel right from the beginning till the end so that is also I guess right quite quite important to do through these days uh something that I also wanted to touch base on it is uh the very interesting nature of you know content creators that are becoming basically entrepreneurs right uh yeah I had the pleasure to have a few of them on the podcast.

18:38One of them specifically is Ms. Excel. I don't know if you know her, but she makes all this content about Excel, but in a funny way. So basically she took a very boring content, because if you ask other people about Excel, usually they're not very excited about, unless you're a data analyst, of course. And so she was like, okay, let's do this type of content in a more engaging, entertaining way. She started like that and now she has almost a team of 20 people, right? So this makes you really understand that Content creators are not just anymore the solo people that do everything, but they have video editors, they have people that help with the scripting, people that help with brand deals.

19:15When it comes to Fiverr, how do you help young entrepreneurs to navigate all the different challenges they might have when they want to go again from, I'm a solo person doing everything to getting a team helping me out with different tasks? That's a fantastic question. And it makes up a major focus of our content partnerships where we want to partner with entrepreneurs, business owners who are at different stages to be able to show how fiber is helping them grow. So if you're becoming a content creator and don't know where to get a website made or YouTube intro graphics, whatever it is, our content is focusing on showing people that Fiverr is the best place to source that wide range of freelance talent that can help these entrepreneurs grow and develop their businesses.

20:07Whether it's working with the likes of John Ushai on his creator economy focused content to position Fiverr as a super useful tool, or working with smaller business owners who do have social media followings showing how they can source seo uh copywriting rights free music creation whatever it is that's a major focus of our content and fiverr is a fantastic resource for creators looking to grow and it's great that you also mentioned joe uh you know because uh i had on the podcast i know several several you know podcasts ago uh it's one of the og right youtubers so i i learned so much you know now i know that it does a lot of you know speaking events and you know keynotes So it's great that you mentioned the same name there.

20:53Last question for you, but is there also any other upcoming products from Fiverr that you'd like to share? Something that, again, either marketers today can learn about or also influencers, content creators, young entrepreneurs. Maybe is there anything else that you're working on that you're really excited about? I would say what we're super excited about at the minute is our product updates that we're releasing towards the end of July. When working with freelancers, it can sometimes be a little difficult to, whether it's briefed them correctly or ensure that you're getting the right thing by.

21:25So one of the functionalities that we're launching is NEO, which is an AI briefing tool, which can help users of Fiverr find the right freelancers that they need, but also brief them in a way that makes it much more efficient to be able to work with individual freelancers. I would say that outside of anything product related to Fiverr, we're just really looking forward to the rest of the year. We've partnered with 146 content creators so far this year. That's going to be a lot more by the end of 2024. And yeah, we're just trying to ensure we work with people who are relevant for our brand, engaging, and that we're seen to be supporting content creators across different markets.

22:09And, you know, I like when you talk about, you know, briefing, I think that is crucial for everything that you do, not only on Fiverr, but when it comes also to, you know, influencer marketing activations, because we noticed that if the scope of work is not clear, you know, from the zero, there are going to be a lot of miscommunication. it takes more time back and forth, you know, between emails and so on. So, yeah, you know, I appreciate you to say briefing, you know, it's very crucial and you're working to make it even easier and simpler for people because we noticed that if you are not on the same page from the beginning and then you don't ask the right questions and you don't like, you know, you don't scope out everything as you should, then maybe something that was potentially one week that becomes one most of work, right?

22:47Because of that. You control the process. Exactly. Exactly. Lynn, thank you so much for joining us today. Again, as I said, big fan of Fiverr. It's great to see what your guys are building. And best of luck with the new content creators and influencers that are going to onboard this year. Thank you so much, Alessandro. Thanks for having me. This was the Influence Factor by the Influencer Marketing Factory. And I'll see you next week.