Influencer Marketing Trends to Heat Up Your Summer Campaigns

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It’s hard to believe, but the first day of summer is only two weeks away. A time of change, freedom from the past, and celebrating the moment, summer is also the perfect opportunity to ramp up your influencer marketing efforts!

After a long, restless winter, consumers are itching to run outside, get active, and unleash their creativity. Whether it’s through Pinterest boards or Insta Stories, people are turning to social media for ideas, inspiration and individuality.

We’ve rounded up this summer’s biggest into three categories – macro trends, platform trends, and global influencer marketing trends. Think of this blog as your handy guide to the summertime – we hope it helps you bring out the best in your upcoming campaigns!

Macro Trends

To start, let’s freshen up on the aesthetic and emotional connotations of summer, as well as provide some general tips: As the Open Influence CEO, Eric Dahan, put it during his Open Influence Summit address, relevance comes from the intersection of the right message, told by the right messenger, to the right audience. Part of crafting the right message is being mindful of the moment you’re in!

You don’t send Christmas cards in July for the same reason you don’t wear swim shorts in January (unless you’re reading this from another hemisphere) – clashing with cultural expectations without a good reason can make your brand stand out for the wrong reasons.

Instead, tailor your creative ideas to the cultural zeitgeist and watch your content resonate with audiences. Summer is known for bright colors, warm lights, the grand outdoors, and adventure – gone are the days of influencers bundled up by the fireplace. Summer is the time for action – find ways to incorporate motion, sunshine, picnics, and other dynamic imagery into your content.

Color psychology has always played a foundational role in marketing and advertising, as colors possess the universal ability to convey emotion. Luckily, there are tools to plan your feed’s color palette; with the right strategy, you can bring a little seasonality to your social media. Believe us – small details add up over time to make big emotional impacts.

Summer is home to a number of holidays and festivities, starting in June with Pride Month. Pride Month is an opportunity not only to support a good cause, but take a stance on a particularly important social issue – which research shows is increasingly expected by younger consumers.

Father’s Day, graduation season, the 4th of July – summer is as much a holiday season as winter. Holidays are one of the rare occasions in which communities take part in the same conversation, so don’t miss out! Take part in the moment with tactics such as hashtags, which see particular engagement during high-volume events on platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Platform Trends

Speaking of hashtags, let’s look at some platform-specific trends and what they mean for influencer marketing:

Expect short-form, music-driven content to continue its cultural ascent.

Popularized by Tik Tok (formerly known as Music.ly), lip sync videos and other music-driven content is more popular than ever – so much so that other sites are beginning to take notice. Snapchat is currently in talks for a licensing deal that will allow them to build a similar feature – will they manage to lure away some of TikTok’s user base?

Second, keep an eye out for fun, seasonal features.

Every year, most platforms release holiday-specific functionality – for example, you can currently add Pride-themed filters and other assets on Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and more. It may seem obvious, but use them! Research shows that stickers, gifs and other features increase engagement, so use what you can while it’s available.

Last, eCommerce and social media will continue to merge.

Look no further than the most popular site for sponsored content, Instagram. Within the past year, the social media giant has taken huge steps to make their Shopping experience more robust. Influencers have played a big part in this – Instagram released shoppable tags to influencers this past April. Get ready to see an increase in feature adoption.

Influencer Trends

Influencers – especially TikTok influencer marketing pros – don’t just help brands sell the summer’s hottest looks – they also shape them! In fact, fashion brands and influencer marketing go back to the very beginnings of the industry. Social media fashionistas – who tend to be early adopters of up-and-coming products – end up setting many of the biggest fashion trends you can find today. Look no further than slime green apparel, which has been tearing through social media and celebrity wardrobes alike.

Much like the weather, influencers also go through seasonal changes. As waters start to warm, and vacation days roll in, exploration will be on everyone’s mind – and that means it’s officially the season of the travel influencer.

Influencer marketing is a great way for tourism boards and other organizations to attract visitors, such as our recent work with the cities of Miami and Las Vegas. Why? Data tells us that one of the biggest hurdles for potential travel consumers is the belief that vacations are too expensive or too complicated to plan – influencers are the perfect medium for demonstrating relatable, everyday people successfully navigating the travel experience.

Speaking of travel, summer is officially festival season, including premiere titles like Bonnaroo, Primavera Sound and Lollapalooza. Whether it’s an up-and-coming concert looking to draw a crowd, or a consumer brand looking to showcase their products in action, influencer marketing was tailor-made for the festival circuit (just be sure not to strand your guests on a remote Bahamanian island).

With school officially out, families are enjoying some much needed bonding time – and that means family influencers are particularly relevant. Indeed, families come in so many different varieties, and celebrate such a wide swath of traditions, that influencer marketing is the perfect creative solution. Influencer marketing allows you to tailor your messages to any audience using real, authentic voices.

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If you are ready to get serious about your influencer marketing this summer, we’re ready to talk. Send us a message and we’ll reach out! Now go catch some sunshine.