← The Influence Factor by The Influencer Marketing Factory
The Influence Factor by The Influencer Marketing Factory
AI’s Impact on the Creator Economy w/ Alexander Frolov (HypeAuditor)
00:26:35
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- [00:00]
A
If somebody thinks about influencer marketing and start doing something there, keep trying. The world is changing and you want to be a part of these changes.
- [00:15]
B
Hey Alex, welcome to the show. How are you?
- [00:17]
A
Fine, fine. Thank you very much. Thank you for having me here today.
- [00:22]
B
Absolutely. Today we talk about a few interesting things. You know we're going to go through roi, you know, performance metrics, you know, AI of course, because everyone is talking about AI in the creator economy these days.
- [00:34]
A
Not possible to my about that.
- [00:39]
B
We're going to look into do's and don'ts. Then we're going to also finish, you know with also something that we talked about in the past that is like you know, athletes and then how they're like doing these days. But so you know there is a lot to jump on it today. But before we get started, usually ask like just you know one, two minutes to introduce yourself. But we do it in a way that is called the map. Basically it's divided in three main sections. The mission. What do you achieve with your work? Achievements, anything that you are very proud of, you know, any notable milestone in your career or life. The last one is the purpose. So why do you do what you do?
- [01:10]
A
So basically start with the mission. I think I do not have like short slogan the option because what we have on the website is more kind of UBP for our customers. But I generally very like creator economy and where it leads the world because the products becomes more like diversified, more people oriented and actually want to make this movement kind of most like transparent, honest, effective. And it's kind of our mission, we start with the transparency and trying to make react economy better. I would say about our achievements and my personal achievements, I would say the hypotheter so far is my greatest achievement because I was managed to build truly international company. We operate in like many countries, not only us but also European countries, Latin America, Asian countries. And that's fascinating to work and build worldwide company work with the peoples around the world. And our reputation is also one of our achievements. We have hundreds and thousands publications with our data in different media sources including biggest one, Forbes, like Business Insider, PR Week, Edwick, like Egg Crunch, a lot of them. And that's also kind of cool to see representation of your work on the global scale. And purpose it's probably the hardest thing but for me like purpose is kind of trying to do some meaningful impact because every like businessman, business leader trying to build business thinking about money. But for me it's also very important to do something impactful in a good way. When I can be proud when I tell about my work for my kids and I can have some nice story for them. So this is kind of my way of measurement. That's the purpose. I want to bring something that I can be proud of to humility.
- [03:50]
B
Amazing. And since you know, you already mentioned like of course you know in a funny way about measurement, but let's talk about that, right? Because you know, both of us, we've been in the industry for a long time. So we do remember, right, the times that at the beginning it was about awareness only. There were no tracking in place. It was so cloudy, so difficult, right? And it was just about, hey, I want to go on social media, let's try this influencer marketing stuff. Then a few years ago, right, we moved from ollie brand awareness to more like, you know, performance metrics and so on. And then in the past couple of years the majority of CMOs head of marketing out there, they've been like, okay, I want to do this, but what is going to be the ROI of the campaign, right? So tell me a bit more like how do you see that? Like what is the best way right to calculate ROI in influencer marketing these days? Have you identified some formulas or frameworks, right that any type of companies out there, micro macro like big companies in different industries can actually use that to really understand was this influencer marketing campaign successful for me or not?
- [04:49]
A
That's generally quite big topic because every company thinking about influencer marketing it's so wide. But not every company succeeded influencer marketing. That's also true. And what we see the best way to return your investment so is for the company that find the way kind of to complex use of influencer marketing. If you're trying to just put the money for the campaign with the direct tracking and comparing it to the paid ads, in the most ways it's a pretty bad end because it's not the way how the influencer marketing built. But we see a lot of success for the companies who find the complex way a huge market is E commerce would make influencer marketing campaigns because they can use influencer marketing in so many ways. They can get like first reviewers I would say of their stuff. They can get the content they can use on their website, they can get the content they can use in their advertisement and get better conversion. Also they have this direct users they get from the promotion with influencers. So they get kind of complex effects. You get something as a direct ROI trackable from link. You get something that you save on the producing content. You get Some CTR increase and get better return on your ads and so and so on. And they kind of build a good complex system that drives the business forward. And while other like complaining that nothing works, just comparing direct links traffic those campaign just go forward ahead their competitors because they found their way. And the E commerce niche is not the only one. But this is very like good example of how the products could be used in a good way through influencer marketing to return back on investment. So there is kind of will be no unified formula in this. You need to find where you can like amplify effectiveness of your business with some parts of influencer marketing. But you can build your own like unique formula, save here, improve here like get content to website here, like get sales through the micro influencers here. And overall it will give you a great boost for your business. But unfortunately it's a little bit more complex when it's just giving a formula. That's why we're speaking so much about it because people need some time to understand this stuff.
- [08:07]
B
Absolutely. Yeah. There is not one size fits all right the type of situation when it comes to that. There are maybe some sort of like you know again formulas and framework that can go back just as a, you know a sort of base like foundations. But of course it has to be customized and tailored right on the industry they are in and so on. But I like when you say that and we say this all the time also people like, you know again think of influencer marketing as you know, pay to play action where I put $1 in and this is what I'm going to get the same day. But as you said also before is not like that because you get much more right from, from the campaign. It's not just about the content. You got the content, you get all the discovery, the all the audience. You get feedback, real time comments. Right. You if you pay extra can get media rights. Those media rights, you can put them on your website. Right. Those videos, you can boost certain videos right. That have that UGC style. Right. So there's so much more. Right. And I think that yeah I agree like up until the client and the brand doesn't understand all the value that gets in the influence of marketing campaign. And they only look at I put $1 in, I want to get $7 out today. That is usually what I read around, you know on the Internet. It's like okay, we, we might not be on the same page, you know that. Yeah. On that yet.
- [09:23]
A
Yeah, yeah. There's many expectations like a magic wand or something like this but unfortunately nothing in the market, in any channel works like a magic ones. You still need work.
- [09:36]
B
What I say all the time is that if a marketer said the word guaranteed is not a marketer, that's usually what you know, we can do our best. But if you guarantee anything in marketing, there is something a bit sketchy for me to be, to be honest, you know, because it's better.
- [09:52]
A
And speaking about roi, there is also interesting part that it's not only marketing, to be honest, speaking about influencer marketing because it's bring so much feedback as you said about the product. And you need to understand to succeed in influencer marketing you need to have a good products that will fit the audience you target. They need to like it, they need to have a good impression about it. It's impossible to sell average products for influencer marketing. Users just get a lot of feedback that the product is kind of average, that's all.
- [10:31]
B
Hello.
- [10:32]
C
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, we have it all covered. We work with hundreds of brands across different verticals from Fortune 500 companies to DTC see 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@theinfluentencermarketingfactory.com or just search the influencer marketing factory on Google.
- [11:11]
B
Absolutely. And that is actually also something good, right? Because many brands get in with a new product, a new service, they think that is going to be a blast and everyone going to love it. And then actually thanks to influencer marketing and thanks to you know like again kind of like unhinged type of comments from, from people that can actually see do people love these, do people hate it? What would they change? Right? What I said, I said this like a dozen times. But the comment section is basically your focus group, right. That you can actually like learn from. Right? So that is also part in my opinion of the roi. It's not just bad. Again as you said, marketing is also sales cycles. It is, you know, there is so much right going on on there. And from roi. Again let's move to again the topic that we're saying everyone is talking about. Of course, you know, it's a buzzword AI. So let's go away from the buzzword of AI right from the generic things There let's go really more, a bit more into actual items. Let's talk about also like maybe some do's, do's and don'ts right Of AI in the creator economy. Because right there are people using like creators saying influencers using AI as a support. There are others that are being completely replaced. Right. We've been seeing a lot of AI avatars that are given a prompt and they can actually recreate thousands of videos. Right. And they're put on social media. So let's start with that like in your opinion based on what you've been seeing right. On social media these days, some do's and don'ts of the creator economy that you would recommend to both creators and also maybe companies that are looking into AI for influencer marketing.
- [12:40]
A
Sure. That is a lot of help from stuff that you can do with AI but also a lot of creating. We will touch both speaking about helpful stuff. Actually it helps a lot with the like connecting. Basically it's what like products like Hypoditor do. It's what like can be automated in other ways. It's helping to find right brands and right influence influencers. Because previously like without AI having like some narrow niche, you'll spend like a lot of time trying to find like right influencers. And usually only those who are in the very top get a lot of brand attention. Get like a lot of companies who want to give them money. But all the rest like starting from the middle and lower get nothing. But sometimes there is like much better fit with the small influencers. Especially when you have like narrow niche and AI helping to leverage this to next level. Save time with the companies finding these influencers. Next thing to do that is great is simplified waves of communication. It's just on the start but I imagine this like in the two, three years like there will be assistant on one side, assistant on the another side. They will just communicate fine. Do they have like dots to connect? And if there are like meaningful conversation going on, then the real people talk. And we will save all the time scrolling through this unended emails that are very generic anyway. Does AI write them or human write them? It's just an ending final game. So this is kind of assistance is very helpful. Well you already understand. Okay, this is good brand for me. This is good influencer for me. We matching somehow on the how much it could cost. Do I promote this type products or not? This is save a lot of time. And also one of the already working ways to use AI is to boost your creative. It is already so good in it even like the chatgpt from the box. You can say it with like work for me like influencer marketing expert and give me ideas about my product, about which influencers I need and same stuff for the influencers. They can ask like what ideas I can bring on with whom I can work. It's already works wonderful giving you this field of ideas and about don'ts what actually feels creepy and don't recommend it to do fully generic stuff. Nowadays it looks like another way to spam. When you scroll in TikTok and get this fully automated scripted something feels just a bunch of trash adding to the Internet, nothing more. Not no authenticity. They are like virtual influencers which are created by human which gave personality or something like this like Lil Miquella or other like virtual influencers. This stuff is cool. This is totally different. This feels authentic, this feels feels like real influencers. But all this generic stuff with the features like reading some text, even when they start to read it good it stills there is like no authenticity. And there are. You have understanding that there are just people trying to make some fast money just uploading the tons of this generic stuff. And it's actually platform fighting with it I think. But in average it makes you experience with the social networks worse I would say at the moment. So I wouldn't recommend like to like replace human authenticity was with some like fully generated stuff and also like expectations from AI to make decisions for you. We are also not in this stage even if you ask about the idea campaigns, even if you can analyze something, give advices, give like good ideas, give you like basically food for your brain. But you still need to use your brain. If you will just follow what AI said it would be still very creepy hallucinating journey. So use it as a field of ideas but no, not as instruction of what to do. Definitely.
- [18:01]
B
Yeah, yeah. Especially since there are still AI hallucinating right. And coming up with completely fabricated things. And you know I've been seeing on the news people following like medical advice from ChatGPT and going to the hospital, right? Because they followed by like you know again AI as. As it was a doctor and look at what happened there. So yes, like I would not also recommend to like again it's. It's a great support, right? But as you said, you need your brain, you need your. Your style. Also like AI as of now it's only able to basically refine and analyze things based on you know, data that already exists out there. So the creativity part is missing, right? The AI as of now cannot Create anything new. Maybe the idea to you can be new if you never heard about it. But it means that it was in a data set of billion and billions of items out there. But it cannot as of now at least come out with any that is totally new, right? So if you are working in marketing, in creative, you want your brain as a human being to be like okay, this is that genius, right? That can't stall it to human right now. So that's also usually what I recommend, right? To use that guys as a support. But if you want to make a difference in the marketing, you know, scene has to come from you.
- [19:16]
A
Yeah, yeah, for sure. It's kind of be can be a food for your brain to kind of make a way for some ideas. But as I say, you can. Can just follow.
- [19:29]
B
Absolutely. And, and so you know, like if AI right, as we said, it's all about. Not all about, right, but there are certain now profiles, right that are completely generated. It's a bit difficult to trust them, right? Is it, Are they real? Are they not real? I can feel there is like this sort of again gap between me and them because I can see they're not real there, right? The opposite of it. It's, it's. It's still real people. And one of the ones that have been like you know, growing a lot in terms of interest are athletes, right? We talk about it in other episodes. We even recently did a blog post about athletes as. As influencers, right? So first of all, why do you think that now all the nil like you know, discussions, right Is getting to almost the next level, right? And secondly, do you have any either case studies or data, right from iPoditor that maybe you can, you can tell us like why now like at least has been there for ages, right? But why all in the past few years there's been like this influx and
- [20:25]
A
interest in that I think that it's some moment in the time that was right, the interest was always there. But I think there are like several things happen. First like the legal. When they get allowed to get all these paid contracts, all the stuff and still continue to be like professional at least it's very important point also like general outcome when everybody wants to be an influencers. Even if you an athlete, even if you like some kind of musician, actor anyway you still want to be influencer because like social networks give you like so much and give you additional like brand contracts. They had to give you additional experience, exposure, personality and so on and so on. And I think every young people in our age Thinking about like how to develop their social networks and they have everything like Instagram, TikTok. You do all the stuff. And why the athletes specifically is so hot topic. I think because the connection with the athletes is so much better than the other celebrities. Like from the hypotheter data for example, we compare them for lifestyle. For example influencers of the same size and the engagement rate of young athletes was almost 50% higher in average. Yeah. So there is. Their audience is much more engaged because there not just some guy girl which have a cool lifestyle. And I like watch I'll be having breakfast. But it's kind of fun model when I have like some guy who are like my heart with him. I watch every game. It's a little bit different. They have really like strong following their community and and brands feel it and they see this opportunity. They also want to reach young audiences who are following these people because it's their future customers, especially big companies. But still at this level it's much more affordable. So the market is explode first year when was allowed to make these brand contracts. This year alone green around 900 millions for this Yan at least. But there is like very big difference. So like top 5 and especially top 1% make a lot of money and there is like a big tail who are doing not so well. So it's also not like everyone having like huge success as in every niche. They're like even from the young athletes there are like big celebrities and somebody who is doing average. But especially for the like food brands, for like sport brands. Something like this sounds like it's a very good opportunity to find a connection with a young audience. And you have like a bonus stake on the here. If you make long term contract and guy or girl becomes like a superstar, you get additional bonuses. It's kind of like wiing on your stake. So that's true.
- [24:23]
B
Yeah, yeah. It's a hit or miss. Right. Like in that situation. But if you hit it well like you know there have been plenty of case where someone was just cut it maybe you know and at three that. That then went on the Olympics or national teams and they signed a contract maybe with a way lower prices. But. Right. Because that person was not that known. And then boom. They become like one of the top players and maybe for another year or two years or three years. Right. You do have a contract with them and they become your ambassador for a fraction of a price. Right. That you might have paid if. If only. Right. You waited a bit more. So. And I also agree when you say that, you know, actually they work well on several different industries and verticals.
- [25:04]
A
Right.
- [25:04]
B
You can have food and Bev, of course, but also beauty product. Right. You have like, like there is so much right because an athlete, you know, they're like, they have a healthy lifestyle and there are so many things like sneakers that you have to try on things for your body, mental health. Right. Like there is so much right to that. You can actually use that. So pretty, pretty interesting. And Alex, I think that with this, right, this was the last topic of, of today. Again, you know, we went through quite quickly but full of, you know, ROI and influencer marketing in 2025, right. And then AI big, big bad word. But still, you know, like very interesting to see into the do's and don'ts and then finishing with again like athletes and how brands can, can reuse them in the best way possible. So thank you, Alex, for, for joining me today and for sharing your knowledge with us.
- [25:52]
A
Thank you. Thank you very much. It was a very interesting conversation, but the buzzwords is like starting to work nowadays. We live in the wonderful ages, so it's not cool to have this conversation and see how many things start to work. So if ever, if somebody thinks about influencer marketing and start doing something there, keep trying. The world is changing and you want to be a part of these changes.
- [26:21]
B
I agree 100%. If not, you're already late to the game. This was the influence factor by the influencer machine factory. And I'll see you in the next episode.
- [26:31]
A
Sam.