Year after year, marketing practitioners in Poland are making collaboration with influencers an increasingly important part of brand communication. This trend remains the same in almost every industry – from automotive to technology and parenting. According to last year’s research, as many as 63% of marketers planned to increase their budgets for influencer marketing. So, what are the biggest trends in Polish influencer marketing at the moment?
Table of contents:
- Legal cooperation
- Ongoing campaigns
- Influencer products
- New forms of settlement
- Influencer collectives
- Growth on the TikTok platform
1. Legal cooperation
The last year has seen a key change regarding cooperation with Polish influencers. It is significant in that it was initiated by UOKiK, the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, which has long been looking into unethical and not entirely legal practices on the part of Polish influencers and the partner networks representing them. The biggest Polish creators were taken to the starting line, and the scrutiny mainly covered the way they label their collaborations with brands on Instagram or YouTube.
The new regulations had an effect almost immediately. According to data presented by analytics company Brand24, by the end of 2021 alone, the number of publications labelled with the messages ‘advertisement’, ‘collaboration’ or ‘sponsored post’ increased by as much as almost 77%. This is a huge step towards systematising the operation of the entire Polish influencer industry. And for marketers – a significant change to be aware of. So, it’s worth knowing that asking an influencer not to mark content as sponsored material is illegal and can be severely punished.
2. Ongoing campaigns
One of the most important trends in Polish influencer marketing at the moment is the gradual move away from one-off ad hoc collaborations to multi-directional ongoing campaigns. As a result, brands are able to create more credible promotionss and thus acquire more loyal customers. After all, it takes time to sell something. Systematically publishing content with one influencer in the long term yields better results than several individual posts with different creators.
What’s more, an ongoing collaboration with a selected influencer also looks more authentic from the perspective of the creator himself. And this increases the chance of attracting genuinely valued influencers online, who do not take on every brand that approaches them. From our observation, the average duration of such a campaign is currently a minimum of six months. That’s plenty of time to draw very concrete conclusions.
3. Influencer products
In-house products in collaboration with brands signed with an influencer’s face have been a real goldmine for the past two years or so. It all started with the Ekipa and their original ice cream, which came out of the Koral Polish producer’s logo. The success of this campaign moved the entire marketing world. Not surprisingly, new products co-created by influencers began to spring up like mushrooms after the rain – most of them with quite a bit of success. Particularly popular industries keen to undertake such activities are food and beauty brands.
Interestingly, it has recently become apparent that the reputation or niche of an influencer no longer matters. No one is surprised by cosmetic products created by influencers whose content has nothing to do with cosmetics (see the INGLOT product line signed by Julia Kostera – a lifestyle vlogger not known for her make-up skills). A bigger storm, however, was caused by the Yummers brand (manufacturer of breakfast cereals), which chose the recently controversial (but reachable) Polish influencer Fagata as the face of its products.
Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cdu27AtIC4E/
4. New forms of settlement
Every year, budgets for campaigns with creatives are getting bigger and bigger. Brands’ awareness of the sales power of Polish influencers is growing and it is estimated that large companies are already spending more money on influencer marketing than on TV ads. Along with this change comes another – the way influencers are billed. After all, a huge budget comes with huge expectations of the creator. Not surprisingly, more and more brands are choosing to bill not for the collaboration itself, but for its real effects.
An increasingly common element of a contract with an influencer is the need to establish relevant KPIs (e.g. sales) and sometimes even link the pixel to their accounts, e.g. on Instagram. This allows brands to more precisely analyse the real impact of campaigns with a given influencer and to re-engage or terminate the cooperation in the future. We are keeping a close eye on this trend, as it could prove to be a real revolution in the marketing world.
5. Influencer collectives
Influencer collectives are a trend that arrived on the Polish market a few years ago directly from the United States. Inspired by the success of Jake Paul and his Team 10, other Polish youtubers took the foreign idea and adapted it to Polish realities. This move proved to be a hit, and two of these Polish collectives – Ekipa and Team X – quickly created faces who have gone on to become some of the most popular Polish influencers. Not surprisingly, month after month, other similar groups emerged, hoping for equally spectacular success.
For the time being, there is no sign of this trend dying out. Particularly as the broadest target group for such collectives is the very young (7-13 years old), who expect fun, easy-to-absorb content. It has even come to the point where castings are systematically held on Polish YouTube, looking for new faces to feed into new groups. This is how, for example, Genzie, or “druga Ekipa”, or Natsu World, created by one of Poland’s biggest influencers Natalia Karczmarczyk, came into being. This is an important trend to watch. These types of collectives are usually a fantastic space for advertising products aimed at younger audiences (for example food, clothing or school supplies).
Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/CeLt-CcN07L/
6. Growth on the TikTok platform
2022 is a year of intensive growth for TikTok in Poland. The largest age group is users aged 18-24 (54%), and the fastest growth rate is currently in the 25-34 group (18%). The growing number of users in Poland, together with the ageing demographics of the platform, mean that more and more brands are deciding to try their hand there. One solution is to develop their own communication. This often turns out to be a bad idea, as TikTok is a site that values authenticity like no other and is highly sensitive to promotional messages. For this reason, the vast majority of advertisers only rely on cooperation with TikTokers.
Importantly, TikTok is currently one of the most engaging social media platforms. Unlike Instagram or Facebook, which many users browse without sound, videos on TikTok require 100% focus on both image and sound (as this is also the platform’s intention). Also, in TikTok’s favour is the changing habits of users who have less time. Video content is becoming shorter and shorter, and although platforms such as YouTube are trying their hand at the short format (YouTube Shorts), there is no indication that they will ever surpass TikTok’s success in this respect.
There are many more trends in Polish influencer marketing. This was just a foretaste of what big changes may soon be in store for marketers and brands. If you want to make sure that the agency you are working with is up to date with what is happening on the Polish market, contact us for a no-obligation chat. We are a Polish marketing agency that has been working with B2B and B2C brands for years and creating influencer collaborations that win the hearts of clients!