Intelligence Powers Valassis Influencer Marketing, Proven Solution Sets New Industry Performance Metrics

Valassis, a Vericast business and the leader in marketing technology and consumer engagement, is defining and creating industry benchmarks with its newly introduced influencer marketing solution. Valassis influencer marketing programs drove a 64% higher engagement rate for awareness campaigns and 110% higher click-through rate for traffic campaigns based on 32 consumer packaged goods brands testing nearly 3,000 pieces of content.

“Consumers want to interact with brands in a more experiential way, relying in part, on influencers for brand discovery and digital storytelling,” said Sinead Norenius-Raniere, vice president of influencer marketing and paid social at Valassis. “Effective influencer marketing is both an art and a science, strategically identifying the right influencers, message and channels to reach a receptive audience, and ultimately, inspire purchase decisions. At Valassis, we are able to buy and serve media programmatically via our influencers’ handles, providing brands incredible efficiencies and maximizing their investments. We are also setting new industry benchmarks for influencer media due to our approach and optimization practices.”

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Consumers rely on influencers to vet products and make purchase decisions. A recent Valassis survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers found that 51% have purchased a product or service after seeing it used or promoted by an influencer in the past two years. In addition to influencing purchases, 40% of consumers are more likely to trust a brand that features an influencer they know.

Using the power of Illumis™, Valassis Influencer Marketing goes beyond organic reach to engage consumers through programmatic paid social ads. Successfully scaling its solution beyond social media in multichannel campaigns, Valassis identifies the channels a brand’s target audience prefers and adapts the influencer content. Marketers are then able to rapidly test vast amounts of content in real time to best determine what will deliver the highest response.

Hampton Farms, the leading roaster of in-shell peanuts in the United States, realized a seven-fold return on ad spend with the Valassis influencer marketing solution. Fifteen micro-influencers were engaged, creating 62 pieces of authentic, high-impact visual content that was tested and optimized for a campaign aimed at increasing awareness and sales of its seasonal Major League Baseball peanut packages at select retailers. Top performing ads were targeted via display and amplified with paid social ads, delivering over 7.1 million social media impressions (5 million over guaranteed) to in-market audiences and a 0.38% click-through rate (compared to the 0.15% industry average).

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Valassis’ unique strategy, technology and scale approach:

• Provides advice on creative approach and strategy to influencers to ensure they are effective storytellers producing authentic content about a brand. With its stringent vetting process and by leveraging AI-powered technology to identify influencers, Valassis hones in on the content creators that will have the strongest alignment and affinity with a brand’s campaign objectives.
• Utilizes precise, predictive intelligence from the Valassis Consumer Graph™ to identify ideal consumers. Interests, store visits, purchase preferences, purchase intent and other characteristics are instrumental in developing sophisticated custom audience segments. With these insights, Valassis shines, boosting Facebook targeting with its complementary and robust intelligence. As a Facebook Preferred Marketing Partner for Agencies, this combination uniquely positions Valassis to deliver smarter, more precise targeting that puts authentic content in front of consumers.
• Unlocks scale by automating manual aspects of influencer media. This includes the influencer permissioning process to then leverage influencer handles for programmatic paid ads delivered and optimized using sophisticated technology. Valassis is able to launch campaigns in record time while simultaneously building and maintaining strong relationships with influencers.

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