Tribe’s new platform dedicated to providing brands with user-generated content could be a vision of future marketing, with both Keith Weed and Jules Lund predicting ads will increasingly be created by consumers.
Content Campaigns, launched in February, allows influencers to create ads for brands in response to briefs, with brands then only paying for what they use.
While influencers have always been creating content for brands, the key difference with this platform is that the content is used on the brands’ channels, not influencers’. This increases how much content influencers can create and profit from, and also opens up traditional forms of advertising to influencer marketing.
Weed, former CMO at Unilever who recently invested in Tribe, says affordable technology means consumers can become advertisers for brands who need to keep pace with increasing demand for content.
“Everyone now has a high-quality phone that takes great photos right in their pocket, and if you can get consumers to take photos of products against a brief, it unlocks a whole new era of content. That’s powerful,” Weed says.
“Something that’s changed dramatically in marketing, is there is so much more need for content than ever before. Due to mobile phones, people are spending three more hours a day on social media.”
Tribe founder Lund echoed this, adding that while user-generated content (UGC) has traditionally been “boring and naff”, smartphones have changed the game.
“You just have to look at portrait mode, stop motion, AR, VR. It means a kid on the street can create content that matches creative agencies and surprise brands,” Lund says.
“The challenge has been brands thinking of their own customers in that way, so there's an education piece.”
Content Campaigns
However, brands have slowly been realising what Lund believes is the true value of influencers; their creativity not followers, with Content Campaigns launched in response to the demand from brands.
“Many marketers are yet to recognise that the biggest value proposition of influencer marketing is actually the branded-content,” Lund says.
“There is no one more equipped to craft content for your digital advertising than an influencer who’s amassed tens of thousands of followers from their own social content.
“The fact that they are actually your customer makes it even more compelling. Combine that authenticity with the brand’s ability to source this content at speed, volume and low cost means it has the potential to change the face of digital advertising.”
However, given how cost-effective Content Campaigns is for brands, already used by the likes of Bicardi and Land Rover, Lunds accepts it’s not a sustainable model for all influencers who could be creating work that goes unpaid.
Bicardi brief
Brands are also given broad usage rights, with one piece, such as a 90-second drone footage, used online for around $450, but if used in out of home or print, around $800.
“Tribe isn’t for everyone, including 'The InstaFamous' demand that brands send them products for free and that they should agree on payment despite their content being unseen,” Lund says.
“We decided not to cater to socialites and in turn have cultivated a community of real people who are rewarded for visually celebrating brands they already use and love. Simply put, we believe if the Influencer doesn’t own the product or isn’t willing to buy it, they have no right to recommend that their tribe should.”
So far Tribe has paid out $14.5 million to content creators with its top earner making more than $170,000.
With more brands dipping into content created by influencers, Lund is confident ‘social media influencers’ will cease to exist.
“In my opinion, there will soon be no such thing as a social media influencer because what they're actually crafting transcends social media.”
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