Just as video killed the radio star, Instagram has a sniper gun fixed on traditional advertising. "Influencers" — ordinary people with thousands of followers on the social media platform — who share likes and comment through carefully curated content are changing the marketing game. With more than 500m active daily users, Instagram is becoming a new frontier. Unlike other platforms, Instagram lets brands and influencers alike know who they’re reaching, how they’re reaching them and what the audience feels about what they’re communicating. The number of influencer posts on Instagram has nearly doubled to more than 1.5m sponsored posts (#sponsored or #ad) between 2016 and 2017. According to research firm L2, the influencer marketing industry is expected to exceed US$2bn in contract value by 2019. Arye Kellman, chief creative officer and cofounder of Tilt Influence Architects, says his company focuses on using social media content, influencers, celebrities and trend-setters, together w...
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