Some big advertisers including Unilever and L’Oreal may be worried about the veracity of so-called “influencers,” often YouTube performers plugging brands, but that doesn’t seem to have derailed the influencer business.
Now M&C Saatchi has bought two related influencer outfits – Red Hare Digital and Grey Whippet – and rolled them into a new entity the grandly-entitled M&C Saatchi Talent Group along with some of its other social offerings.
M&C Saatchi Talent Group chairman Richard Thompson says: “The marriage of brands, insight and the scale of the M&C Saatchi global network provides an offering that is totally unique. Through the acquisition of Red Hare and Grey Whippet some of the most successful and exciting creators in the UK become part of the group.”
Unilever CMO Keith Weed recently called for a concerted effort to clean up the influencer business ecosystem, highlighting issues fake followers and inadequate measurement.
As with most things in the digital garden these now common problems don’t seem to have dissuaded marketers from using influencers. As M&C has clearly realised.
