We believe that partnerships with creators are the most effective way to positively influence audiences with brand messaging across marketing, events, content and product development. 

However, the huge potential of influencer marketing is yet to be realised and some of the different approaches, definitions and meanings are diluting that potential. 

We need a sea change in what we mean when we say influencer marketing. And to do that we need to change how and why it’s practised by everyone. 

It is our belief that there is a fundamental principle at the heart of all real influencer marketing. It must create value for everyone involved: brands, creators, and audiences. 

Only by making sure that all players in the activity are rewarded can we ever say that a piece of influencer marketing has been successful.

Our vision is of a world where to be considered a successful use of influencer marketing every campaign, event, piece of content or product must adhere to this fundamental principle. 

Our experience at Fourth Floor since its inception in November 2017 - and in the many years of working with creators, brands and audiences before that - is that this is the only way to deliver meaningful, effective and repeatable results. 

As part of our evolution and improvement as an influencer marketing agency, we are developing a set of principles to reflect how we believe true influencer marketing should be practised. These are the principles that we strive to follow and are looking to develop with the help of others.

Principles of influencer marketing: 

1. Influencer marketing only exists when it produces great content, products or events that will be loved by audiences.

2. You can only create great content if you fully understand who are you trying to influence and what they will value. 

3. Influencer marketing must follow the fundamental principle of generating real value for all sides: creator, brand and audience.

4. Understanding how ideas spread and creating tools and methods to enable brands and creators to tap into the inherent power of networks is central to any piece of branded content, event or product. 

5. It is incumbent on all players, from agencies to management groups and the brands they work with to look out for the welfare of creators and not lead them to take part in an activity that will damage their connection with their audience. 

6. Attributing success to campaigns needs to go beyond reach and engagement metrics and also reflect that attributing last-mile clicks to influencer content is not an accurate reflection of the potential influence of that content. 

7. Generating lists of influencers that match broad demographic or content-watching criteria and asking them to create content is a smaller part of the wider practice of influencer marketing - not the full discipline.

8. Influencer marketing is also so much more than a form of advertising and covers a wide range of activities but at the heart of all of them is the creator’s connection to their audience. Protecting and developing that is vital to delivering success. 

9. We need to end the use of CPV (cost-per-view) and CPM as the main units of pricing influencer marketing campaigns and find a new unit of measurement to benchmark that can be used alongside specific metrics that reflect client business needs.

We readily admit that we aren’t perfect when it comes to following these rules. And that they might not be the perfect set of rules as we strive to create a future where influencer marketing makes good on its abundant promise.

It’s a process we’re dedicating everything Fourth Floor does to. So we’ll be developing these ideas and our approach to them throughout 2020. And beyond. Please let us know if these resonate with you, or if you want to help us develop them.