Burst Media Releases its First Influencer Marketing Benchmarks Report and Finds Advertisers Received $6.85 in Earned Media Value for Every $1.00 Spent on Influencer Marketing Programs

BURLINGTON, Mass., March 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Burst Media, (www.BurstMedia.com), a premium provider of integrated advertising programs for leading U.S. brands, today released the results from its first Influencer Marketing Benchmarks Report, which looked at the performance of dozens of Influencer Marketing programs across 15 key advertising verticals in 2014. The company found that advertisers who implemented Influencer Marketing programs received an average $6.85 in earned media value (EMV) for every $1.00 of paid media spent.   

Consumer packaged goods (CPG) advertisers recognized great success from Influencer Marketing programs, and CPG food brands in particular saw the greatest impact – earning $11.33 in EMV for every $1.00 spent and achieving a 3.9% social engagement rate.

"Influencer Marketing programs deployed from CPG food advertisers performed so well because the brands typically deployed very focused campaigns with specific audience targets, worked with partners to develop engaging content and included campaign-specific hashtags," said Katie Paulsen, Senior Director of Brand Sales at Burst Media. "Additionally, the brands built into their programs frequent opportunities to refresh content and provided highly appealing imagery that was perfect to share across Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook."

Other verticals that saw strong EMV performance included retailers and apparel ($10.48), tourist destinations & travel ($7.04), grocers & supermarkets ($4.80), shoes ($3.70) and Toys & Games ($3.31). Verticals that experienced high social engagement rates with their Influencer Marketing programs were grocers and supermarkets (6.70%), CPG food (3.9%) and retailers and apparel (2.7%).

Key findings and takeaways:

• Brands that offered audiences sweepstakes and giveaways saw higher earned media value and greater social engagement rates
• Influencer Marketing programs perform best when used to reach focused audience segments who are typically "social media connected" and have a propensity to share content
• Rich media content distribution units (e.g., Fixed Footers and Expandables) and social syndication programs complement the efforts of influencers for brand awareness by delivering massive reach
• At a granular level, an Influencer Program's social engagement rate is the barometer for how on-point branded content is with the target audience
• A hallmark of an effective Influencer Marketing program is focused targeting to audience segments most likely to distribute content within their social platforms and co-create content that advocates a brand's offerings

"This report helps marketers measure the effectiveness of influencer marketing and native advertising campaigns, which are quickly becoming powerful marketing tools for brands to successfully engage audiences," said John Babcock, Senior Vice President of Sales at Burst Media. "Despite the buzz around native advertising and influencer marketing, until now it's been difficult to quantify results. We hope that this report will help marketers understand the best way to measure campaign performance."

About the 2014 Influencer Marketing Benchmarks Report
Burst Media created its inaugural Influencer Marketing Benchmarks Report to help marketers understand the effectiveness of their Influencer Marketing campaigns. The report uses common industry benchmarks and offers key insights in the areas of execution, earned media value and social engagement. Earned media value (EMV) refers to the media value that can be attributed to publicity, social sharing and endorsement. EMV is an effective measure of an advertising campaign's success beyond the bounds of paid placements and a good way to understand the "amplification-effect" of influencer marketing. The social engagement metric is calculated by dividing reader engagements (e.g., blog comments, Facebook "likes," re-tweets, etc.) by total exposure from blogs and social media.

In 2014, Burst Media ran 48 Influencer Marketing programs for advertisers spanning 15 industry verticals and engaged 662 independent web publishers and bloggers. Each publisher and blogger, referenced as "influencers" throughout the report, has a direct relationship with Burst Media.

Visit http://burstmedia.com/index.php/influencer to download a PDF copy the report.

About Burst Media
An online media and technology company founded in 1995, Burst Media (www.BurstMedia.com) connects brands with highly targeted and influential audiences brought together through specialized content found on 2,000+ websites and influencer blogs. Burst's premium advertising solutions allow brands to leverage high impact creative formats, social media, and content distribution channels to engage consumers across connected devices. Burst also offers a programmatic platform, AdConductor, for demand partners looking to access large pools of high quality ad inventory.  Burst Media is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts and has offices throughout the United States. Visit www.BurstMedia.com or call 781.852.5200 for more information.

Press Contacts
Mark Kaefer, Marketing Director
Burst Media
781-852-5283
[email protected]

Sarah Leibowitz
Sparkpr for Burst Media
[email protected]

SOURCE Burst Media

Related Links

http://www.burstmedia.com