Last week, Riga hosted the only influencer marketing conference in the Baltics, attended by celebrities with a combined audience of more than 8 million
On 26 October, in Riga, at the five-star Pullman Riga Old Town hotel, the international influencer marketing and e-commerce conference and networking event Click&Connect took place. It was attended by the most influential celebrities and bloggers—including one of the world’s most popular YouTubers, Stas Davidov, singer Aminata, actress Vita Baļčunaite, blogger Agnija Grigule, presenter Jeļena Tonova, communications specialist Svetlana Ļev, editors of popular online portals and magazines Jevģēnija Šafraneka (brunch.lv) and Inna Avina (“Люблю”), and businessman and charismatic personality Vlad Koryagin.
Influencer marketing was discussed, along with how local businesses can use the multimillion audiences of opinion leaders to sell products and services and develop their businesses.
“I work with brands that are relevant to me. I like Coca-Cola, Nike and The Body Shop. I never advertiseanything I don't like myself,” says Aminata, who has more than 50,000 followers on Instagram.
“Our viewers are not merely a number, but people whom we respect, with whom we communicate and whose opinion matters to us; we cannot spit in their faces. We do not work with alcohol, bookmakers or unknown brands. We carefully select our partners and consider how best to integrate the advertised product into the format of our programme,” says Stas Davidov, one of the most influential Russian-speaking YouTubers, with approximately 8 million followers across various social networks.
The discussion of cooperation models and budgets became a topical and painful issue. Opinion leaders complained that businesses do not understand that creating a single image for Instagram requires a great deal of time and imagination; businesses often want to work on a barter basis.
“They send me their product and later ask: ‘Well, when are you going to post us?’ Meat producers were even among these clever ones. Yes, they sent me a piece of meat! I'm sorry, but I don't work for food,” says Jevģēnija Šafraneka, editor of brunch.lv, laughing.
“In Latvia, using opinion leaders to promote and increase sales is only just beginning, so there is still an inaccurate understanding of cooperation models. I recommend starting by looking for bloggers with a relevant audience, then assessing its level of engagement, and only afterwards discussing the costs of publications or video integrations. These can start at hundreds of euros and reach thousands when we are talking about bloggers with multimillion and international audiences,” says the conference organiser and lecturer, Alina Lisina, founder of the DreamCafe.lv agency.
“We are holding the conference for the third time, and today it became clear to us that this alone is not enough. As a result, the idea for the Click&Connect influencer marketing agency was born—it will be the connecting link, a bridge, between opinion leaders and business. The agency’s task is to gather and analyse opinion leaders and their audiences and offer businesses the most relevant use of bloggers and celebrities,” says conference organiser Dmitry Krasnovsky, founder of the international marketing agency AL&C.
