Influencer marketing has been a buzzword on everyone’s lips, but it remains one of the trickiest advertising strategies to get right. Its success relies on dovetailing a brand message with an influencer’s or celebrities’ existing voice – if the two don’t match up then both the influencer and the brand come out looking worse for wear.
When it comes to brand films featuring influencers, there is an added dimension to consider: the director as influencer. It’s become increasingly important for directors to understand the social landscape of influencers and their fans. It’s no longer as simple as just applying a generic visual treatment to a piece that requires keen attention to social nuance. It’s the nuances that the fans and aficionados truly pick up on – the references to memes, lyrics, disses, break ups, meltdowns etcetera. A director who already understands and navigates these worlds is a director who is ready to amplify an influencer’s voice in a way that is wholly impactful and authentic.
We’ve had the privilege of working on several campaigns where our directors were brought in not simply for their technical skills and expertise, but because of who they are as people and the social spheres in which they organically find themselves. The agencies and their clients acknowledged and respected the directors’ natural voice and realised that, as with the influencers themselves, they needed to be given some leeway to let their voice come through into the piece. It’s a tricky balance and no exact science, but when it works it has the potential to create something that completely transcends traditional brand messaging.
A recent example that we had the privilege of working on was Cassper Nyovest’s music video for “Mr Madumane”. At first glance this seems like a standard, albeit somewhat bizarre and quirky, hip hop music video. But on closer inspection of the lyrics and the imagery, one realises that the song is Cassper’s dig at consumerism, and that this ties in with a larger message about the importance of saving. The track went on to become the centrepiece of National Saving’s month 2016, supported by investment bank Sanlam. At the time of writing the video had garnered 100 000 organic views and over 1500 likes in the space of a week.
The agency behind this subtle but effective campaign is King James, who invited Arcade Content director Kyle Lewis to not only direct but also conceptualise the music video for Cassper. Kyle, still in his twenties, has spent the past four years making music videos for dozens of different artists, including three previous videos for Cassper. With hip-hop in particular Kyle truly broke the mould, earning respect for videos that subverted genre clichés and offered a fresh take on African aesthetics. The result is a video that not only meshes seamlessly into Cassper’s oeuvre, but is also a treasure trove of memes, subversions and in-jokes that audiences can sink their teeth into.
While Kyle’s voice is certainly not limited to either hip-hop or music videos (he has done brand work for VW, Absolut and several other clients), this is a case in point for where a director’s familiarity with a sub-culture was as important as their technical expertise. As agencies and clients continue unlocking the potential of influencer marketing, as well as the role of the director-as-influencer, I believe there will be more of this type of work to come.
By Arcade Content co-founder and producer William Nicholson
