Influencer Marketing: Iris Chang, Country Marketing Head, Grab Malaysia

Social media influencers aren’t just trendsetters in a traditional sense, they’re peers. Consider the digital proximity they share.

In a feed, influencer posts mix seamlessly with posts by friends. In fact, top rate social media influencers or the ‘social media elites’ make well into the six figures (if not seven figures) from their social media presence.

An example would be artist Selena Gomez who has the honour of being the most-followed person on Instagram.

She’s also one of the highest-paid social media influencers, taking home an estimated $550,000 per post, as Vanity Fair reported.

However, finding the best influencers for your brand isn’t as easy as it sounds. You can select influencers which have the most followers but if their content is not targeted to the right audience or reach can shake a marketer’s confidence.

In the second episode of this series, MARKETING speaks to Grab Malaysia’s Country Marketing Head, Iris Chang on her thoughts on influencer marketing. Southeast Asian ride-sharing unicorn, Grab has done their fair share of influencer marketing work.

Last year, Grab partnered up with Tinder to give their riders a chance to hang out with popular, local influencers.

Iris Chang is the Country Marketing Head of Grab Malaysia. She strategises, develops and implements marketing initiatives to enhance branding and awareness of Grab’s services in Malaysia.

She has six years of experience in the telecommunications industry, specifically in product marketing and consumer lifecycle management.

She is a self-professed foodie who is ever-ready for an adventure, especially when food is involved.

“I drive Southeast Asia forward by promoting the use of technology in everyday experiences to enrich and simplify lives.”

What are the challenges faced when it comes to selecting the right influencer?

One of the key challenge we have is identifying the right influencer that suits the brief or what we are trying to achieve.

There are many influencers out there who have a huge following and very creative content, however, they may not fit the bill of the objective of the campaign.

On the flipside, there may be those who resonate with our campaign and brand, but perhaps their following is a lot more niche.

So trying to find that balance is something we deliberate in great lengths for influencer driven campaigns.

How do you measure the success of the campaign – with the KOL?

It depends on the objective of the campaign, really. However, in general, we measure success by how engaged the influencer’s followers were with their content, and secondly, the number of positive shares and sentiments towards the content generated.

Having a healthy discourse that is in line with the campaign helps to keep the campaign the top of mind and also encourages recall of the campaign.

Do you believe the budget can be better spent elsewhere?

When we plan for a campaign, we would have factored in the various strategies we want to deploy and hence, the appropriate budget.

Therefore, if an influencer strategy is required, then the budget spent would target the specific need for that campaign.

What do you think are areas that influencer marketing needs improvement on?

There are always ways to improve how we do things. Perhaps, some of the key things we can review are:

• Healthier long-term collaborations – identifying opportunities for a longer term collaboration that is just beyond an an-hoc campaign
• Nurturing brand loyalty – most of the time, influencers are engaged on ad hoc basis, hence, brands lose out on nurturing a positive long-term relationship with a brand ambassador. Nurturing a relationship also enables the influencer to be our eyes and ears for feedback, which can help a brand improve. In addition, when required, the influencer may be inclined to speak for a brand should any negative feedback arises.

To read the first part of this series – Influencer Marketing: McDonald’s Malaysia Marketing Director, Eugene Lee, click HERE. 

Nominate Malaysia’s Best Marketers

Do you know a Bold & Brave marketer? Give us their names, because we want to celebrate them.

Held for the first time in Malaysia, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Awards is here to reward the best in the business of marketing.

This award is to identify talent, transparency, tenacity and a take-charge attitude of deserving marketers. An eminent panel of industry leaders will decide on the winners.

There are 30 categories up for grabs at this year’s awards:

• Best Marketer in B2B Marketing
• Best Marketer in SME Marketing
• Best Marketer in Millennial Marketing
• Best Marketer in Data & Technology Marketing
• Rising Marketing Star – Financial Services
• Rising Marketing Star – Telco ….. and more!

All entries across all 30 categories for the inaugural year is FREE.

Send in your nominations before the closing deadline of October 19^th.

The 7th Malaysian CMO Conference & Awards

Date: 16th November 2018

Venue: The Grand Ballroom, Sime Darby Convention Centre, KL.

For further details on the awards visit: www.marketingmagazine.com.my/cmo2018/awards