The past and future of brand influence | Business Brief

我一直在思考影响力这件事。

I've been thinking about influence.

我们是要靠努力去赢得它，还是可以直接买来？

Do we have to earn it, or can we buy it?

我是乔。

I'm Jo.

欢迎回到《商业简报》。

Welcome back to the Business Brief.

从某种意义上说，网红营销只是权威声音代言的一种延伸，这其实并不是什么新鲜事。

Influencer marketing is just an extension in a way of endorsements from voices of authority, which is not anything new.

我们一直倾向于借助更有影响力的声音来提升自己的声誉。

We've always looked towards more influential voices for a halo of reputation.

最早的明星代言可以追溯到18世纪60年代，当时一位陶器制造商利用皇室和夏洛特王后的代言来推广他的产品。

The very first celebrity endorsement was in the seventeen sixties where a pottery maker used the endorsement of the royal family and queen Charlotte to promote his products.

他当时可能有好几种办法，能让更多人看到他的陶器。

He probably had a few different options of how to get his pottery in front of more people.

与皇室的关联，确实是有意为之，目的是为他的作品塑造恰当的名声和形象。

The association with the royal family was really intentional in creating the right kind of reputation and association for his work.

过去几十年里，我们看到普通消费者的声音和影响力在不断增长。

What we've seen is a growth of the voice and authority of the everyday consumer over the last few decades.

你不需要有资历、大众媒体平台或精英身份，就能触达消费者，并引导他们接受你推荐的东西。

You don't necessarily need credentials, a mass media platform, an elite status to reach consumers and shepherd them towards whatever it is that you recommend.

这些人对我们的影响力，甚至超过了政府领导人、政治家和商业领袖。

These are the people that are having a higher influence for us over government leaders, politicians, business leaders.

这就是消费者从品牌信息的接收者，变成了影响者。

This is the consumer becoming the influencer versus just the recipient of the brand message.

这其实是很早以前就进入了基础营销组合的一部分。

It's something that came into the foundational marketing mix a long time ago.

实际上，在九十年代，当四C框架被提出时，营销视角被重新定义为关注消费者需求、成本、便利和沟通。

In fact, in the nineteen nineties, when the four c's framework was created, reframing the view of marketing towards consumer needs, cost, convenience, and communication.

很多人知道传统的营销组合是四P：产品、价格、渠道、促销，后来扩展到七P，品牌体验在各种平台和媒介上不断扩展。

Many people would know the traditional marketing mix as being the four p's, product, price, place, promotion, and then eventually the seven p's, the brand experience proliferating across a variety of different platforms and mediums.

但真正体现这种转变的正是四个C，即消费者在品牌体验中拥有更大的自主权和话语权。

But it's really the four c's that articulate this shift towards the consumer having a greater agency and a greater voice inside of that brand experience.

这是品牌控制权的放手，之后我们会看到这种放手在AI营销时代以完全不同的方式演化，合成人、AI人格以及合成的品牌影响力或许都会变得更加主流。

It's a relinquishing of brand control, which is something that we'll see evolve in a very different way as we come into this age of AI in marketing, where synthetic media and synthetic personas, synthetic brand influences perhaps become more mainstream.

所以当我们把控制权交给算法时，品牌安全和我们作为品牌所有者所拥有的权利就面临非常明显的风险。

And so as we now relinquish the control to algorithms, there's a very obvious risk here in brand safety and the rights of the brand that we hold as brand owners.

品牌的资产是经得起时间考验的。

The assets of our brand is what stands the test of time.

这正是企业数十年来能够成功，或者当我们可以保护其时就极其核心的部分。

This is a part of the very heart of what makes businesses successful over decades or when we can protect that.

正如Ram在最新一期播客中解释的那样，现在对我们来说，能清楚知道这些品牌资产如何被使用甚至滥用，变得更加关键。

It's more important now for us to be able to know exactly how those brand assets are being used or abused as Ram explained in the latest podcast episode.

合成人已经出现了，而且会发展到那个阶段，你再也没法分辨看到的到底是真人演示产品，还是AI生成的虚拟形象在介绍产品。

Synthetic influencers are already here and it will get to a stage where you would not know whether you are actually seeing a person demo the product or if it's a synthetic avatar talking about the product anymore.

而且我觉得立法也会跟上趋势，就像如今品牌必须标注这是赞助内容一样。

And I think legislation is going to come in where like today brands have to highlight that it's a sponsored post.

我觉得明天他们就得标明这是AI而不是真人。

Tomorrow I think they will need to highlight that this is an AI rather than a real person.

那问题就来了，在这样的世界里，网红或者虚拟网红到底扮演什么角色，对吧。

The question then is what is the role of influencers or synthetic influencers in that world, right.

所以你就开始偏离真实性和可信度了，还有那种“跟我一样的人都在用这个产品，所以我更愿意看那个内容”的感觉。

So then you're moving away from authenticity and credibility and people like me use this product and therefore I'm more likely to look at that content.

我是说，那完全就没意义了，因为即使我看到的是一个机器人在讲面霜还是什么产品，就算我知道，那也……

I mean that goes out the window completely because even though I'm looking at a robot talking about skin cream or whichever product it is.

品牌计划必须像商业战略一样，随着当下的环境而调整。

A brand plan has to shift just like a business strategy has to shift towards the context of the moment.

所以对我们来说，重要的是要认识到我们当前所处的环境，以及这个网红泡沫是暂时的。

So it's important for us to consider the current context that we're in and this influencer bubble as being temporary.

这一切都会改变。

All of that is going to shift.

未来十年会变得非常不一样。

It's gonna look very different in the next ten years.

我们会看到新的社交媒体平台。

We'll see new social media platforms.

我们会看到新的方式来为消费者提供他们能产生共鸣的声音，而且对什么才能让这成功，也会有不同的评判标准。

We'll see new ways to serve consumers the kind of voices that they will resonate with, and we'll see a different attribution towards what makes this successful.

对我来说，这里面还有另一个要素，就是关于持久性。

And then there's another element to all of this for me, which is around longevity.

我们知道，伟大的广告活动能经受住时间的考验，多年都不会过时。

So we know that great campaigns stand the test of time, wear out doesn't happen for years and years.

但当我们看网红营销活动时，它们是非常短暂的。

When we look at influencer campaigns, these are very transient.

它们今天在，明天就消失了。

They're here today, they're gone tomorrow.

我们所做的所有网红营销活动，能整合起来吗？

All of the influencer campaigns that we run, can we aggregate them?

我们能理解它们的长期影响吗？

Can we understand their longer term impact?

我们选择的合作类型是否保持一致？

Is there a consistency in the types of affiliations that we're choosing?

这些合作是否也能带来像那些非常成功的大型广告故事一样的感受？

Is there that same type of feeling as there is from a really successful, big advertising story?

还是说它们更短暂？

Or is it more transient?

如果它们更短暂，那么我们花在社交媒体网红营销上的数十亿美元，或许应该受到更严格的审视。

And if it is more transient, then perhaps the billions of dollars that we're spending on social influencer campaigns should be more closely questioned.

谢谢你让我在这里畅所欲言。

Thanks for letting me think out loud.

我们下次再见。

I'll see you next time.