the market of influencers | France

1.1 Definition and scope of the study

The influencer market, or influencer marketing, is made up of four types of players: the influencers, the platforms on which they publish their content, the brands and the influencer marketing agencies. Although the market is young and growing, a clear structure and organization is starting to take shape. Born out of the need to attract young consumers who have moved away from the most common advertising mediums of the past (television, print media), influencer marketing has become the most effective way to reach a growing potential customer base that is highly receptive to communication that feels more authentic.

In fact, influencers have much more emotional capital than the brands they collaborate with, which makes collaborations more effective but also raises legal and ethical issues. Paid collaborations and partnerships between brands and influencers go beyond the realm of traditional advertising and erase the barriers usually established between organic content and paid advertising. This is all the more true as the audience of influencers is young. Social platforms and networks as well as regulators are trying to enforce the rules related to advertising content with more and more success, but the sector remains quite uncontrolled. The amount and speed of content publication on platforms is a big problem for regulators.

Influencer marketing has been growing steadily on all fronts for several years. The number of social network users, influencers as well as the budget allocated to influence by brands are all growing, driven by a basic trend and then accelerated by the health crisis. The various confinements have led to an increase in time spent on social networks and a growth in e-commerce in general. Today, the main challenge is to structure the market to eliminate regulatory and fiscal risk and benefit from the structural growth of the sector.