Influencers are people who have achieved a high level of visibility in social media, and have a large and relatively loyal crowd of followers. Because in most cases this process has evolved over a period of time, most influencers enjoy a level of trust from their followers that most celebrities may lack. This makes them perfect for promoting brands, especially brands that have target segments that overlap with the identities of their core followers. Companies recruit these influencers and pay them money to promote their brands via their preferred social media. The method is very effective, because although the followers know that the influencer has been paid, the level of trust is such that they believe that the influencer would not promote a brand that he/she would not believe in. There are 3 keys here for a successful implementation of influencer marketing:

• The bond and trust between the influencer and the followers is high
• The demographics, life style, and values of the followers are a close match to the ones of the target market of the brand, and
• The influencer will provide a strong, creative, and captivating endorsement that will appear authentic and passionate.

Your assignment is to pretend that you are such an influencer. A company has approached you and you have agreed to promote one of their brands.

Here is what you need to do:

1. Select a brand Any brand will do. Be specific, avoid a brand that covers too many products. For example, BMW is too broad, but BMWi8 is fine. Coca Cola is again too broad, but Diet Coke is perfect.
2. Describe the selected brand's image. What crosses the customers' minds when they come across the brand name? Provide references for your answer.
3. Describe the brand's target market in terms of demographics, lifestyle, values, and any other relevant criteria. Provide references for your answer.
4. Design a social media endorsement for the brand. Be creative. You need to slip into the role of the perfect influencer for such a brand. Your endorsement will have to be either a blog or a short (between 60-90 seconds) YouTube video (your choice). If you select the video, you need to provide the screenplay for it. If you choose to start a blog, just write the blog. The criteria is that you should make your endorsement authentic and passionate. Your points will be earned based on how well you communicated based on the criteria for effective messages.

Criteria for effective ("sticky") messages:

• The message is short and focused
• The message is relevant to the audience
• The message creative and has some unexpected and surprising elements. In other words, it captures the attention of the audience.
• The message is concrete. Avoid abstractions, they confuse people.
• The message has an emotional appeal. Logical arguments are not sufficient - people are guided primarily by emotions.
• The message is in the form of a story. People make sense of the world via stories. A story format is not always possible, especially when the message has to be extremely short. In this case, you have plenty of space/time to design a story as the basis of the influencer brand endorsement.