What essential qualities do leaders need to drive success today?
A key quality for leaders today is a willingness to change – not just because you have to, but because you want to. The communications industry is so fast-moving, and the best leaders are excited about that, and willing to evolve with the times.
Take influencer marketing, for example, which is a relatively young industry. It has evolved immensely in such a short space of time – new platforms, new niches, and new types of content. What works and what doesn’t is consistently shifting and you need to WANT to move and accommodate those changes to be a success.
On top of that, however, it’s equally as important to be resilient. Communications department always seem to end up on the chopping block during challenging economic waves. You’ve got to be able to take the ebbs and flows – because they’re always there, no matter how good you are.
I also think personality and empathy is becoming more important than ever. We’re seeing AI take on a lot of the admin within this industry, but AI can never replicate those relationships.
How has your leadership approach adapted in the face of recent challenges like Covid and economic uncertainty?
There’s definitely been a shift in mindset when it comes flexibility and mental wellbeing. People are a lot more mindful about their work-life balance, and we want to support that. They want to be healthy, and they want to be happy. That’s not something the communications industry was necessarily known for promoting before the pandemic, but it’s more front and centre now.
On the flip side, there’s also still a need to make sure our employees understand the importance of results. Clients are looking at ROI more than ever now, so we need to remain results orientated. For me, I try to make sure my team is given self-governance, with an understanding that they need to deliver – and they do! Because everyone understands the role they play in the agency, we know we’re all in it together.
What changes are you seeing across the influencer marketing industry?
We’re seeing a lot of brands come to us more for projects over retainers, for short-term spikes in investment rather than long-term campaigns. Brief-wise, we’re 100% seeing lots of brands coming with an influencer and social-first approach, where previously PR was the majority and influencer was on the side, this has flipped and now digital dominates.
What specific skill sets do you anticipate agencies will prioritise in the coming years?
With budgets being tightened, clients are being asked internally to justify ROI, which filters through into everything they’re asking from us – that means more detailed reports, deeper data, and proof that our work is driving sales.
Luckily, there are ways to show that. Analytics and conversion elements like TikTok shop, affiliates, and trackable codes are central to what we do. With that in mind, I think we’ll see a lot of people investing in skills around data analytics and measurement.
Being able to show success and show results through stats, but also genuinely interpret them, is actually a really specific skill which is often missing from comms.
With AI coming in to take over many of the admin aspects of our roles, there will be a shift towards the elements that a computer can’t replicate. The human elements of jobs – creative, ideas, relationship managers, etc – will all become more important. I can see agencies hiring around these specialities rather than having generalists.
What are your influencer marketing predictions for the year ahead?
Influencer marketing is going to continue to become even more important to brands, but I think the way it’s done will potentially shift. For example, we’ve already seen a shift towards prioritising micro-influencers and away from macros. Company’s see the value in targeting smaller, more engaged communities that can help build longer term brand love.
The ROI focus will become even bigger as we go through the year. Brands will be moving away from just awareness campaigns and towards genuine sales and impact metrics, whether that’s web visits, footfall, or sales conversions.
With the e-commerce element of social becoming stronger, I think we’ll see more brands come to agencies for the creative rather than the functional aspects. There are a lot of AI-driven influencer marketing platforms now where brands can pump out a brief to hundreds of creators and get content back, but those platforms aren’t good at ideas, creative, and strategy. There’s always going to be a need for us to step in with expertise in those spaces.
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