How Influencers Should React to the Recession, Pt. II - Ep. 45

Welcome to Negronis with Nord. In today’s episode, James addresses how influencers should react to the looming recession, digs into one of our 2023 Influencer Marketing predictions, and how influencers can take ownership and drive value. You can submit your questions for future episodes here.

Below is a transcript of the full episode for your reading pleasure. Make sure to subscribe to the Fohr YouTube channel to get notified of new episodes.

Welcome to Damp January

James: Okay, welcome Negronis with Nord, episode number 45. I Am Alone. Once again,

If you didn't see last week's episode, I was with Dorian and Sophie from our team. We talked about some highs and lows, some, as someone on our team called it Slay or Nay episode of what were some of the best influencer partnerships, what were some of the worst, our kind of favorite moments, our least favorite moments from the year. Really fun episode. If you haven't watched it, you should absolutely do that.

But we are back to how things usually are just me and, well, we're not totally back to usual because I'm still off the sauce and doing not totally dry, but what I've heard called damp January. So I've made had, you know, maybe six drinks this month which is incredibly low for me and I am learning to, to live as a, as a person that isn't going out and and having cocktails and having that be part of your life.

I did a thousand piece puzzle recently. I don't know if I talked about that, but did I talk about the puzzle before? I think? Yeah. Yeah. I finished that puzzle. It was wildly satisfying and very addictive actually. I was like up till one in the morning, a few nights in a row working on it. So we've learned, I have an addictive personality that is like something I've always known, but it it, it applies to puzzles apparently.

I was just in Minnesota first business trip of the year and I don't know if you've been to Minnesota in January, but it is lovely. I was actually, you know, Minnesota came through. I was surprised. I had dinner at the Four Seasons. I worked out at Barry's Bootcamp. I had drinks at Restoration Hardware Rooftop. I, I, you know, Minnesota has, has had quite the, quite the glow up. Always nice to be face-to-face with clients.

Back to life, back to economy

James: I'm gonna continue to talk about the economy because it doesn't do you any good to ignore it. I'm not fearmongering, I'm not, you know, trying to create a sense of panic. I, I think the media is certainly doing that a little bit. I do want y'all to take this seriously and I do worry that enough people have not completely internalized kind of what is happening and how the mood has shifted across the industry.

We just saw retail sales numbers for December were not so good. Early holiday spending looked really positive. Slowed down in December. Jobs reports was good. So like always we have some conflicting data. There continues to be a lot of kind of scary, strange stuff happening out there. I will say in speaking to the client who we were talking to out in Minnesota this stuff is top of mind for them.

You know, one of the, one of the leaders after the meeting kind of pulled me aside and said, you know, just thank you for addressing the reality of the situation inside of the company and, and approaching it with empathy and understanding that, you know, they are going through some difficult times.

And while, you know, everyone I talk to still very much believes in influencer marketing and knows that this is going to be a big part of the future of how they communicate with their audiences, that the reality of the next six to 12 months is that, you know, things are, are gonna be tough. I'm gonna keep saying this cuz I think as influencers you have to react. We had a few slides in, in one of the, the kind of larger, bigger picture presentations that we did. And, and you know, we talked about economic headwinds and we said, you know, how is the industry reacting?

How influencers should react to the recession

James: We talked about how are we reacting? And we talked through a bunch of things that, that we, as for thinking about. And then we had to slide on how I think influencers should react. And a big part of that is, you know, providing more value going above and beyond more, making sure this stuff works, taking more ownership. You know, one of the values at for that we talk a lot about is ownership. And we tell our employees that you have to take ownership over your future here, ownership over your work ownership over your, your kind of the metrics that you are meant to produce as an employee at four as influencers, you have to take ownership over that, right? It's, it's not enough to, you know, to blame poor performance on the algorithm or to phone in a collaboration that you're not as excited about.

There are more eyeballs than ever on this work. And let's say last year they spent half a million dollars on influencer marketing and this year they spent 350,000, 15 less partners of the 50 that they worked with the previous year. Are you in the bottom 15? Probably more realistically, because they want to work with new people, they're only gonna engage the top 20% is what we generally see get reengaged are you in the top 10? And if you're growing a business, you have to grow that business on the existing clients that you have. Retention, growing those accounts, working with people over and over again. That is the path to making serious money. It's not about chasing the next new deal. Once you've established, you know, you've established your business a bit and you've got a book of clients that you work with, this is still very much on people's mind.

It is still very much a part of the conversation. We will continue talking about it. If you have any economy like recession questions specifically, please send them in. We're gonna keep sharing this stuff with y'all.

How to Get Rich

James: On another note, I also, I listened to a book this over, over break. It's called how to Get Rich. It's pretty simple. <Laugh> it, you know, I think it's like really applicable to anyone who is heading out on their own. And I would suggest it, especially the first half I think was really interesting and inspiring and, and everyone who starts their own business that, you know, leaves a job to be an influencer full-time, that like attaining some level of wealth is probably one of your goals. And so he really specifically talks about that and how to do that. He ended up, I think, being worth about $800 million.

I think it's an important thing to remember that if you are seeking large rewards, that risk is inherent to that. And if you look at your life and you are disappointed with where you are and you can't point to risks that you've taken that's probably a root cause of, of the problem. And also that it's not for everyone. It's totally fine to, to be more risk adverse. It's totally fine to not, you know, gamble your entire life in livelihood. But I do believe that if you do not have a clear idea about what your goals are then there is essentially no way that you're going to achieve it. So it was an interesting book. I thought it was an interesting one to listen to. He was a, a pretty engaging guy worth a listen if you are looking for something to consume.

Why will brands double down in Q3 and Q4?

James: So let's get onto a couple of quick questions we had. So one question was off of some of our 2023 predictions. One of which is that we are gonna see budgets a little bit lower in q1, q2 in q3, q4, they will pick back up. The question is, why do we believe that they'll be higher in q3, q4? Is it the platforms will be more developed by then? Is it, or is it that companies can make sure things are going well in the beginning so they can confidently invest?

Good question. One, Q4 is far and away the, the kind of biggest investment period of the year. Q3, Q4, both big quarters holiday is so important. You know, for some brands, 60, 70, sometimes 80% of their annual sales come in that four week period. So a lot of the marketing that you do throughout the year, especially for, for those kind of more, you know, the, the consumer goods, the kinds of things that you would buy for the holidays.

A lot of what we're doing is softening the ground, getting people used to it, you know, setting us up for conversions at the end of the year and making sure that everyone has a good holiday. It's why these that month is so important to set the tone for the next year. And it's also just a reaction to the uncertainty in the economic climate right now as we've been talking about ad nauseum and on this episode. That that is why we think it's gonna be down a little bit. And it will come back in Q3, Q4 because ultimately I think the stock market is bottoming out. The Fed will start to, will stop raising interest rates soon. Hopefully they'll start lowering interest rates, which will make it easier for companies to buy, borrow money, which will make it easier for them to invest in their future growth, which is good for you and me and everyone else.

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Cheers, and thanks for watching.

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