Influencer Marketing in Thailand

So what is the difference between an KOL and influencer marketing? Does one use Instagram and the other use Youtube?

In the PR industry generally, the two terms are interchangeable. It is widely accepted that KOLs influence their audiences through their knowledge or expertise, or explicitly trusted viewpoint on a given subject; the influencer “influences” their audiences by using communication skills which illicit a response and encourage action – you might think of it as being “lifestyle” communications.

We typically treat both types of personality the same, at least for the purposes of target curation and messaging design. However, the exact posts that our targeted/curated list have put out recently will go through very detailed analysis; for Gemini, it’s more about the actual quality and performance of posts we look at, rather than how each personality chooses to “self-identify.”

It is possible for businesses to search on Instagram for the hashtags they wish to target, create their own list of preferred KOLS, and simply contact them one by one through the IG chat. The reason why most businesses prefer to use a PR firm, KOL management agency or social media marketing partner for this instead is because:

• It is difficult for regional companies to know which influencers in overseas (local) markets will connect with key demographics in that territory (and may not speak the language).

• It is time-consuming to complete the curation and analysis phase, and so for lower budget campaigns at least, it makes cost-time sense to outsource.

• Agencies are often able to secure better rates than cold contacts as influencers are keen to secure regular paid work through the agency relationship.

• High quality PR firms like Gemini already have established rosters of great KOLs who are not only well-followed and successful but are also easy to work with and have been very supportive of past campaigns.

• KOL engagement is often an essential component of a much wider communications plan, so it makes sense for the retained PR firm to manage that messaging via the PR plan.

Surprisingly, there are many PR agencies in Bangkok which are still manually curating their KOL target lists when asked for suggested KOLS by a client. At Gemini, we use a proprietary AI technology deployment we’ve developed in collaboration with our Japan-based software designer. We can provide analysis and hot-listing for you any way you wish, by metrics, by heat map or by demographic curation and filtering – all of which saves you time and ensures you will get the results you require, and results in an influencer recommendations list that is second to none, and gives you price and reach options across the board.

Whilst hiring a premier league influencer marketing can be expensive, smaller companies should not discount the possibility of using smaller influencers as part of their campaign planning. You can connect with Micro influencers, who typically have followings of between 3000 and 10,000 followers, or Nano influencers, who have even smaller followings but are only followed by people highly engaged in their posts/subject area.

Micro influencer marketing can be a lot more cost-effective to work with, blending topic knowledge and engaged followings with reasonable reach too. You would typically aim to work with 5-10 per content blast, again depending on budget.

For Nano influencer marketing, they are usually very happy to be approached and offered free product; so a barter arrangement can be a great way to get those relationships moving and grow your fanbase and customer base from day one.

It is possible to create an influencer-only strategy, which means 100% of your communications plan leverages the existing followings of your target KOLS, and this activity is not augmented by additional PR channel activities. It is still important to have an overall strategy in mind, and very clearly defined key messaging, before commencing.

Where you are considering using influencers as part of your wider PR strategy, it is the responsibility of your retained PR partner to design, create and deliver this for you as part of the overall PR plan. The PR plan is reviewed regularly and amended as required, before being approved by the client at each stage.

The weighting given to the prevalence of the KOL component depends on the messaging strategy, budget and calendar of delivery. A PR services package involving several channels for PR communications, just one of which is the influencer channel, is referred to as an integrated PR agreement.

At Gemini, our KOC & influencer marketing offering is offered under the product package name, “Influencer Management by Gemini^™”.

As trad media becomes the preserve of the left-behind and the last-gen agencies, the KOL space has emerged victorious as the modern communication sphere. It is actually shocking to see how many PR agencies curate their KOLs by simply entering hashtags into Instagram and giving you the top three that come up. They’re also typically very weak at giving you proper influencer bios – which you will need to make your decision.

At Gemini, our targeting, curation, past-month and past-year metrics analysis and final presentation are put together using sophisticated AI which we have deployed in collaboration with our developer in Tokyo. This gives you well-tabulated data or elegant heat maps which illustrate your spectrum of choice, enabling you to choose the best influencer marketing for you needs – as well as amazing bios.

We’ll handle all aspects of the negotiation and management, as well as creation of your core messaging, contracting and ultimate reporting and successful cessation. Our fixed rate is 10% – so we commit to being open and transparent – regardless of your projected spend; and we can support you from “superstar KOL” to humble, supportive, affordable nano KOLs eager to help you out for barter.

We have an excellent stable of premium influencer partners who we work with regularly (in Thailand) who we trust, like, and recommend. And they like us too, so you’ll get great rates.