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CrowdMedia influences the Influencers
By Leon Gettler >>
HOW DO the big brands market themselves to millennials when the younger generation no longer watches TV or listens to radio?
They have to do it through social media. More particularly, they have to find so-called ‘influencers’ – users who have established a lot of credibility in a specific industry, have access to a huge audience, and who can persuade others to act based on their recommendations.
This is why Domenic Carosa set up CrowdMedia. Now based in Amsterdam, the Australian company, which is listed on the ASX, markets through technology — predominantly to millennials, predominantly using platforms like social media, including YouTube and Instagram.
“You only need to walk down the street these days to see that millennials specifically are spending more time staring into their mobile phones,” CrowdMedia CEO Domenic Carosa told Talking Business. 
“They’re on social media sites like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram and with that, there has been an increase in the number of what we call digital influencers.
“In effect, they’re creating a new type of TV channel, whether it’s involved in fashion, or news or sport. So millennials these days are consuming this content and getting entertained and learning new recommendations for products using social media.”
BRAND CONSCIOUS
CrowdMedia has worked with brands like L’Oreal and Nescafe, who are trying to target millennials, and the only way they can do that is through social media and influencers.
CrowdMedia has built technology around this, using artificial intelligence. It has created tools that allow it to identify the major influencers in the market place, how many followers they have, and their level of engagement with followers.
“We have built tools that help match the right influencer with the right brand and product because there are millions of influencers out there and so making sure we get that alignment right is absolutely critical for ourselves as well as our brands,” Mr Carosa said.
About two thirds of the CrowdMedia workforce are millennials, who are digital marketers and digital strategists, and managing them is quite a niche for Mr Carosa.
“Having a good working culture is obviously absolutely critical for our company,” he said.
He said millennials were partly motivated by money but by other things too.
CrowdMedia now runs training as part of its retention program. Once staff become managers, CrowdMedia offers them a share option plan to become shareholders of the company. And, besides the right kind of training, he said millennials also wanted a flexible work environment.
‘”One way we’re able to retain people is by helping them and training them for their future,” Mr Carosa said.
Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness.
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