Influence is more than influencers

They're more trusted than you think, and more varied than you realise. Maybe that's why wine businesses are missing out on how to work with influencers. Let's see how - and meet some.

My favourite wine drinkers returned this week with a new podcast…

It’s perfect timing. Because they’re exactly who I want to write about today.

Bink and Hebrides Whine Time is the (satirical) podcast from comedians Davina Bentley and Freya Mallard. Their TikTok and Instagram followings are filled with Binks and Hebrides fans. Young, affluent, smart people who love watching them put the world to rights over glasses of rosé.

If you watch the first episode of their new podcast series you’ll see Binks and Hebrides have a bottle of Whispering Angel. Which is great. But why is it not a smaller, smarter wine brand who could be reaching an audience in a new way, and supporting two of the country’s smartest comic talents at the same time? (Freya starts an Edinburgh Fringe run tomorrow).

Yes, there are lots of wine influencers. Or vinfluencers. And there are some great vinfluencers. But they’re not the only ones with influence over wine drinkers, and who could help you sell more wine.

Wine businesses too often look at an influencer and think “how will I work with them?” But here in the Wine Marketing Masterclass, we take the opposite approach. “This is what I want to achieve… who is someone with influence who would help me achieve that?” The answer isn’t always an “influencer” influencer. It’s someone with influence. It could be a vinfluencer. But it could also be Binks and Hebrides. Wine brands are doing this already. Amie has grown rapidly and profitably by collaborating, but not with wine people, with fashion people.

Today the Wine Marketing Masterclass is digging further into our fourth P - promotion, or integrated marketing communications. And specifically the world of influencers. I’ll tell you the opportunity for free. Paid subscribers get more meaty analysis and numbers on how to turn that into a plan. I’ll also make you a personal introduction to Davina and Freya.

What influencer marketing is. And why it matters

Brace yourself. This may be painful to hear. People trust influencers more than they trust you.

• 90% of people with access to the internet trust recommendations from social media influencers (Grin, 2022)

• 2 out of 3 consumers don’t fully trust companies (Edelman, 2019)

Even worse, influencers get to your customers online before you do. When someone searches for a brand or a product, they’ll often find independent reviews and mentions of your wine before they find your brand website. By which time they’ve already made their mind up.

They’ll also find information about your brand in a format they prefer. I recently sat through a fascinating (I’m using the term loosely here) WhatsApp debate about the value of technical sheets in selling wine. Yet 44% of consumers prefer to learn about products and services through short video content (Wyzowl, 2024). While around a half of all people depend on influencer content when making purchase decisions. And that rockets among younger people. Short video content on platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels are the main source for product discovery for 67% of Gen Z consumers (Wyzowl, 2024).

Debating the value of tech sheets in the face of those numbers has the feel of angels on the head of a pin.

It’s undoubtedly the case that influencers - not least vinfluencers - get “mixed reviews” in the business. But it’s also the case that influencer marketing is as effective or better than any other form of marketing. Influencer marketing delivers a 5x return on marketing investment (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2022). Which is as good or better than the return on investment from other marketing channels (Mediakix, 2022).

So why don’t more wine companies use influencer marketing?

Well, influencers may seem ubiquitous, but they can be hard to find and the really good ones are even harder to find. That’s mostly because it’s near impossible to work out which ones the best are.

Influencers are independent contractors whose principal business premises is their audience online. There is no directory. They vary from the trusted and trustable, to freeloaders who supplement their social life with the “influencer” tag. And it’s hard to know who is who. It’s easy to game engagement metrics and comment pods are still rife. At the same time it’s impossible to have sales attribution data. So what do companies do? As far as a serious marketing channel, they tend to give up. It’s easier to have tracked ad channels even if they don’t work as well. At least then you have a report you can show your boss.

Influencer marketing becomes a fluffy flibbertigibbet that’s vaguely part of your brand marketing or “community” run by an intern. Not something integrated with your business goals. A combination that tends to make it even more fluffy.

So how do you do Influencer Marketing better?

Well I’d start by getting in touch with Binks and Hebrides. But I’d also do it with a proper plan, insight into what works, and knowing what sort of budget you need. For that you need to be a paid subscriber.