The market of influencers - France

1.2 A fast-growing global market

The global influencer marketing market has been experiencing exceptional growth for the past few years. Representing *.* billion dollars in ****, if the forecasts for **** prove correct, this will mean that the market will have multiplied by almost ** in only * years. This exponential growth is due to many factors, which we will detail throughout the study. The main one is the increasing preponderance of social networks. For a few years now, generation Z (***) has been coming of age and therefore has a purchasing power that they did not have during their childhood.

Global Influencer Marketing Market Size World, ****-****, $ billion Source: ****

Period ****/**** ****/**** ****/**** ****/**** ****/**** ****/**** Growth **.**% **.**% **.**% **.**% **.**% **.**% This growth is the direct consequence of a shift in attention from television to social networks, which are much more powerful in terms of engagement and captivation of the public. To give an order of magnitude: according to the founder of the agency Influence*You, the three biggest French youtubers have recorded ** videos with more than ** million views in ****. The ** million figure is not arbitrary: it represents the number of viewers who attended the **** World Cup final.

1.3 The French market in full expansion

According to Reech, there are ***,*** influencers in France today. Although it gives an order of magnitude, this statistic should be taken with a grain of salt, since it lists the pages with more than **** subscribers who publish posts to be commented or shared. By multiplying this figure by the weighted average of the annual remuneration of French influencers (***), we can estimate the French influencer marketing market at *** million euros in ****.

The influencer market is divided into many sub-segments:

Lifestyle: topics related to fashion, beauty, travel, food, etc. Leisure: arts, sports, tech, humor, video games, etc. Culture: general culture, literature, theater, cinema, etc. Commitments: environmental protection, gender equality, anti-racism, etc. Business and entrepreneurship

The rise of influencer marketing is directly linked to the drop in time spent watching television. According to LSA Conso, **-** year olds now spend less than *** minutes a day in front of the TV compared to nearly *** in ****. If we combine the time spent on computer and phone, we arrive at nearly * hours per day.

1.4 The impact of the health crisis

The health crisis had a twofold impact on infuence marketing:

Users spent significantly more time on social networks: according to Harris Interactive, **% of French Internet users said they created an account on a social network or instant messaging application during the containment Creators had more time to cover different topics, improve their interactions with their audience, and publish more content, which ultimately led to a growth in their community and increased satisfaction with their craft.

The effects of the health crisis on influencers' activities France, ****, % of responses Source: ****

2.1 Characteristics of adult users

Differences by age

Logically, the **-** age group is the one that uses social networks the most, reaching the highest percentages of users of the four social networks we have selected. Note that YouTube data is not included in the graph because it does not correspond to the age groups we had for the other networks. Facebook is the only platform that keeps a significant usage rate among seniors, with almost **% of users among **+.

Use of the main social networks by age France, ****, % of users within an age group Source: ****

YouTube usage by age group France, ****, % Source: ****

Although the domination of young people is unquestionable, we have seen the arrival of seniors in recent years: in ****, **% of people over ** years old are registered on at least one social network.

Differences according to gender

Usage also differs according to gender: while women are more likely to use Facebook and Instagram, men are more likely to sign up for Twitter and YouTube.

Social network usage rates by gender France, ****, % Source: ****

High expectations :

The main target of influencers and therefore, by extension, of brands remains Generation Z. This generation has different expectations from their elders in terms of quality, but also in terms of ...

2.2 Focus on Gen Z

The first observation is that Gen Z is the most valuable demographic for brands. In fact, influencers from this age group are by far the most expensive:

Price of Gen Z influencers' services World, ****, dollars Source: ****

The reason why services are so expensive is because the Gen Z audience is extremely receptive to communication on social networks and to the advice of their favorite influencers. Indeed, **% of them find that social networks have facilitated contact with brands, and **% appreciate brand publications on networks. We can see from the graph above thatGen Z appreciates much more than the rest of the French population the fact of being in contact with the brands they like on the networks.

Relationship to brands by age France, ****, % of positive responses Source: Harris Interactive Based on this observation, it is essential for brands to target the right audiences through influencers that correspond to their target. This is especially true since the way people consume and relate to brands has fundamentally changed among Gen Z members. According to a study conducted in the U.S. by the National Retail Foundation, members of Gen Z can be divided into three categories: The "Dedicated" (***): very enthusiastic about being part of ...

2.3 Demand from brands

Although in purely economic terms social network users are not the source of demand for influencer marketing, we decided to include them here since influencer marketing is a marketplace where services (***) are exchanged in order to sell products that brands want to sell. We therefore considered that social network users are the final consumers and therefore also create a demand. In this part we will study the real demand of influence: the one of companies that pay to have access to the notoriety of influencers.

In a global study on the influencer marketing market, Influencer Marketing Hub paints an extremely attractive picture for influencers and influencer marketing agencies. In fact, by ****, the report estimates that companies will increase the budget allocated to influencer marketing for many reasons:

**% of respondents said they would allocate a budget to influencer marketing (***) **% of respondents said they would increase their budget dedicated to influencer marketing versus only *% who were sure they would decrease their budget Two thirds of respondents intended to allocate **-**% of their total marketing budget to influencer marketing

The amounts spent by companies are also quite varied:

Amounts allocated to influencer marketing by companies responding to the Influencer Marketing Hub survey World, ...

3.1 Value chain and players in the influencer marketing market

The influencer marketing market is organized around four types of players

Brands, which seek to reach a targeted audience by paying influencers, and influencer agencies to gain access to influencers' communities via sponsored content. Brands can either contact influencers directly or pay an influencer agency to find the best profiles Influencer marketing agencies, which recruit influencers and propose different profiles to brands. They are remunerated through commissions taken from what brands will pay Influencers, who create content and foster engagement within their community. They are remunerated either through fixed payments whose value depends on the type of content and the notoriety of the influencer, or through affiliate links. In this case, they will take a commission on each purchase made through this link The socialnetworks, whose role is mainly to regulate and control that the sponsored content is well marked as such, and that the products offered by the influencers are not illicit

3.2 Influence is not counted in number of visits

Young consumers are orchestrating a switch to Instagram and TikTok

At first glance, it would make sense to say that Facebook should be the preferred platform for influencers. With a wide dominance in terms of daily visits and high penetration across all age categories, all signs would suggest that this is indeed the case. In fact, Facebook has **% more daily unique visits than its closest competitor, Snapchat.

Let's note the spectacular growth of TikTok, which we will analyze in more detail later in this paragraph.

Most visited social networks in France France, ****, millions of unique visits and % growth Source: ****

The number of daily visits is not necessarily the best influencing factor. What really counts is access to the young audience and creating a sense of authenticity. Outside of that, Gen Z has left Facebook and moved to Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok:

Social network penetration rate among **-** year olds France, ****, in % of members visiting the network daily Source: ****

The more we restrict the study to the youngest, the more we realize that the new generations are moving away from Facebook. Among **-** year olds, **% visit Facebook daily and among **-** year olds, they are no longer even **%.

Influencers follow consumers

Instagram ...

3.3 A highly segmented market based on age

Each social network has its own user base, more or less young, which explains the following curve. The youngest creators go to the networks that have the youngest users and vice versa.

Average age of influencers according to the social network France, **** Source: ****

We find Snapchat and Tiktok at the bottom of this curve, but also Twitch. Twitch is a streaming platform that concentrates a lot of video game fans, which explains its presence among the platforms with the youngest influencers. We also notice that the first social networks (***) have rather old creators compared to the average, which is partly explained by the fact that the first influencers who arrived on them are sometimes still present, and that the young users who adopted these networks are now older.

3.4 Ancillary services that are beginning to develop

The number of services offered to brands and influencers is growing. Companies offering paid services such as influencer discovery, marketplaces, e-commerce tools, etc. are flourishing every day.

Number of companies offering services related to influencer marketing Europe, ****-**** Source: ****

This phenomenon is the result of a growing demand for specialized services, which means that the influencer marketing sector is becoming more and more structured. One of the most striking examples is Shopify, which offers turnkey solutions for ultra-fast implementation of e-commerce marketplaces. According to Influencer Marketing Hub, more than a third of the respondents to their survey were using Shopify's services.

4.1 Influencer profile

Gender breakdown:

Influencers are overwhelmingly female. They represent **% of the total. Men account for only a quarter of French influencers, and groups of people for *%.

Distribution of influencers by gender France, **** Source: ****

Age distribution:

**-** year olds dominate the market, representing **% of the total. However, a quarter of influencers are over ** years old, and the average age of influencers (***) has increased by one year compared to ****.

Distribution of influencers by age

Topics covered by influencers:

Influencers rarely cover a single topic. The most common topic is "lifestyle", which includes fashion, beauty, travel, etc. **% of influencers cover these topics. On average, an influencer speaks on * different topics.

The topics most addressed by influencers France, ****, % Source: ****

Topic Lifestyle Leisure Culture Commitments Business % Men/Women **% - **% **% - **% **% - **% **% - **% **% - **% Average age ** years old ** years old ** years old ** ** years old % in paid employment **% **% **% **% **% Average number of subscribers ** *** ** *** ** *** ** *** ** *** Average number of subjects treated *,* *,* *,* *,* *,* Topics with the most coverage - Beauty/cosmetics : **%- Fashion : **%- Travel : **%- Food : **% - Fashion : **%- Sport : **%- Travel : **%- Arts and design : **% General culture : **% - Travel : **% - Arts and design : **% - Travel : **% - Arts and design : ** - General culture: **%- Travel: **%- Art and design: **% - Fashion: **% - Beauty: ...

4.2 Average compensation for benefits

Although one might think that the influencer market is all about paid partnerships, this is far from being the case. In fact, **% of influencers even declare that they have not received any partnership requests in ****.

Share of paid partnership requests France, ****-****, % of total requests Source: ****

The average partnership remuneration increased by **% in **** and the low remunerations (***) have strongly decreased while the number of high remunerations has doubled:

Average remuneration of paid partnerships France, ****-****, % Source: Reech In ****, it is even the average remunerations (***) that are in the majority, representing **% of partnerships, whereas in **** low remunerations were by far the most practiced. This increase in the average price is certainly due to two factors: The effectiveness of influencer marketing: according to MediaKix, the ROI (***) of influencer marketing is ** times higher than that of other forms of digital marketing Increased competition between brands: more and more companies are turning to influencer marketing, creating more competition between brands that drives up prices

4.3 Brands that have used influencer marketing the most

Influencer marketing is particularly sought after by fashion and accessories companies. In ****, nine out of the ten brands that launched the most influencer marketing campaigns in France offered fashion products. Brands use the image of influencers to promote themselves and also play on the impulse purchases of an often young public, by offering promotional codes.

These practices are not without risk for the consumer: we note here the presence of Shein, a brand of ultra fast fashion criticized for its harmful ecological impact and lack of transparency on its supply chain.

4.4 The most followed influencers in France

5.1 Current regulations

Today, the only legal requirement for influencers is to clearly disclose if the content they are offering is sponsored or not. If there is a financial link (***) between the brand and the influencer, the influencer must in any case let his community know that this link exists. Two legal texts affirm this obligation:

Law n° ****-*** for confidence in the digital economy of June **, ****: "any advertising, in any form whatsoever, accessible by an online public communication service, must be clearly identifiable as such. It must clearly identify the natural or legal person on whose behalf it is carried out". Law No. ****-*** of August *, **** on the modernization of the economy, which makes it a criminally reprehensible deceptive commercial practice not to clearly identify the person on whose behalf a commercial communication is made.

In other words, theARPP 's recommendation is simple:

"The existence of a commercial collaboration between an influencer and an advertiser for the publication of content must in all cases be brought to the public's attention by the influencer".

The ARPP also draws up a table of practices that do not comply:

The use of the #ad, considered not sufficient The thanks Vague formulations such as "I was ...

6.1 Market segmentation

• Reech
• Jin
• Woô
• Junto
• Follow
• Influence4you
• Influenzzz
• Bump Agency
• Miniprod
• Agence Influenceur
• Trends Paris
• Tanke
• Magnave
• Beastly
• Dire
• We Are Influence
• Tibo Inshape - D2AM
• Findly Influentia
• Avisa Partnerts
• Bump Squeezie
• Influencia
• Trainsweateat