Influencer Marketing Start-Up Backs Strong First Year With Senior Hire
Influencer marketing start-up, Visual Amplifiers (VAMP) has appointed former George Patterson Y&R general manager Amy Luca as marketing director.
The hire comes as the start-up ramps up activity and planning for 2016 after a strong founding year which included campaigns for major brands including Uniqlo, eBay, ASOS, Toby’s Estate, The Horse and General Pants.
VAMP kicked off the year with an Instagram campaign for Samsung Australia and its Galaxy Tab S2 as many predict 2016 is set to become the year of the social influencer.
During her stint at George Patterson Y&R, Luca helped lead the agency’s turnaround and growth, as business director for just over a year followed by becoming the agency’s general manager for two years.
Her previous roles include business director at Y&R in Shanghai and Y&R’s Shanghai agency Agenda, where she was digital strategy director. Before Agenda, Luca was interactive account director for Pepsi at TBWA\Chiat\Day where she worked on highly regarded campaign, The Pepsi Refresh Project. Her career also includes a stint at G2, Grey San Francisco and American Golf Corporation.
VAMP co-founder Aaron Brooks said, “With over 15 years’ experience in Australia, China and the US, helping brands develop digital and traditional communication and engagement strategies, Amy brings a wealth of knowledge to VAMP and it’s great to have her on board.”
“This is an exciting time for VAMP, as we have some great campaigns coming up, technology in development, and with a number of senior appointments, including Amy, we are solidifying our position in this emerging market.”
VAMP provides a single end-to-end solution to brands from recruiting, product distribution and talent payment. VAMP-recruited Instagram talent produce high quality, custom content, designed to increase exposure and reach of the brand through mass aggregation of talent audiences.
According to Luca, some of the influencer marketing trends in 2016 include a focus on engagement over reach, product placement over endorsement and authentic alignment between influencers and brands.
“Brands tend to chase influencers with large audiences but as influencers’ audiences grow, engagement rates tend to decline, which is why it is important to carefully select talent with an engaged audience rather than just a large audience,” Luca said.
“Our selection method focuses on recruiting influencers, or talent as we call them, that have a natural and authentic alignment with the brands they are promoting then letting them creatively represent the brand for their audience. It’s this approach which sees our campaigns consistently outperform Instagram benchmark engagement rates, and correlates to increased sales.
“Consumers will not be influenced by someone’s content if it seems inauthentic or contrived, and thus we wouldn’t ask our talent to promote a product that doesn’t align with their own brand,” Ms Luca said.
According to Nielsen’s 2015 Global Trust in Advertising Report, passionate brand advocates can be powerful allies to amplify a brand’s message, with 83 per cent of consumers trusting opinions from people they know and 66 per cent trusting consumer opinions posted online, and marketers are now starting to turn to brand advocates to generate not just buzz but campaigns that lead to sales.
Vamp is focused on developing a creative technology platform that matches VAMP recruited talent with brands and manages the process from the recruit, product delivery, talent payments all the way through to reporting, analytics and optimisation.
Latest News
1,600+ Brands Ran Ads Alongside US Election Misinformation
Nearly every major brand in the US inadvertently ran automated advertisements on websites that pushed election conspiracies and misinformation, a special report from NewsGuard, a US-based service that uses trained journalists to rate news and information sites, has revealed. From 1 October 2019 to 12 January 2020, 1,668 brands ran 8,776 unique ads on the […]
Reports: Is Private Equity Eyeing Publicis Groupe?
Over recent days reports in the UK have suggested that bosses of the Paris-headquartered Publicis Groupe have sounded out a private equity firm for a possible part or full sale. The rumours were first reported on UK media site Campaign last week and have since been embellished further in the media in previous days. The […]
Nominees Announced For The Sailor Jerry Rolling Stone Australia Awards
On 31 March, the Sailor Jerry Rolling Stone Australia Awards will be celebrating the achievements of the breadth of Australian musicians from what has been a trying and unpredictable 2020. Today, Rolling Stone Australia has revealed the nominees for the event, paying homage to the year that was in music. The Brag Media, Australia’s number […]
Taboola Launches Beta For Short Form Video Offering, Taboola Stories
Content discovery and native advertising platform Taboola has announced the beta of ‘Taboola Stories’, a new way for publishers to engage readers through short-form video. Publishers will be able to embed Taboola Stories within their homepages and articles in mobile environments, presenting readers with constantly updated recommendations that, once selected, launch vertical, mobile-friendly stories that […]
Study: Aussie Metro Radio Numbers Up 2% To 11.1 Million In 2020
The Australian metropolitan commercial radio audience grew by two per cent to nearly 11.1 million listeners in 2020, in a year dominated by COVID-19 which saw the number of people listening at home jump by eight per cent to 6.4 million. Commercial Radio Australia’s annual listening summary, based on an average of the five official […]
Aussie Indie Agencies Forecast Staff & Revenue Boost for 2021
Independent media agencies are predicting a strong recovery from the effects of COVID-19, forecasting an increase in staff and revenue in 2021, according to data from the Independent Media Agencies of Australia’s (IMAA) second Pulse Survey of its members.
HeartKids Unveils New Identity, Via Brand And Design Agency Hulsbosch
Australian congenital heart disease profit-for-purpose charity HeartKids has launched a new brand strategy, identity and logo created by independent brand and design agency Hulsbosch. Leaders in the fight to conquer congenital heart disease, HeartKids aims is to raise awareness of the disease, as well as enhance the conditions’ profile as a health priority to a […]
Kid’s Site Launches New Service To Better Connect Brands With Kids
TotallyAwesome, the Asia Pacific’s most advanced forum for kids and brands to safely interact via the internet, is launching a new service for brands to connect with young audiences. The business has also engaged an eminent Melbourne-based paediatric psychologist to assist with appropriate brand and audience connectivity. The new service, called AwesomeLTV, is an acceleration of TotallyAwesome’s abilities to […]
Stan Original Series ‘Rupaul’s Drag Race Down Under’ In Production
Nine Entertainment SVOD service Stan has revealed its original series, RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under, will be arriving to the platform in 2021. The eight-part, first-ever local adaption of the global hit series will see “the most fabulous” and “fierce” local drag queens compete to be the first ever Down Under Drag Race Superstar, Stan […]
Social Media: Does Its Value Equal The Hype?
In his first post for 2021, B&T regular Robert Strohfeldt points his magnifying glass at digital media’s hype and argues it’s possibly not cracked up to all it purports to be… In the past few months, I have seen many CVs of young graduates seeking a career in marketing and/or advertising. I could fool myself […]
Melbourne’s Fed Square Unveils New Brand Identity ‘Anything But Square’ Via Interbrand
B&T's stopping short of calling Fed Square ugly, but we're betting it'd have a tough time getting Tinder dates.
Barbie Is Bisexual? Apparently, According To Twitter
News out today that Barbie is possibly bisexual. Meanwhile the rumours dogging Ken also refuse to go away.
TikTok Unveils Second Australian Brand Campaign
TikTok's not just for nine-year-olds and adults with a bizarre unicorn hobby says latest brand campaign.
Google Delivers Australian Businesses And Consumers $53B In Benefits: Report
Google Australia releases latest report in charm offensive apparently unaware we'd all use it regardless.
Integrated Marketing Agency, McCorkell, Wins Spot In Global Rainfocus Partner Program
B2B marketing agency McCorkell has announced that it has been appointed an official Asia-Pacific partner of RainFocus, the next-generation event marketing and management platform. The collaboration will see both companies come together to shake up the end-to-end event service model across APJ. “As the only true integrated event marketing and management platform servicing everything from […]
Domino’s Launches Five New Chicken Products “Worth Crossing The Road For”
Domino's unveils new chicken range. Not that you care given your new year/new you fitness campaign, however.
Plant-Based Brand Oatly Releases Witty Guides, Controversial TV Ad To ‘Help Dads Quit Dairy’
It's rare you hear the words "vegan" and "sense of humour" in the same sentence but apparently it's happening here.
Fitness Guru Joe Wicks Unleashes Mega Fart In Front Of 800,000 Online Fans
Do you drop bodily functions so awesome they simply have to be heard by the entire room? You'll empathise with Joe here.
Radio Station 927 Returns To GfK Survey In 2021
Making slightly more work for B&T's radio reporter, Victoria's 927 has decided it wants back in on the ratings numbers.
Lars Lehne Appointed As Group CEO Of Incubeta
Lars Lehne named as group CEO of Incubeta and who is not to be mistaken with Superman's nemesis Lex Luthor.
Google Data Reveals World’s Most Popular Takeaways; Chinese Tops For Aussies
New study reveals the world's favourite takeaways and it appears bad news for lovers of the haggis and the pangolin.
Entertainment Appoints FutureBrand Australia To Lead Brand Transformation
FutureBrand starts the new year with a new client win. Which arguably means a client loss for another agency somewhere.
Nine Announces Mega MAFS Reunion Special
Further evidence that truly awful people somehow make good reality television comes news of a pending MAFS reunion.
Established Brands Join Forces To Launch New Comparison And Advice Hub, Compare Club
New comparison site Compare Club unveiled amid concerns the name's possibly a little on the predictable side.
2020 Sees Over 80% Of Aussies Turn To SVOD
Clearly ignoring mum's veiled threats that too much telly gives you square eyes, Aussies' SVOD viewing soars.
Reports: Lebron James Leaves Coke, Set To Back New-Look Mountain Dew
Lebron to quit Coke for rival Mountain Dew. B&T strongly suspects there was a large cheque in there somewhere, too.
MKTG Australia Unveils New Leadership Team
MKTG Australia apparently on the lookout for slightly larger boardroom table after unveiling new leadership team.
Get A Wriggle On! Entries Are Open For B&T’s Women Leading Tech Awards
Surely B&T's Women Leading Tech entries should include some difficult to fathom algorithm to decipher, but it doesn't.
SpotX Joins The Trade Desk’s Unified ID 2.0 Initiative
Turned off by this slightly techy headline? Well, get set to be really bamboozled by the overly techy body copy.
Triple J’s Hottest 100: Only A Few Hundred Votes Separate First And Second Place!
Hottest 100 top songs of the year are neck and neck. B&T editor still working out who G Flip and Mallrat are.
