New agency seeks to shift industry reliance on sponsored posts

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“Smart bloggers and digital influencers know that the true value is in the two-way nature of their platform, their knowledge of their audience and their ability to identify moments of truth for their brand partners to convert readers into fans, and then from fans into customers.”

Ngahuia Lane Galligan, Director, Agents of Influence

 A new model digital influencer management and marketing agency is launching at this weekend’s ProBlogger Training Event on the Gold Coast.

Agents of Influence is headed up by Melbourne based marketer and blogger Ngahuia Lane Galligan and has ‘native’ content marketing solutions and audience advocacy programs at its heart.

The agency is a result of her own experience blogging as Laney at Crash Test Mummy, and working on sponsorships for some of Australia’s most successful bloggers (Sarah Wilson’s ‘I Quit Sugar’ website and Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger Training Event).

Galligan has developed innovative ways for brands to align their content without pushing messages at the influencer’s audience. To support this the agency offers key insights into how brands can activate audiences and turn them into advocates. She believes these new approaches can help shift the industry reliance on sponsored posts.

“Whilst I’m not directly opposed to sponsored posts, having written them myself, I do think we can offer more to our audiences. They can be part of the mix, but too many will turn your readers away to other blogs.”

This is a view shared by ProBlogger Head of Marketing, Shayne Tilley:

“Partnerships between brands and blogs beyond traditional advertising models has become far too dependent on forcing your way into the editorial. Whilst this can bring value to a business it’s fraught with danger for both the brand and the blogger with potential issues of transparency, authenticity and trust.

The Agents of Influence model not only totally eliminates that risk, it’s set to drive a better overall outcome for the brand, the blog and the audience in the long run,” adds Tilley.

The new Agents of Influence model is based on simple pull marketing strategies. In Galligan’s view a reader who chooses to engage with a brand’s content is more likely to become an advocate or customer than the reader who is served unsolicited content – no matter how cleverly the message is crafted.

“We have seen exciting results for brands that have aligned their content marketing strategy with independent publishers with strong platforms and loyal followers.”

The agency works with select online influencers to develop exclusive opportunities for brands to engage their audiences and create valuable advocates. However, it’s not all about big blog stats. Agents of Influence are also collaborating with experienced blogger outreach agency Brand Meets Blog to co-ordinate micro-influencers with highly engaged communities to create effective influencer outreach programs.

 

 

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Comments

  1. says

    Lanie. This is so needed! Good luck with this venture. Look forward to hearing more soon. Please pop me on your email list. Amber. :)

  2. says

    Congratulations and lots of good wishes for a successful venture !!!
    It sounds very exciting – wishing you all the very best.
    Have the best day !
    Me

  10. says

    Congrats on the new business Laney, you will do big things with this! I’ve singed up and I hope we can work together in someway in the near future. I’ve just sat here nodding my head to everything I’ve read. So refreshing! Let’s start getting the relationship between brands/bloggers/readers reflected the way we know it can be in Australia.
    Take care
    Fee