The DCMS report is out now on influencers - well worth a look

Thanks to Stephen Waddington for sharing the report in his House of Marketing and PR Facebook Group. Being an 'influencer' is a relatively new career pathway and, despite what us oldies may think about it, is a growing sector. Marketing via influencers can be an effective way to reach your audience but behind the scenes, it's definitely not all glamour. Stephen highlights some key points from this morning's report:

• Influencer culture is a rapidly expanding and professionalising subsection of the UK’s vibrant creative industries, although the Government hasn't given it any attention.
• Behind the glamour that often colours perceptions of influencers, this is a challenging career beset by diversity issues, pay disparities, and a pervasive lack of employment support and protection.
• As the leaders of often small, niche and trusting communities, influencers can offer targeted and effective marketing services. Influencer marketing is therefore offering a lucrative opportunity for brands and advertisers as well as influencers.
• Updates to the enforcement powers of the Competition and Markets Authority and Advertising Standards Authority are urgently needed to prevent further damage to consumer trust.
• The lack of protection for children taking part in this new industry, both as consumers of influencer content and as influencers themselves, is a critical concern.

You can see the interactive version of the report here or download the PDF version here. It has also been widely reported on in the UK media, including the BBC here.

76 Mobile Predictions for 2017

It's a New Year and that means predictions will be coming out of the woodwork wherever you look. The mobile sector is no exception and I took part this year to add my 2p to this report from Tune '76 Mobile Predictions for 2017'.

I'm afraid my response wasn't terribly imaginative compared with the others, but here it is:

The first point "Mobile usage is ubiquitous in Western markets" refers to the point that 'mobile' is a given. If your site doesn't work on mobile, then you're doing more than missing a trick, you're missing out on traffic, sales and brand equity. Mobile is truly the centre of a large part of our digital lives. The time we spend grazing content, playing games, chatting with friends, taking and sharing photos, is largely done on a mobile device in the Western markets that I'm familiar with.

My second point, "The big platforms will get bigger. Out of the big four – GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon), Apple may suffer, but only a little," is an observation that just as the rich seem to get richer, the largest organisations get larger and richer too. And in the mobile world, and particularly Western markets, GAFA are the big winners. I don't see them losing momentum in the near future. Of the four, I think Apple may stumble a bit in comparison to its glory years of late. But they have so much money in the bank, they'll work it out in the end, I'm sure. For other, more erudite predictions, check out the rest of the list here.