RhythmOne Releases Full Year 2015 Influencer Marketing Benchmarks Report

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Mar 30, 2016) - RhythmOne ("1R"), a media technology company that connects audiences with brands through premium content across devices, today released its Full Year 2015 Influencer Marketing Benchmarks Report. The report offers a top-level analysis of 1R's Influencer Marketing programs that ran during calendar year 2015 (January-December). It also details advertiser category-specific benchmarks and provides key insights in earned media value (EMV), social media action, consumer engagement, and more. Over the course of the year, 1R's branded content programs spanned 14 advertiser categories and employed 752 influencers in aggregate.

Full Year 2015 Highlights
EMV continues to be a key indicator of the growing efficacy and power of Influencer Marketing programs. On average in 2015, advertisers who implemented a 1R Influencer Marketing program received $11.20 in EMV for every $1.00 of paid media spend. This figure demonstrates an increase of 16% over its 1H 2015 average of $9.60 in EMV and 63% over our full year 2014 average of $6.85 in EMV.

• On average, 1R's 2015 Influencer Marketing programs delivered an influencer engagement rate (total engagements/total exposure) of 1.50%.
  
  
• Overall, Instagram was the best performing channel for social action -- it delivered a social action rate (social media engagements/social media exposure) of 3.21%.
  
  
• At $21.03 in earned media value for every $1.00 of paid media, the Alcoholic Beverages advertising category received the greatest EMV for 1R's full year 2015 Influencer Marketing programs -- followed by Travel & Tourism, at $18.98 in EMV.
  
  
• Influencer Marketing programs that included a sweepstakes or giveaway typically drove higher earned media value and higher influencer engagement rates than those that did not.
  
  

A Closer Look at Social Action
In 2015 across five major social media platforms, 1R's Influencer Marketing programs delivered an average social action rate of 1.18%. Instagram was the best performing channel overall with a social action rate of 3.21%. Twitter (3.00%), Facebook (1.53%), Pinterest (0.38%), and Google+ (0.13%) respectively rounded out the list.

"Influencers who extended the reach of Sponsored Blog Posts through their Instagram handles contributed to terrific results for advertisers," said Chuck Moran, VP Marketing, RhythmOne. "Success relies heavily on being relevant with your target consumers. For example, the Bath, Body, Skin, & Beauty category saw an Instagram social action rate 1.3x that of the average -- a result achieved in part through stylized but authentic imagery, geared towards audiences of Millennial-aged women."

RhythmOne's 2015 findings reinforce themes that emerged in both its inaugural report (full year 2014) and 1H 2015 report. At a macro level, Influencer Marketing offers a tremendous return on media investment: at a micro level the study reinforces the value of using high impact imagery, amplification programs across many different social platforms, and contests and sweepstakes to encourage consumer interaction.

"CPG Food continues to be our most active category," said Katie Paulsen, VP Influencer Marketing, RhythmOne. "Influencer Marketing programs deployed for food brands accounted for more than one-third of our total program count, and the results were phenomenal -- an earned media value of $12.03. We're excited to see additional categories embracing Influencer Marketing and expect to see further growth across the board."

For more information and to download the full Full Year 2015 Influencer Marketing Benchmarks Report, visit: https://www.rhythmone.com/rhythmbuzz/insights/2015-influencer-benchmarks-report.

The company will also be hosting a webinar that will provide additional insights from RhythmOne's Influencer team. Sign up here: https://www.rhythmone.com/rhythmbuzz/insights/category/webinar.

About RhythmOne
RhythmOne is a media technology company that connects audiences with brands through premium content across devices, at scale. We work with advertisers, publishers and content providers to offer fully integrated, cross-screen advertising solutions, spanning desktop and mobile video, rich media, display, social and native formats. Leading with mobile and video, RhythmOne offers advertisers a significant supply footprint through both owned and operated web properties and a network of quality partners. RhythmGuard is our proprietary filtering technology that screens and qualifies inventory pre-campaign, eliminating suspicious or fraudulent traffic before it reaches the advertiser. Powered by RhythmGuard, our next-generation audience targeting platform lets us provide a range of premium and RTB media buying solutions -- all within a brand safe environment. The sum of these capabilities ensures advertisers maximize their ROI, with transparent measurement around campaign effectiveness and attribution. RhythmOne's long-term vision is to provide the industry's most accountable marketplace for online advertising.

The Company is headquartered in San Francisco, California with offices worldwide. For more information please visit www.rhythmone.com.