Hypetap claims to be one of the first Australian influencer marketing companies to have built technology that allows brands to connect with influencers and helps deliver campaigns end-to-end, according to company co-founder Detch Singh. This includes planning, execution and reporting.
“We built the technology way back at the end of 2013/beginning of 2014,” Singh told Mediaweek. He co-founded of the business alongside Nikhil Madhok.
“What we have really set about to do is help measure the success of campaigns and measure the authenticity of audiences.”
Influencer marketing is the digital evolution of word of mouth. “If a brand tells you it is good at something, then you are going to take that with a pinch of salt. But if someone you know and trust as a tastemaker tells you something is good, it is more powerful,” Singh said.
There are many influencer marketing companies in Australia including Jules Lund’s Tribe. What is Hypetap’s selling point? Singh said, “While we are a technology-based company, we handle everything in-house. We will manage the whole campaign for a client.
“Our biggest selling point is around brand safety and data transparency. We make sure influencers have been vetted, that they fit, and haven’t worked with conflicting or competing brands.”
Hypetap’s influencers range from tier one to micro influencers. “This helps us offer a more holistic campaign,” Singh said. The company has about 2,800 influencers signed to the service – 80% of them are from Australia.
“It’s important to have a mix of influencers. The macro influencers tend to be the taste makers. There is a reason that millions of people follow them. They have unique market-leading content. The micro influencers tend to be a bit more on the followers’ side of things. They do create beautiful content but are less influential when driving the path to purchase,” Singh said.
“I know people say they have a higher engagement rate. However, one can argue that if you have 1,000 followers for example and 300 of those followers are your friends, you get a lot of obligatory engagement. We like to say in-house, ‘Not all the likes are created equal.’
“What we look for are results beyond engagement. It’s all well and good to say that you get a higher CPE [cost per engagement] from micro-influencers, but the reality is that you need to look deeper than engagement.”
Hypetap has influencers from blogs, YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram. “Most of our campaigns are Instagram focused,” Singh said. “We like to have a multichannel focus though. We may say our primary focus is Instagram, but we might lead the reader to the influencer’s blog and then have a call to action. We structure the campaign depending on the brief.”
The influencer marketing platform has run campaigns for a number of big clients including Mediacom and the Australian Government.
Hypetap this month analysed Aussie influencers on Instagram to reveal the top influencers to watch in 2018.
1. Lauren Bullen(@gypsea_lust)
2. Emilie Ristevski (@helloemilie)
3. Emily Skye (@emilyskyefit)
4. Jessica Stein (@tuulavintage)
5. Tammin Sursok (@tamminsursok)
6. Ellie Bullen (@elsas_wholesomelife)
7. Tara Milk Tea (@taramilktea)
Meet the talent
Lauren Bullen
Lauren quit her day job to embrace her love of travelling and creating beautiful imagery full-time. Lauren’s globetrotting lifestyle enables her to create unique social content. As a self-taught photographer whose skills are constantly evolving, she knows how to encapsulate her life experiences into still images. This is something that has attracted the attention of both her millions of Instagram followers and numerous brands. Lauren Bullen is talent-managed by Good Fun People.
(Pictured above, left)
Emilie Ristevski
Emilie is a self-described wanderer, travelling the world with her camera in tow. Emilie’s photography encompasses the untouched and unrefined beauty of nature. Her content transcends that of the stereotypical “Instagrammer” and has resulted in her having the opportunity to work with an expansive number of brands while gaining a strong and loyal global following.
(Pictured above, centre)
Ellie Bullen
Ellie’s Instagram journey began when she started posting food styling shots on Instagram while busy studying a degree in nutrition and dietetics. Ellie has grown to become a source of daily inspiration for food and travel lovers. With a self-titled plant-based cookbook under her belt, she is passionate about helping others lead a more positive and wholesome lifestyle, an outlook that has resulted in her forming a large but close-knit community that is continuing to grow.
(Pictured above, right)