SBC Webinars: “Use influencers to move product – 100%” – Phil Leif

Taking part in SBC Webinars and HPL Digital Sport’s ‘Reach & Retain – Dynamic Marketing for the Long Game’ series, Senior Vice President of Marketing of HPL Digital Sport, Phil Leif, told the webinar panel that influencer marketing should be used to maximize the return on investment rather than as an audience growth tool.
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Taking part in SBC Webinars and HPL Digital Sport’s ‘Reach & Retain – Dynamic Marketing for the Long Game’ series, Senior Vice President of Marketing of HPL Digital Sport, Phil Leif, told the webinar panel that influencer marketing should be used to maximize the return on investment rather than as an audience growth tool. 

Leif pointed towards the example in the direct-to-consumer e-commerce sector to highlight that influencers can be used to sell products and how this could work in the sports betting industry. 

Speaking on the final episode of the series, titled ‘Scaling with Influence’, he said: “They (D2C brands) use influencers to move product, 100%. 

“It’s a good awareness tool but, at the end of the day, you are paying people for ROI. I think that, on the audience growth side, typically you are not paying an influencer directly to grow your audience. You are getting consumers to use your product, then the better your social media content is, the more people will follow you and your audience will grow. 

“I think saying ‘oh we’ll get an influencer to grow our audience and then those people will buy’ is a little bit backward. I think you are getting people to buy and consume what you’re offering and then, if what you have to offer on the content is good, they will follow you.”

Joining Leif on the panel was Gethin Evans, Chief Marketing Officer of Spotlight Sports Group, David Isman, Head of Marketing and Analytics at Jock MKT, and fantasy sports writer and guest moderator Brad Evans.

Evans also engaged in the conversation, commenting: “I think there is a small nuance with traditional D2C brands (influencer marketing) that works on Instagram. 

“Sports and sportlots tends to happen on Twitter and, because the feed is not chronological, those event-led conversions that work on Instagram(…), there is a much smaller pool for sports betting.”

Drawing on the findings of the HPL Digital Sport’s recent ‘Executive reality vs User Expectations’ survey in conjunction with YouGov and SBC Americas, the SBC Webinar, ‘Scaling with Influence’ discussed how to use influencer marketing to scale a business’s user base, increase revenue, therefore making the business more attractive to investors. 

To view the session for free on-demand, click here.