#paid: An Interview with Shawn Lowe

Time + Space’s VP, Growth & Partnerships, Shawn Lowe, recently sat down to chat about influencer marketing in issue 002 of #paid magazine. Here’s what he had to say:

What drove you to consider starting an influencer marketing campaign?

 Many our clients operate in highly competitive environments, in some cases being significantly out invested by competitors. As such we constantly need to look for innovative ways to push their core KPI’s forward. This led us to start analyzing clients’ challenges and think of innovative, cost effective, and meaningful solutions to bring to them

What challenges did #paid help you solve in connection to influencer marketing?

We really do view #paid as an extension of the Time + Space team. I think that they are a key element, and it allows our strategists to work on defining the direction and solve problems for our clients’ business. The ability to brainstorm with an external team, and come up with innovative and creative ways to help solve a client’s marketing issues has been extremely important.

The product is important, but the partnership is really what #paid brings to the table that makes them unique to us. We feel that the relationship is one in which we win and lose together, and for us that is important.

What do you think the future of influencer marketing is and its effect on traditional marketing?

I think it’s going to evolve quickly as platforms that are utilized in the space change, and I think it creates a really exciting moment. I believe you’ll soon start to see brands adjusting the way that they produce social content, and soon thereafter, the way that brands create traditional offline and online content.

I often say to myself internally, “Why are we not extending that relationship with certain influencers outside of a post on Instagram.” We should get them involved in the product development, and brand development. Involve them in creating 30-second commercials, banner ads, and really making them a focal point of a campaign. I really start to question that, and I think that it creates a strong opportunity for us in the future.

I think influencer marketing is going to leak into traditional marketing, where we’ll see a number of brands begin to abandon producing content internally. We’ll be here to give the guidance, but leave the content development up to the community of influencers who we trust and respect to take us to where we need to be in the future.

What would you share with any other marketers considering running an influencer marketing program with #paid?

In a more corporate environment, we say no way too often. For us, some of the brightest minds in our organization really started to raise their hand to push us in this direction to say, “Just imagine a world where we started doing this?”

For us, it was really important for to stay open minded, to think of the world somewhat differently than what we would want to think of it as. That has allowed us to continue with this opportunity rather than killing it when it was on the drawing board.

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