5 Reasons your next Marketing Campaign Needs an Educational Influencer
To be honest, I’m kind of sick 🤮 of being overlooked …
As a content creator that makes videos about history, I’m not always the first to come to mind for massive marketing campaigns. As brands decide which influencers will advertise a new movie, event, or service, they often limit their search to lifestyle vloggers, comedic performers, and mainstream celebrities.
In doing so, they shut out many other content creation niches that could successfully be incorporated into their campaigns. In my case, the niche I most often see neglected is educational content (which can be defined as content meant to entertain audiences primarily by teaching them something new).
And this occurs even when educational content would be the perfect contribution to a campaign!
Over the years, I’ve scrolled past dozens of videos with non-educational influencers advertising a project that would have been perfect for me or one of my peers to also cover.
For example, one of my favorite movie series ever is Indiana Jones. In case you don’t know, the main character is an archaeologist that solves ancient mysteries around the world. However, even with that context, the only influencer marketing I saw for the newest installment was this campaign where comedic influencers would dress up vaguely like Jones and go on a silly “adventure” in their everyday life (like getting a cup of coffee).
To be clear, I don’t think that’s a bad idea, and I’m sure it attracted some people to the movie. But I strongly believe the conversion of viewers to ticket buyers would be much higher if the campaign also included educational creators. Why not include creators who can talk about the historical themes central to the actual film and the character? Creators who are passionate about learning, world cultures, and storytelling?
Here’s a quick pitch: What if the marketers also commissioned a dozen education influencers to recount our favorite unsolved archeological mystery as a history lesson, building on the popularity of true crime and conspiracy theories? One person could cover the perplexing mystery of Cleopatra’s tomb which has been lost for thousands of years. Another person could recount the enduring mystery of Japan’s “underwater city” which some believe to be the remains of a lost civilization.
At the end, we would then direct our audiences to carry that curiosity and go see the new Indiana Jones movie which centers on the mysterious origins of the miraculous Dial of Destiny from Ancient Greece.
And that’s only one “educational” campaign idea …
My frustration isn’t just that this oversight closes opportunities to me, its that it closes opportunities to brands who want to reach a diverse array of interested audiences. Many, many people don’t watch the “traditional” influencers that are often the only ones included in these activations. And even when they do, audiences are not always moved with campaigns that they perceive to be more vapid or cliché.
So with that said, here are 5 reasons you should include an educational content creator for your next marketing campaign!
Reason #1: We increase the brand value of the campaign
There’s a common concern that social media is rotting the brains of young and old people alike. This is because many of the videos on these platforms are meant to quickly entertain viewers in the most attention-grabbing way, even if that includes showing outrageous, silly, or even dangerous content. As such, there’s a certain level of skepticism that companies have when it comes to working with influencers.
Although this skepticism is often outweighed by the financial benefits of accessing influencer audiences, why not have the best of both worlds? With educational influencers, you can both reach wide audiences and protect or even increase brand value. Unlike many traditional influencers, educational influencers are often profiled in prestige media, invited to high-profile events, and win coveted awards for their work. There is a certain “premium quality” to the content we create and that’s not something you can get from every partner!
Reason #2: We help you explain yourselves
Some brands and industries just aren’t cool to Gen Z. Take for instance, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. They are a global body that seeks to increase excitement and interest around the fields of accounting and financial services. Putting the words “excitement” and “accounting” in the same sentence might seem antithetical, but that’s where educational influencers come in.
According to the media agency, FanBytes, “ACCA was one of the first brands to harness the educational side of TikTok to appeal to a younger audiences” by explaining the importance of accounting in people’s everyday lives and efficiently debunking myths about the job. What made this work? Well as said by Creative Strategist, Ben Urquhart, “Gen Z loves being the first to something …you want to be the first person to access new knowledge.” The same agency went on to account that “ACCA saw views in the millions and a high engagement rate, clearly indicating this kind of educational content is genuinely interesting to Gen Z.” As a Gen Z’er myself, I couldn’t agree more.
Reason #3: We inherently provide positive social impact
Learning is good for society. The benefits have been laid out time and time again: it makes people more tolerant, it reduces poverty and crime, and it can even help you live longer. Young people are increasingly choosing what brands to buy from and work at based on their record and support of social impact and social causes. An easy way for any marketer to affirm this commitment is by actively partnering with and sponsoring educational creators.
Many of us are specifically in this space because we want to help people around the world. For instance, my friend Joel Bervell, who goes by the “Medical Mythbuster,” has literally saved lives by disseminating knowledge about different forms of cancer and life-threatening illnesses. Another creator, Astro Alexandra, is pushing more young women and girls to get interested in STEM and astronomy so they can solve some of science’s biggest mysteries. Investing in creators like these will actively make the world a better place and likely contribute to ESG and/or DEI goals.
Reason #4: We help reach audiences not connected to the '“mainstream”
This may come as a shock, but 25% of TikTok users use the platform for educational purposes. If the amount of TikTok users in the US alone is 170 million, thats a market of 42.5 million people that are not being fully captured when educational influencers are not considered or targeted for a campaign. Speaking for myself, I don’t often come across comedic or lifestyle content on my feed. I know many people that have the same experience seeing as feeds are tailored to our interests. How, then, are marketers planning on reaching people like me, who only see informative content?
To be clear, on TikTok, learning and information sharing are seen as cool. Compared to how school is stereotyped in the real world, this is a stark contrast. #LearnonTikTok, for instance, is one of the most popular hashtags and trends . This is all to say that the relationship TikTok users have with learning makes them invested and loyal to the educators they follow. In turn, this makes them likely to trust whatever projects they are marketing, projects they might not trust from another source.
Reason #5: We are just as (if not more!) “addicting” to watch
There’s a neuroscientific strategy behind influencing. Watching social media videos can produce chemical reactions that make someone temporarily “addicted” to scrolling. With funny videos, these chemical reactions mainly produce endorphins, the happy chemical, and you scroll until you get them again. With educational videos, these chemical reactions mainly produce dopamines, the accomplishment chemical, and similarly entices you scroll until you get it again by learning something new.
Some people’s social media feed are hardwired for comedic and funny videos that give them endorphins. And others are seeking the effects of dopamine—in which case the video might not always be as funny, but will give them a feeling of having completed something beneficial. This is why, for many, educational videos are a lot more captivating and attention grabbing than comedic or lifestyle videos. While each person has a difference preference (and some have a mix), brands should diversify and incorporate both strategies of attention-capturing to their campaigns.
Everyday, the definition of influencer and creator expands. What was traditionally thought of as one thing—like a conventionally attractive model posting pictures of their favorite eyeliner on Instagram—has become so much more and now includes lobster catchers teaching about sustainable marine farming, LGBTQ+ Muslim activists teaching about their holy days, college linguists dissecting the migration of words across continents, and so, so much more!
As such, brands and audiences are finding and gravitating toward the types of content that are more substantial, attention-grabbing, and educational. This is your notice to be ahead of curb by finding and sponsoring an educational creator, today.
