Time Inc. Taps Influencer Network Firm for Tech Support
Time Inc. is looking to influencers to grow its digital reach with its latest partnership.
The magazine publisher is working with Speakr, an influencer media-buying platform that uses popular bloggers and web personalities to offer advertisers the ability to target and customize their own campaigns.
Time Inc. is using Speakr’s technology for its in-house, editorially led influencer network dubbed Time Inc. Connect. Connect’s influencers include My Nguyen of My Healthy Dish and Jacey Duprie of Damsel in Dior.
According to the publisher, “in addition to creating editorial social content and extending the diversity of voices around Time Inc. brands, Time Inc. Connect’s influencers will work closely with Time Inc. editors and will benefit from cross-promotion through the brands’ social channels.”
Time Inc. Connect also gives marketers access to the select community of influencers who can provide native social distribution for marketing partners.
The use of influencers is a fairly common one across media, and it’s another tool for companies that are looking to amp up their social media cred to reap marketing dollars. Sometimes those partnerships can be tricky, as the Federal Trade Commission continues to look at new ways that media companies are developing sponsored content relationships.
“By identifying and mobilizing our contributors and influencers who share our editorial voice and journalistic mission, we are extending the Time Inc. brands and are showcasing distinctive content from a carefully selected group of creators that have their own unique voice and trusted audience,” said Will Lee, group digital director, entertainment, sports and style at Time Inc., of the partnership.
“We’ve spent the past six years building a next-generation influencer marketing platform, and while influencer marketing is now a part of nearly every advertiser’s media plan, the space is massively fragmented, and marketers are still concerned about influencer selection, measurement, compliance and quality control,” said Marco Hansell, chief executive officer of Speakr. “By powering Time Inc. Connect, we are building a content creation community that is unique to Time Inc. and that combines the trust, curation and quality of their advertising offerings with best-of-breed influencer capabilities.”
Regina Buckley, senior vice president of digital business development and business operations at Time Inc., said, “Time Inc. Connect enables us to combine our high editorial standards with real measurement and analytics that we don’t believe other media companies can match.”
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