Influencers and Halal Brand Ambassadors

As more and more consumers engage with social media personalities, influencer marketing is gaining traction with brands. As a percentage of brand marketing budgets, influencer marketing has grown year after year for the past 5 years. Brands plan to spend an estimated 15 billion dollars on influencer marketing by 2022.

The Audience

It’s estimated that consumers between the ages of 11– 40 spend up to 9 hours a day scrolling social media sites. This age group often engages with social media influences and these influencers gain loyal, and sometimes cult-like followings.  An estimated 66% of youth and young adults check in with influencers daily for entertainment, information, inspiration, expertise, fun, laughs, conversation an,d more.

Influencer marketing is like word-of-mouth advertising.  The influencer will promote a brand in his or her field, and the loyal followers will purchase.  If the right influencer promotes the right product to the right audience, it’s a win-win for all concerned.  Influencers typically have a niche like beauty, fashion, food, sports, media, toys, travel, money, or parenting.

The Influencers

There are a few big-time influencers with over 100,000,000 followers on Instagram, like soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo with 433,000,000 followers or reality star and business owner Kylie Jenner, with 333,000,000 followers.  If Ronaldo recommends soccer shoes or Kylie recommends a beauty cream, followers will buy it. There is a direct link between Influencer and consumer product sales.  Most of the macro influencers are sports and entertainment stars.

There are also micro-influencers that have over a million followers. They often promote products in their niche.  These personalities are accessible and efficient ambassadors for brands.  Their niche could be food, beauty products, health products, and more. Halal influencers can promote Halal brands to millions of consumers on Tiktok, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Youtube, Pinterest, Twitter, and other outlets.  Typically, the influencer is only influential on one platform, so marketers often source several influencers for campaigns.

Halal Influencers

There are hundreds of Halal influencers with large followings in specific niches. The trick is to find the right influencer for your brand at the right price. Some top Muslim athletes have a very wide reach, but once you contact their agent, you may find that the cost of the influencer is out of reach.  Fortunately, there are many influencers in cyber-space and there are agencies that can help you source the best one for your brand.

Here are some examples of Halal Influencers:

• For Halal meat brands, you can get traction with a recommendation from famous Turkish salt-throwing celebrity BBQ Chef Nusret Gokce. He has over 44.5 million followers worldwide, but marketers could limit his reach to certain geographical and demographic target audiences.
• To promote Halal baked goods or bakery flavors/ingredients you might try Karim Bourgi, Senegal born, a Lebanese chef, who trained in France, with nearly 700,000 followers on Instagram.
• For Halal health food, supplements and fitness, there is modest fitness influencer Zehra Allibhai or Olympic fencer and fashion icon  Ibtihaj Muhammad.  There are many famous Muslim athletes in the USA and Europe who have millions of followers and engage in celebrity endorsements.
• For a Halal food brand, My Halal Kitchen cookbook author and food blogger, Yvonne Maffei is an influencer with 1.5 million loyal followers on Facebook.
• There are many Halal beauty influencers listed here. They give tips and advice on make-up, skincare, cleansing products, and hair products.

Successful Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is not new. Nike hired Michael Jordon as a brand ambassador decades ago.  With social media, celebrity endorsements are within reach of most brands. Brands that run the most successful campaigns do the following:

1.     know their customers and target audience

2.     design a campaign to reach the right audience

3.     partner influencers that match their brand and are on the right platform

4.     partner with a brand ambassador that can reach their target audience

5.     create meaningful and measurable content and schedule with the audience in mind

6.     create entertaining, funny, inspiring, educational content that will be shared

7.     measure the metrics of the campaign and tweak them for optimal ROI

Islamic Services of America (ISA)

If your business would like to reach new markets domestically and internationally, check out ISA. We are a global leader in Halal certification, auditing services, and education.  Our professionals serve industry leaders throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico. ISA confidently provides multinationals, SMEs, and even startups, with a level of integrity and service for all their Halal certification and education needs.