Sberbank : Sber participates in discussion on influence marketing at SPIEF

A panel session titled Who's Cashing in on Whom: Bloggers on Business or Business on Bloggers? took place at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

Speaking at the session were Senior Vice President and Director of the Marketing and Communications Department at Sberbank Vladislav Kreynin; the founder of DreamTeam House and WildJam Yaroslav Andreev; CEO of Gazprom Media sales house Ekaterina Veselkova; Vice President for Marketing Communications at AliExpress Russia Oleg Lebedev; bloggers Stanislav Kruglitsky and Daniil Milokhin. Alexey Giyazov, Marketing and Communication Director at Alfa Bank, moderated the session.

The key issues of the session were the growth of the advertising market among Internet bloggers and the interaction of large corporations with them. The speakers discussed the tools they have to affect and attract customers through influencers now and the ones they plan to develop moving forward. Oleg Lebedev shared AliExpress's experience in creating live streams when celebrities present goods from an online store, and viewers can buy them in one click.

Macro- and micro-influencers were also on the agenda. The session was attended by supporters of investments in bloggers with million+ viewers and small channels. The founder of the WildJam agency, Yaroslav Andreev, advocated cooperation with major bloggers, citing the simplicity of negotiations and a smaller amount of paperwork, including when it comes to accounting.

Senior Vice President of Sberbank Vladislav Kreynin said that the creation of a single platform that would automate the interaction with bloggers across multiple stages should make small channels attractive to big companies too. He highlighted the importance of development of schools for bloggers and brand ambassadors to make this vertical as high-tech and large-scale as it is in today's China.

Vladislav Kreynin also stated that a SberMarketing department in charge of blogger work is scheduled to be created. It will assume the role of an agency, developing its own pool of influencers.

Agencies for bloggers are a human business these days, and effective teams can very often be created from scratch. However, as this industry matures, agencies should start owning tech and platforms to regard blogger integrations as effective inventory competing with each other, bargaining in real time, having a solid analytical background, etc. That's why you need to be building tech in addition to having the right team. The market is just shaping, so you can't find a full-fledge platform nowadays. They need to be created.

Schools are a different important aspect here. The market that grooms micro-influencers the right way is just emerging. Creating the right platform for its development is a challenge we are taking on.

Vladislav Kreynin

Senior Vice President, Director of the Marketing and Communications Department, Sberbank