INFLUENCER MARKETING DIVERSITY REPORT -- Q3 + Q4 2020
Updated: Oct 6, 2022
Black+ Creator Representation
July - Dec 2020
Real progress was made in the second half of 2020, but Black+ Creators are still underrepresented in the Influencer Marketing industry overall and to a less extent at The Outloud Group.
OVERVIEW AND RESULTS
We believe that organizations and industries make the most progress when there is accountability to key stakeholders. For companies, the stakeholders are generally employees, customers, owners, investors, partners, and the community. For industries, the stakeholder group gets murky quickly -- making it hard for accountability and at times, limiting the pace of change that’s needed.
While it may be tough to represent everything that’s happening in the industry -- we like taking on big challenges with actions and accountability, we are continuing with our commitment to report on Black+ creator representation in influencer marketing. In September 2020, we published the Influencer Marketing Diversity Report -- Q1 + Q2 2020 Black+ Creator Representation -- and today we are excited to share new data from Q3 & Q4 2020.
The data, while covering only one year, indicates that little progress has been made in terms of including Black+ creators in the influencer marketing industry as a whole. While progress has been made at The Outloud Group in terms of increasing our Black+ creator representation across brand campaigns, it’s clear that there’s still a need for better representation & inclusion both at Outloud & the industry. We believe that accountability will ultimately drive more Black+ creator representation in influencer marketing -- and we’ve seen early signs of this at The Outloud Group & hope that increased accountability for the industry as a whole will lead to progress.
Black+ Americans make up 13.4% of the American population¹, but were only included in 6.9% of brand partnerships in the first half of 2020 across the influencer marketing industry. The Outloud Group was marginally better than the industry over the same time period (1H20), including Black+ creators in 7.2% of brand partnerships.
Using the same methodology from the first half of 2020, we evaluated performance in the second half of 2020 (2H20) and determined that across the industry, Black+ creators were included in only 6.7% of brand partnerships in YouTube influencer marketing campaigns, representing a 2.9% decrease from 1H20 to 2H20.
For The Outloud Group, Black+ creators represented 9.9% of our YouTube brand partnerships in the 2H of 2020, representing a 37.5%² increase compared to the 1H of 2020. This represents progress, but also shows that more work needs to be done.
The key takeaways are clear: both the influencer industry as a whole and The Outloud Group need to to keep striving towards 13.4% Black+ creator representation in marketing campaigns. With industry Black+ creator representation largely remaining stagnant at 50% representation compared to the US population as a whole, it’s clear there is still work to be done. It’s a positive sign that The Outloud Group saw a 37.5% increase in Black+ creator representation over the same time period -- and we want to appreciate this progress because progress doesn't come lightly.
But that’s not enough.
Black Americans make up 13.4% of the US population, but are only included in 6.8% of industry deals across 2020 and 8.8% at The Outloud Group.
There’s work to be done.
Thank you for taking the time to read, share, and/or reflect. We believe that the first step towards change is understanding the scope of the problem and we remain committed to sharing data on the influencer marketing industry and our own company in hopes of being one small piece of positive change. We ask that you also consider sharing this article to provide more accountability and, in turn, more hope for change based on these results.
METHODOLOGY
The Outloud Group conducted this analysis to benchmark Black+ creator representation in the Influencer Marketing industry for the second half of 2020 using two sets of data The Outloud Group used to conduct this analysis are:
-- The Outloud Group’s proprietary data³
-- Tubular Lab’s Dealmaker data⁴
The Outloud Group’s data consisted of 1,602 unique sponsored⁵ YouTube videos while Tubular Lab’s Dealmaker data consisted of 13,610 unique sponsored YouTube videos from the top 20 most active US brands in YouTube influencer marketing. All videos included in this study were published between July 1st, 2020 and December 31st, 2020. The 15,212 total videos were hand reviewed with a simple binary tag, which marked if the YouTube channel that published each video featured a Black+ creator or not.
ABOUT THE OUTLOUD GROUP
We are a full-service influencer marketing agency that creates & executes strategic campaigns to deliver measurable results. We combine art & science to authentically tell your brand’s story at scale.
While we live & breathe new media, our business is founded on old-fashioned relationships.
Influencer marketing.
Done right.
FOOTNOTES
Visit The Outloud Group's Youtube Channel for our video series, "Influencer Insight"and "Thinking Outloud" where we share industry knowledge, discuss influencer marketing trends and host influencers we work with. Also, follow and chat with us through Twitter , Instagram and LinkedIn!