Member Article

Fanbytes aiming to be ‘Ad words of influencer marketing’ with new self-service platform

Influencer marketing is one of the fastest growing areas in the marketing sphere this year, with vloggers, YouTubers, Instagrammers and Snapchatters racking up millions of views, follows and likes, it is a major growth industry and one that has caught many big firms napping.

However, one firm who are very much ahead of the curve are London’s Fanbytes.

Founded a mere 18 months ago in January 2015, the influencer marketing platform has already worked with some of the biggest names in media and technology.

Nickelodeon, GoPro and even former world footballer of the year Ronaldinho, have all turned to the young startup to help them reach the much vaunted millennials demographic. But why have they proven so successful?

Rapid growth

One clue is in the average age of the team at Fanbytes: just 20 years old. Similarly, their three founders, Timothy Armoo, Ambrose Cooke and Mitchell Fasanya, are each 21, 21 and 19 years old respectively. In other words, the company is operated by the very same people who marketers want to target.

After turning over six-figures in just their first year of business, the young upstarts have their sights set on even bigger things, not least a seven-figure turnover this year, and to help them get there they are now launching their own self-service platform.

Speaking to Timothy ahead of the launch, he outlined his vision for Fanbytes becoming the ‘Google Ad words of influencer marketing’ and opening up influencer marketing to any brand or business for a fraction of the cost.

Ambitious plans for a company whose roots began in the humble surroundings of Tim’s cousin’s bedroom, as he explained:

“[The idea came] from my cousin, I saw how much he was being influenced by the world of YouTube. He had bought a ton of stuff and being the 15 year old he was, two things went through my mind.

“Firstly I wondered whether my cousin was a drug dealer as I wasn’t sure where he was getting the money from! The next thing was what influenced him and he mentioned KSI, who is a YouTuber.

“It got me thinking that if KSI could influence the purchasing decisions of him so much, then there must be other brands who want to tap into this and there should rather be a platform which helps brands do this at scale.”

In the wake of his epiphany, Tim now helms a company in high-demand amongst some of the world’s biggest brands, who are all trying to get their products in front of the 13 to 25 year old audience that he describes as the company’s ‘sweet spot’.

Millenial matters

Much has been written about the Millenials demographic; countless column inches have been devoted to their likes, dislikes, hopes, desires and prospects. While it seems foolhardy to generalise such large swathes of the world’s population, such broad groupings are invaluable to marketers and advertising agencies in defining their approaches and target audiences.

Most pressingly for advertising firms, Millenials are the least likely to take notice of traditional advertising campaigns, and the demographic accounts for almost 80% of ad blocker users online.

This is why big brands have started to take notice of influencer marketing and where Fanbytes comes in.

Brands on Fanbytes software set up campaigns targeted at specific age, location or gender groups, which social influencers, such as Youtubers, can then be invited to be a part of. Once the brands have created a campaign and accepted influencers, they are then able to run the campaign through the startup’s platform which also provides data analytics and optimising.

The self-service platform

However, where this was once the preserve of big-name brands with thousands to spend, the tech firm is now opening up its service to any brand looking to run an influencer campaign through its self-service platform, utilising the same tools that the Fanbytes team uses internally.

Any brand in the world can now, theoretically, set up a campaign and attract influencers for a fraction of the cost thanks to the scalability in the platform:

“We hope to enable any brand in the world to be able to run a campaign using influencers. So starting from £100, when previously you’d need to start from £10,000, you can run powerful influencer powered campaigns,” says Tim.

By lowering the cost of entry, any small sports brand can now potentially rub shoulders with the likes of Adidas, or a small fashion label can see their newest items worn by an influential video blogger.

Staffed by such a young and energetic team, working with some of the biggest brands and armed with a unique self-service proposition, Fanbytes is at the forefront of the ongoing influencer revolution and, who knows, may soon be brushing shoulders with Google before we know it.

Fanbytes self-service platform is available now.