As the age of influencer marketing matures and brands call increasingly for authenticity and a more genuine return on investment, we see them turning to influencers that are relatable and trustworthy and this often tends to come from those with a smaller social following.  In answer to this demand, Dubai based specialist beauty, health and wellness PR agency TishTash announce the launch of their new influencer programme – The 500 Club.

The TishTash 500 club was developed from the idea that the majority of us “normal” folk have around 500 friends on social media – these are our true friends, family and acquaintances – those who know us, trust us and actually may listen to what we say!  As such, these 500 friends and followers are more likely to take action after seeing us talk about a product we tried, our new favourite restaurant or an amazing online delivery experience we had and the likely percentage ROI is expected to be far higher than with the influencers with a much larger following.

Globally, we are witnessing a similar movement, with brands increasingly seeing the benefits of working with smaller influencers. These influencers seem more authentic and relatable and working with smaller influencers can also mean a brand’s message is spread in a more organic way. Some brands in the US and Europe are even collaborating with those who have as few as 100 followers.

“In the 8 years we have been in business as an agency in the GCC, we have witnessed a real journey when it comes to influencers.  As the mega and macro level influencers become unaffordable for even the best marketing budgets or fail to justify themselves in terms of investment, for a long time as an agency we’ve been championing the power of the micro (10,000 – 50,000) and nano influencer (1,000 – 10,000 followers) and have witnessed far better results and ROI in these campaigns for our clients,” said Founder and CEO of TishTash, Natasha Hatherall.

Recent research and data (Source: Digiday Survey) is very much in support of this movement, with findings revealing engagement rates of 8.7% for Nano influencers, in comparison to 1.7% for influencers and celebrities with 1m plus followers.

The TishTash 500 Club is open for applications from January 2020 and will launch its first brand campaigns in March 2020, with a number of existing clients keen to trial this new group.   Case studies and results will be published in Q2 2020.

The TishTash 500 Club will initially comprise of 500 members each with 500 followers (plus or minus 200). Wanabee club members can apply to join by DM’ing @TishTashTalks with #TishTash500Club by 25^th February 2019.  Applicants will then be guided through the sign-up process for review and selection.

TishTash Marketing and Public Relations was launched in 2012 by Natasha Hatherall and has swiftly grown to be one of the most sought-after PR and marketing agencies operating in two areas; beauty, health and wellness and kids and family focused brands with their little sister TishTash Tots.

For more information visit www.tishtash.com or @tishtashtalks @TishTashTots.