The Limners and Bards Limited (LAB) has incorporated Scope Caribbean Limited as a wholly owned subsidiary to introduce a new way of leveraging creative talent and influencers across the Caribbean through a data-driven platform.

“Originally, as a part of our overall strategy for The LAB, Scope Caribbean was to be solely a talent and location sourcing platform. However, we have recognised the need to also provide services for influencers and brands seeking to capitalise on influencer marketing. Therefore, we have invested in a new company and the licensing of an artificial intelligence-powered digital media management platform that will completely transform the way influencers and brands exist together in the space,” The LAB CEO Kimala Bennett explained.

“Scope Caribbean will also make the engagement, pairing and measurement of influencer engagements and campaigns easier for brands. The software, which will primarily be used by Scope Caribbean, is designed by a team of international award-winning influencer marketing pioneers. The platform is capable of streamlining the entire influencer marketing campaign process across all major digital media platforms,” added Bennett.

Road tours and promotional activities in spaces like supermarkets have all but come to a halt during the novel coronavirus pandemic as reduced interaction is needed to limit the spread of the virus. This has been seen clearly in the results of several listed companies which have reduced selling and marketing expenses but increased spend on digital advertising.

Scope is being launched in a phased approach with aggressive recruitment of emerging and existing talent in the region to allow for them to gain access to potential opportunities in upcoming projects.

The LAB has partnered with Naomi Garrick, public relations consultant and brand strategist, to execute the strategic imperatives of Scope Caribbean and the initial build out of the core team. This will include the use of international experts in the digital marketing space to ensure the full deployment of Scope.

Garrick pointed to data provided by the Digital Marketing Institute showing that 49 per cent of consumers depend on influencer recommendations, 40 per cent had purchased something after seeing it on Twitter, YouTube or Instagram and 67 per cent of marketers are planning to increase their marketing spend to allocate for influencer marketing.

“While there is not a lot of current data as it relates to influencer marketing in the Caribbean, it cannot be ignored that effective marketing or media placement is all based on getting the right message in front of the right target audience,” Garrick said.

With digital media becoming the fastest growing method to connect to a broader market of consumers, more companies have found a need to adapt to markets and evolve their customer acquisition strategies as COVID-19 eliminated many of their traditional tools from their arsenal. However, like many other things in the Caribbean, there is a gap for a formalised solution for influencer marketing in order to connect major brands with all the major players in the space. This is where Scope comes to change the game.

“It has also been proven that engaging the right influencer for a brand allows that brand to target specific audiences in a more organic way that increases brand awareness and leads to results from direct call-to-action,” said Garrick. “The interesting thing is that as the industry continues to grow, everyday users have now become content creators that are building out their own niche communities that brands can tap into to communicate brand messages and product campaigns. Scope Caribbean will provide an opportunity for our clients to also discover and explore partnering with smaller, more accessible influencers such as nano-influencers (fewer than 10,000 followers) and not only the mega celebrity influencers that are being engaged across multiple platforms.”

She said that Scope Caribbean’s launch activities will include a series of virtual events featuring a range of influencers and brands that are looking to engage influencers in their upcoming campaigns as well as a series of casting calls in which anyone who has ever wanted to be cast in a commercial will be invited to sign up and join Scope Caribbean’s talent database.

Garrick said that one of the benefits for people who join the Scope community will be the ability to have access to workshops and training sessions that will provide additional support to emerging as well as established talent and influencers — from personal branding to rate structure.