Digital News South Africa

ICO to increase audience value

The audience is most important to an influencer; yet often it is difficult for them to develop loyal and engaging audiences and prove their audience's value. Launching its own universal cryptocurrency payment structure specifically for influencers, the IndaHash Coin, indaHash.com hopes to overcome this and offer simplified, seamless deposits on an innovative and secure platform, while granting digital tastemakers access to a leading-edge form of payment.
Barbara Soltysinska, co-founder of indaHash.com.
Barbara Soltysinska, co-founder of indaHash.com.

“We want to change the way relationships between the three are built,” explains Barbara Soltysinska, co-founder of indaHash.com, an international influencer platform with roots in South Africa.

The crypto-economic system works between three groups: brands, influencers and audiences. Brands use the indaHash Coin to pay for marketing campaigns with influencers, while influencers would use them to increase their audience engagement through rewards and gamification. Influencer audiences can use collected tokens and exchange them for exclusive actions set by the influencer for their community.

Tokenise the influencers industry

For influencers this will promote their reach. The coin also offers influencers additional benefits such as early discounts or products, while providing brands with first and early access to influencers. “This is especially so for brands that might not have an agency or marketing department. For audiences it means special offers from influencers,” Soltysinska says.

Tokens also offer ease of use and access as they are automated and very fast, she adds.
“The main goal of the coin is to tokenise the influencer’s industry. We think the indaHash Coin has the potential to become the world-standard currency for settling all influencer activities.”

She would like this currency to reflect the growing market of influencers. “It is my personal perspective that they are becoming the new publishers in their target groups, where they are seen as credible and people trust them.”

In South Africa influencers are really developed. “While the market is very developed from a client and influencer perspective, there still exists a great potential locally as many companies and brands want to promote their products through influencers,” she says.
The content from South Africa is also outstanding; so much so that they often offer it to other countries, Soltysinska adds.

We trust people more than before

This is not new, however, and is happening all over the world. “We now trust people more than before. In the 90s we were impressed by adverting. Today we are overwhelmed with advertising. The rise of the influencer reflects this. It allows you to follow people you appreciate for your reasons. People also follow influencer recommendations.”

indaHash.com, which has seven offices in South Africa, and has conducted many influencer campaigns for clients such as Coca-Cola, Shell, Telkom, Mastercard, Discovery, P&G, Revlon, Nando’s, and many more.

“For us as a company an influencer need not be the biggest,” says Soltysinska. “We look at good engagement rates and good communities; which is the reason why people follow that influencer’s advice and recommendations.”

The company’s Initial Coin Offering (ICO) launched last week in New York, United States. ICO pre-distribution begins on Sunday, 8 November 2017. Pre-registration for tokens has opened. Twenty percent of the token emission will be used to help educate influencers and motivate them to actively use and fully understand the benefits of the indaHash Coin. The indaHash app is used by over 300,000 social media users in 70 countries.

About Danette Breitenbach

Danette Breitenbach is a marketing & media editor at Bizcommunity.com. Previously she freelanced in the marketing and media sector, including for Bizcommunity. She was editor and publisher of AdVantage, the publication that served the marketing, media and advertising industry in southern Africa. She has worked extensively in print media, mainly B2B. She has a Masters in Financial Journalism from Wits.
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