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Expanded Opportunities for SMEs to Collaborate with Verified Influencers … 
NAVER’s Creator Collaboration Platform, “Brand Connect,” Now Open to Smart Stores 

- Since the launch of Brand Connect in May 2022, both creators and brands have shown high satisfaction and collaborative synergy
- NAVER alleviates the burden of early-stage businesses struggling with promoting and marketing products, strengthening the compensation for creators as well
- From finding influencers to proposing partnerships and communicating, Brand Connect enables convenient and effective marketing without commission fees

 

2023-04-06

NAVER Corporation announced on April 6 that its service, “Brand Connect,” which helps connect creators and brands, has now opened the doors of its platform to Smart Stores, in addition to Brand Stores. This is expected to further facilitate the collaboration between NAVER influencers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that operate NAVER Smart Stores.
 
Brand Connect is a solution platform that supports the collaboration between NAVER creators active on NAVER Blog and Posts and brands interested in working with these creators on marketing and content creation. Everything can be conveniently managed with Brand Connect, from finding suitable influencers to proposing partnerships, managing campaigns, and communicating via the “Talk Talk” messenger.

 

For SMEs, free trial marketing that offers products to multiple influencers and uses their reviews as promotional content is an essential marketing tool. However, most SMEs struggle in the process of finding one among hundreds of influencers with relevant expertise and the ability to create high-quality content and proposing partnerships to them. NAVER has recognized this issue and made it easier even for small businesses to discover promotion channels through Brand Connect.

 

[Image] Utilize the tool optimized for influencer partnerships to start an effective marketing campaign

 

In 2021, NAVER launched a beta of Brand Connect for some creators and brands, confirming a continued increase in demand for partnerships by the brands during the period. In May 2022, NAVER officially launched Brand Connect for businesses operating NAVER Brand Stores and cooperative agencies of Brand Connect. Following the official launch, active collaboration between creators and brands led to a virtuous business cycle. To help early-stage businesses struggling with promoting and marketing products to conveniently partner with NAVER influencers, NAVER has opened up its Brand Connect platform to include Smart Store owners, expanding the criteria for Brand Connect campaign companies.

 

Through Brand Connect, Smart Store owners can check NAVER influencers’ influence index and popular content and propose to partner in content creation or work as a sales agent if they find someone they like. If the influencer accepts the proposal, the partnership is established. Currently, influencers with expertise in 20 different areas, including beauty, fashion, health, childcare, and language education, are active on Brand Connect. The absence of any additional commission fee for using the Brand Connect platform despite the effectiveness of its solution is also an attractive feature for SMEs and creators.

 

Han Jun, the Director of NAVER Apollo CIC, said, “By expanding the opportunities for Smart Store owners to join the Brand Connect platform, we expect SMEs with limited promotion channels to effectively collaborate with verified NAVER influencers and create new business opportunities. Since the official launch of Brand Connect last year, the number of creators who joined Brand Connect has also increased dramatically, with about 10,000 influencers using the service so far. There has been a four-fold increase in the reward scale compared to the previous year, with some influencers earning as much as KRW 40 million for a month as additional income. NAVER will continue to enhance the service to facilitate more active exchanges.”

 

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