179: How Influencers Are Changing Retail

Social media has made retailers and brands much more accessible for consumers. And influencers are increasingly being used to make companies more personable in this highly accessible world. In this episode, Oliver Banks is joined by B2C and B2B influencer, Michael LeBlanc. Together they discuss how influencers are changing retail and what best practice looks like.

Listen to this episode to discover:

• What’s working well with using influencers.
• A guideline for deciding how much to spend on influencer marketing.
• How to make a great relationship between a retailer/brand and an influencer.

 

Introducing Michael LeBlanc

Michael LeBlanc is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc. Also, he is a Senior Advisor to the Retail Council of Canada and the Bank of Canada.

He brings over 25 years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.

He has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions with C-level executives and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels.

ReThink Retail has added Michael to their prestigious Top 100 Global Retail Influencers list for 2022 for the second year in a row, alongside Oliver Banks.

Michael is also the president of Maven Media, which produces a network of leading podcasts, including:

• The Voice of Retail – Canada’s top retail industry podcast.
• Remarkable Retail – with author Steve Dennis. This is ranked as one of the top retail podcasts in the world.
• The Food Processor – with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, exploring the critical issues in the grocery, food and food service industries. One of Apple Podcast’s top 50 recommended management podcasts.
• Global E-commerce Tech Talks – exploring the issues and opportunities with global cross-border retail.
• Conversations with CommerceNext – talking with C-level executives about ecommerce, digital marketing and retail.
• Plus several other podcasts outside of the retail industry.

And Michael is also the producer and host of the Last Request Barbeque channel on YouTube, where he cooks meals to die for. And as discussed, Michael collaborates with top brands as a food and product influencer.

Something for the BBQ?

Michael got our mouths watering in the episode for the Smoked Honey Sage Chicken. If you want to give it a try, here is the recipe from the Last Request Barbeque.

Additional episodes of the Retail Transformation Show to listen to

If you enjoyed this episode, then check out these other episodes. Starting with episode 42: How Social Media Is Changing Retail (part 1) and episode 43: (part 2), featuring Polly Barnfield OBE. Social media is an essential enabler and closely linked to influencer marketing and campaigns.

Next, hear from Michael’s co-host of the Remarkable Retail podcast in episode 83: Being Remarkable In Adversity (part 1) and episode 84: (part 2). Listen to these episodes to discover how to avoid becoming mediocre and overcome the continuing challenges and volatility.

And finally, take a listen to episode 117: Are Retail Operating Models Dead? In this episode, Oliver Banks explores how you can focus on more flexible and agile ways of working rather than a classically rigid process.