This article analyses the presence of influencer marketing in business communications strategies in the new economy, based on the results of an exploratory investigation carried out in accordance with the methodology of the Grounded Theory. The categorisation of the information, obtained from the elaboration of the case studies of three digitally native brands (Wallapop, Westwing and Fotocasa), shows that influencer marketing actions are part of their 360º communications strategy. Actions with influencers are developed in a synergistic way with other advertising and public relations actions, both on and offline. In terms of their approach, they follow Marston's strategic planning model, which consists of four phases: research, planning, execution and evaluation. In this sense, its particularities include the decision-making based on data, as well as the empowerment of the user and the brands' agents.
IntroductionWord-of-mouth marketing has always had a great influence on public opinion and consumers and, therefore, plays a key role in the field of communication due to the added credibility it provides.The arrival of the Internet and, above all, the emergence of social networks and the omnipresence of mobile communication has lead to an increase in the effect of word of mouth (Trusov et al., 2009), as well as in the number and variety of agents, including so-called influencers (Brown and Hayes, 2008). Based on this scenario, brands analyse, on the one hand, how to turn their own users into brand ambassadors (Weiss, 2014) and, on the other, how to reach them through their agents via influencer marketing strategies which, in turn, achieve virality (Rushkoff, 1994;Jurvetson and Draper, 1997;Berger and Milkman, 2012) for their messages.