Knowing the market is one of the most important things in business – especially when working in such a dynamic industry as influencer marketing. Today on Brybe.com we decided to take a look at some of the case studies presented by Neal Schaffer – social media educator at Rutgers University – and tell you about some of the most interesting collaborations between influencers and brands.
There is plenty of different case studies available at Mr. Schaffer's personal website at nealschaffer.com and since we consider him a global authority in helping both large and small businesses through the digital transformation of sales and marketing, we are reading his articles from time to time – while adapting our own website to his guidelines and making our own content as flawless as possible thanks to expert opinions like his. On the other hand, though, we realize that when you are facing an extensive amount of content, sometimes it can get a little bit intimidating – and that is why today we have picked just a few of the cases presented by him and analyzed them on our own, to give you our unique insight on all these influencers and their cooperations and possibly motivate your future influencer marketing campaigns.
L’Oreal UK – a Perfect Example That Smaller Yet Relevant Influencers Can Work Much Better Than Celebrities
One of the reasons influencer marketing is so powerful is that every-day people are discussing the products and providing endorsements, instead of a celebrity being paid to present the message – which makes this kind of marketing way more direct, approachable, and trustworthy. There is also one more thing that you can get from your regular marketing campaigns, and which can be achieved when working with influencers through social media marketing – trust in your brand that will remain with it for years to come.
L’Oreal UK engaged its users to amplify the social media "word of mouth" conversations and inspire user-generated content surrounding their products – primarily the Pure Clay Mask line of products. The brand worked with 2,000 UK based women aged 20 to 55 over three months, during which the content creators were not selected for their large following, but rather those willing to post about the detox cream – like nano- and micro-influencers. These every-day personages posted about the detox cream with photos and reviews of the clay mask across all platforms including Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and YouTube.
The women rated and reviewed products, posting pictures of them using the face masks, scrubs, and other products. Every-day people using the products, rather than the models depicted in commercials, connected the products to consumers and surrounded the company with an organic conversation on social media platforms. Over 5,800 pieces of content surrounding clay masks and the surrounding line of products were produced, resulting in an impressive reach of 741,000 consumers. The initial plan was to engage more customers on social media, seeing engagement as the actual ROI – and that is exactly what happened. Over the three-month campaign, the social media conversations surrounding L’Oreal’s products increased 53 percent – with the campaign being essentially zero monetary cost – and the match market test showed a sales increase of 51 percent.
Source for the case study: https://www.adweek.com/digital/how-loreal-is-finding-snapchat-success-with-ads-and-without-them/
LG – Results on a Massive Scale from… One Influencer
Sometimes finding one, perfect influencer to work with – the one who speaks directly and powerfully to your target audience – can serve as the base of an entire campaign. Some influencers have such a place of authority with their audience and have established such a strong position amongst their fans that their opinion and voice brings a lot of attention – and thus can generate outstanding effects. And how do you identify that single influencer? Well…
Electronics giant LG was looking for a way to reach a large audience on YouTube with the launch of a new television. They have found the content creator named Lewis Hilsenteger who, through his Unbox Therapy channel, provides reviews of technology products. Unbox Therapy also engages across multiple platforms, promoting his own content, and drawing engagement from the same audience and demographic identified by LG as their target. LG engaged Hilsenteger to create the YouTube video, and promote it through posts on his Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The brand also gifted a television to the influencer to make him give it away to his followers.
By working with just one influencer exclusively, and running the giveaway through the channel, LG was able to give Hilsenteger unique content to give his fans – along with the sweepstakes. The video reached over four million people with engagement on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Across the platforms the campaign brought in 36,000 likes, and 2,580 comments. Predictably, YouTube was the most visited of the platforms, since the other platforms pointed traffic back to the video, with 385,069 views of the video, showcasing the new television in a way that was authentic and that the audience trusted.
Source for the case study: www.instagram.com/p/BgbrscPgmch/
Maserati – When the Influencers Take Over Your Brand's Account to Make It More Approachable
Developing a constant stream of content that resonates with your audience is not an easy task and it often involves a lot of research and developing your own visual language to present your products in a fresh light repeatedly. What value does giving influencer collaboration bring to the publication of content on your social media accounts and how can influencers bring a fresh approach to your visual language? This influencer marketing example showcases the power of collaborating with influencers on content.
Maserati decided to take another road and instead of developing their own visual language and voice for their Instagram feed, they brought in influencers to take over their account each month. It was not about adopting the brand image and having influencers conform to it, but a way to give the influencer the keys to the account completely. Each month a different influencer documented his/her day to day experience with Maserati and posted to the account. It brought an authenticity the brand would otherwise be unable to attain along with a fresh perspective, voice, and lifestyle each month.
The influencers the brand brings on board are not necessarily involved in the auto industry. Some have a level of celebrity themselves, and others are well-followed fashion influencers whose followers might have no contact with a brand like Maserati. Bringing in a different perspective brings a fresh look at photographing cars, the account takeover allowed the influencer to bring their own view on the brand – perhaps a country drive, or for others, it means driving around London for meetings – and work in their own visual language. The influencers have also brought their audience to Maserati’s social media accounts, expanding the reach of the Instagram account. By engaging with a fashion influencer, or a celebrity chef, the brand was able to harness a fresh approach to visual communication while also successfully expanding the reach of their posts.
Source for the case study: https://econsultancy.com/how-maserati-uses-influencers-to-drive-its-instagram-strategy/
There is plenty more that we could show you, but we believe that the abovementioned three case studies are one of the most important and creative ones and that they will successfully give you a lot of ideas for your future marketing campaigns. If you will like this format of blogs/articles we promise that we will give you even more such case studies in the future – as here on Brybe we are not only working as the influencer marketplace, but we also want to increase the knowledge of both brands and influencers about the entire business and inspire them with as many new and fantastic ideas to be used within our platform!