Brand partnerships with influencers have become a popular marketing strategy for companies. For the best part of the decade, the beginning of January always marks the next 12 months as the ‘year of influencer marketing.’ Let’s face facts: for the foreseeable future, every year is the year of influencer marketing.
Finding an influencer for your brand to partner with can pour Miracle-Gro over your balance sheet. But for this to happen, you need to select the right influencer and then use their influence wisely.
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Below we’ve looked at four examples of brand partnerships with influencers. Read on and see how you can make the most of your brand’s relationships with your influencer(s).
1. Nikon and Warner Music Group collaborate to success
If there’s a company you can team up with to pool your resources with, you can each share in the spoils of your marketing campaign. Camera company Nikon and record label Warner Music Group did just this for SXSW Music Festival.
The brands brought in the help of influencers by giving Nikon cameras to artists performing at SXSW. They asked them to record events before the festival and share these experiences with fans on their platforms.
They created the hashtag #NikonWarnerSound to drive up interest in the campaign. The result? #NikonWarnerSound became one of Twitter’s top trending topics while the festival was held and made 166 million social impressions.
Partner with a brand with shared interests and create an event that allows you to turn the performers into a band of influencers. If you want a place to look for collaboration, use one of the many excellent influencer resources to find your perfect partner(s).
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2. Mercedes forgo the humans with Loki the Wolfdog
Influencers aren’t always human, as is the case with social media sensation Loki the Wolfdog. German car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz saw the potential of partnering with a pet whose Instagram followers stand at 1.7 million, and used this to create a widely viewed VR video advert.
Mercedes-Benz – Loki (360° Experience) follows the titular hound and his owner Kelly Lund on a journey through the snow covered mountains of Crested Butte, Colorado, with the two travelers aided by the Mercedes-Benz 2017 GLS sport-utility vehicle. The advert has received nearly 100,000 views on YouTube.
So, if Selena Gomez isn’t available then fear not; you can create a feel-good story for your brand by seeking out the most viable non-human influencer and partnering with them to create a campaign to draw attention to your business.
Do some background research by holding a social media poll to find which animal is most popular among your audience. Doing this means you can select an influencer who is more likely to resonate among your fans, and create a campaign that is more likely to be shared by your followers.
3. ASOS take the inside route
So, why settle for one influencer when you can have many? That’s precisely what British online fashion and beauty store ASOS decided, and led to them creating one of the most innovative influencer marketing campaigns of recent years.
ASOS’ created ASOS Insiders. Men and women worldwide were given individual ASOS profiles and social media accounts.
ASOS then gave its products to these insiders and got them to post their appreciation for them on their branded social media accounts.
Your brand can take inspiration from this and create influencers from your customer base. Gifting partnerships can get your socially active customers to share their experiences on their social media accounts. And, include a link to your company’s Instagram account.
You can then turn this attention into revenue by making your Instagram feed shoppable. This is possible by using an app like Snapppt. It lets you embed shoppable Instagram galleries and carousels into your business for free if you’ve built your website using an online store builder.
4. Fanta – Meet the Fantanas
Consistency is crucial for Fanta’s Coca-Cola owners, but reliability doesn’t mean being stagnant. Meet the Fantanas, a key marketing weapon for Fanta since 2002, brought YouTube influencers into the mix. With MyLifeAsEve, LaurDIY, Jordan Fisher, and Coco Jones as the current Fantanas, they collectively amass over 16 million YouTube followers.
Indeed, in exceptional brand marketing, storytelling takes center stage. What sets the Fantanas apart is their ability to transcend the typical brand narrative, crafting a unique identity for their story. The Fantanas’ triumph lies in their transition from a mere marketing campaign to a phenomenon in popular culture. Shows like MadTV, Robot Chicken, and Family Guy have all parodied this fizzy family.
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With such widespread attention and the Fantanas’ extensive reach, their influencer marketing campaign becomes innovative. It also gets aligned with a consistent brand message, a truly dreamlike combination. While it’s unlikely your own marketing campaign will achieve the same level of cultural immersion as the Fantanas, you can still glean insights from Fanta’s brilliant approach. Infuse a touch of innovation into your existing marketing by leveraging an influencer to narrate your well-established brand story, forging brand partnerships with influencers that can elevate your message.
Conclusion
Brand partnerships with influencers can be a powerful tool for businesses. Collaborating with social media influencers can help companies expand their reach and connect with new audiences in an authentic way. Finally, these four examples demonstrate the potential of influencer marketing to drive engagement and generate buzz.