Posted on

14/5/2024

Real and Creative Examples of Influencer Marketing Campaigns

Influencer marketing has proven to be incredibly versatile and far-reaching. In recent years, companies across all industries have embraced the strategy of collaborating with content creators who are benchmarks in their niches. If you have questions about how brands are achieving success in the digital world through innovative campaigns, here are some real examples of companies that show how they successfully connected in a unique and genuine way with their audiences.

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Key Takeaways

Diverse Campaign Strategies: Influencer marketing strategies allow brands to connect authentically with their target audiences through social media influencers who embody their brand values and have significant sway in their respective niches. These campaigns offer a variety of options, with opportunities such as sponsored posts, product reviews, influencer gifting, and brand ambassadorship. Popular brands, such as HelloFresh, Dunkin' Donuts, Gymshark, and Daniel Wellington, have benefited from these diverse campaigns.
Importance of Targeted Influence: Successful campaigns often involve carefully selected influencers who can genuinely connect with the brand's target audience. For example, BBVA, Cerave, Alpino, and Hawkers have all executed influential campaigns by partnering with influencers who resonate deeply with their desired demographic.
Strategic Content Creation: Influencer marketing thrives on content that is not only creative but also strategically aligned with the brand’s objectives. The content must be engaging, platform-specific, and clearly communicate the brand's message, all while adding value to the audience.
Measurable Objectives and ROI: Setting clear, measurable goals for influencer campaigns is crucial. These objectives could range from increasing brand visibility to generating sales or improving customer loyalty. The effectiveness of these campaigns is often measured by their ability to meet these predefined goals, demonstrated by metrics like engagement rates, reach, conversions, and ROI.

What is influencer marketing?

Put simply, influencer marketing is a type of marketing campaign featuring social media influencers. The goal of these campaigns is to promote products through influencer gifting, affiliate links, or long-term partnerships.

How do brands and influencers collaborate to promote products?

Influencer marketing has gained prominence in recent years. One of the most common strategies for influencer campaigns is sponsored posts on social networks. These posts can be photos or videos that present products in a creative and attractive way.

They are usually accompanied by an affiliate link or unique discount code to make it easier for companies to measure the success of their marketing strategy by tracking who brought clicks to their landing pages or sold products.

Another effective way to promote products is through reviews and recommendations. Here, influencers create content in the form of detailed reviews of gifted products or recommendations on their blogs, Instagram Reels, TikTok videos, YouTube channels, or podcasts. In doing so, they share their experience of the product, highlighting its features and benefits, thus creating greater awareness with potential customers and sales for the company.

Alternatively, brands can develop long-term strategies, such as hiring influencers as brand ambassadors. These long-term relationships often benefit both parties as they build a sense of trust with audiences through consistent recommendations.

When the collaboration goes well, brands may want to co-create products with influencers. This can include using influencers’ ideas to develop product design collaborations. The products in these special collaborations carry the influencer’s signature style and can be promoted through both the influencer’s and the brand’s channels. This strategy generates hype among the influencer’s followers and creates a sense of exclusivity.

One example is Dunkin' Donuts' collaboration with Charlie D’Amelio to co-create special edition drinks, canned Charli and Charli Cold Foam. The campaign was a huge success for Dunkin' Donuts, as they sold hundreds of thousands of limited-edition drinks within five days of its launch.

While these are some of the most popular campaigns, for more ideas, check out this blog post, which explains everything you need to know to launch an effective collaboration with influencers.

How do you plan an influencer campaign?

There are many different campaigns to choose from, so how do you know which will work for you?

Regardless of your brand's niche, there are a series of common steps that will help you shape your strategy and choose the most effective campaign to hit your targets.

These basic steps are:

What is the objective of an influencer campaign?

The first step is to identify your goals. Decide whether you want to increase brand visibility, generate sales, capture leads, reach new generations, or build customer loyalty.

Dive into your expectations to make your objectives as specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound as possible.

For example, some companies want to conquer the Gen Z market, so they use channels such as TikTok, which are now part of the lifestyle and content consumption habits of the younger generation.

Know your target audience

Conducting in-depth research into your audience will help you to understand their needs, preferences, behaviours, and demographics.

This knowledge will underpin your campaign and help you pinpoint which social media influencers and marketing channels to launch your campaigns on. It will also tell you the types of content that will generate a high level of engagement from your target audience.

Select the right channels and social media influencers

Once you have a good knowledge of your audience, you can search for the best influencers to reach your goals.

Choosing the right influencers for collaborations can be tough. Ideally, it'll be someone who shares your brand values, creates content that fits your style, and has a highly engaged audience. In addition, a great way to make the campaign feel authentic is to build partnerships with creators who are fans of your brand.

Remember that you can work with creators with different types of campaigns and community sizes, from nano-influencers to mega-influencers, depending on your objectives and budget.

For example, Gymshark has long-term partnerships with a range of micro and macro-influencers to build its reputation. On the other hand, HelloFresh allows brands to earn money by promoting their products with affiliate links.

Develop a unique value proposition

The message in your content and publications should highlight what makes your product or service unique. That way, you differentiate yourself from the competition, stand out in the market and show your value.

Create relevant and engaging content for your influencer strategy

Even with influencers who tick all the boxes, you still need to develop high-quality content that is relevant to your audience. This can be blog posts, videos, photos, infographics, guides, or tutorials depending on the platform.

Wherever you post it, make sure the content is useful, informative, entertaining, and aligned with your audience’s interests and needs. Also take into account the content format that is having the most success in each social network. For example, since its launch, Instagram has favoured content in Reels format, which is short videos, to reach new audiences.

Measure and analyze results: Influencer campaign management

Use analytic tools to measure the results of your marketing campaign and check that you are on the right track. Pay special attention to key metrics such as reach, engagement, conversions, and return on investment (ROI).

What are the elements common in the best influencer campaigns?

Each influencer marketing campaign is unique and should be adapted to your objectives and your brand. However, there are common goals.

This is a checklist of the essentials:

Clear and measurable objectives: Before starting any campaign, set clear and specific objectives—do you want to increase brand visibility, generate sales, improve product recognition, or promote a new product launch. This is a key takeaway that will also help you improve future campaigns.
Authentic Collaborations: A single campaign will often feature collaborations with multiple influencers. This can be helpful to increase reach, as long as they are true opinion leaders in your market niche. In this selection process, it is also important to recognise the values of your brand. For example, a clothes company with values of inclusivity should focus on influencer activations with lifestyle bloggers who are also inclusive.
Prioritise long-term relationships: It is important for marketers to establish long-term relationships with influencers who are aligned with the brand. An ongoing collaboration can generate greater impact and build a stronger relationship with your audience and followers may perceive you as more authentic and trustworthy.
Include calls to action: Be sure to clearly communicate your message and the benefits of your product or service. Provide influencers with clear guidance on the key points to highlight. Also, include a clear call to action so followers know how they can interact with your brand (e.g., buy, subscribe, or visit your website).
Contracts and law: Ensure you create a contract and follow the laws in your country for influencer ads to protect both you and the influencer. In the UK, promotional content must be signalled through hashtags like #ad.

Remember that there are platforms that facilitate the identification and management of your campaigns.

What are some examples of influencer marketing campaigns?

1. "Carbon Footprint" BBVA Spain

In Spain, a person emits half a ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere every month, according to the World Bank. In response to this, BBVA Bank launched an initiative to raise awareness of the importance of protecting the environment by using data analytics to calculate the carbon footprint of its customers, a feature that the company’s users can access from its App.

To publicize this tool, the agencies PS21, Mindshare, 2btube, and BBVA Creative for BBVA created a campaign in which they distributed giant, 28-meter-long footprints between the province of Lugo (in Palas de Rey), Barcelona (Barceloneta neighborhood), and Madrid (next to the Las Ventas bullring).

In addition to these actions, they decided to carry out an influencer marketing strategy to publicize their action and expand the reach of the novel idea. For the first part, they used as a channel the Ac2ality account, the largest Spanish media outlet on TikTok whose audience is mainly made up of Generation Z. Ac2ality has more than 229K followers on Instagram and more than 4.4 million on TikTok and an average engagement of 1.25%. The credibility of their audience is 87 points, and the average engagement of their posts on Instagram is 3.5%, and on their Reels, it is 5.2%.

This media outlet alerted its followers about the appearance of giant footprints in Spain. Several influencers, including La Pelo, Percebes y Grelos, and Spursito, echoed the news, prompting their followers to speculate who could be behind the event.

In the second part of the campaign, the same influencers received a mysterious letter inviting them to a secret event, which they shared with their followers on social networks. The marketing strategy ended with the event, during which it was revealed that BBVA was behind the giant footprints.

The central purpose of the influencer marketing campaign, which was developed on the different Instagram, TikTok and Facebook accounts, was to generate conversation around the impact of consumption on the environment and how BBVA’s carbon calculator could help reduce emissions.

With 3 weeks of campaigns, they managed to reach more than 2.9 million unique users; they generated more than 3.5 million impressions and more than 125,000 interactions with the published content, and, most importantly, the BBVA app received more than 310,000 visits.

In fact, this influencer marketing campaign was recognized by Publifestival in the XVI Edition of the Social Company Awards in the categories: ‘Best execution of a campaign in social networks’ and ‘Best effectiveness in a social project or action‘.

@ac2ality #publi BBVA NOS MANDA UN MENSAJE CON SUS HUELLAS 👣 #HuellasGigantes #LaHuellaQueDejamos #ad #publi ♬ Pieces (Solo Piano Version) - Danilo Stankovic

2. CeraVe conquering TikTok and Instagram

The CeraVe brand, part of the L’Oréal group, the leaders in the world of beauty and cosmetics, has used networks such as Instagram and especially TikTok to promote various products in its offering.

The marketing strategy focuses on working with macro, mega and micro influencers to show the benefits of their skin care products depending on the characteristics of each user.

Much of the success of the campaigns lies in the profile of the chosen influencers selected to carry out their collaborations, most of them are professional influencers with high recognition and authority on the subject. One of the most famous in Spain is Álvaro Fernández, better known as “Farmacéutico Fernández“, a pharmacist who debunks myths about health and with whom the brand has carried out several campaigns to promote products from different lines. Fernández has more than 2.8 million followers on his TikTok profile and 627K followers on his Instagram account. His audience credibility score is 88 points, and the average engagement on Instagram Reels is 3%, and on TikTok, it is 1.25%.

As a result of efforts focused on connecting with the millions of followers who visit the accounts of its influencers in 2022, L’Oréal earned 24.1% more thanks to the rise of the dermo-cosmetics sector on social networks. In addition, the brand’s online actions have boosted traffic on its website and reached over 3 million users.

CeraVe has similar UK campaigns, working with influencers like Kim Mann, a fashion and lifestyle blogger and Isabel Wright, who is a beauty-product reviewer to explain the benefits of their products. The latter's post alone garnered 16,000 likes and hundreds of comments.

In addition, in 2024, CeraVe launched another campaign featuring TikTok influencers Hayley Kalil, Caleb Simpson, and Bobbi Althoff to promote its brand with comedy content featuring actor Micheal Cera.

On platforms such as TikTok, the Hashtag #cerave has more than 7.8 billion visualizations, followed by other Hhshtags of its most recognized products that have been widely publicized on the social network, #ceravaskincare (725.8M) #ceravemoisturizer (30.0M) and #ceravemoisturizer (30.3M). The brand also has over 1M followers on its own account.

Learn more about how to turn influencers into your brand ambassadors.

♬ sonido original - Farmaceuticofernandez

3. ALPINO and its "Back to School" campaign

This influencer marketing campaign created by the agency Hamelin for the brand ALPINO focused on promoting the special collection of school products, taking advantage of the back-to-school season for students in Spain.

For this particular marketing campaign, several influencer profiles were selected among micro and macro influencers who had at that time a maximum of 300k followers on Instagram and 60K followers on TikTok. The creators were selected based on the brand’s editorial line in order to create memorable content that would connect with the target audience.

The results of the digital marketing campaign with influencers exceeded the expected expectations: they managed to reach more than 1,200,000 people of the target audience and had more than 20,000 interactions between all the published content.

About Nuria Casas: Nuria is a renowned influencer who, through humour, has managed to conquer more than 1.4 million people and generate a large number of reactions among her loyal followers. Her average engagement on Instagram is 3.38%. In her Instagram account, she has built an engaged community of 588K followers. The credibility of her audience is 91 points, and the average engagement of her posts on Instagram is 6.34%, and on Reels, it is 3.49%.

@nuriacasasc Esta vuelta al cole, Alpino nos ha dado la llave que abre todas las puertas para las mil aventuras que nos esperan durante este curso escolar. #Embajadora #alpino #lallavedetuimaginacion #siemprealpino ♬ Cartoon-style piano solo jazz(853970) - motofuji

4. Hawkers; breaking records with its collaborations

Hawkers not only breaks records in online sales but also manages to develop campaigns with great success in various social networks. An example of this was its marketing campaign with influencers with different lifestyles and from different countries to reach one million followers on its TikTok account.

The process to achieve this was divided into two phases. The first, taking advantage of its expansion into the Mexican market and interest abroad, was based on collaborations with recognized influencers in the country, such as Kunoo, Sofia Mata Yeas, or Busheadoph.

For the second stage, when they had already reached 900,000 followers, thanks to the invitation on the influencers’ channels, they carried out TikTok Ads campaigns with the paid format Brand days. However, for the company, most of the merit was due to the influencers’ content, in which the typical product placement content was left aside to give way to other social causes. For example, together with Busheadoph, the campaign focused on collecting food for stray dogs in Mexico; for each follower obtained, the company donated kibble until it reached a ton.

The result was as expected: the engagement and views of the campaign reached more than 41 million people and almost 30 million interactions in 8 different countries.

You might be interested in: Engagement rate on Instagram: definition, calculation, and tips to improve it.

It is important to highlight that influencer marketing campaigns can have different objectives. In this case, the objective was to reach a certain number of followers in a social network; this corresponds to the brand's global strategy, which is focused on conquering the market of Generation Z, which spends much of its time on TikTok.

Hawkers constantly carries out various types of campaigns with influencers that have generated great success for them at the level of sales and brand recognition. Already in 2019, they launched their campaign with influencers in Ibiza called “Hawkers Dogma“, with which they reached 123 million impressions in just 7 days.

Aaron Piper, Jay Álvarez, Marta Díaz, Romina Malaspina, and Taylor Caniff were some of the influencers invited to the retreat in which, for a week, they could live with the brand and learn about its philosophy. This philosophy is based on 10 commandments that represent the brand’s values, beliefs and attitudes.

The achieved results were 123 million impressions and 3.5 million interactions in the different social networks. Also, 1,250 stories were published with the hashtag #hawkersdogma and 110 posts that achieved 18,000 comments, 2.3M likes, and 3M views.

@hawkersco Recorriendo las calles de paris con @sofia_mata_yeas #paris #francia #travel ♬ original sound - xxtristanxo

How much does an influencer campaign cost - UK?

As the examples show, campaigns vary significant and so do costs. Essentially, you can completely tailor your campaign to fit your budget.

For collaborations and sponsored posts, prices tend to average at these levels:

Nano-influencer (0–5K followers): £10 – £100 per post.

Micro-influencer (5K-100K followers): £100 – £500 per post.

Macro-influencer (100K–1M followers): £500 - £5,000 per post.

Mega-influencer (1M+ followers): £500 - £5,000 per post.

Generally, working with social media influencers with smaller followings is cheaper and usually offers higher engagement rates. Brands like watch seller Daniel Wellington built their reputation with this type of influencer marketing campaign by sending free products to smaller influencers for review. This strategy brought a large ROI due to its low-risk and helped grow its following. Daniel Wellington now has over 4.5M followers on Instagram.

On the other hand, collaborations with mega-influencers are close to celebrity endorsements and can be costly yet provide prestige. Coca-Cola uses the power of mega and celebrity influencers such as Bella Hadid to promote its products and maintain their market domination.

The key takeaway is that there are many works to work with creators, from influencer gifting to partnerships, depending on your budget.

However, brands should support influencers who contribute to their brand with their creative works. These creators often earn a living through their content and may collaborate with a competitor if they are poorly reimbursed.

About Kolsquare

Kolsquare is Europe’s leading Influencer Marketing platform, a data-driven solution that allows brands to scale their KOL Marketing strategies and implement authentic partnerships with KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders). Kolsquare’s technology enables marketing professionals to easily identify the best Content Creators profiles by filtering their content and audience, and to build and manage their campaigns from A to Z, including measuring results and benchmarking performance against competitors. Kolsquare has built the largest community of influencer marketing experts in the world, and offers hundreds of customers (Coca-Cola, Netflix, Sony Music, Publicis, Sézane, Sephora, El Corte Inglés, Lacoste, …) the latest Big Data, AI and Machine Learning technologies to drive inspiring partnerships, tapping into an exhaustive network covering 100% of KOLs with more than 5,000 followers in 180 countries on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. As a Benefit Company, Kolsquare has been pioneering Responsible Influence by championing transparency, ethical practices, and meaningful collaborations to inspire change.