For women, by women: how Marie Jo turned a women-first philosophy into an influencer strategy that performs

Marie Jo: a Belgian icon designed by women, for women

Marie Jo is a premium Belgian lingerie brand, part of the Van de Velde group, with key markets in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and the Nordic countries. When Influence Manager Elise Van de Meulebroucke joined the brand two and a half years ago, the brand had a well-established traditional PR function, and while influencer collaborations had begun to take shape, they hadn't yet been built into a structured, always-on discipline. Her brief was to change that. 

Using Kolsquare, she built a structured, always-on strategy from scratch, underpinned at every stage by Kolsquare data: from creator discovery and audience filtering to campaign tracking, gifting measurement, and EMV reporting to the management board. The result is a continuously active influencer ecosystem that delivers, with measurable returns flowing from gifting campaigns, creator events, and fashion week activations.

Key takeaways

1. ‍Brand philosophy before follower count. In categories where image risk is high, the brief and creator selection process need to be built around brand values first. Marie Jo's women-first framework shaped every casting decision and kept content quality consistent.
2. ‍Gifting without tracking is guesswork. Gifting only generates ROI when you can see what creators actually do with it. Tracking each activation as a campaign in Kolsquare gave Marie Jo visibility over organic content it would otherwise have missed entirely.
3. ‍Data is what gets influencer marketing taken seriously at board level. Being able to present EMV, content volumes, and ROI in clear numbers changed the internal conversation at Van de Velde and gave the discipline the credibility it needed to grow.

The challenge: reinventing perception for a heritage brand (and navigating lingerie)

Marie Jo is one of Europe's most respected premium lingerie brands. Known for its precise fit, refined craftsmanship, and a design philosophy built on celebrating femininity without objectification, the brand is created by women, for women. Long a European household name, Marie Jo in 2026 is actively reshaping how a new generation perceives it.

Influencer marketing for a lingerie brand is not straightforward. Get it wrong and the content veers into territory the brand has no interest in. Get it right and it becomes a genuine vehicle for style, self-expression, and brand love.

When Elise Van de Meulebroucke joined Marie Jo as PR Manager around two and a half years ago, the brand had a well-established traditional PR function but almost no influencer marketing to speak of. Her brief was effectively to build the discipline from scratch.

The brand had another complicating factor baked in: perception. 

“Marie Jo has deep roots in Belgium. Many women were introduced to the brand by their mothers, and that loyalty has always been part of who we are,” comments Elise. “But influencer marketing became a way to bring a new generation into that story, and to show them what Marie Jo looks like today." 

At the same time, the brand needed to navigate the specific visual challenge that comes with lingerie content. Designed by women, for women, Marie Jo operates firmly with a women-first perspective, a concept that is central to everything it does, from product design to communication.

"With lingerie, the risk is always that the content tips into the wrong kind of atmosphere, something that doesn't reflect who we are," Elise explains. "We are a brand created by women for women. That has to be reflected in how our influencer partners show up, too."

Rather than sexy or provocative, the brief was always about integration: lingerie shown as part of a personal style, worn in lifestyle moments, layered into a look. The idea of innerwear as outerwear, not underpinned by male gaze aesthetics, but by genuine style sensibility.

The strategy: from one-off gifting to always-on influence

Marie Jo's influencer strategy has evolved considerably since the early days of seasonal gifting drops. What began as occasional, loosely structured campaigns with a structured brief and a narrow product selection, has gradually become something far more fluid and continuous.

"At the start, we'd do a briefing at the start of each campaign: here are three options, pick one. Now we send creators the full collection and let them decide what works for them," says Elise. "It's a much less rigid approach, and the content is better for it."

Today, the strategy sits firmly in always-on territory. A core group of long-term ambassadors are activated regularly throughout the year, with an agreed format that goes well beyond a simple gifting arrangement. One such format invites ambassadors to choose personal favourites from a new collection around which to create content that then feeds into wider brand communications including newsletters and retail content. It is a model built on real affinity rather than transactional posting.

Layered on top of this are larger activations, the most significant of which is Copenhagen Fashion Week. Marie Jo sends around eight creators to the Summer edition, when the format truly comes alive and lingerie content can feel genuinely seasonal. The brief is simple and intentional: integrate Marie Jo into your look as you attend the shows.

"Copenhagen is a fashion week that suits who we are," Elise explains. "It is colourful, playful, feminine. Very Marie Jo. And it gives us a credible route into the fashion conversation without forcing it."

Creator selection: casting for style, not just statistics

For Marie Jo, finding the right creator is rarely as simple as checking follower counts. The brand works with a mix of creator tiers depending on the objective: micro and nano creators for content that feeds into paid amplification, where the quality of the asset often outperforms what larger creators deliver; and more visible profiles for awareness moments like Copenhagen.

But across all tiers, there is one non-negotiable: the creator's aesthetic and values have to align with the brand's female first philosophy. A profile might have strong numbers and a genuinely engaged audience, but if the style of their content does not fit, if the energy does not match, they are not the right choice for Marie Jo.

The casting process is a team exercise. Elise uses Kolsquare to build shortlists and share creator profiles internally with the broader communications team, who can review and approve or flag profiles before any outreach happens.

"If the numbers look right, we confirm and move forward, but it is a shared decision," she says. "We have a monthly platform meeting where we discuss which creators we want to activate. Kolsquare gives us a way of presenting those profiles clearly and collaboratively which makes a real difference."

Audience geography also plays a significant role in selection. With key markets across Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and the Nordics, it is not enough for a creator to simply have a large or engaged following. The audience has to actually be in the right country.

Kolsquare's role: from discovery to ROI reporting

Marie Jo has been working with Kolsquare for around a year, and the platform has become central to how Elise manages the brand's influence activity, from initial creator discovery and audience analysis through to performance tracking and reporting.

One of the most valuable features for a brand managing multiple lines within a group structure is the ability to track activity across different brands simultaneously. Marie Jo sits alongside two other Van de Velde brands, and Kolsquare gives Elise a clear view across all three, helping ensure that creators are not being doubled up across brands in ways that could dilute the positioning of each.

"Having all the creator data in one place, linked to specific brands, means I can see instantly who is working with whom and make smarter decisions about who we activate," Elise explains. "That cross-brand visibility is something that was really missing before we used Kolsquare."

Campaign tracking is another critical use case. Because much of Marie Jo's influencer activity centres on gifting, both organic and paid, and being able to monitor what content creators actually produce after receiving a product is essential. Without a tracking tool, gifting campaigns essentially disappear into a black hole.

"With gifting, there's no other reliable way of seeing what creators have done with what you've sent them," Elise notes. "Kolsquare lets us set up campaigns and track all the content that comes out of them, so we can actually measure the impact."

At Marie Jo, demonstrating clear return on investment in influencer marketing is not just helpful: it is essential. Being able to present EMV (earned media value) figures, content volumes, and engagement metrics to the management board in a unified and easy-to-read format has changed the nature of the conversation around influencer marketing within the business.

"Kolsquare’s reporting module allows me to say: this event cost us this amount, and here is what it generated in terms of content and earned media value," Elise says. "The management board understands those numbers. That kind of reporting matters."

Campaign highlight: 30 years of the Avero bra, and a dinner to celebrate

In 2026, Marie Jo is marking a significant milestone: the 30th anniversary of its iconic Avero bra. Originally designed for swimwear before crossing over into lingerie, the Avero has endured in a category where longevity is rare. It remains as relevant and desirable as it was at launch, a genuine testament to the craft behind it.

"There are very few lingerie brands that can point to a single style that has been consistently in fashion for 30 years," says Elise. "We still have our own atelier, around 30 seamstresses working here. The craftsmanship is real, and that's a story worth telling."

The anniversary is the anchor to the brand's influence strategy for the year. Every creator activated will receive the Avero as a constant, ensuring the brand's daisy-printed signature style threads throughout all content as a unifying visual. Around this, a series of dedicated activations are bringing the story to life.

One of the most distinctive was a collaboration with Belgian couture designer Julie Kegels, who created a polo shirt in the fabric of the Avero bra itself. The piece was gifted to a selected group of creators, with resulting content tracked through Kolsquare.

The centrepiece activation, however, was an intimate dinner event the brand held at its workshop that brought together 25 Belgian and Dutch influencers to experience the brand's story of craftsmanship first hand. Guests were immersed in the world of the Avero: the history, the making, the people behind it. The event was set up as a campaign within Kolsquare, allowing the team to monitor all content posted before, during, and after, including the organic posts that continued to emerge in the days that followed.

Results: brand warmth, measurable impact, and a strategy built to last

The shift from ad hoc gifting to a structured, always-on approach has changed how influencer marketing functions within Marie Jo. Rather than a series of disconnected moments, the brand now has a continuous presence across social platforms, driven by creators who have a genuine relationship with the brand and its values.

The atelier dinner held to celebrate the Avero bra demonstrated precisely how high-impact a well-conceived event can be when tracked properly. With 25 creators in the room and Kolsquare capturing all resulting content, the team could measure the full downstream effect of the evening, including content that landed days later as creators tested products and shared their experiences organically.

In total, the KOLs posted 56 contents detailing the evening’s events, generating an impressive 11.52% engagement rate on Instagram. From fun shots next lounging around the factory sewing machines, to the food and fashion, the content highlighted a behind the scenes peek to the brand universe rarely seen by customers.   

More broadly, the evolution of the strategy has delivered something that metrics alone cannot capture: a genuine shift in how the brand is perceived. Marie Jo is no longer just the lingerie brand you remember from your teenage years. For a growing community of style-conscious women across its European markets, it is becoming a brand they actively want to wear, share, and be seen in.

‍Ready to build an influencer strategy that reflects who you truly are, and prove its impact in numbers? Book a demo with Kolsquare.