Best-case example of influencer marketing combined with classic marketing for iCandy
A best practice example of successful influencer marketing combined with classic marketing:
Everybody is talking about Influencer Marketing at the moment, but what exactly does this concept mean? Multipliers and opinion formers have always been a key element in making a marketing strategy. In the past, you only needed to gain the support of celebrities and journalists, but now collaboration with bloggers and social media stars is another crucial way of reaching your target group. Today we are going to share some of our experience, explain how this marketing trend works and tell you what you need to know if you want to use it.
In our work for iCandy, a British luxury pushchair manufacturer, we recently managed to recruit YouTube star Dounia Slimani and Instagram starlet Labellda. The success of this collaboration is plain to see: retailers are reporting that parents-to-be are specifically asking for products that they have seen on these two popular channels. But iCandy doesn’t just rely on product tests, it goes a step further and invites opinion makers to exhibition events, or builds an exclusive campaign around them. The company then uses these events to introduce their latest products, and by inviting these social media stars, they show participants how much they appreciate this collaboration.
iCandy knows exactly which fashion trends are currently in demand – what could be more appropriate than collaborating with fashion-conscious bloggers and Luna Mum, a stylish magazine for parents? That’s why we organised a casting event at the “Kind und Jugend” trade fair this year for a photoshoot with pushchairs. To add a special touch to the event, we engaged Natalie Franz, a famous stylist who has worked with celebrities including Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift. She treated the influencers to a glamorous make-up session, and then they posed for our photographer with some iCandy pushchairs.
Afterwards, the bloggers themselves decided who was the best model. Sandra, the winner, was then photographed in Luna Mum’s Berlin photo studio for a two-page advertorial in the annual special edition Mum Special which has just recently been released and of course her blog www.allerliebeanfang.de was also mentioned.
This kind of activity is labour- and cost-intensive, but the investment is worth it in the longer term for the iCandy brand because it helps with relationship building. The effort is rewarded on the day of the event itself, but also later, when the bloggers continue to talk about iCandy and the products that they saw at the trade fair. And even better, the winner shared some snapshots of the photoshoot on her social media channels. This kind of event brought a lot of benefits to the bloggers: they gained some make-up tips from a professional, discovered new blogs and got to know the people behind them, and they had an exciting experience that they could then share on their channels later. There is also an authentic advertorial with a great story in a glossy, printed magazine – classic marketing working together successfully with influencer marketing.
iCandy is not the only company to have recognised the current trend, and there are many other brands that are focusing on influencer marketing. Japanese camera manufacturer Olympus has put all of its eggs in one basket, and they are allocating their entire media budget to influencer marketing. The brand invited 50 influencers from all over Europe to take part in a trip to Greece, to promote the launch of a new camera. The influencers were happy to take live pictures of the trip with the new camera and use them in social media posts. The followers saw fabulous pictures of the trip, on Instagram especially, and were thus able to witness the quality of the product in action. In addition to this trip, Olympus also holds regular workshops on photography for influencers, and this also gives them more value from the relationship.
This all sounds very exciting – what if you would like to make a start on this right away, but don’t have a brilliant idea to begin with? We can develop an exciting concept for you, and we can help you to choose suitable opinion makers. Because all influencers are not alike, and the extent of their reach is not the only critical success factor in a campaign. The biggest challenge in influencer marketing is to find the right channels and recruit talented people who most closely match the target group. We can help you with this, thanks to our wide and deep relationships with opinion makers and our many years of experience in this field.
By Ulrica Griffiths and Martina Ganzbuhl