When you’re working with influencers, it’s crucial to develop the type of campaign that would resonate with your audience. You’ll need to make sure the campaign aligns with your goal, reaches the right people, and engages them. Otherwise, even the best influencers may fail to give life to your campaign. In this post, we give you inspiration through real-life influencer marketing examples if campaigns that worked.
What Are Influencer Marketing Campaigns?
Influencer marketing campaigns refer to a campaign to promote a brand’s products or services in collaboration with influencers. They involve the execution of your influencer marketing strategy for a specified amount of time and for a specific purpose. An influencer marketing campaign may make use of one or more strategies to achieve the pre-determined goal.
For example, you may run a month-long influencer marketing campaign to promote the launch of your new skincare collection. The campaign may include strategies such as product reviews and giveaways from influencers, helping you raise brand awareness.
Key Elements of Successful Influencer Marketing Campaigns
Before launching your own influencer marketing campaign, it’s important to have a clear idea of what makes a campaign successful. The following are the key elements of success based on influencer marketing best practices:
1. Established goals
It’s important to organize your campaign around a clear goal—whether it’s to drive sales, increase brand awareness, or promote an event. This gives you an idea of how to execute your campaign and what success looks like.
2. Suitable influencers
The right influencers will power your campaign and make sure that you’re reaching your target audience. They help you get your message across effectively to the people you want to reach. In addition to their niche and expertise, you should also look at influencers who can lend an authentic voice to your campaign.
Authenticity is one of the key factors that led to the success of Rivermate’s influencer marketing campaign.
We worked with a network of fitness influencers; particularly, we screened for those with an engaged audience who were interested in holistic healthcare. This contributed to 40% more social media engagement, and there was a 25% boost in sales just two months down the line from the workout challenges and tips on healthy living. One major factor that made this happen is the authenticity of the influencers, who believed strongly in the products, hence created trust, and conversions became easier.
- Lucas Botzen, HR Expert & CEO at Rivermate
3. Effective strategies
As mentioned earlier, your campaign should include strategies that align with your goals. You may employ one or more strategies depending on the type of campaign you want to run, such as ambassador programs, affiliate marketing, product reviews, sponsored content, and more.
4. Campaign measurement
Measuring the effectiveness of your campaign is crucial to determine if influencers are helping your business. Closely monitoring your campaign progress will help you identify what needs changing so you can make real-time improvements.
What Are the Types of Influencer Marketing Campaigns?
As we get ready for a detailed breakdown of successful influencer marketing campaign examples, let’s first look at the types of campaigns you can run. This will give you a better sense of what strategies to include in your campaign.
1. Sponsored Content
Content sponsorships are a type of paid advertising where you’re leveraging an influencer’s platform to raise brand awareness. Depending on the agreement and the type of content, the influencer may specifically create content around your brand or product or may include a promo message within the content.
2. Product Reviews
This type of campaign involves an influencer reviewing your product or service either for a fee or in exchange for free products and experiences. Product reviews tend to be an effective way to win customer trust as influencers share their authentic opinions, allowing their followers to make informed decisions.
@bfieldsofdreams7 My review of the Kale app after completing my first three videos! I’ve had a great experience so far reviewing content for different branda I already use and will continue to use the Kale App as I start my small content creator journey! #momsoftiktok #momtok #kaleapp #greenscreen #smallcontentcreator ♬ original sound - Brittani | Millennial mom life
3. Event Activations
Brands may also activate influencers for an event. This may involve putting together an exclusive event for influencers and having them spread brand awareness through their socials. Or it may also involve inviting influencers to amplify the reach of their event and encourage more participation from the public.
4. Brand Ambassadors
Brands may also sign on influencers as ambassadors to represent and promote them. This type of campaign often involves long-term partnerships with one or more influencers who officially become the face of the brand.
5. Influencer Takeovers
This type of campaign involves an influencer taking over a brand’s social media accounts for a pre-determined time. The influencer will create content on behalf of the brand and speak to the audience in their authentic voice. They’ll share their POV through Stories and posts or even live broadcasts, helping attract a bigger audience to the brand’s account.
6. Giveaways and Contests
Brands may partner with influencers to run giveaways and contests and drive participation. Usually, this type of campaign may involve the brand sharing free products with the influencer to use as giveaway prizes. Alternatively, some campaigns may also have influencers participating in their contests to amplify their reach.
7. Affiliate Marketing
This type of campaign involves influencers acting as affiliates for your brand. They may promote the product through reviews, product placements, demos, and more. In addition, they’ll share a unique link or discount code that their followers can use to buy the product. What makes this different from the other types of campaigns is that the influencers get to earn a commission from the sales they help generate.
Source: whowhatwear.com
8. Unboxing and Demonstration Videos
Another popular type of influencer campaign involves influencers creating videos where they unbox your products or give a demo. Unboxing videos typically feature candid footage, showcasing the influencer’s genuine reactions and giving off a sense of authenticity. Meanwhile, demonstration videos help the audience understand how the product works and how they can use it. They can get an idea of whether the product works as expected through the experiences of someone they trust.
8 Examples of Successful Influencer Marketing Campaigns
Now that you have some idea of the different types of influencer marketing campaigns you can run, it’s time to explore some examples of campaigns that worked. Here are eight influencer marketing case studies serving as examples of successful campaigns.
1. It Cosmetics
It Cosmetics wanted to connect with younger consumers and establish their brand as a key part of their culture. So they chose to focus on marketing through platforms like TikTok and Instagram. With an understanding of how peers can influence product trials among this target demographic, they decided to work with 50 influential creators in spaces such as beauty, lifestyle, and skincare.
These influencers were directed to approach the sponsored content from two content angles. One angle would highlight skincare innovations. Another angle would focus on exhibiting the product’s radiant transformation, capitalizing on the “golden hour glow” trend. The goal was to educate the audience on the effectiveness of their products by showcasing tangible outcomes.
Each of these creators added a unique twist to the sponsored content, highlighting the impressive results that can be achieved with It Cosmetics’ Superhero Mascara and Bye-Bye range. Some provided concealer hacks and nose contouring tips while others even put together comedy sketches bringing out their authentic voice.
Campaign Statistics
With 50+ creators generating engaging sponsored video content for It Cosmetics, the campaign generated 35 million views. These videos also garnered over 3 million engagements and even sold out product lines.
- Target a Gen Z audience on platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
- Activate multiple influencers to expand campaign reach.
- Give influencers creative freedom so they can create engaging content in their authentic voice.
- Provide some direction or angles to align the influencer content to your goals.
2. Beautyblender
Beautyblender already had a strong presence in the makeup and beauty market. However, they were looking to boost their engagement with influencers in the industry. So they launched an influencer gifting campaign activating a curated group of beauty influencers. They partnered with influencer marketing platform Skeepers to strategically select influencers who not only had a thorough understanding of beauty tools but could also deliver detailed and informative reviews.
The goal was to make sure that people who were exploring the product could get a comprehensive understanding of the item and how it worked. Beautyblender strategically timed their influencer gifting campaigns with new product launches to immediately build trust through authentic reviews. They also ran ongoing campaigns that focused on core SKUs and hero products to ensure ongoing brand awareness.
Campaign Statistics
After leveraging the Skeepers community, Beautyblender was able to increase their ship-to-post rate from 30% to 90%. This meant that most influencers in the gifting program were posting their reviews. They were also able to generate almost 2,000 authentic text reviews on websites like Sephora.com and Ulta.com. As a result of these influencer reviews, the brand saw products selling out much more quickly.
- Leverage influencer gifting programs through credible influencer marketing platforms.
- Collect authentic reviews from influencers who are passionate about sharing in-depth reviews with their audience.
- Time your gifting campaigns with new product launches to instantly boost credibility and drive sales.
- Generate ongoing brand awareness with ongoing gifting campaigns that maintain a constant stream of influencer reviews.
3. Kohler
Kohler wanted to elevate their presence at Milan Design Week 2024 to captivate a global audience. With the event allowing them to showcase their latest products and trends, they wanted to make use of social media to nurture their design community from all over the world. So they put together a creative campaign with key design influencers who would help put Kohler’s innovative designs in the spotlight.
They invited three influential social media creators in the design niche to attend the event—Ridhi Kohsla Jalan and Sophie Paterson, with over 600k followers each, and Architectural Digest, with over 10 million followers. These influencers attended the event and created content that seamlessly integrated Kohler’s message. They each took a unique approach and maintained their unique voice—from sharing expert design tips to showcasing elegant interiors.
Campaign Statistics
With a combined Instagram following of over 12 million, the influencer content generated over 1.5 million combined views and over 4.4 million Instagram Stories impressions. On LinkedIn, where the influencers had a combined following of 534k, they achieved over 255k post impressions and more than 1.2k link clicks.
- Activate influencers for your events to amplify visibility.
- Leverage key influencers whose brand voice aligns with your own.
- Encourage cross-posting to maximize your reach and engage different audience groups.
4. Fabletics
Fabletics has been focusing on establishing long-term relationships with influencers instead of driving short-lived spikes in engagement. As such, their influencer marketing campaigns are based on sustainable, long-term connections with brand ambassadors. At the same time, they also need to make sure that they’re backing up creators who can add value to their brand.
So they used the CreatorIQ influencer marketing platform to vet potential influencers and sign them up for a “Testing” program. This allowed them to test the strength of each influencer before they were onboarded as long-term partners. So it’s an excellent way to use influencer marketing to grow your business in the long run. Additionally, Fabletics has been able to establish a diverse and inclusive brand image by activating influencers from various demographics.
Campaign Statistics
There are now over 92k Instagram posts with the hashtag #FableticsPartner, while #FableticsAmbassador has over 19k posts. These numbers give a testament to the effectiveness of Fabletics’s brand ambassador program. CreatorIQ even reports that the brand’s customer acquisition cost has gone down by 30%.
- Build long-term influencer partnerships to ensure ongoing brand awareness.
- Test the value of your influencers and optimize your campaign to focus on your top-performing influencers.
- Activate diverse influencers to represent your brand’s inclusiveness and reach a larger demographic.
5. Nyx Cosmetics
To promote their new Buttermelt Blush line of products, Nyx Cosmetics formed an unlikely influencer partnership. They roped in celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay to develop an exclusive Buttermelt Blush Cake recipe. The brand then challenged their followers to try out the recipe and tag them in their creations.
The challenge was further amplified by food-related influencers such as Erin O’Brien and Kimberly Nichols, who attempted the recipe and shared it with their 4 million+ collective followers. Gordon Ramsay’s daughter, Holly Ramsay, also tried the recipe herself and shared it with her 300k+ followers on Instagram and TikTok. Since Holly regularly creates makeup-related content on TikTok, her participation was particularly impactful in reaching the brand’s target audience.
@hollyannaramsay Totally obsessed with my new @NYX Professional Makeup Buttermelt Blush, I HAD to make a cake too 🧁! Although I think I should stick to makeup… (& eating cakes) 🌈✨👩🏻🍳💗 #NYXCosmeticsPartner #NYXCosmeticsXButtermeltBlush #AD ♬ original sound - HollyAnna Ramsay
Campaign Statistics
The campaign collectively garnered more than 161k views on Instagram for videos related to the Buttermilk Blush Cake recipe. It also generated hundreds of positive comments from people who enjoyed the creative recipe and remarked on how pretty the blush products looked. Holly’s TikTok video alone garnered more than 77k views.
- Don’t be afraid to get creative with out-of-the-box influencer partnerships.
- Encourage your audience to participate in challenges and contests to maximize reach and visibility.
- Amplify your challenge through influencers who can help spread the word and encourage more participation.
6. Maserati
While Maserati had traditionally appealed to an audience of older suburban men, the brand wanted to build a connection with a younger audience for the launch of The Levante. Since the new SUV was designed to be suitable for both the country and the town, they needed to create a campaign that focused on telling visual stories that resonated with the audience.
So they decided to focus on Instagram as a visual storytelling channel. However, they also realized the need to take a fresh approach to stand apart from the various brand images and messaging that already existed on the platform. To set themselves apart from the noise, they relinquished control of the channel entirely and left various influencers in change of telling brand stories that reflected their personal interests.
Each month featured a takeover from a different influencer—ranging from professional photographers to chefs to international rugby players. Each influencer showcased the product in a variety of settings from their unique point of view.
The campaign eventually culminated in the launch event that featured an exhibition of the influencers’ Instagram posts. The event saw dealers, leads, and community members attending to check out the Levante, eventually bringing attention to the new SUV.
Campaign Statistics
Within just one year, the Maserati Instagram account saw a 381% increase in followers. This translated to 13,512 new followers, 66% of whom were aged between 18 and 34. During the same period, their Instagram content generated 62.5k likes, while the #MaseratiGB hashtag was clicked 26k times, amounting to an engagement increase of 332%.
On top of this, the event was able to generate high-quality leads, with 290 potential customers attending. It generated 45 test-drive leads, which served as the campaign’s commercial return on investment.
- Tell authentic stories with the help of influencers to add their unique voices.
- Take a fresh approach to differentiate your influencer campaign from existing branded content.
- Activate influencers from a variety of niches and demographics to appeal to a larger audience.
7. Farfetch
Farfetch wanted an evergreen influencer program that helped them drive sales and acquire new customers. So they decided to launch an affiliate program through the Upfluence platform. This allowed them to activate over 1.2k influencers to help them promote high-end fashion products across 11 key markets.
These influencers were tasked with creating five Stories at two key moments, promoting a 10% off promo code just for new clients and valid for a limited time. They also needed to include trackable swipe-up links that led to the product page for the promoted item and the “New In” page. In exchange, they could enjoy rewards such as gift cards worth up to $500, a 10% sale-based commission, or a negotiable set fee.
Campaign Statistics
The campaign helped the brand acquire 16.8k new customers at an average CAC of $112. Out of these new customers, 29% became repeat buyers, which increased the customer lifetime value to $1,188. On average, the campaign generated $1.2 million in sales throughout the year, with an average order value of $921.
- Make use of advanced tools to manage your influencer affiliate marketing programs.
- Task influencers with specific deliverables so they know what’s expected of them.
- Use trackable links and codes to easily quantify sales generated by each influencer.
8. ColourPop Cosmetics
Influencers have a way of creating content that helps the audience better understand a product’s use case or how it works. This could inspire and inform buying decisions, helping you drive sales. That’s why ColourPop Cosmetics partnered with key makeup and beauty content creators to come up with demo videos to promote the restock of their Winx Club x ColourPop collection.
The brand activated several micro and macro influencers with a solid presence in the beauty and makeup space. This included influencers such as Olivia Hernandez (286k followers), Jada Desiree (90.6k followers), Adrianna Kalisz (74.3k followers), Fatima Caser (27k followers), and T.rinluck (119k followers).
Each of these influencers created videos showcasing makeup looks inspired by the Winx Club. The videos demonstrated how to create those looks using products from the Winx Club collection from ColourPop. Some of the videos featured product swatches to give viewers a better idea of what to expect from the collection.
Campaign Statistics
ColourPop Cosmetics shared the influencer-generated content as organic content on their brand’s Instagram. Across 10+ Instagram Reels, the campaign generated over 1 million views and thousands of positive comments raving about how good the products looked. One of the videos created by Michaela Davis even generated 857k views and over 2k comments.
- Tap into the creativity of influencers and showcase the potential of your products.
- Inspire product purchases through creative demo videos showing your product use case.
- Leverage multiple micro-influencers to maximize your reach and fill up your feed with fresh content.
Bonus Example 1: destream at TwitchCon
Recently, at the TwitchCon Rotterdam, destream, a monetization platform for content creators, presented a new merch for streamers and creators—a longsleeve with embedded NFC technology, which allows fans to send money to their favorite creator while meeting them in real life at various events.
The longsleeve was a grand prize in a Wheel of Fortune that creators had to spin. This amusement attracted queues of people who wanted to try their luck and learn more about the company. We spoke with Tachat Igityan, Founder and CFO at destream, who shared that there were more than 2300 spins of the Wheel, with only 50 influencers who ended up winning the longsleeve.
Campaign Statistics
“Overall, more than a thousand gifts and merch items were given out at TwitchCon. 80% of all guests, including major bloggers and influencers, paid attention to the company’s booth,” Tachat said. “As a result, we received 40 organic interactions on Instagram and 40 organic interactions in Twitter, with notable mentions from influencers. We also received 15 B2B contacts—these engagements involved discussions with potential business partners and collaborators, laying the groundwork for future strategic alliances,”
he added.
The destream team successfully engaged with over 1500 consumers, providing them with information about their offerings. “Live stream of our booth reached 15000+ viewers, and the exhibition reach was 6000+ people,” Tachat said.
- Look for interactive ways to engage influencers at in-person events.
- Gamify the experience and create opportunities to win exciting rewards that are valuable to your target audience.
- Conduct live streams of in-person events to engage your online audiences.
Bonus Example 2: HypeFactory
HypeFactory launched a campaign for a mobile game aimed at promoting it in the new Hong Kong market and increasing the number of installs, both trackable and organic. We interviewed Daria Belova, Marketing & PR Director at HypeFactory, to share more details about the campaign. The agency narrowed down influencers with the largest audiences in Hong Kong and provided them with a creative brief.
Due to the campaign's localized nature, their search was specifically focused on influencers popular in Hong Kong. They made use of their AI-powered platform to analyze the audience of regional influencers and determine which ones were most loved by Hong Kong residents.
This AI tool enabled them to create a list of suitable influencers with the highest number of followers from Hong Kong, forming a media plan with key performance indicators (KPIs) such as Reach, CTR, Conversion Rate, and ROI. This was made possible by the AI tool's machine learning capabilities, which were trained on data from previous campaigns.
Each influencer received a customized creative brief tailored to their specialty and tone of voice. The campaign included influencers from various categories, such as Shooter Games, Mystery, Anime, and Movies, each with their unique creative approach.
Campaign Statistics
The launch was highly successful, resulting in a significant organic increase in installs in Hong Kong. The carefully selected influencers, supported by data-driven insights, delivered outstanding media KPI results:
- Views: 4.5 Million
- Total subscribers: 18 Million
- Number of creators: 24
- CTR: 1.1%, an impressive figure for the Asian market
- Make use of AI technology to simplify your influencer search and vetting process.
- Conduct location-based searches for campaigns targeting users in a specific region.
- Create custom creative briefs according to the specialty and tone of each influencer.
Tips for Creative Influencer Campaigns
The above influencer marketing examples should give you an idea of how to run a successful campaign. In addition, here are a few tips on how to get creative with your influencer campaigns.
Leverage Unique Angles
If you want your campaign to stand out, think beyond traditional reviews and promotions. Find a way to incorporate stunts, challenges, and unique storytelling angles that make your campaign different from other influencer marketing campaigns. The Nyx Cosmetics x Gordon Ramsay partnership is an excellent example of a brand that took an out-of-the-box approach to influencer marketing.
Tap into Trends
Similarly, if you want people to pay attention to your campaign, you need to make sure it’s relevant. Make use of current trends and cultural moments to ensure that your campaign is highly relevant to the conversations that are taking place at the moment. Think of how It Cosmetics incorporated the “golden hour glow” trend into their campaign.
Use Interactive Elements
Creating opportunities for interaction is a great way to drive more engagement for your campaign. Develop interactive campaigns where influencers can directly engage with their followers, such as through social media takeovers and Q&A sessions. For instance, the Maserati campaign allowed influencers to directly engage with the brand’s Instagram followers.
Collaborative Content Creation
Most influencers have built their influence through their creativity. So it only makes sense to leverage their content creation capabilities when working with them. Work closely with them to co-create content that aligns with their style and resonates with their audience. Think of how ColourPop Cosmetics gave influencers the creative freedom to come up with unique looks and showcase their skills.
Measure and Adjust
Regardless of the type of campaign you run, constant measurement is crucial to make sure you’re adjusting your strategy for improved performance. See what’s working and what’s not and which influencers are driving the most value for your brand. Then adjust your campaign to optimize your results. Think of how Fabletics first ran a test campaign and then optimized their campaign by focusing on influencers who could actually deliver results for the brand.
Frequently Asked Questions
What platforms are best for influencer marketing?
CreatorIQ, Grin, Skeepers, and Upfluence are some of the best platforms for influencer marketing.
What type of content should influencers create for email marketing?
Influencers can create informative and engaging content such as reviews, tutorials, and testimonials for email marketing.
Can I reuse influencer content across other marketing channels?
Yes, you can reuse influencer content across other social media channels, websites, and marketing materials. However, make sure you have an agreement with the influencer to repurpose their content.
Can small brands run creative influencer campaigns?
Yes, small brands can run creative influencer campaigns by making use of smaller influencers such as nano-influencers and micro-influencers. These influencers tend to offer more cost-effective partnerships while still enabling you to generate impressive results through authentic and creative content. You can consider these influencers for product seeding and gifting campaigns.
How do I choose the right influencer for my brand?
You can choose the right influencer for your brand by considering factors such as your niche, budget, campaign type, and goals. Then look for an influencer who can meet those needs.
What metrics should I use to measure the success of my campaign?
You can use metrics such as impressions, reach, engagements, earned media value, traffic, and conversions to measure the success of your campaign. The specific metrics to use may vary depending on your campaign goal. For instance, if you want to drive brand awareness, you’ll want to look at impressions and reach. If you’re looking to drive sales, you’ll need to measure conversions.
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