According to a Q3 2023 Pulse survey of 307 U.S. social marketers, social marketers believe that influencer marketing improves brand loyalty, including customer loyalty (87%), awareness (89%), and reputation (87%). It is evaluated as having a significant impact on marketing activities. .
But influencer marketing isn’t as simple as picking a creator, creating one-off content, and reaping the benefits of a loyal following. Our report found that 81% of social marketers describe influencer marketing as an important part of their social media strategy. He also found that 79% of marketers say influencer content is necessary for the customer experience, and brands need to be strategic to create campaigns that resonate.
This article further draws on data from the Q3 2023 Pulse survey when considering campaign types. We also highlight 10 successful influencer marketing campaigns to inspire your own strategies.
Before we get into it, did you know that Tagger by Sprout Social can help with your influencer marketing campaigns? Tagger by Sprout Social enables marketers to drive impactful influencer marketing strategies and improve brand presence. It allows you to truly elevate, engage with new audiences, and generate revenue faster.
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What is an influencer marketing campaign?
Influencer marketing campaigns are partnerships that leverage the influence of creators to drive sales and increase brand awareness. Our research shows that expanding a brand’s reach to new audiences (68%), increasing engagement rates (50%), and strengthening brand credibility and trust (47%) are the key factors behind influencer marketing. It is considered to be the three most valuable advantages.
What are the different types of influencer marketing campaigns?
There are many variations of influencer marketing campaigns, but they all capitalize on the creator’s loyal following, credibility, and trustworthiness. Our Pulse research shows that companies are focusing on brand-influencer partnerships such as giveaways, product collaborations, and influencer-driven advertising.
Let’s look at some examples of different types of influencer marketing campaigns.
giveaways and contests
Who doesn’t love free stuff, especially from their favorite brands? According to research, 65% of marketers partner with influencers through giveaways. These benefits range from free and exclusive products to discounted services. This kind of influencer’s marketing campaigns are used to increase engagement and promote the brand. The influencer will explain how to enter. Compete by leaving comments, sharing posts, completing social media challenges, and more. Giveaways are effective because micro-influencer marketing campaigns tend to have a more engaged audience.
product collaboration
Approximately 62% of marketers partner with influencers through product collaborations. Product collaborations can take many forms, but we leverage the creativity and influence of creators by inviting them to design and create specialized content or special editions of branded products. These product collaborations may include event activations, unboxing videos, reviews, and pre-launch content to help create hype and excitement around the launch.
Affiliate influencer campaigns and sponsored posts
More than half (57%) of marketers collaborate using influencer-driven ads. Although these vary, affiliate marketing programs and sponsored posts are common examples of influencer-driven advertising.
In affiliate marketing, influencers promote a product/service and when their followers convert, they get a cut of the profits. Basically, the creator receives a commission for every sale made through a discount code or referral link. Affiliate influencer campaigns are popular in e-commerce because they make it easy to buy by simply sharing a link or code to your followers. Affiliate marketing influencers can also become brand ambassadors and consistently promote a brand’s products and services.
Sponsored content is social posts that brands pay influencers to create and publish on the creator’s account. Sponsored posts are published by hashtags such as #ad or #brandpartner, or paid promotion labels that appear on screen to let followers know that the creator of the content is being paid.
7 success stories of influencer marketing campaigns
Get inspired by these 7 examples of influencer marketing campaigns. These partnerships capture the magic that happens when companies find and partner with the right influencers for their marketing campaigns.
1. Topics
Influencer travel is a staple in the beauty industry. Skincare brand Topicals hosted a trip to Bermuda to celebrate his third anniversary with the brand. Of course, Paradise’s content is a social media treasure, but it’s not his IG-worthy photos that make this campaign stand out.
Topicals is the first beauty brand to host a fully BIPOC-sponsored brand trip and feature small creators. The skincare brand invited a diverse group of 18 influencers, including reality TV star Dami Hope, esthetician Sean Garrett, and Lifestyle Girl creator Isini Weera Sinha. Several of the participants had never been on a branded trip before. According to Topicals, this influencer’s journey has resulted in her gaining 3 million impressions and her 5,000 followers across TikTok and her Instagram.
Topics featured influencers on brand accounts, but guests also posted daily content on Instagram Stories. The compilation was also posted on TikTok. The campaign used the tags #TopicsTakesBermuda and #TopicalsTurns3 to mark content.
Important points: Inclusive, diverse partnerships combined with an authentic content strategy can lead to significant follower growth and increased engagement.
2. Gymshark
Gymshark’s Partnerships team scouts people to post content promoting our products. Scroll through TikTok or Instagram and you’ll find numerous brand ambassadors known as Gymshark Athletes showing off their latest items and sharing discount codes.
For example, @SopheAllen tries on Black Friday products and tells her followers to use her affiliate link to get up to 60% off.
Important points: Brand ambassadors drive direct sales by promoting special offers and authentically presenting products. Try-on shows like this allow viewers to imagine themselves in the clothes and give followers the opportunity to ask creators relevant questions about size, fit, materials, and more. It also creates a pipeline for more user-generated content, which extends your brand. arrival.
3. Dunkin
Dunkin’ is a great example of a company that steps outside the box with brand partnerships. His 2022 brand collaboration with Elf proved an unlikely duo success. This year, they’re bringing it back with their latest campaign, “America Runs on Munchkins®.”
The Munchkins® campaign mirrors the donut brand’s American Runs on Dunkin campaign, a tagline the company has used since 2006. The collaboration features Dunkin’ official spokesperson Ben Affleck and rapper Ice Spice, known for viral hits such as “Munchkin.” This is both her fan name and a play on words for the campaign. This custom video premiered at his 2023 MTV Video Music Awards, and several social media posts teasing this collaboration went viral ahead of the awards ceremony.
Important points: By collaborating with unexpected influencers to build on your traditional campaigns, you can create viral campaigns that resonate with a wider audience.
4. La Roche Posay
As the official sunscreen partner of the U.S. Open, La Roche-Posay hosted a brand activation at the U.S. sporting event. This skin care brand has invited many influencers like @JaeGurley to try out sunscreen products and his skin scanning machine that assesses sun damage.
Important points: Partnering with influencers through interactive activations can effectively promote and educate consumers about your brand’s products and services. Maximize exposure and engagement by aligning your brand with prestigious events.
5. Joybird
You can’t run an influencer marketing campaign in 2023 without talking about the marketing magic behind the Barbie movies. Joybird collaborated with content creator @ChrissaSparkles to promote the Barbie™ Dreamhouse™ furniture collection. @ChrissaSparkles created content in Joybird’s showroom along with sponsored videos.
@ChrissaSparkles embodies several core characteristics associated with Barbie dolls, including a love of pink and pastels, humor, vibrant home décor, and stylish looks, which is why she collaborated with Joybird on the film. Perfect for. She has various roles as a performer, designer, and Pilates instructor. She also has a popular satirical series in which she plays various Barbies, including “Only Child Barbie.”
Important points: By working with content creators who truly align with your brand, you can drive awareness and sales in creative ways.
6. Flock Cargo
Flock Freight has hired Steve Burns for its “Define Your Load” campaign. The freight forwarding company was looking for investigative figures to feature in its campaign, and the partnership was a perfect fit since Burns was back in the spotlight a year ago. This nostalgic star went viral with his “Message from Steve” video celebrating his 25th anniversary of Blues’ cruise. The “Define Your Load” campaign won the Cannes Lions B2B Creative Challenger Brand category in June 2023.
Important points: Flock Freight’s campaign demonstrates the importance of timing and leveraging influencers’ recent viral moments and relevance to amplify the impact of a campaign. Burns’ return to the spotlight was used to further increase the campaign’s shock value.
7. Pigeon
In 2022, Dove expanded its influencer community to help champion the brand’s values of inclusivity and body confidence. The personal care brand won the Shorty Award for micro-influencer strategy for several campaigns: #PassTheCrown, #DetoxYourFeed, #ReusableIsBeautiful, and Baby Dove #OneRealPressure.
The combination of these various influencer marketing campaigns resulted in impressive success on Dove’s social channels, with over 1 billion impressions and overdelivery across all key metrics. Engagement rates increased by 20%, allowing us to exceed our 2022 goals.
Important points: Micro-influencer marketing campaigns can be just as impactful as those with more followers.
Choosing the right influencer marketing platform
Strategic collaborations with influencers who work with your brand can produce incredible results while establishing trust and credibility in creative ways.
But achieving these results requires the right tools to perform effectively on different platforms and with different influencers. Influencer marketing tools can help you identify what type of collaboration to pursue and find the best influencers for your campaign.