Remember when KAWS was all the hype?
Image: yinagoh
What about the time when yellow rubber chickens suddenly appeared island-wide?
Image: youtiao666
With more brands engaging influencers for their campaigns, how do you stand out from the crowd? If this is a growing concern, here are a few refreshing ways to run your influencer campaigns:
1) Emotional storytelling
To stop followers in their tracks, brands can get influencers to inject emotional appeals into their content. According to HubSpot, the top emotions which encourage call-to-action is happiness, sadness, surprise and anger; all of which influencers can use to their advantage.
Emotional storytelling involves an influencer’s true feelings and experiences to make a piece of content more personal and relatable. This type of content generally performs better than a regular promotional post as the influencer’s followers would be more inclined to show their support. In doing so, brands would also have access to a variety of authentic content which speaks to different people.
Image: itsbubz
Pencils of Promise, a non-profit organization has partnered with a couple of influencers and celebrities to directly contribute and raise awareness of educational opportunities in developing countries. One influencer they’ve teamed up with is Lindy Tsang, more commonly known as Bubzbeauty. Lindy spent some time building a school in Ghana on her latest visit, and shared her experience across several Instagram posts. She also made sure to include a call-to-action - for her followers to make a donation.
2) Sponsored content
This is probably one of the easier type of influencer marketing campaign brands can run on platforms like Instagram and YouTube. It’s pretty straightforward on Instagram - brands get their products featured on the influencer’s feed and usually, there’s a call-to-action. As for YouTube, brands may sponsor an influencer’s vlog where the product/service can be weaved in seamlessly.
As the most-searched fashion brand on Google in 2018, it’s no surprise that Los Angeles-based Fashion Nova relies heavily on social media. Thanks to endorsements by celebrities such as Cardi B and Kylie Jenner, the brand has skyrocketed to fame. In addition to working with celebs, Fashion Nova reaches out to influencers across various platforms and countries. Head over to Fashion Nova’s tagged photos on Instagram and you’ll see that they’ve sponsored numerous influencers from America to Germany and even Singapore. They’ve also made it easy for anyone to join their family - simply tag them and send them an email with your social media handle.
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To enter the Singapore market, Fashion Nova has started working with local influencer Nicole Choo, and provides prices in the local currency. This reduces the hassle of currency conversion, encouraging Singapore-based customers to shop with ease. The fashion brand sponsors Nicole and provides her followers with a discount code so they can join the community too. In addition to product features, Fashion Nova has borrowed Nicole’s voice to shout-out about their latest payment method, QuadPay.
3) Platform takeover
Brands can also leverage on the popularity of influencers by inviting them to create and share content directly on the brand’s social media platform. Partnering with big names would draw attention to the brand’s social platforms, increasing their follower count and engagement rate since these individuals are likely to have supportive fans.
Image: singaporepoly
To raise publicity for their Open House this year, 4 personalities from The Smart Local took over Singapore Polytechnic’s (SP) official Instagram account. They went around exploring a few courses and CCAs offered by the school, documenting every moment on SP’s Instagram stories. They also made sure to geotag each location they visited, along with the official hashtag and a short description of the school in their own words - everyone loves personalized content!
4) Reviews
As mentioned previously, close to 50% of consumers base their purchase decisions on the words of influencers. Think of all the times you’ve been unsure of an unfamiliar product and turned to reviews from people who’ve tried it before - some of whom you don’t know personally. Likewise, consumers are constantly on the lookout for honest opinions about a particular product/service to avoid making a disappointing purchase.
Reviews are highly favored by consumers as they’re more authentic as opposed to a brand posting about their unique selling points themselves. For that reason, reviews are commonly weaved into a mixture of campaign types.
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Reviews without authenticity mean nothing, as proven by the Biore and Shay Mitchell collaboration which led to a lot of backlash eventually. Before sharing a review, influencers have to first try the product out themselves. Wah, a YouTuber, shared his thoughts on a t-shirt via an Instagram post along with a simple but effective caption. It was straightforward and adequately informative for his followers.
5) Let influencers unleash their creativity
Sometimes, the best campaigns stem from giving influencers space to work their magic. As content creators themselves, influencers are constantly finding ways to stretch their creativity. Equipped with knowledge and experience gathered over time, influencers are most familiar with the type of content their followers enjoy.
Image: raquel.zaatar
With that said, this doesn’t mean letting influencers take the wheel completely! Simply brief them on your campaign objectives and let them angle the story in a way best suited to their personality and lifestyle. Dyson gifted different influencers - parents and paw parents to name a few - their famous vacuum cleaner for them to share about it in their own style. To demonstrate the user-friendly aspect of the vacuum cleaner, Raquel, a mother herself, posted a photo of herself carrying her child in one hand and vacuuming with the other. Likewise, her caption mentioned the product benefits and her first-hand experience as a mother, making her more credible and relatable.
6) Start your own challenge
What better way to raise brand awareness and involve everyone than to create your own challenge? Getting influencers to post photos/ videos of themselves doing the challenge would entice their followers to hop on the bandwagon. This means increased engagement and user-generated content which you may then repost (with permission, of course). Potential customers who come across your challenge would develop positive feelings towards your brand. Follower count typically increases as well with people gaining interest in your brand.
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Take the #canornotchallenge by MAMEE for instance - influencers across a few countries were asked to take up the challenge of eating their Daebak Ghost Pepper Noodles without any drinks, and share a clip of their experience online. To date, the #canornotchallenge has garnered over 1,000 participants on Instagram.
If you’re thinking of hosting your own challenge, ensure it’s related to the product, fun, easy to join and execute! To boost the rate of participation, you may even give the most creative user a prize.
7) Promotions
Getting influencers to share about your latest promotion is old but gold. It leads directly to sales and is one of the most effective methods as influencers are skilled at creating eye-catching and thumb-stopping content.
Image: aydenzs
Air Asia has been working closely with influencers to disseminate news of their latest promotions. For their Holiday Quickies campaign, each influencer was given a prop with different imagery and the freedom to post about the promotion from a creative angle. As always, personalized content performs well with their followers, maximizing the effectiveness of your campaign! Another learning point for brands is to gradually drop hints of the promotion to keep followers in suspense, and prolong the longevity of your marketing campaign.
8) Giveaways
Last but not the least, brands can provide influencers with products to host a giveaway on their social media platforms. Commonly shared on Instagram and YouTube, giveaways can boost the rate of engagement and awareness of your brand because everyone wants to be a winner!
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You may even jazz up the mechanics of the giveaway by getting the influencer’s followers to do certain actions i.e. follow your account, tag 2 friends, comment why they should win the giveaway, or repost the giveaway on their personal account.
Feel free to use these 8 ideas as a starting point but we encourage you to put on your thinking caps and devise more ways to stand out from the clutter. The key takeaway is to communicate the brief clearly to your influencers and give them the creative space they require. Pro tip: whenever you feel like you’ve hit a dead end during the campaign ideation process, always communicate and brainstorm with the influencers!
Want to learn more tips on running creative influencer marketing campaigns?
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