Authenticity, authenticity and more authenticity. There may have been differences in influencer marketing strategies for Spalding, Toyota and Dollar Shave Club but the common thread throughout the session, “So You Want To Partner With a Social Media Star” was the importance of influencer marketing staying genuine and true to your brand.
Spalding’s True Believers
Kenyatta Bynoe, the Director of Marketing for Spalding, started off talking about Spalding’s #truebeliever campaign and its focus on moving the brand from passive respect to active love.
The #truebelievers feature NBA players DeMar DeRozan from the Toronto Raptors and Damian Lillard from the Portland Trail Blazers – both of whom have strong work ethic and show their genuine desire to elevate their game. These guys lead by example and engage fans everywhere to be #truebelievers. Here’s the cool part – this campaign extends to real fans and consumers extending the influence of these superstars by creating UGC, which gets featured on https://truebelievers.
Toyota’s Push For Inspiration Through Influencers
Florence Drakton, the Social Media Marketing Manager for Toyota talked a lot about Toyota’s brand shift to evoke more emotion, excitement, inspiration and innovation as the driving force behind their partnerships with influencers. Important to Toyota is not just the advanced reach of these people but their relevance to the brand and that bring – yep, you guessed it – authenticity.
Dollar Shave’s DNA
Nick Fairbairn, the VP/Brand Marketing for Dollar Shave Club. Nick kicked off with a short sweet sentiment that resonated: “Authenticity and no bullshit is in our brand DNA.” Enough said.
He went on to show example after example of how they’re using influencers authentically. Their strategy for keeping things genuine? Don’t pay celebrity endorsers rather build authentic relationships by sending product so they can try it and have something real to say. Their influencers run the gamut but the one that caught my attention the most was the content and conversation driven around the “unboxing experience.” Real customers, saying things they really mean, to people they really know. Powerful.
Again, all a bit different but united by authenticity. Other quick takeaways:
- When asked how they measure ROI on influencer marketing, the answers were all pretty consistent that it’s a mix of traditional social metrics – impressions, likes, shares, increase in followers, etc… plus share of conversation and engagement with both the influencer and the content. All agreed that there is a subjective element to this too because influencer marketing is in it’s infancy.
- When asked how they choose based on authenticity, allow the influencers to speak in their own voice but protect the brand voice, the answer was pretty simple. It’s about education, briefing, vetting and onboarding about the campaign, the product and the message – and if you do that effectively, they can write in their own voice and be genuine.
So many great takeaways from this session and from the pros on the topic but to me, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Thinking about how to leverage these influencers to engage real customers, drive more UGC and extend the reach even further, that’s the opportunity – and that’s how these influencer marketing campaigns can get to the next level.