Social and influencer marketing
How to win in lifestyle categories
“Social media marketing” encompasses a range of strategies
Pay to advertise on social platforms
A form of display advertising
e.g. Tropicana
Pay influencers (for majority of coverage)
Like renting the influencer’s audience and endorsement
e.g. Pantene
Pay influencers (infrequently / little)
Boosting coverage; micro-payments; discount codes
e.g. Fashion Nova
Unpaid partnerships
Collaborations between brand and influencer
e.g. Huda Beauty
The majority of value-creation happens at the unpaid end of the spectrum, through collaboration
Collaborations between brand and influencer are a win-win, and deliver branded content to thousands of followers
- Meet brand’s need for exposure
- Meet influencer need for relevance
- Meet audience need for curation
Brands attract strong partners by having “collaboration assets”
Engaging brand proposition
e.g. Peach & Lilly “Worry-free skincare”
Venues
e.g. ColourPop’s California factory
Owned media presence
e.g. Arctic Fox Hair Colour
Product development capability
e.g. Huda Beauty – new products every other week
Events
e.g. Revolve influencer getaway
A strategy of investing in collaboration assets is more effective than paying for mentions
In the long term, assets give superior returns
- Brands face decision between investing in content, and investing in a content production machine
- In the long run the machine wins, because it lets you create content again and again
- By contrast, money you can only spend once
Brand strength comes from having a range of assets
- Products are just one asset among many – in many categories anybody can get product development and distribution from 3rd parties
Example: ColourPop Cosmetics
- Founded in 2014
- Invites influencers every week to mix formulations and shoot content in their California factory
- Now the most engaging brand in cosmetics globally
This strategy applies to lifestyle categories
- Audience which is engaged in the category, and engaged in social e.g. beauty, fashion, drinks, sports, cars
- Works especially well in categories with “category practitioners” e.g. makeup artists; hairdressers; bartenders; athletes, and categories which can be sold direct to consumer
- In these categories, brands which follow this strategy win, because they achieve high reach and credibility at low cost, and are able to sustain this week after week
Invest in structure, then invest in scale
If starting a new brand, build this into your business model | |
- Create an aspect to your brand which will allow you to regularly invite people to collaborate
- Manufacture locally if possible
If running an existing brand, collaborate more and faster | |
- Thousands of relationships
- Double your innovation rate
- Pay fairly, but concentrate on non-financial value