Influencer Marketing: How 3 Brands Amazingly Used it to the Fullest?

87% of marketers reported that influencer marketing was an effective form of marketing for their brand.

We have seen brands move towards this form for its clear benefits of:

• Enhanced visibility, engagement, and ROI

• Strong brand communication and affinity

• Cost-effectiveness

  

In this blog, we share how 3 brands (Nike, Starbucks, and Country Delight) have understood influencer marketing and got the most out of it.

Nike

Nike has influencer marketing under its wing before this form even became a thing.

If we had to define its strategy or influencer mix in a sentence, it would be - Everyone with a will to "Just Do It!"

They have built a strategy on their vision of the long-term value of the celebrity influencers they have brought on board.

Nike has given all of them (be it, Tiger Woods or Christiano Ronaldo) the freedom to present the brand's messaging in their style or tweak the message for better engagement.

The influencers in their mix aren't only athletes that endorse their product but individuals who believe in, work with and contribute to their brand's growth.

Here are two examples -

• Nike's collaboration with Micheal Jordan gave Nike one of its most popular products of all time - Air Jordan.

• Its partnership with hip-hop rapper Drake for NOCTA is a leap it has taken to position itself as an activewear fashion brand from its original athlete brand.

We can see how Nike has understood the true potential of influencer marketing and has seen influencers beyond people who will promote their products.

Nike has worked with the influencers to position their brand, launch new product lines, and change their communication to fit all.

Starbucks

Starbucks' influencer marketing efforts focus towards winning over social media channels entirely.

If we had to define the outcome of its efforts, we would say - "It is a social media star, by (influencers) the social media stars, for (customers) the social media stars."

They have built a strategy that leverages all three categories of influencers. They're

1. Content Creators

2. Customers

3. Employees

Starbucks' method to bring these influencers together for their growth is to launch a campaign and encourage all of them to contribute.

Let's take a look at their #RedCupArt Holiday campaign.

Their first influencers were content creators they collaborated with to spread the word about their campaign.

For this, they chose influencers with highly engaged communities in graphic design.

Their second set of influencers was customers.

Starbucks invited the audience to visit their stores, grab a cup to paint their masterpiece and share it on Instagram and Twitter with the hashtag.

Starbucks used the influencers' and every customer's network to boost brand visibility, engagement, and recognition.

They, too, focus on using influencer marketing to its fullest potential.

Their campaigns give them new ideas for packaging and product lines that they can explore and grow upon, along with all the results above.

In the above example, they released a limited edition of red cups decorated with 13 paintings of their winning customers

In short, Starbucks uses influencer marketing and social media to strengthen its brand position and co-create and engage with its customers.

Country Delight

It is a brand with influencer marketing in its roots (foundation) and has grown with it since then.

If we were to define their strategy, it would be - "To bring influencers from all walks of life and make people fall in love with fresh milk."

Their intent behind using influencer marketing is to educate people, spread their brand messaging, and promote their products.

For this, they collaborate with different influencers:

1. Celebrity influencers (actors and athletes)

2. Content creators (food and health bloggers), and

3. Mothers (common people and influencers).

They work with them to launch campaigns and achieve their envisioned goals.

We can see this through their #LiveBetter campaign, in which mothers shared how difficult it is to ensure the right nutrition for their children's health.

They then highlighted how Country Delight is a brand of their choice.

Country Delight uses influencer marketing on a campaign and an ongoing basis.

It regularly reshares influencer content about its niche (nutrition for kids) and is relevant to its target audience (mothers).

In short, it delights the country with different influencers, content types (educational and promotional) and ways (ongoing and campaign basis).

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That's all on our top picks for brands that focus on influencer marketing and have yielded results.

Here are a few points to highlight before we wrap up this blog.

1. Each brand has a unique mix of influencers (even customers and employees) to fulfil various goals.

2. They focus on social media as part of their strategy to engage and co-create with a more varied audience.

3. Brands see influencer marketing as more than a promotion tactic.

They use it for exploring new messaging, new product lines (Air Jordan) and new packaging (13 Holiday season cups).

That's all for now.

If you want to learn how you can become the next big brand on the list, grab a cup of coffee with us at Starbuzz.