10 best influencer marketing campaigns

With the reach, expertise, and likeability of the right influencers and creators at your side you can smash those marketing goals, well thats the dream right? Many articles in main stream media often focus on the negative aspect of creators and influencers and many brands we speak to find Influencer marketing to be highly successful. If you want inspiration on what the perfect influencer marketing campaign should look like, look no further than the ten examples featured right here.  

Before you start your influencer marketing you need to consider a few things, Is your campaign for reach where you will use many accounts to drive home your campaign to many individuals or are you going to use a content creator who already holds the audience you are looking to reach? In either case be sure to use influencers that alighned properly with your brand. 

Check out some of our examples from the last 18 months that show you what is possible!

Mercedes Benz and Loki

In an effort to reach a younger crowd to whom luxury cars might seem inaccessible, Mercedes Benz partnered with an influencer whose appeal is nigh-universal. Loki the wolfdog and his owner, Kelly Lund, are huge on Instagram. In partnership, they created a 360-degree video of the two trekking mountains, Loki running in pace with Kelly in the car. The combination between the exciting presentation format and the focus on the star, Loki, made it a huge success. 

Who says your influencers and creators even need to be human?

Fiji Water and weworewhat

Online fashion icon and blogger, Danielle Bernstein (also known as we wore what), was the perfect partner for Fiji Water. There are no influencers who are likely to have much of an audience dedicated to water (Although I am sure that someone will niche down into this unique genre soon ). Instead, Danielle incorporated them in creating a new series of workout videos called Bodyworewhat, showing Fiji’s use in fitness and exercise.

A great example of aligning a brand with the right creator, it's a natural fit and the context is completely right. 

Lenovo and Cute and Little

To support the release of Lenovo’s Yoga 3 Pro tablets, they worked with a series of influencers, creating a “day with YOGA”, a series of blog and video posts detailing how different lifestyles were complimented by the many features of the devices. Mommy blogger Cute and Little was one of the most successful. It also goes to show that you can still use long form content to promote a brand.  The campaign worked well because it showed Kileen using the device in many scenarios relatable to modern life (althogh I will say that as a parent i am not sure how she keeps everything so tidy around the house with children 🤓) 

ASOS Insiders

Instead of reaching out to host content through influencer channels, ASOS invited influencers to join their Insiders. Fashion bloggers and models made brand new accounts under the label, which brought new followers to ASOS as well as creating spaces they didn’t have to share.

This is also a smart move as the channel is built around the brand, which means the line up can be refreshed and new influencers can be brought in and out as fashions and trends change, it also feels like a long term play with tangible results and analytics that the brand can see.  It is also good for the influencers they work with to tap into the brands audience and both reach new markets.  

Tinder and shitheadsteve

Besides partnering with comedian Whitney Cummings, Tinder aimed for a comedic approach with Instagram influencer shitheadsteve, allowing him to go for it with memes that helped depict them as truly in on the joke, compared to other self-important campaigns. Its a good example of letting the creator create, it would not work if the humour was stiffled by the brand. By trusting the creator the brand get maximum return in this case. 

Make-a-Wish and Yarasky

The Dutch branch of Make-A-Wish noticed that gaming streams regularly ran charity events of their own accord, and partnered with Netherlands based gaming vlogger and streamer Yarasky. Not only did Yarasky provide a 24-donation driven stream but increased his own popularity by meeting one of the Make-a-Wish kids for a gaming session.

(image by Make a wish foundation)

Lagavulin Whiskey and Nick Offerman

Good influencer campaigns make use of not just online influencers, but celebrities who have their own viral potential. Such is the case with Lagavulin Whiskey and Nick Offerman (aka Ron Swanson of Parks and Recriation NBC) who shot a hilarious twist on the strangely popular burning yule log videos that quickly got 2 million views in two weeks.

Sperry and just about everyone

On the opposite side of the coin, Sperry took the approach of quantity above all else. They reached out to over a hundred niche influencers with small audiences who already showed a passion for their shoes. This created a wide buzz that helped draw thousands of new followers to their own Instagram account. A well executed Micro Influencer campaign.  

using the #sperrymyway users created engagement and allowed the brand to showcase the best of the user generated content, simply folks in the shoes, what better way to showcase your product than your customers endorsing the purchase by proudly showing them off on Instagram. This has helped the brand grow the account to over 250,000+ engaged followers.  

Pedigree and Kristyn Cole

Influencers need charisma outside of their expertise. Pedigree worked with interior designer and influencer Kristyn Cole (amongst others) in a campaign that greatly humanised them both. The “Buy a Bag, Give a Bowl” campaign invited influencers of all kinds of different the niches the opportunity to promote a good cause while also sharing stories about their own dogs. The four-legged appeal worked well on the social media sphere, needless to say.

Okta and their clients

Influencer marketing works just as well in the B2B world, where a few high-profile clients can catch the imagination of hundreds of small business owners. Such is the case with Okta, who created videos in partnerships with clients like Adobe to build some much-needed credibility behind their identity management services.

Between the viral potential and the ROI, which outperforms most modern marketing strategies, there can be no doubt that influencer marketing campaigns are one of the most effective marketing techniques in play right now. Take note of the examples above and think about how you can put your own spin on it.