5 Brands that nailed influencer marketing last year

Digital Marketing Consultant Amit Panchal lists down 5 best influencer marketing campaigns of 2019 and why how they came about.

With the rise of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and now Tiktok, influencers are also rising in popularity along with them. I bet that if you regularly use one of these social media platforms, then you might have already seen influencer marketing in action in 2019.

Instagram, for example, is a classic platform where many influencers post photos with different products they’re promoting. 

And not just Instagram influencers, but many famous Youtubers and Tiktokers have also partnered with popular brands for sponsorships in exchange for promoting their products.

And why not? — After all, influencer marketing has proven to provide extravagant returns on investments (ROI). 

According to Tomoson’s Study, influencer marketing has proven to yield a $6.50 ROI for every dollar spent.

Another study by TapInfluence also found that 40% of people have purchased a product after watching it used by influencers on Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube.

According to Business Insider, brands are set to spend around $15 billion USD on influencer marketing this year.

All these studies clearly prove that influencer marketing is the new effective advertising and if you want to thrive in your industry, adopting influencer marketing is no longer an option.

In this article, I’m going to explain what exactly the influencer marketing is and share some of the top influencer marketing examples of 2019.

Also Read : Road to 2020: Influencer Marketing Trends brands need to watch out for

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer Marketing is all about tapping into an existing community of engaged followers of an influencer. 

An influencer is basically a specialist and a popular personality in his or her own niche. 

These influencers usually have a large following and a strong influence over their audience that you as a brand might be trying to reach. 

And with influencer marketing, you can leverage the reach these influencers who have built a strong following in their particular niche and sponsor them to support your brand and endorse your products or services, with the intention of boosting brand awareness and drive more sales.

For example, you can give a particular influencer or a group of influencers your service or product for free, pay them a fixed rate for each post, or create a customized model that pays them a commission for each sale or reaching certain pre-defined goals.

If you’re still unsure whether to adopt influencer marketing in 2020 or not, let me make the decision really simple for you.  

Why do brands need to adopt influencer marketing now more than ever?

The answer is simple:

With the cut-throat competition in almost every industry, the demand for consumers’ attention is also exploding so much so that consumers have already begun to lose sight of who they can trust. 

In fact, consumers are also turning to ad blockers and going on 30-days long social media fasting (yeah, that’s a real thing!) to filter the noise.

Todays’ consumers are taking extremely high measures to avoid advertising at all costs, which in turn makes it almost impossible for average brands to keep up in the industry. 

With influencer marketing, however, you can easily seize the attention of your ideal prospects and boost your sales.

There are lots of influencer marketing examples that show how valuable and successful they can be.

Top influencer marketing examples of 2019

Below, I have shared the top 5 influencer marketing examples of 2019 from which you can take inspiration while planning your social media marketing strategy for this year.

#ChipotleLidFlip

Chipotle is a famous American food chain of fast-casual restaurants that is famous for its burritos and tacos. 

In 2019, Chipotle partnered with David Dobrik, US-based famous Youtube vlogger (and now also famous Tiktoker) to celebrate National Burrito Day by inviting him to participate in their latest social media campaign #ChipotleLidFlip.

The #ChipotleLidFlip was inspired by a video of Chipotle employee performing the burrito bowl lid flip trick that went crazy viral on the internet.

So, the company decided to launch the #ChipotleLidFlip campaign on Tiktok to target a young audience and invited David Dobrik to perform the Lid Flip challenge on his Tiktok account.

@daviddobrik

#ChipotleLidFlip chipotle #ad

♬ Flip - Future

David challenged his Tiktok followers to show-off their lid flip skills by creating similar Tiktok videos. 

The results of this campaign were astonishing. The six-day #ChipotleLidFlip campaign went viral and drew 110,000 Tiktok video submissions, while the hashtag attracted a whopping 230+ million views over a month.

#TurkishAirlinesHelpSomalia

When it comes to promoting charitable initiatives, influencer marketing has proven to be one of the best-performing strategies. 

For example, last year Somalia went through a horrible crisis due to famine and drought, which left millions of people in dire need of water and food.

When Jerome Jarre, a famous Snapchat personality and influencer, found out about the crisis in Somalia, he instantly partnered with Turkish Airlines to help.

Turkish Airlines was the only international airline at that time that was flying to Somalia. 

So, Jerome approached Turkish Airlines to help him in bringing humanitarian aid to people in Somalia.

Jerome spread the awareness of his new campaign using #TurkishAirlinesHelpSomalia hashtag to build awareness and for fundraising.

The result? Well, in just a couple of days, Jerome’s tweet on #TurkishAirlinesHelpSomalia was retweeted 83,000+ times and he also received 58,000+ likes on Instagram.

Along with Turkish Airlines, Jerome also partnered with celebrities like Ben Stiller and famous YouTubers like Casey Neistat and he was able to raise one million dollars in the first 24 hours.

In fact, the campaign went so viral that it raised over $2 million in the first five days. With that money, Jerome was able to fill 10 planes with food and water, which he originally intended to fill only one.

And as far as what Turkish Airlines gained from this campaign is concerned, while the exact effect on Turkish Airlines’ sales is still unknown, but the reputation and brand awareness must have gone off the charts for sure.

YouTube Unboxing Videos

Nowadays, one of the common influencer marketing examples is the YouTube Unboxing videos created by famous YouTubers.

This type of campaigns often involves a brand offering its product to influencers for free, in exchange for the influencers posting a review video of the product on their channels.

Marques Brownlee, for example, is a famous American Tech Youtuber who regularly posts the ‘unboxing’ videos on his Youtube channel MKBHD. 

The main premise of these product review videos that the influencers have never seen the product or used it and they usually unbox and test it out for the first time on camera. 

For example, here’s a random video of Marques Brownlee unboxing the new iPhone 11 and sharing his thoughts.

Wolf Gourmet

Wolf Gourmet is a kitchen appliances manufacturing company and unlike most brands, the company decided to partner with a famous blogger Natasha of Natasha’s Kitchen for a sponsored blog post.

Natasha wrote a blog post on different blender recipes along with a special giveaway of Wolf blender. 

In addition to sharing 10 genius blender recipes, Natasha listed down a few reasons why she loves Wolf Gourmet’s blender and she also compared it with other brands’ blenders.

At the end of the blog post, she announced the giveaway with her loyal readers and encouraged them to participate. 

The result? The campaign turned out to be a success and she received about 14,000 entries, proving that partnering with influential bloggers can also drive plenty of engagement and increase brand awareness.

#BangEnergy

Bang Energy is an international energy drink brand that markets its product through influencers and athletes.

Bang Energy partners with dozens of influencers and athletes and runs its campaigns on Instagram where influencers promote the drink by featuring sponsored posts.

In 2019, Bang Energy partnered with the following influencers to increase brand awareness and drive more sales.

Mary Grace - 61K+ followers, Lauren Corazza - 24K+ followers, Andrea Espada - 6.7 million followers, Solange Bini - 16K+ followers, Vanesa Seco - 403K+ followers, Ciara Stamper - 54.9K+ followers and Deanna Leggett - 177K+ followers.

The result? Bang Energy was able to increase its sales to $687 million, a whopping 699% growth from 2018. 

Concluding Thoughts

The digital marketing landscape has shifted drastically, and the brands that have not been keeping up with the pace will soon suffer losing customers and market size.

Luckily for these brands, influencer marketing is not going to fade away anytime soon. 

So, take inspiration from these influencer marketing examples and start implementing in your business.

This article has been authored by Amit Panchal, Digital Marketing Consultant.