These days, few marketing initiatives are nearly as successful as influencer marketing campaigns.
However, this is still a relatively new area of marketing, which means there are still plenty of questions about what an influencer campaign looks like and how to make it successful.
Let's take a closer look at some of the most successful example influencer marketing campaigns and what ties them together.
These can serve as great examples of how brands can create long-term influencer partnerships and the benefit of doing so.
Drive Research surveyed 100+ influencers and creators to learn more about their ideal brand partnerships. The Brand’s Guide to Working with Influencers discusses their feedback surrounding compensation, best ways to contact creators, areas of opportunity for brands to stand out, and more.
What is an Influencer Marketing Campaign?
Influencer marketing campaigns succeed by the endorsement - or implied endorsement - of a major celebrity or brand.
The burgeoning use of digital celebrities and the explosion in popularity of visual platforms - including Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok - have made it easier than ever to demonstrate the endorsement of an influencer.
This, in turn, makes these types of campaigns more powerful.
In fact, 60% of marketers report that influencer-generated content performs better and drives more engagement compared to branded posts.
That’s likely due to the fact that consumers trust recommendations from content creators, more than they trust brand-produced content.
Example Influencer Marketing Campaigns
There are many different types of influencer partnerships and ways brands can collaborate with creators.
From sponsored in-feed posts to brand ambassadorships, it is easy to reach new audiences with the help of social media personalities.
Old Navy, Alex Rodriguez & The Boys & Girls Club of America
Famed baseball star Alex Rodriguez is an alumnus of the Boys & Girls Club of America who has used his celebrity to advocate for the youth organization.
In 2018, Rodriguez tweeted, encouraging people to buy Old Navy socks, with the company donating up to $1 million - $1 for every sock donated.
Rodriguez then took it a step further, donating $1 million alone. The campaign ultimately raised a very healthy amount of money for the organization.
This is a great example of more than an influencer campaign. It features a celebrity using their halo to do good work and extend this positive influence to a brand. This, in turn, generated positive attention for everyone involved.
Dunkin Donuts & Charli D'Amelio
Charli D'Amelio is one of the biggest social media stars on the planet.
At the moment, she has nearly 150 million followers on TikTok, making her one of the most-followed individuals on the app.
What better opportunity for a brand to capitalize on D'Amelio's success? And Dunkin did just that.
When talking about example influencer marketing campaigns, there may be no better case study than Dunkin X Charlie D'Amelio.
As part of this campaign, D'Amelio would film herself going to various Dunkin locations and placing orders, usually getting a cold brew.
Dunkin took it one step further, launching "The Charli" cold brew.
This worked like a charm: Dunkin boosted their cold brew orders by 45% while also increasing app downloads by 57%.
Tinder
The dating and hook-up app Tinder is ideal for influencer marketing, as it targets a demographic that tends to be highly active on social media.
As such, the company unveiled its "Tinder Brand Ambassador" program that engages stars and content creators. As you can imagine, these social media personalities are all young, fit, and attractive.
Additionally, they also have massive followings that well exceed the hundreds of millions.
These influencers - which include stars like Noah Beck and Nate Wyatt - use Tinder and post that content, including their profiles, pics, and more.
In doing so, they create desirable, aspirational, and authentic content. They show potential users how they can use Tinder and who they can find.
Recommended Reading: Contacting Creators: Best Ways to Reach Influencers [With Templates]
Stride Gum & DJ Khaled
DJ Khaled is a musician and massive celebrity with hundreds of millions of listens on various music platforms. He also has a presence on various social media platforms that extends well into the tens of millions.
In 2016, DJ Khaled fronted for Stride Gum's Snapchat to help advertise the "Mad Intense" gum. He spent the day discussing the gum on his Snapchat program.
In doing so, he exposed his brand followers to the product he was using and helped create funny, strange, and engaging content.
As a result of hosting the campaign on his own Snapchat, Stride Gum was able to reach a massive swath of new audience members that they would never have been able to connect with otherwise.
Suburu & "Meet an Owner" campaign
Suburu took a different tactic with their influencer marketing campaign, and they did so by redefining social media creators.
Instead of relying on celebrities, the company turned the average person into an influencer, getting them to discuss who they were and their experience with a Suburu.
The 'Meet An Owner' campaign made influencers out of ordinary people and, in so doing, better connected the average consumer with the Suburu brand.
In addition, Suburu took advantage of a broad-based approach to make this campaign work, thus allowing them a major presence on multiple social media networks.
What Makes These Example Influencer Marketing Campaigns Work
As you can see, many factors combine to make a brand collaboration work.
These example influencer marketing campaigns work in many ways, but they often have many threads in common.
This includes:
- They use beloved stars who dominate their media, such as sports or TikTok.
- These stars are filmed in an authentic, genuine way - and a way that is sincere to whatever media they dominate.
- They target the right audience: Both the message and the messenger hit the right marks.
- They are usually hosted by influencers on marketing platforms, like their social media pages. This brings in an entirely new audience.
For more ways on how brands can collaborate with creators and bloggers, watch our video below.
Contact Our Market Research Company
Drive Research is a national market research company with experience surveying content creators, bloggers, and influencers.
From our experience conducting market research with content creators, we know firsthand what they look for in potential brand partnerships. And you can too!
Our team can help execute custom market research studies on behalf of your brand. Or, purchase our Brand’s Guide to Working with Influencers where we recap survey findings from 100+ content creators.
To learn more about our market research services, contact us today.
- Message us on our website
- Email us at [email protected]
- Call us at 888-725-DATA
- Text us at 315-303-2040
Emily Rodgers
A SUNY Cortland graduate, Emily has taken her passion for social and content marketing to Drive Research as the Marketing Manager. She has earned certificates for both Google Analytics and Google AdWords.
Learn more about Emily, here.
