12 Best Influencer Marketing Strategies Case Studies

You’ve read expert advice on how to use influencer marketing and how to get started. However, there is a limit to how much you can accomplish simply following instructions alone. The most effective way to properly appreciate anything is through the use of real-world examples.

It is possible to learn a great deal from effective influencer marketing case studies, including what to do and how to do it efficiently. Check out the list below for the most effective influencer marketing efforts that achieved incredible results.

What Is Influencer Marketing?

Marketers can use influencers and creatives on the internet to market their products via endorsements and recommendations. The bulk of influencers are found on social media and blogs, although other creators, such as podcasters, might also be considered. Influencer marketing is often used in conjunction with brand awareness initiatives, but it can also lead to a large number of conversions and sales.

Although influencer marketing got its start in 2006, it’s undergone a lot of evolution in the intervening year. Even though Facebook and Twitter had just recently launched, Instagram had yet to make an appearance in the social media world. At first, influencers were mostly bloggers who posted about their daily lives while also promoting things they used regularly.

Influencer marketing hasn’t altered all that much, yet it is significantly different in some aspects from what it was before. Influencers continue to promote the items they use daily by posting updates about their life on social media. Career influencers can now make a living by promoting a brand’s products or services. Any income a blogger earned through collaborations was regarded as good extra cash when they first started, but it was far from enough to be called full-time revenue.

Today’s influencers also have a much wider range of possibilities than did yesterday’s influencers. Many social media platforms are available, and there is a wide range of content that may be created on each of them. YouTube and TikTok are great video sites for individuals who enjoy them. Conventional blogging or even Facebook can help those who want to promote long-form written content. Instagram is a good option for influencers who want the best of both worlds. It won’t be long before influencers discover a way to use Clubhouse to promote their products, too.

Influencer Campaign Case Studies That Crushed It

Whatever your experience level with influencer marketing, don’t worry if you haven’t done it before or aren’t sure where to start. Use what you’ve learned from the major brands before you to reimagine your campaign.

Influencer marketing can be tricky to implement, but we’ve come up with a foolproof plan to get your boss on board. You may learn more about the impact of influencer marketing on the bottom line by looking at these real-world examples.

Kettle + Fire

Foodies who care about their health can get grass-fed bone broths from Kettle + Fire, which uses only the best ingredients. A top Paleo brand according to healthline.com, Kettle + Fire needs to improve its online reputation.

However, they had their hands full with the company’s business affairs. After all, someone had to make all that bone broth.

When it came to social media marketing, Kettle + Fire was well aware of the need for assistance but had no idea how to go about securing it. Isn’t there a great struggle in using social media? Do you have a lot to say? They didn’t have any extra hands, but now they have. Also, where do the efforts of influencer marketing fit into this picture?

Strategy

• It was important to Kettle + Fire to convey the advantages of consuming their product. Influencer marketing appealed to them, but they want to retain the content curation in-house.
• So they teamed up with Trend to make this happen. We compiled a list of influencers who are interested in Kettle + Fire’s bone broth products. We selected a limited group of influencers based on their ability to create impactful imagery after reducing the field.

Results

• Kettle & Fire enlisted the help of a group of influencers who adhered to the brand’s guidelines and produced dozens of stunning Instagram photos for the company.
• To further increase their reach, Kettle + Fire ran Facebook ads featuring these handpicked photographs. Kettle + Fire was able to get both the stunning imagery they desired and a more successful Facebook Ads campaign with this clever two-for-one strategy.
• The end product was astounding. We compared Kettle + Fire’s old and new creative and discovered that for every $1 spent on Facebook Ads, they made $4 in revenue.

• Influencer marketing against Facebook Ads: Kettle + Fire demonstrates that you can be successful at both using influencer marketing and Facebook Ads.

Iceland Foods

Iceland Groceries is based in the United Kingdom, despite its name being Nordic. And there was a problem with this frozen food brand: consumer approval ratings had fallen to a dismal 10%.

For a long time, Iceland advertised its products with the help of well-known celebrities, but these campaigns failed miserably. They urgently required a real return on investment from influencer marketing.

Iceland concluded that celebrity campaigns were failing because they failed to depict actual people. Iceland shifted its advertising tactics to appeal to the general public, such as mommy bloggers.

Micro-influencers are more trusted by customers than celebrities, thus Iceland made an astute decision.

Strategy

• It was Iceland’s idea to employ everyday food influencers to make some of the best user-generated content possible.
• They also used social listening and PPC marketing to get the word out. The campaign’s objective was to strengthen customer relationships with Iceland products to sell more frozen meals.

Results

• Frozen food had to be seductive and inviting, which was no easy task for Iceland.
• Iceland, on the other hand, struck gold when it teamed up with 50 micro-influencers. Using a varied variety of real-life customers as its models, Iceland saw the following results:
• Facebook video viewers retain 55 percent of their attention (and a 59 percent rate on YouTube).
• Their popularity skyrocketed, going from 10% to 70% in a matter of months.

• That ought to be enough to wow anyone reading this case study on Iceland’s influencer marketing to no end.
• Because of the campaign’s success, Iceland launched its second influencer marketing effort, The Power Of Frozen, to target a new group of micro-influencers.

Warby Parker

Granny-style glasses are unfashionable, and no one wants to wear them. People who wear glasses seek frames that are dependable, stylish, and economical. In 2010, Warby Parker made its debut in the eyeglasses business intending to provide precisely that.

Today, Warby Parker sells stylish eyeglasses directly to customers. The company is well-known for its imaginative branding decisions as well as its superhero-level customer service.

As a well-established brand, Warby Parker still wanted to use Instagram to drive greater customer exposure and engagement. Their goal was ROI from influencer marketing, therefore they used a small group of micro-influencers to do that.

Strategy

• Warby Parker has chosen seven Instagram and YouTube micro-influencers with sizable followings.
• Their influencer campaign “Wearing Warby” teamed up with Warby-friendly influencers.
• It’s worth noting that before this effort, all of Warby’s influencers already had posted about Warby organically.
• So Warby could only work with influencers who shared their passion for Warby.
• “Wearing Warby” featured real people wearing Warby Parker sunglasses. While one influencer is baking in her Warby’s, another is working on his latest masterpiece while wearing his Warby’s. By focusing on creative influencers, Warby Parker was able to broaden its customer base while also establishing itself as a luxury brand.

Results

• Influencers from Warby Parker showed off their eyeglasses by partaking in activities they already enjoyed. As a result of this strategy, Warby achieved a fantastic return on influencer marketing investment (ROI).

• Influencer marketing is a must-have for product firms, even if they have swanky designer sunglasses like Warby Parker’s.

Health-Ade

Health-Ade, a firm established in Los Angeles, produces cold-pressed kombucha in small batches. Health-Ade, despite its unusual flavors, health focus, and outlandishly original voice, required help breaking into the market.

For a growing firm, Facebook Ads were prohibitively expensive and unsafe because they didn’t know how to reach new customers.

Rather than enticing real moms to try their goods, Health-Ade should concentrate on its kombucha mothers. Without the means to make it happen, how can you produce the branded content your customers expect?

Strategy

• To locate influencers that could promote the Health-Ade brand to their followers, they used a database of vetted influencers.
• In the end, Health-Ade collaborated with 214 Instagram posts generated by influencers for the brand. What’s more, Health-Ade was able to use the content from each post in a variety of ways, including on its website, social media platforms, and in advertising.

Results

• Health-Ade has brand-specific creativity it can utilize wherever owing to its influencer campaign.
• This alone will not persuade your boss, however, that ROI from influencer marketing is real.

• Because 1,000 Instagram impressions cost $7, they were able to create $11,200 in impressions for a pennies-on-the-dime price.
• It would have cost Health-Ade almost $30,000 more to hire a full-time staff to do this (at a salary of $43,000 annually, give or take).
• An excellent case in point is influencer marketing, which provides all of the above while also saving you money, which will make your employer drool.

Dyson

Other case studies on this collection focus on human influencers, but as every Instagrammer knows, influencers come in many forms, sizes, and species. Social media is a powerful place for pet influencers.

Pet owners make a great target market for companies like Dyson because of their loyalty. Dyson has been striving non-stop to broaden its presence in the pet market since adding pet cleanup to its product line.

Dyson’s influencer marketing effort on Instagram aimed to raise customer knowledge of the vacuum cleaner maker’s products.

Until recently, pet owners had no idea Dyson offered a trustworthy answer. It also aimed to increase the number of people following it on Instagram.

Strategy

• Dyson has teamed up with five Instagram pet influencers to reach dog owners in particular. Influencers were given free rights to publish whatever they wanted, and pet owners were given creative freedom over their posts. Only funny posts on how pet lovers cleaned up after their furry friends would be accepted.
• Dyson’s willingness to hand over creative freedom to influencers was key to the campaign’s success.
• The influencers who received the most attention were those who had a sizable following, but also those who had an engaged audience. Only 2,500 individuals followed one Dyson influencer, yet it had the greatest engagement rate of all the campaign’s influencers.

Results

• It took a lot of guts for Dyson to give influencers such power, but it was well worth it. Dyson saw a return on investment (ROI) from influencer marketing, which included.

Kalumi Beauty

The global beauty sector is worth $49.2 billion. Kalumi Beauty was well aware that it required a piece of the pie, but beauty mavens’ business was crowded.

Even though Kalumi needed to publicize their range of BEAUTYfood bars, the company wasn’t happy with the way the company’s marketing materials appeared to shoppers.

Kalumi’s internal staff was unable to create organic, engaging content that its target audience would adore because beauty buyers now demand real photographs of products being used.

Strategy

• A collaboration between Kalumi and Trend was formed to generate material that would cover the whole buyer’s journey, including unpacking and using the products that were purchased. To communicate with its audience, the company intended to build a trustworthy content archive.
• Trend aided Kalumi in identifying actual customers and key opinion leaders. So, the cosmetics company was able to share stories about its products that were more relatable to customers.
• In addition to sharing the copyrights with Kalumi Beauty, the Trend team of creatives shot every piece of video and promoted it to their audience for even more traction.

Results

• If Kalumi had employed in-house influencers, the total cost would have been $50,000 per year. In contrast to a content studio, an agency would have cost them almost $72,000 a year.
• The good news is that Kalumi didn’t have to sign away their kidneys to conduct influencer marketing properly.
• They only spent $6,815 on their Trend promotion and got the following results:

• Who says the marketing of beauty products needs to be competitive? Kalumi was able to combine influencer marketing with user-generated content creation with the help of Trend.

Palms To Pines

Managing and strategizing social media is what Palms to Pines do. Influencer marketing and user-generated material were obvious choices for KE Organic Kombucha, the brand’s client.

As KE prepared to debut with a major retailer, Palms To Pines was busy at work assisting them. But the KE name was hardly unknown in the community.

They came up with the brilliant idea of using influencers to raise local awareness and entice customers to try KE’s kombucha in-store. Palms to Pines, on the other hand, had to rely on influencers for a large amount of their social media material, which was a major pain point before Trend.

Strategy

• Palms To Pines created and executed a single campaign for weeks before Trend. And what happened when they attempted to enlist the aid of government agencies? Neither their money nor their inbox enjoyed the experience.
• The company designed its campaign using Trend’s builder, specifying specified content types, hashtags, and other requirements.
• When Palm To Pine’s campaign went live, the applications poured in. With Trend, they didn’t have to waste time looking for influencers.
• Palm To Pines delivered K’E’s kombucha to content makers after picking a list of pre-vetted influencers. It saved consumers a lot of time because Trend handled the addresses and shipping.
• As a result of the contributions of creators, Palms To Pines now has access to an enormous library of licensed content.

Results

• Influencers for Palms To Pines had a hugely successful initial campaign. The company was able to produce the following in a month:

• Thus, the number of time Palms To Pines spent managing K’E’s campaign was greatly reduced, resulting in a wealth of amazing content as well as a select group of influencers that were willing to help market the brand to their respective fans bases.

MOON Ultra

If you want to improve your selfie game, you’ll need some high-quality lighting. The MOON UltraLight, a smartphone-connected light accessory, was developed in response to this need.

There was only one problem: no one was aware of the product’s launch.

MOON Ultra also had no guarantee that customers could trust the company enough to buy a Moon UltraLight even if they succeeded in spreading the word.

Strategy

• For this reason, Trend and MOON Ultra have teamed up. It required social proof immediately, a pre-vetted influencer network came through with some much-needed relevant content.
• To create a splash in the industry MOON Ultra teamed up with Trend For this reason, the system paired the company with influencers that already had huge followings and were trustworthy.
• A few short weeks after starting its influencer campaign with Trend, MOON Ultra has amassed a ton of great content for its launch.

Results

• MOON Ultra would’ve spent over $200,000 if it had gone out and found the influencers on its own. However, the brand only invested $3,870 thanks to Trend and had incredible results:

• As an alternative to wasting money on Facebook Advertising, MOON Ultra created a library of user-generated content and promoted itself to thousands of potential consumers by using user-generated content.

Coca-Cola

Coke has been working with influencers for almost a decade. One of Coca-most Cola’s successful social media influencer marketing efforts was the #ThatsGold campaign in 2016.

Strategy

• The goal was to present all of the “gold moments” of the Olympics, from the torch-bearing event through the final sprint.
• Coca-Cola started hiring influencers 16 months ahead of time of the Rio Olympics to attract teenagers. Coca-Cola has been an Olympic partner since 1928, and their campaign spanned a year and was broken into three parts. They primarily used Facebook and Instagram for marketing purposes.
• Coca-Cola began its #ThatsGold marketing campaign one year before the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. A polar bear mascot, who made friends with numerous social media celebrities and Olympians on the “road to Rio,” appeared in a two-minute film released by the company.
• 1.9 million people watched the video, 1,400 people left comments, more than 100,000 people liked the video on Facebook alone.
• Instagram user @oursoofficial developed a bear-themed account in Brazil to promote the 2016 Summer Olympics by posting videos, photos, and other content. There were 144,000 people following the account at the time of this writing.

• Second-phase campaign goals included live-streaming the Torch Tour Relay. Starting on April 21st, torchbearers traveled to 200 locations in Brazil over 95 days.
• The third and final phase of the campaign started with the start of the games on August 5th. 105 individuals were working at the Coca-Cola Olympic facility in Rio de Janeiro during the time of the games. The area served as a gathering place for both sportsmen and fans, and it also served as the site of numerous events.

Result

• The hashtag campaign known as #ThatsGold was a smashing success on social media. Social networks like Instagram and Facebook were tapped for all available marketing tools. Millions of people saw the campaign’s images, videos, and messages.
• They were able to accurately target 88% of the teenagers they encountered. Their collaboration with a wide range of athletes gave their campaign a major boost. Because of their big following, they were able to make the most of their marketing plan.

ASOS

As the name implies, ASOS caters to young adults around the world with its beauty and fashion offerings. The Greater London House in Camden Town serves as its headquarters.

Strategy

• ASOS, an e-commerce behemoth, desired to have a direct line of communication with its customers. They did this through their “ASOS insiders” influencer marketing strategy.
• Influencers wore ASOS apparel in Instagram posts tagged with “ASOS insiders.” The links in their posts allowed their fans to “purchase the look.” for themselves.
• For the most part, “insiders” were fashion or lifestyle bloggers who had a strong social media following. Without investing a lot of money, ASOS was able to increase the reach of its campaign while remaining true to itself.

Result

• It’s safe to say that ASOS’s influencer marketing strategy was a huge success. Many of the “insiders,” who are a diverse group of 20-somethings from all over the world with their distinct styles, have a large following.
• And it’s not just on social media platforms like Instagram. Other channels including Pinterest, Linkedin, and Snapchat were also used by the “insiders” to spread the news.
• As a result of the campaign, ASOS now has a diverse range of clothing options to appeal to a wide range of customers. One of the most successful advertising campaigns in recent memory.
• The key to increasing user engagement with your influencer marketing efforts is finding the proper influencers. According to Grin’s social media profile breakdowns, it is possible to find Instagram accounts that are in line with your advertising goals.

Airbnb

One of the most popular choices for travelers is the hospitality service provider Airbnb, which has hosted over 100 million guests.

Strategy

• The success of Airbnb’s influencer marketing strategy is directly attributable to the company’s meteoric rise in recent years. There was only one thing they wanted to do: bring the struggling startup back to life and turn it into a global hospitality phenomenon.
• Airbnb teamed up with a few well-known celebrity influencers to broaden their audience and enhance their visibility.
• In July 2015, Mariah Carey became the first celebrity to use Airbnb to secure a Malibu vacation rental. The marketing team at Airbnb contacted Carey’s managers and devised a strategy.
• Carey, who has more than 6 million Instagram followers, shared a photo from her recent trip to a Malibu beach house. In the caption as well as the photo, she included the hashtag #Airbnb. There were 45,000 comments and likes on the post.

• Major events are at the heart of many of Airbnb’s marketing campaigns. Airbnb supplied Lady Gaga with a $19 million Houston home to stay in for the 2017 Super Bowl. In an Instagram sponsored post, Lady Gaga photographed at the front of the mansion and thanked Airbnb.
• Vanity Fair, Huffpost, and Vogue all ran stories about Lady Gaga’s Instagram post, which was seen by her 27 million+ followers as well as people all around the world.

Result

• 37 sponsored articles from various influencers have contributed to an engagement rate of 4% for Airbnb in the last two years. Over 18 million people have liked the postings, and over 510,000 people have commented on them. Together, the company’s Instagram campaigns reached 966 million people.

Mercedes Benz

Mercedes-Benz is a well-known car manufacturer that specializes in luxury cars, as well as buses and coaches. Mercedes-Benz The company is based in Stuttgart, Germany, and is a branch of Daimler AG.

Strategy

• A new viewpoint on Mercedes was one of the goals of the #MBPhotoPass campaign by Mercedes. For the brand’s influencer marketing approach, it was important to let influential people express their own stories while promoting the brand’s products.
• This campaign from Mercedes utilized the story-telling prowess of numerous personalities to provide consumers with new perspectives on their vehicles. The Instagram accounts of the influencers also were opened up.
• They collaborated with more than 40 photographers and social media influencers to create the campaign. Instagram sensation Loki and his mistress Kelly Lund were featured in a video for the campaign that went viral. They may be seen driving around the snow-capped mountains of Crested Blue, Colorado, using 3D cameras. The virtual reality in the 360-degree video allows the viewer to see through Loki’s eyes.

Result

• The #MBPhotoPass social media promotion of Mercedes-Benz has gone global. Because it differed from prior efforts, which included brief movies showcasing the brand’s vehicles, it was a success. Influencers in various personas and locales held the keys in this situation.
• Chef Chris Coombs to a trip with two young children in SC, the influencers displayed the excitement and glitz of Mercedes in all its glory.

Glossier

In the world of beauty businesses, Glossier is among the most rapidly expanding. They focus on skincare and cosmetics, and as a result, they’ve become a well-known brand.

Strategy

• Glossier was conceived as a result of the company’s presence on social media. Emily Weiss worked as a fashion consultant at Vogue and kept a beauty blog called “Into the Gloss.” She resigned from her job and established Glossier in 2014 after just a year. When the company was first starting, it was looking for a way to get greater notoriety in the cosmetics market.
• Hiring huge celebrities didn’t make the beauty start-up an immediate success among ladies seeking the best cosmetics on the market. Instead, the company’s ever-expanding network is based on the endorsements of everyday women. Only 8,500 people follow Cecilia Gordon on Instagram, but she’s doing an excellent job promoting the brand.
• These “Glossier girls” are social media influencers that closely monitor the brand’s new product launches and social media posts, which they then promote with their audiences on the web.
• Through social media, the brand interacts and shares makeup tips and comments on new items with its target audience.

Result

• Glossier hosted a two-day trip to New York for 13 influencers, all of whom used their time there to promote the company online. Glossier has a sizable viewership despite only having a handful of high-profile influencers with a combined following of over a thousand people.
• Glossier grew by 600 percent between 2018 and 2019, thanks in part to CEO Weiss’ social media interactions. She frequently makes use of her website and social profiles to learn what her customers desire from a certain product or service she’s selling.

Boxed Water

Company sustainability and environmental friendliness are important values of Boxed Water. Instead of using plastic bottles, they offer pre-packaged drinking water in recyclable boxes.

Strategy

• Boxed Water sought to promote ecologically responsible consumption through influencer marketing.
• In 2015, they teamed up with the National Forest Foundation to create the #Retree initiative. Boxed Water offered to plant two trees for every Instagram photo with the hashtag “#ReTree.”
• To get the word out about their campaign, Boxed Water teamed up with a few high-profile celebrities and social media influencers. Aidan Alexander, an actor with over 600,000 Instagram followers, promoted the #ReTree campaign by sharing a photo and a caption about Boxed Water.

• Boxed Water has also teamed up with celebrities like actor Jamie King and YouTuber Meghan de Angelis to help spread the word about the campaign on social media. Influencers including Alyssa Milano and Julianne Hough were contacted by the corporation to help promote their promotion.

Result

• Despite having a small following on Instagram (just over 71,000), influencer marketing helped Boxed Water more than tenfold boost its exposure.
• Boxed Water has planted nearly 600,000 trees in California’s Sierra National Forest, Utah’s Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, and California’s Stanislaus National Forest. Boxed Water has already achieved more than half of its goal of planting a million trees by 2020 with the help of its campaign.