You probably found this blog post because you were also looking for advice on influencer strategy or specific influencer marketing examples to inspire your next TikTok or micro – influencer campaign.

When I embarked on writing The Age of Influence, the definitive guide to influencer marketing campaigns, I was in your shoes: scouring the web for the best case studies that would provide essential backup to my words and prove my points.

Unfortunately, a lot of the influencer marketing campaigns’ case studies were very superficial or talked about numbers that really weren’t related to business results, like converting potential customers.

Many of the dozens of influencer marketing campaigns’ examples and case studies that made it into The Age of Influence were found through hours and hours of research, as well as reaching out to and interviewing many companies who shared their experiences with me. I ended up producing so much content–more than 15,000 words over my contracted limit–that I had to actually eliminate many social media influencers and influencer marketing examples from my book.

This blog post will include some of these “outtakes” from my book, as well as other recent campaigns that I found were truly impactful and educational. All of these were handpicked from the literally hundreds of influencer marketing examples that I found on the Internet, and they were all chosen for one factor that I believe you can consider in implementing your own influencer marketing in the future.

I hope that these give you some ideas or insight to help you improve your marketing to develop a successful influencer marketing campaign. Note that they are in no particular order, as my intent is to give you a feel for the many different ways in which you can include influencers and influencer marketing as part of your marketing mix.

Gymshark is a gym clothing brand that has built a loyal cult following by appropriately and effectively marketing to its target audience through social media influencers and their own well-crafted content. Gymshark is a veritable pro in the industry, as their influencer marketing strategy focuses on creating a close-knit community. 

Gymshark started in 2012, and although it was initially focused on delivering supplements related to the health and fitness industry, its product launches quickly began focusing on clothing and active apparel rather than supplements. This shift proved extremely successful, as despite Gymshark’s relatively small presence in England, they began to offer a wide range of clothing to meet the unique needs of gym-goers and active individuals around the world. 

As an online retailer, Gymshark places the vast majority of its marketing budget online. Print ads are not the bread and butter of the brand, instead focusing on competitive and effective social media strategy and a truly impressive awareness and understanding of its target audience: young adults who are in some way active or fashion-conscious. 

From the early days of content marketing, Gymshark has been able to run a successful campaign continually by partnering with fitness influencers with large followings and a penchant for sales and marketing. From popular YouTubers like Chris Lavado and Whitney Simmons to TikTok influencers like The Rybka Twins and Laurie Elle, Gymshark has largely focused on popular influencers to sell and promote their products. Influencer content is the life raft that has been keeping Gymshark afloat, and it continues to serve the brand well.  

One great example of Gymshark’s focus on influencer marketing comes in the form of their 66 Days | Change Your Life campaign: the campaign challenged social media users to follow a series of challenges and post their progress over the course of 66 days, and the hashtag blew up, significantly increasing the brand’s reach. This campaign has literally turned into a fitness movement thanks to the involvement of various fitness influencers across multiple social media platforms.

Ultimately, Gymshark does influencer marketing well: from video series on Youtube and Pinterest to encourage being active, to reposting authentic content from actual users, Gymshark recognizes the value of relatable and well-curated content, and uses that focus to its advantage. 

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2. Daniel Wellington – Gift Product and Celebrate User-Generate Content

Daniel Wellington is a watch company that offers all of the luxury of an expensive watch, without the enormous price tag typically associated with them. Daniel Wellington began as a small company, but has continued to grow since its inception, and today boasts a substantial following across social platforms and a booming business model with a hefty focus on influencer marketing. 

Daniel Wellington is a Swedish watch company that was started in 2011, and has since become an oft-heard name in the watch industry, with something of a cult following on social media platforms. What began as a desire to bring classic, timeless watches to the general public has grown into a large-scale company that offers both timelessness in its design, affordability in its outlook, and community in its day-to-day practices. 

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Daniel Wellington’s founder recognized the value of different types of influencer marketing way back in 2011, at its outset, when he began to reach out to Instagrammers with a following of 5,000 people or thereabouts, and offered them creative freedom to develop their own images for the brand, with the promise of receiving a free watch with which to create that content. The simple but valuable approach proved to be a common campaign type run by the company, and continues to show promise as a viable technique to increase brand awareness and encourage user-generated content.

The focus on user generated content has long kept costs down for Daniel Wellington, while creating a sense of community and strong engagement. The Daniel Wellington community has even developed its own hashtag–utilized by the brand–to encourage the selection of user-generated images in the hashtag #DWpickoftheday. From simply appearing in the comments to request to use a photo or video to actively pursuing influencer partnerships, Daniel Wellington has and continues to demonstrate the value of audience engagement and a sense of community in influencer marketing efforts. 

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3. Dunkin’ Donuts – Incorporate a Celebrity Influencer into Your Product

Dunkin’ Donuts is undoubtedly a household name in most of the United States, with plenty of larger audiences to be found amongst their social media pages. That being said, Dunkin’ Donuts is no stranger to the need for customer loyalty, and the type of campaign they run reveals how high a premium the brand puts on connecting with their fans. From the biggest names in entertainment to up-and-comers and influencers, Dunkin’ Donuts is surprisingly adept at running the type of campaign that connects with followers and drives traffic. 

Dunkin’ Donuts is a multi-million dollar company which has had decades to perfect and refine its wide range of marketing efforts and even its product offerings. Despite its 70+ year history, the chain (which started in 1950), and over 13,000 stores, Dunkin’ has not placed all of its focus on partnering with celebrity influencers, or mega influencers who are considered household names; instead, Dunkin’ Donuts utilizes user-generated content and works to partner with smaller influencers. 

Perhaps one of the greatest examples of Dunkin’ Donuts’ commitment to influencer marketing comes in the form of their partnership with the TikTok influencer Charli D’Amelio. D’Amelio skyrocketed to fame on TikTok quickly, and has consistently remained the most or second-most-followed TikTok creator. Dunkin selected D’Amelio over other celebrity influencers, and brought in niche audiences by collaborating with D’Amelio to create a drink. 

The partnership with Charli D’Amelio was not the only instance of smart social media marketing; Dunkin’ Donuts continually runs campaigns and challenges to actively encourage the development of user generated content, and it is these types of content that continually transgress different demographics and allows Dunkin’ Donuts to enjoy a larger range of fans, followers, and customers.  

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4. Glossier – Celebrate Your Fans’ Content

If you do things right, your customers and your fans are your strongest voices. They also have the strongest existing brand affiliation. So how do you leverage their voice to spread your message? What value is there in turning your followers into advocates?

Glossier began as a fashion blog and branched into cosmetics in 2014, where it firmly took hold of a certain demographic. This stronghold over fashion-savvy social media users, particularly on Instagram, became a strength in the brand’s promotion.

As the brand grew and added new products including face mists and moisturizers, the fans kept posting and documenting their own experiences with the product. Girls’ nights and spa days with facial masks, or relaxing in the bath with a glass of wine and mask were striking images showing the customers engaging with the product, even in the absence of a dedicated beauty influencer. Their message of endorsement was clear, and an increasing number of the Glossier fans wanted to share their images of the lifestyle of which Glossier was a part.

Each of the posts spread not only to Glossier via the hashtags, but to each user’s followers. No matter if the following was large or small, each of the fans were micro-influencers sharing information about the brand. The hyper engaged audience posting selfies using the products and engaging in the conversation about the product powered the company’s growth for the first years. Glossier expanded on this engagement by connecting the more highly involved Instagramers in city specific focus groups, and making sure they are rewarded for their involvement in the brand’s growth.

The brand holds onto its roots by posting celebrity gossip and other fashion news, including Glossier’s own new releases, in its own social media accounts, engaging with the fanbase in that way. Reposting and engaging with the content of their fans only strengthened the organic engagement of the Glossier girls. Glossier turned the campaign more powerfully to a more mainstream influencer campaign by engaging with 11 of the more highly followed and engaged Instagrammers.

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Tapping into the voices of their fans and leveraging the content produced by their customers presents the best image of the brand. It extends the aims and values of the brand into ‘the real world’ of consumers. The products are being used and featured by the key demographic in ways and visual combinations that would be far less sincere coming from a marketing department or even a dedicated content marketer. It’s the involvement of the brand in sharing the user created content that keeps encouraging more involvement and subsequently improving the company’s engagement rate.

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5. Haagen Daz – Co-Creating Experiences with Influencers

When you see the name “Haagen Daz,” you likely immediately think of a small white carton with a maroon lid. That being said, there may be nothing new or exciting associated with the small, well-known cartons. Haagen Daz’s marketing team has worked hard to make sure this is not the case, as their forays into influencer marketing can attest, suggesting that Haagen Daz is not merely an ice cream company, but is instead a driver for memorable experiences. 

Haagen Daz is an ice cream company born in 1960 in New York. The company initially focused on quality over quantity, and offered only 3 flavors. As it grew, however, its offerings followed suit, and today, Haagen Daz lovers can expect to see a host of different flavors and options lining grocery store shelves. 

Haagen Daz came to be known for its creamy texture and high quality, but as the market has grown and competitors have risen, Haagen Daz has continued to set itself apart by appealing to a wider range of audiences, offering interactive experiences, and creating a sense of community through its social media marketing efforts.

One such example came in 2020, with the challenges presented by the pandemic. Haagen Daz partnered with Secret Cinema for a series called “Secret Sofa,” in which they reached out to influencers, and encouraged content development involving Haagen Daz and Secret Cinema. The campaign made Haagen Daz top of mind for a demographic that might not typically enjoy the frozen treat. 

Haagen Daz also hit a home run with their #HDMoment campaign, in which they utilized influencers to suggest memorable experiences are best when Haagen Daz is a part of them. Think rooftop ice cream parties, cozy events at home, or just Summer parties in general. The campaign was wildly successful, bringing in over 18 million impressions and a 115% increase in Share of Voice (SoV) when compared to the previous period of measurement.

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6. Hubspot – Co-Create Content with Influencers for Massive Website Traffic

Creating content can be difficult. Pooling content can be a highly effective way to both engage with your audience and get the attention of influencers’ audiences. What return can you really expect on round up posts? How effective is using other people’s creative freedom and content, when you ask those people to share it?

HubSpot sales blogger Aja Frost set herself the challenge of writing a blog post that would be seen over 10,000 times in the first month it was up. It was a significantly higher rate than the blogs were receiving at the time. In order to do this, she decided to create a round up post – a post collecting information from different influencers and collating them into one easily-digestible article.

To start the ball rolling, she decided on the topic of How to Have Your Best Sales Year Yet, and reached out to 30 sales experts and thought leaders. A personalized email campaign brought responses from 23 of her targeted subjects. Frost collected the answers of the interviewees, along with an agreement from each influencer that they would promote the blog post on their network and newsletter, if applicable. She also generated unique links for each influencer, so she could track the click through in each case when it went live. The investment in time was significantly higher than a usual post.

With 23 influencers promoting the blog post, it was viewed more than 9,000 times in the first month, with the data showing that the influencers’ links were responsible for 45 percent of the traffic. This seems like an expected result on the return, but because Frost had created unique links for all of the influencers, she was able to investigate the data deeper. The website data showed that just one of the influencers was responsible for 77 percent of the traffic!

Being able to see this kind of data gives extra insight into refining a campaign and reaching a wider audience. Going into the experiment, Frost had the theory that engaging one influencer was good, but more was better. The results showed that a well selected influencer could be better than working with many–even relevant influencers.

Frost undertook another experiment in curating another post, using as many big names as possible. She collated a post of the 20 most successful sales books of all time and emailed the authors a unique link. The post received nearly 6,000 views. Again, 60 percent of traffic was from one influencer – the same who drew 77 percent from the first experiment. The traffic from this one influencer is also in part from the sheer number of followers he has on his networks. The other influencers may have had similar click through ratios, but a much lower audience to pull from in the first place.

The data from these two experiments show that round up posts and curating content deliver a high return but, like other forms of influencer engagement, selecting the right influencers go a long way to netting the ROI you expect. Influencer marketing efforts should focus on finding the best influencer for the job, rather than collecting a wide variety of influencers and micro – influencers.

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7. ABSOLUT – Generating Targeted Buzz with Micro and Nano Influencers

ABSOLUT has a long history of leveraging influencer marketing to compel video views and increase brand awareness. ABSOLUT’s forays into influencer marketing have demonstrated just how valuable this particular type of marketing can be, as it taps into a range of audiences and the power of influencers cannot be overstated. From gaming influencers to travel influencers and pet influencers, countless social media users rely on the recommendations of their favorite influencers for their decision-making processes, and ABSOLUT has done a great job in leveraging that reliance. 

ABSOLUT is a Swedish vodka company that originally launched in 1979. The brand has long recognized the value of partnership, as it partnered with Andy Warhol in 1985 to develop a marketing campaign that was met with great success. Although mobile influencers were likely something out of a futuristic film at this point, ABSOLUT has a history of innovation and a willingness to work through influencer marketing platforms that not many of its peers have demonstrated. 

ABSOLUT’s influencer marketing campaigns have spanned many different types of influencers, and have spread across numerous platforms. One recent example comes from ABSOLUT’s partnership with Heinz, to create a vodka pasta sauce. The partnership itself was a marketing move, but the partnership was heavily promoted on social media prior to its release, driving audience engagement ahead of its release, and reaching larger audiences through the fans of both pasta sauce and the vodka brand. By using micro – influencers and nano – influencers rather than mega – influencers, ABSOLUT ran a successful campaign using user generated content (UGC) that saw over 7 million views. 

ABSOLUT has also seen success leveraging less mainstream but still popular platforms like Twitch. One campaign, created in 2021, partnered up with Twitch streamers like JustGabbo. Overall, the campaign saw a 74% video completion rate and drew over 4 million impressions.  

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8. L’Oreal UK – Leveraging Word-of-Mouth at Scale by Focusing on Relevant Influencers, Not Celebrities

One of the reasons influencer marketing is so powerful is that every day people are discussing the products and providing endorsements, instead of a celebrity being paid to present the message. How can you engage with everyday people to spread your message? Is engaging on a large scale an effective method?

L’Oreal UK engaged their users to amplify the social media ‘word of mouth’ conversations and inspire user-generated content surrounding their products, (primarily the Pure Clay Mask line). The brand worked with 2,000 UK-based women aged 20 to 55 over three months. The influencers were not selected for their large following, but rather those willing to post about the detox cream. The everyday influencers posted about the detox cream and posted photos and reviews of the clay mask across all platforms including Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and YouTube. More than 500 stories were posted to Snapchat alone, making this one of the first noted examples of Snapchat being used to promote products on a large scale.

The women rated and reviewed products, posting pictures of them using the face masks, scrubs, and other products. Everyday people using the products, rather than the models depicted in commercials, connected the products to consumers and surrounded the company with organic conversation on social media platforms. Over 5,800 pieces of content surrounding clay masks and the surrounding line of products were produced, resulting in an impressive reach of 741,000 consumers.

L’Oreal UK aimed to engage more on social media, seeing engagement as the actual ROI.

That’s exactly what happened.

Over the three month campaign, the social media conversations surrounding L’Oreal’s products increased 53 percent–a huge increase for a campaign that essentially had zero monetary cost. Importantly, the match market test showed a sales increase of 51 percent, showing the benefits of future engagement using this method. L’Oreal provided marketers with another one of the most successful and clever examples of influencer marketing efforts.

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9. FIJI Water – Leveraging Influencers in New Markets

FIJI Water is no stranger to smart branding; the bottles themselves are easily recognizable and set apart from others, due to their unique shape. Shape alone is not enough, however, as the marketing landscape continues to move from simple advertisements to a more dynamic, constantly-evolving model including a multi-channel approach and the desire for a supportive community from virtually all brands. FIJI Water has adapted well, and continues to fluidly move between campaigns, using engaging and entertaining product pictures via photobombing, as well as engaging social campaigns. 

FIJI Water is a water company that started in 1996. The brand was named for the source of its water: an aquifer in Fiji. Unlike many beverage companies, which rely upon special edition products and special product launches to remain relevant, FIJI Water has continued to maintain the same basic idea in all of its marketing materials: that the water it delivers is pure and unmatched by competitors, and offers authentic experiences of satisfaction across customers. 

While water may not initially seem to be able to reach a massive audience online, FIJI Water has continually proven its ability to navigate influencer marketing and deliver iconic moments. One such example comes from FIJI Water’s foray into marketing in Australia. The brand was eager to find a relevant audience to reach a new market, and found success by leveraging influencer communities within the Australian market. The impact of influencer marketing in this campaign was substantial, as the brand reported over 3 million impressions and $770,000 worth of media value. 

A similar campaign was launched in the UK. The official launch of FIJI Water’s UK site was an invaluable part of the overall campaign, which relied heavily on influencers to complete. The brand sought to create a sense of community by suggesting that FIJI Water was an important part of daily life, rather than an outlier. Ultimately, this is one of the influencer marketing campaign examples listed here that demonstrates how content strategy can differ wildly between campaigns, and how even just a simple lifestyle approach to video content can function as effective communication and bring in new followers.

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10. Noisy May / Vero Moda – Make Influencers Part of Your Product

Like other elements of influencer marketing, product co-creation does not have to rely on celebrity status. Some demographics are in difficult and hard-to-reach places. Harnessing social media can give you the opportunity to speak directly to these groups by working with those to whom the demographic listens. Finding out just the right way to do this can take some thinking outside of the box.

Noisy May, a sub-label of Vero Moda, was looking at reaching fashion interested females between 15 and 25. In keeping with the brand values, the contact had to be done in an interesting and refreshing manner. The brand selected local influencers from the three target markets of the UK, the Netherlands, and Germany, who all had a strong following on social media. The young influencers were then brought on board as ambassadors and designed five pieces each for a collection to be released by the label.

Engaging the influencer beyond simply the social media point and in the actual design process, making them an ambassador, brought much more to both the brand and the influencer. As an ambassador, each influencer was then given more responsibility and felt more tied, as did their audience, to the final product.

The journey of design and creation to the launch was captured by each influencer. Their followers were engaged along the whole ride, expanding the emotional investment of their fans. The community was not just seeing a final product, but came along with the young designers on each step of the journey. The social media access gave the audience of each influencer a unique perspective. Relevant hashtags were promoted along with interactive parts of the site–including, naturally, a shopping microsite.

Over the campaign, the brand netted over 4 million impressions and earned 183 influencer posts with an impressive engagement rate of over six percent. Intangible benefits of influencer marketing would possibly extend beyond measurability, including future engagement and promotion by the ambassadors, and the extended community aspect of the social engagement.

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11. History Channel 

The History Channel has created something of a unique name for itself. From memes to their standard content, the History Channel already has a strong history of bringing in larger audiences by virtue of its platform. That being said, the History Channel could easily fall by the wayside and be seen as stodgy or outdated, but its continued devotion to stepping outside of the box has made sure that it remains relevant. 

The History Channel’s debut on TikTok is perhaps one of their greatest examples of smart influencer marketing. TikTok partnered with a series of diverse creators, to illustrate the channel’s ability to tickle the interests of a diverse range of people. Through short, engaging, and entertaining videos, TikTok creators were able to capture interest and direct their audience to the History Channel’s TikTok page, both verbally and through the video description, in order to increase reach. The campaign was a success, bringing 50,000 people to the platform within a few days of beginning on the platform and boasting more than 21 million views. 

What this particular case study illustrates is that campaigns need not be expansive or even particularly fancy. Mega influencers are not necessary, nor are celebrity influencers; tailoring campaigns to highlight your strengths and entertain your audiences is far more important than getting celebrities like Justin Bieber or Shawn Mendes. Larger audiences can be reached by simply staying on message, and exercising some creativity in your influencer choices.  

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12. Health Ade – Leveraging Influencers for Their Content Creation Skills

As companies look even more to influencers for engagement, and influencers increasingly make themselves available, how can a brand know what to look for in an influencer? How can a brand know what the influencer can bring to the table and if their followers are the real deal and not bots artificially boosting the numbers? Brands looking for a social media presence often have to wade through emails from potential influencers.

Once you identify which ones you want to work with, there remains the time-consuming issues of working on terms of payment and terms of engagement. Engaging and managing relationships with influencers, particularly when the communication is almost always all online, can be difficult.

Increasingly, there are influencer marketing tools to solve this problem. These tools – apps and companies – work as a platform and go-between to handle the mundane details for the brand when working with influencers. Health Ade Kombucha faced these issues when looking at engaging influencers with their product. Rather than approaching each influencer individually, Health Ade worked with them through the tool Trend.

Trend is a mobile-based marketplace that sets the groundwork for brands and influencers to work together. Before listing the influencer, Trend ensures the influencers’ credentials and followers are legit. Brands can post expectations of the interactions with customized requirements, along with new products. When a brand and influencer take a liking to each other, they can communicate directly through the app.

It’s Tinder for brands and influencers.

In the case of Health Ade, they decided how they wanted to interact with brands and used Trend to connect with influencers across the US, without having to worry about the filtering process. The influencers received their sample product and engaged with Health Ade Kombucha in their own way: some cooked with the product, others turned it into a cocktail or showed how they blended it into their workout regimen. The results were over 135 high quality images taken from the unique perspective of the influencer, resulting in 15,000 engagements on Instagram. The campaign pushed Health Ade Kombucha’s popularity and visibility to become one of the nation’s leading kombucha brands.

By using Trend, the brand retains control over the influencer posts by approving what is posted. They are also able to still pinpoint the influencers who they feel best represent the brand ethos, image, and target demographic. The brands are also able to download the collected content influencers create to be able to use in further marketing material. These extra benefits of the interactions with influencers make the whole engagement fluid. When it’s done as easily as it is when using Trend, without the headaches or worries over whether an influencer will come through with the content or if their followers are bots, then using an influencer marketplace like Trend earns its place.

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13. Moncler – Go Big with Influencer Marketing or Go Home

The type of campaign utilized by Moncler is distinct: the company is a luxury sportswear brand, and does not shy away from using some of the biggest names in entertainment–nor does it refuse to rein in the power of influencers who operate on a smaller scale. The goal in Moncler’s marketing campaign is to bring in a range of audiences, as the brand does not shy away from bringing in video views and engagement from a large variety of demographics.   

Moncler is a clothing brand founded in 1952. The Italian brand was started in Monestier-Clermont in France, and was originally intended to provide fashion clothing that was suitable for use in the mountainous region in which it was started. From there, the company grew to include luxury items for sporting endeavors, and has continued to release 8 seasons of clothing with an emphasis on bold yet timeless design–designs that have consistently captured the attention of the influencer community. 

The type of campaign used by Moncler ranges; the company has different subsets of campaigns that they draw from, each of them using the power of influencers. 

Moncler partnered with TikTok creators to create a video series illustrating possible uses for Moncler items. One campaign, the MonclerBubbleUp Campaign, utilized celebrity influencers, partnering with @tydollasign’s music and TikTok stars Charli D’Amelio and Bella Porch to launch a branded hashtag campaign (#MonclerBubbleUp). The campaign yielded over 2 million videos, and saw over 7 billion video views from TikTok users, and 170,000 new followers. 

What this particular campaign illustrates for Moncler is the importance of exercising creativity and driving engagement in this campaign type. By using a hashtag to increase brand visibility and roping in the types of influencers who have truly enormous audiences, Moncler was able to not only reach new heights in follower counts, but also demonstrate how a favorite influencer can yield results.   

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14. Travelocity – Building an Army of Influencers

A major hurdle facing many brands is in connecting organically on a personal level with people. How can a brand connect with humans in a way that is authentic? How can you overcome the hurdles of being a brand to better communicate with customers and foster emotional connection and investment?

Travelocity has innovated the online travel market since its inception in the mid-1990s. Research indicated that where travel agencies have a human face, and people often develop relationships with their travel agent, online travel solutions carry a reputation of being cold and transactional. Travelocity decided that by extending the user experience beyond the initial booking, and engaging a community of influencers to tell stories of their travels, they helped communicate their message to travelers on a personal level.

To put a human face on an online travel company, Travelocity enlisted the services of a range of influencers who were frequent travelers. The company wanted to leverage the content of influencers and share real travel stories. To launch their influencer marketing program, Gnational Gnomads, Travelocity identified niche influencers in the U.S.A. who traveled and who showed real engagement with their followers. From the beginning, Travelocity wanted to create long term relationships. To do this, they wanted to give as much as they could.

It began with a small curated influencer event in New Orleans. The program increased over time. The brand also listens to the influencer, showing trust and faith in the influencers with whom they choose to work. Much of the content is created by influencers, giving Travelocity the ability to connect organically with customers on an emotional level through emotive stories of travel.

To enhance and refine engagement with influencers, Travelocity leveraged tools–Traackr, most specifically. Traackr helped Travelocity refine and improve their communication and engagement to be more efficient. Through Tracckr, data was found to identify influencers and key conversations in order to personalize the engagement with the community. The tool also helped manage influencer relationships and scale the program by using analytics and data insights. The real time visibility of Traackr showed actual engagement and campaign progress.

Since 2014, the Gnational Gnomad program has expanded to almost 100 key influencers, resulting in an astounding 1,000 percent increase of brand mentions, and a 1,200 percent increase of brand impressions. Travelocity continues to engage with influencers with a niche engagement in travel across the U.S.A., each with their own angle and speciality, but with the same goal of telling stories about travel.

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15. Pala Casino – Micro-Targeting Influencers to Expand Your Audience

Influencer marketing is often quite successful when showcasing a new element to your brand or spreading the word about what you do beyond your usual base. How can you showcase your services and engage with influencers to expand your demographic? This influencer marketing example will show you how!

Pala Casino Resort and Spa recognized that their clientele were often retirees or an older demographic. They wanted to push into another demographic–namely, Gen-Xers. They worked with an agency to organize an event for influencers in order to showcase their resort for a wider demographic. The event was an expenses-paid getaway over three stages on a weekend, including food and drinks, entertainment, and slot games.

The agency identified over 200 influencers who satisfied the resort’s target demographic in age, geography, and the content specifications. On top of the initial wave of the influencers sharing the content, Pala Casino also wanted to collate a range of material they could use in their own marketing later. Engaging with influencers with a keen visual eye and style was essential. This meant that not only did the influencer have a following that covered the goals of the resort, but the influencer’s individual style would also speak to the target audience when repurposed later.

The resort invited 21 bloggers and Instagrammers to the event. Each influencer was asked to curate a minimum of three pieces. The event had an overall reach of 28 million through the initial wave of content. The resort also collected 876 pieces of content they could repurpose. The program led to over 50,000 engagements and an increase in over 1,000 new Facebook likes.

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16. Maserati – The Power of the Influencer Account Takeover

Developing a constant stream of content that resonates with your audience is not an easy task. It often involves a lot of research and developing your own visual language to present your products in a fresh light repeatedly. What value does giving influencer collaboration bring to the publication of content on your social media accounts? How can influencers bring a fresh approach to your visual language? This influencer marketing example showcases the power of collaborating with influencers on content.

Maserati decided to take another road. Instead of developing their own visual language and voice for their Instagram feed, they would bring in influencers to take over their account each month. It was not about adopting the brand image and having influencers conform to it, but a way to give the influencer the keys to the account completely. The influencer’s content is the brand’s Instagram content engine entirely. Each month, a different influencer documents their day-to-day experience with Maserati and posts to the account. It brings an authenticity the brand would otherwise be unable to attain, along with a fresh perspective, voice, and lifestyle each month.

The influencers the brand brings on board are not necessarily involved in the auto industry. Some have a level of celebrity themselves, and others are well followed fashion influencers whose followers might have no contact with a brand like Maserati. Bringing in a different perspective brings a fresh look at photographing cars. The account takeover allows the influencer to bring their own view on the brand – perhaps a country drive, or for others it means driving around London for meetings – and work in their own visual language.

The influencer also brings their audience to Maserati’s, expanding the reach of the Instagram account. By engaging with a fashion influencer, or a celebrity chef, the brand is able to harness a fresh approach to visual communication while also expanding the reach of the posts.

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17. Santa Fe Opera – The Power of Reaching a New Audience with Influencers and Events

How can you use an event to engage with the community? Can several levels of engagement bring a different result? Here is a great influencer marketing example that shows how you can leverage events.

Santa Fe Opera approached Simply Social Media, a social media agency, with three goals in mind: to spread their information to a new and younger demographic, to engage the Albuquerque community, and to increase their presence on social media. Santa Fe Opera wanted to focus particularly on Instagram, and with this in mind the agency organized five Instameets over a month to engage with the community–and, in particular, the photographers within the local community. When you consider that Instagram was originally developed for the sharing of photographs, you can understand how many photographers have been able to translate their skill to create an influential community on the social network.

The Instameets focused on the diverse range of the Santa Fe Opera program, including the classical standard Die Fledermaus and more cutting edge shows such as The (R)evolution Of Steve Jobs. Chartering a bus for 47 Instagrammers to the Steve Jobs opera presented an opportunity for the influencers to engage with the Opera for the entire day, documenting the experience of the bus ride and the tour of the facilities, and capturing unique angles for their photographs along with the performance. The reach of the Instagrammers involved in the events spread the word across social media, bringing traffic and attention to the accounts of Santa Fe Opera. As an extra incentive, the Opera organized a competition of the photos, with ten being exhibited in a pop-up exhibit.

Engaging with the influencers by creating an event for them gave the Instagrammers a unique perspective on the facilities. Being able to give their followers a different perspective gave the influencers incentive to find these perspectives, along with the chance to have their photography showcased in the competition. By engaging with those who had some interest in photographing the event, the Opera could connect with the very community of which these influencers were a part.

Beginning with such a defined set of goals and a method that addressed each point directly gave effective data points to measure. The mentions and use of hashtags were up across Instagram and Twitter. The 1,667 posts drew engagement of over 2,050,000 on Instagram alone in the two months measured. The Santa Fe Opera’s own account grew over this time, too. The second round of exposure through the photography competition brought more attention and showed the unique perspectives the photographers captured.

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There you have it! I hope you learned something new about influencer marketing and how you can collaborate influencers as a powerful ingredient in your marketing mix. If you haven’t read The Age of Influence yet, you can download a free preview of it here.

Which of these influencer marketing examples did you find to be the most compelling? If you’re reading this and you’d like to have your company, agency, or tool to be considered for future revisions of this post, please note so in the comments below.