3 Great Influencer Marketing Campaigns to Remember

Brands are find­ing cre­ative ways to engage key influ­encers with­in com­mu­ni­ties.

Danny Goodwin By Danny Goodwin from Momentology. Join the discussion » 0 comments

Today, brands are com­ing up with cre­ative ways to engage key influ­encers with­in com­mu­ni­ties to help them mar­ket their brand, their prod­ucts and ser­vices. Let’s look at three influ­encer mar­ket­ing cam­paigns to remem­ber.


Influ­encer mar­ket­ing – the type of mar­ket­ing that has brands part­ner­ing with indi­vid­u­als who have the pow­er to get the word out, and rouse action from the tar­get con­sumer – is grow­ing.

Over the past few years, big brands have cre­ative­ly col­lab­o­rat­ed with key peo­ple who have influ­ence over their com­mu­ni­ties. In this Forbes arti­cle, author Kyle Wong dis­cuss­es the explo­sion of this new type of mar­ket­ing, and what brands can do to pre­pare.

Let’s review three bril­liant influ­encer mar­ket­ing cam­paigns to date.

1. 7 Influential Bloggers Effectively Launch a Theme Park

This clas­sic exam­ple of influ­encer mar­ket­ing dates back all the way to 2007, when the VP of pub­lic rela­tions and new media at Uni­ver­sal Orlan­do Resort decid­ed to engage com­mu­ni­ty influ­encers to get the word out about “The Wiz­ard­ing World of Har­ry Pot­ter” – a new theme at the park.

Sev­en influ­en­tial blog­gers from Har­ry Pot­ter fan sites were invit­ed to be the first to know about the planned Har­ry Pot­ter attrac­tions, and from that, 350 mil­lion peo­ple heard the news.

Cyn­thia Gor­don, the woman behind this influ­encer mar­ket­ing cam­paign (today vice pres­i­dent of cor­po­rate affairs at Nin­ten­do of Amer­i­ca), had this to say about influ­encer mar­ket­ing in David Meer­man Scott’s pub­li­ca­tion, “The New Rules of Viral Mar­ket­ing”:

When you have a pas­sion­ate fan base for your brand, the Inter­net is espe­cial­ly vital for going viral. Com­mu­ni­cat­ing to a small but pow­er­ful group of fans first online to enlist their sup­port is a smart way to ensure pos­i­tive cov­er­age in the main­stream press. The pow­er of the Inter­net makes it eas­i­er for peo­ple to fall in love with you faster.”

2. MasterCard Uses Celebrities to Drive Engagement, Touch Lives

Hav­ing celebri­ties as the face of a brand is noth­ing new, but what is new is the way in which these cam­paigns are impact­ing the con­sumer and dri­ving engage­ment.

As part of its “Price­less Sur­pris­es” pro­gram, Mas­ter­Card kicked off a social cam­paign with the hash­tag #Price­less­Sur­pris­es in Jan­u­ary 2014 for Twit­ter and Insta­gram, which sur­pris­es con­sumers with gifts to remem­ber, like a vis­it from Justin Tim­ber­lake. In a press release, MasterCard’s CMO, Raja Raja­man­nar, said of the pro­gram:

”The suc­cess of Price­less is dri­ven by the campaign’s abil­i­ty to cre­ate emo­tion, influ­ence behav­ior, unite peo­ple and touch upon con­sumer pas­sions. Price­less Sur­pris­es is an evo­lu­tion from cel­e­brat­ing price­less moments and enabling price­less expe­ri­ences to inspir­ing Price­less in new and unex­pect­ed ways.”

Price­less Sur­pris­es is an expan­sion of and new twist on its long-run­ning “Price­less” cam­paign, and accord­ing to this report, has been wild­ly suc­cess­ful for Mas­ter­Card thus far.

3. L’Oreal and YouTube Star Michelle Phan Influence Makeup Together

Last sum­mer, L’Oreal announced it would part­ner up with a new type of “celebri­ty” – one forged from the com­mu­ni­ty whose rise to fame came on YouTube: Michelle Phan.

Phan, who has more than 7 mil­lion sub­scribers on YouTube, was among the first beau­ty “vlog­gers” that rose to pop­u­lar­i­ty. Her make­up line “em michelle phan” for L’Oreal launched in August 2013.

In a press release, L’Oreal’s Car­ol Hamil­ton dis­cussed the deci­sion:

Beau­ty lovers are increas­ing­ly con­sum­ing and shar­ing infor­ma­tion dig­i­tal­ly, through online com­mu­ni­ties. We saw the pow­er of these com­mu­ni­ties and want­ed to meet them where they live – online. Michelle Phan’s exper­tise in make­up, plus her pas­sion for teach­ing and empow­er­ing women has made her a dig­i­tal phe­nom­e­non. She rep­re­sents exact­ly what this line is all about – com­mu­ni­ty, empow­er­ment, artistry.”

But L’Oreal isn’t the only com­pa­ny that’s approached Phan for deals – Lancôme and Glam­house are a cou­ple to note, and accord­ing to this video clip from The Insid­er, Phan is worth more tha $1 mil­lion now.


Do you have a favorite influ­encer mar­ket­ing cam­paign? Tell us about it in the com­ments.

Entity Banner Momentology

Danny Goodwin

Written by Danny Goodwin

Managing Editor, Momentology

Danny Goodwin is the former Managing Editor of Momentology. Previously, he was the editor of Search Engine Watch, where he was in charge of editing, content strategy, and writing about search industry news.

Inked is published by Linkdex, the SEO platform of choice for professional marketers.

Discover why brands and agencies choose Linkdex

  • Get started fast with easy onboarding & training
  • Import and connect data from other platforms
  • Scale with your business, websites and markets
  • Up-skill teams with training & accreditation
  • Build workflows with tasks, reporting and alerts

Get a free induction and experience of Linkdex.

Just fill out this form, and one of our team members will get in touch to arrange your own, personalized demo.