How to Maximise

Your Influencer
Strategy
This Playbook from BoF Education unlocks the actionable
insights required to succeed at influencer marketing today.
Created exclusively for BoF Professional Members.

businessoffashion.com May 2019

Contents

Executive Summary 03

Preface 04

Introduction 06

01. Picking the Right Influencer 08

02. Building Partnerships 17

03. Executing Engaging Campaigns 26

04. Measuring Appropriate Metrics 33

Conclusion 40

Appendix 41

Further Reading 47

Attributions and Industry Sources 49

businessoffashion.com 2
Executive Summary
Fashion and beauty brands exploring marketing mix: according to a study by
influencer marketing often discover more Launchmetrics, 60% of brands expect
questions than answers: should they their influencer marketing budgets to
feature a micro-influencer or mid-tier increase in the near future.
influencer in a campaign – or spring
This Playbook was created with a simple
for a Kardashian? How can they tell if
goal: to provide a set of guiding principles
an influencer marketing campaign is
for brands to develop best-in-class
working? And above all: is influencer
influencer strategies in fashion and
marketing really worth it?
beauty. Its principal aim is to provide
Social influence has always existed as actionable insights and a step-by-step
a marketing tool, but the rise of social guide to working with influencers across
media and the Millennial generation has all execution phases, from identifying the
supercharged the landscape. With two right brand partners to measuring results.
out of every three Millennials installing
To accomplish this, we spoke with
ad blockers according to PageFair, an
influencers, marketing experts and top
influencer strategy spans beyond
minds at leading agencies and brands to
traditional ad space and integrates
gather rich insights about the industry
branded content “in feed” instead. With
today. Drawing on the far-reaching
the added value of the ability of
experience of our industry sources,
influencers to tailor a brand message for
we conducted qualitative analyses to
their followers for greater impact, an
distil what makes a fashion or beauty
influencer strategy is now critical to
influencer strategy successful.
reaching consumers the world over. When
executed strategically, influencer The Playbook is split into four chapters
marketing is a powerful way to reach new mapping each stage of the influencer
markets, deepen brand loyalty with partnership process:
existing customers and drive sales.
Chapter 1 provides guidance for selecting
Global ad spend on influencers is the right ambassadors
predicted by Business Insider Intelligence
Chapter 2 suggests best practices
to reach between $5 billion and $10 billion
for influencer-brand relationship
by 2022. But getting an influencer
development
strategy right is increasingly complex
and challenging, and the murkiness of Chapter 3 outlines the ingredients
the nascent space doesn’t make it any for successful content strategies
easier. Brands can feel like they are
Chapter 4 provides guidance for
operating in the dark, with no clearly
measuring success
defined rules for payment rates or
measuring return on investment. In addition to interviews, the Playbook
also includes a series of case studies on
Influencer marketing has the power to
some of the most successful influencer
drive authentic customer engagement
partnerships, as told by those directly
and sales, but brands must be willing to
involved. And in the appendix, you will
adapt to market changes in this dynamic
find practical tools and frameworks
industry. Where sponsored posts modelled
designed to help you apply these
on traditional product endorsements were
learnings to your business.
once the gold standard, consumers are
growing increasingly sceptical of With this Playbook, we’ll remove some
influencers who come off as “inauthentic”. of the mystery surrounding influencer
This means that, above all else, identifying marketing and provide the guidance any
the right influencers and campaign fashion professional needs to thrive today.
messaging is key. Brands should consider
influencer marketing as an investment in
diverse brand ambassadorship rather than
transactional product endorsements.
Navigating influencer marketing is not
always a smooth ride, but no matter the
size of your fashion or beauty business,
it’s an increasingly important part of the

businessoffashion.com 3
 Preface:
A Brief History of
Influencer Marketing
A shift in the landscape of traditional advertising is prompting fashion professionals to invest
in influencers as a strategic priority in their marketing mix.
“Consumers now expect to
engage in a meaningful
two-way dialogue with
brands, rather than
just passively receive
marketed messages”
businessoffashion.com
Selling product through celebrity and
personality is nothing new; the British
royal family’s endorsement was highly
coveted as far back as the 19th century.
More recently, the 1980s saw pop stars
such as Madonna become marketing
vehicles for fashion brands, followed soon
after by supermodels in the 1990s, who
helped brands such as Versace achieve
mass-market renown.
“When they weren’t called influencers,
they were called tastemakers, and when
they weren’t called tastemakers, they were
called socialites,” says Leandra Medine
Cohen, founder of Man Repeller, the
fashion blog that turned Medine Cohen
from an editor into an influencer, with her
own campaign deals and line of footwear
stocked at Farfetch and Shopbop.
Medine Cohen was at the center of a shift
in the influencer landscape in the 2000s,
as she and other bloggers appeared on
the global stage as more-relatable figures
than the celebrities of past decades,
though just as aspirational. Fashion and
beauty bloggers, and the Instagrammers
who followed in their wake, gave rise to
“influence” as we know it today, proving
their effectiveness as digital distribution
channels for product and brand messaging.
The rise of social media transformed
the relationship between brands
and consumers from broadcast to
conversational. Consumers now expect to
engage in a meaningful two-way dialogue
with brands, rather than just passively
receive marketed messages.
At the centre of this are influencers, who
have become a staple means of creating
those authentic communications about
products and brands to drive positive
interactions. Where stars once relied
on magazines and traditional media to
exert their influence, the rise of social
media created easily accessible, direct-
to-consumer channels for their personal
brands. Fashion influencers such as
Chiara Ferragni command Instagram
followings in the region of 16 million. And,
Kim Kardashian West, with 135 million
followers on Instagram, has a much larger
– and more global – distribution than any
fashion magazine can provide (American
Vogue, which featured Kardashian on its
May 2019 cover, has a circulation of about
1.2 million). While brands cannot control
these influencer-led communications in
the way that they control print ads, they
can seed, nurture and influence them.
Now, influencer marketing is an essential
marketing tool, particularly as brands
look for alternatives to a shrinking pool
of print media and increasingly expensive
display ads and paid search results online.
Business Insider Intelligence predicts that
global spending on influencer marketing
will reach between $5 billion and $10
billion by 2022. Taking the midpoint
of $7.5 billion as a base case, this reflects
a compound annual growth rate of 38%.
As a percentage of the global advertising
market, this is still relatively tiny.
According to eMarketer, influencer
marketing is set to make up 0.95% of all
media ad spend by 2022, an increase from
a 0.36% share in 2018. Fashion and beauty
brands are driving much of this growth,
comprising at least 40% of spending on
influencer marketing in the US and Europe
in 2017, according to Launchmetrics.
Whether it was Claudia Schiffer becoming
“the face” of Chanel or Medine Cohen
giving readers the exclusive on her
accessories line, influence has and will
continue to work as a form of word-of-
mouth marketing, by diffusing trends
through social spheres via “opinion
leader” channels. Having cultivated
their own network of followers on social
media, these individuals have the power
to influence behaviour and attitudes as
a type of third-party endorser. This age-
old practice has been proven to be more
effective than brand messages because
consumers believe it to be authentic and
4
Preface
1980s 2000s
Pop stars become fashion Bloggers hit the
marketing powerhouses mainstream
1950s 1990s
Influence of aristocrats Supermodels become
and royals begins to the face of brands
wane
trustworthy, according to research by
professors Mira Lee and Seounmi Youn in
the International Journal of Advertising.
And the practice has evolved further
still. Today, influencer marketing has
matured from a PR tactic to a media tactic,
according to Paper magazine creative
director and digital marketing expert
Drew Elliott. This signals a broad shift
from earned to paid media: where brands
traditionally earned third-party product
endorsements through customer reviews
and recommendations, now product
endorsements have largely shifted to
paid commercial exchanges. As part of
this shift, the influencer’s role evolves
from simply distribution of messages to
production of comprehensive, creative
media strategies. Out of this, an entire
ecosystem of new players has entered the
space, from talent and brand agencies to
creative agencies and third-party metrics
analysis companies. In fact, a handful of
influencers are even consulting for brands
or launching their own agencies, such as
Pernille Teisbaek’s Social Zoo, co-founded
with partner Hannah Løffler Schmidt, or
Tina Craig’s Estate Five.
Influencers are “PR machines, media
distributors, impression drivers, but
they are also content creators,” says
Justin Rezvani, Forbes’ 30 Under 30 and
founder of influencer-marketing platform
theAmplify, which he exited in January
2018. But marketers can easily fall into the
trap of treating influencers as a low-cost
and low-resource advertising channel for
a pre-defined brand message. They can get
stuck in one-off paid marketing moments,
churning through multiple different
influencers, which simply results in spikes
and drops in conversion without lasting
impact.
Influencer marketing faces other
challenges. Consumers care deeply
about reducing the number of ads
they encounter. Sixty-nine percent of
Gen-Z consumers are likely to avoid
ads, according to a study by Kantar
Millward Brown’s AdReaction. Of course,
advertising won’t disappear, but it does
businessoffashion.com
2020+
Influencer
maturity
2013
Rise of social
media influencers
of today
have to appear to be more organic – which
is where influencer marketing steps in.
As reported by Retail Dive, a study by
jewellery brand Dana Rebecca Designs
shows that 72% of Millennial Instagram
users polled buy fashion and beauty
products based on Instagram posts.
And, the Facebook-owned photo and
video-sharing social networking service
remains the most powerful of all the
social platforms for fashion influencer
partnerships. According to Tribe
Dynamics, Instagram accounted for 86%
of the total earned media value (EMV),
for the top 30 fashion brands in 2018
(see appendix for a breakdown of the
top 30). (EMV is Tribe Dynamics’ way
of quantifying the estimated value of
publicity gained through digital earned
media and its respective engagement
levels.) With the introduction of Checkout
to Instagram’s shopping features in March
2019, which allows selected brands and
influencers to sell products to consumers
without the user leaving the app,
Instagram is making its mark as a social
commerce destination. While Instagram
takes a cut of each sale via this new feature
– and is introduced as a third party in the
sales relationship – reducing the friction
between discovery and purchase optimises
Instagram for sales conversions and makes
the app potentially even more lucrative
for influencer activations.
As the influencer marketing space
continues to grow, brands will need to keep
abreast of influencers’ and consumers’
changing attitudes and behaviours in order
to design and execute effective influencer
strategies that build loyal audiences and
tell engaging brand stories. When executed
well, influencer marketing can deliver
the holy grail of authentic engagement
and conversion. When executed poorly, it
has the potential to be a waste of valuable
marketing budget at best, and brand
damaging at worst.
5
Introduction:
The Rules of the Game
Having a clear vision of the target customer and business objectives is the starting point
for any influencer strategy. Together, these will lay the foundations that drive successful
influencer activations.
100%
Of all influencer campaigns in
2018 incorporated instagram
90%
Of brands increased their earned
media budget between 2012 and 2017
84%
Of top 10 beauty brands’ 2018 EMV
was generated on Instagram
Source: Tribe Dynamics
businessoffashion.com
A little over a decade after Facebook
became available to anyone with a
valid email address and an internet
connection, the consequences of social
media’s near-ubiquity have become
impossible to ignore. And while Facebook
has been challenged by crises around
data mishandling and fake news, social
media use across platforms continues to
grow. There are 3.48 billion total global
active social media users in 2019 across
20 platforms, up 9% from the previous
year, according to a report from social
media management platform Hootsuite.
Additionally, the report shows that the
average social media user spends an
average of 2 hours 15 minutes on social
media each day, representing a significant
opportunity for fashion and beauty brands
to reach new markets and communicate
with existing consumers in new ways.
But first, brands need to set core
objectives and develop deep knowledge
of their customers.
Set measurable objectives
When it comes to influencer marketing,
“the brands that know themselves the best
are the ones that generally do make the
right decision,” says Max Stein, founder
and CEO of creative management agency
Brigade Talent.
The first step in the influencer
marketing process is to establish and
align key objectives for your brand with
accompanying key performance indicators
(KPIs). These should cover short-,
medium- and long-term goals. “Really
think about who you are and what message
you’re trying to communicate,” Stein says.
Be sure to include objectives for both
your overarching, channel-agnostic
influencer strategy, then drill down into
KPIs for specific campaigns as you move
into the execution phase. Whether your
objective is to increase brand awareness
within a particular audience segment,
drive sales of a new product launch,
or change brand positioning through
creative storytelling, your campaign
objectives and KPIs should be specific
and measurable, including timeframes,
platforms, audiences and metrics.
Be creative with
your objectives
“Don’t think Instagram only,” says Tina
Craig, founder of influencer agency Estate
Five, also known as @bagsnob. “Don’t be
a tunnel-vision brand that’s like, ‘we just
want a bunch of likes and we want to grow
our following.’”
For example, apparel and sportswear
brand Good American’s “Style Squad”
programme has influencers curate a mix
of their favourite products and create
their own dedicated shoppable page on
the label’s website. This is likely to drive
more sales than if the same influencers
had merely posted images of themselves
wearing Good American apparel.
Objectives should be adapted according to
the characteristics of your target market,
since cut-and-paste methods won’t be
as effective as tailored campaigns. To
make a campaign work regionally or for
a specific consumer segment, you’ll need
to tailor which influencers you select, your
overall content strategy, goal-setting and
platform choice. For example, Russian
fashion editor Sascha Amato told BoF
that consumers in his region “aren’t that
interested in things that are at the top
of the agenda for Western Europe and
American brands right now,” such as fur
and model size on runways.
Understand your
target consumer
As with any form of marketing, brands
should begin by developing personas
to understand the identity of the target
consumer profile, including both
demographic and psychographic layers.
Delphine Del Val, founder of creative
agency Pool Creatives, encourages brands
to ask: “Who is your preferred customer?
What does she do? Where does she live?
6
Introduction
12%
Of top 10 beauty brands’ 2018 EMV
was generated on YouTube
83%
Of top 10 luxury brands’ 2018 EMV
was generated on Instagram
Source: Tribe Dynamics
Source: Unsplash
businessoffashion.com
What does she look at? What is she “Who is your preferred
reading?” Then, try to determine what
kind of influencer is going to talk to customer? What does she
that audience.
do? Where does she live?
Consumer personas describe the profile of
the audience you are trying to reach, and What does she look at?
not necessarily that of the influencers you
should be engaging. Lyn Slater, otherwise What is she reading?”
known as Icon Accidental, the 65-year- Delphine Del Val
old New York college professor with a
650,000 strong following, says that brands
frequently make the mistake of assuming
she’s best-suited to pitch to senior citizens.
“They don’t understand how inclusive it
is,” she says of her audience. “They want
me to sell something that is for people who
are 60 to 80… that’s not my audience on
Instagram.” Slater’s largest follower group
is aged 25 to 45, she explains.
Brands need to understand their target
audience’s DNA and how this maps onto
an influencer’s own audience, specific to
each platform where the brand wants to
engage.
“On my Instagram, for example,” says
Slater, “what my audience is attracted to
is my attitude,” and so she’ll use language
that is familiar to a younger generation. On
her blog, she writes for an older audience
about social and cultural issues. The more
you can hone in on your focus, the easier
it will be to determine your strategy.
But how should you go about matching
influencers and campaigns to customers?
Read on to find out.
7
 01

Picking the
Right Influencer

businessoffashion.com
01: Picking the Right Influencer
A perfect match between influencer and brand can only happen through careful evaluation,
backed by a mix of data and intuition. Brands must consider not only the size of an influencer’s
following but make choices in line with their own business strategy and values.
The most effective influencers are diverse individuals who not only have wide-reaching platforms, but the know-how for engaging with
them and shaping behaviour. But with anecdotes of overpayment and under-delivery plaguing the practice – such as “It” boy Luka Sabbat
who is on the wrong end of a lawsuit about his influencer obligations (see page 23) – and PR disasters erupting out of seemingly innocuous
missteps, how do you know who will be able to deliver on your objectives?
The influencer selection phase can very easily become a numbers game that involves chasing talent with the highest social following. But
brands shouldn’t think of one million followers as a magic number. Influencers need to be evaluated also for how they engage with their
following, and numbers only tell part of the story.
It’s not enough to bank on instinct either. “You can have a girl who you think is totally perfect for your campaign but her following could be
95% male,” says Annie Harrison, senior PR & influencer manager for the UK division of beauty giant Benefit Cosmetics.

Understand influencer tiers

One of the first steps in your selection
process should be to develop an acute
understanding of the different types of
influencer tiers. Broadly, influencers can be
sorted into tiers according to their follower
counts, with each level having its own set of
unique advantages and disadvantages.
Macro influencers have the largest digital
footprint and are likely the ones you’ve
already seen in worldwide campaigns or
front row during Fashion Week. They are
managed by talent agents and can charge
upward of $50,000 per post, making
them “too big” to work with in the eyes
of many brands. Don’t dismiss them out of
hand, however. The key to working with
macro influencers is to look for alignment
between your brand’s values and an
influencer’s values. They should be factored
into campaigns with sizeable budgets
that have increasing brand awareness
as their primary goal.

Tier definitions
Influencer Type Follower Count Key Value Drivers Limitations Examples

• Partner with • High cost per Chiara Ferragni

experienced brand activation @chiaraferragni
ambassadors • Over-exposure (16.4 million
Macro 500,000+ • Process managed by • Lower engagement Instagram followers)
professional teams • Difficult to attract Example brand
• Large-scale impact influencer’s attention partnerships:
on brand image if an unknown brand Dior, Intimissimi

• Competitive, in high Paloma Elsesser

• More affordable demand by fashion @palomija (211,000
than macro and beauty brands Instagram followers)
Mid 100,000-500,000 • Easier to contact • Increasingly difficult Example brand
• Still reaches a large to recruit as quantity partnerships:
audience of influencer’s Violeta by Mango,
partnerships grow Glossier

• Sales and Alexandra Carl

• More time and effort @alexcarl (57,900
engagement with
required to scale Instagram followers)
communities in
Micro 10,000-100,000 • Little individual
specific verticals Example brand
impact on
• Lower cost per partnerships:
brand image
activation Gap, Farfetch

• Sales and
engagement • Requires high level Alexis Baker
with otherwise of resourcing to @alexisbakerrr (3,239
unreachable niche manage and scale Instagram followers)
Nano 1,000-10,000 • Accessible and • Influencer less
approachable experienced Example brand
• Personal, authentic in delivering partnerships:
relationship partnerships Clinique, Dr. Jart+
with audience
businessoffashion.com 9
01: Picking the Right Influencer

Among influencers engaging with smaller

Digital Marketing Funnel communities, mid-tier influencers are
adept at targeting consumers brands
The funnel framework shows the different stages customers pass through during the previously considered difficult to reach,
customer lifecycle, mapped against influencer tiers.
in addition to large but under-served
groups, such as plus-size women. Smaller
still are micro influencers who brands are
INFLUENCER TYPE SAMPLE OBJECTIVE turning to for sales conversions – many
beauty influencers, who might have 50,000
followers hanging on their every word,
fall in this category. Nano influencers
Macro (500k+) Awareness are used to deliver on specific and localised
campaigns – think mid-tier on
a smaller stage, such as a regional
celebrity or an Olympic athlete in a niche
Mid
(100k-500k)
Storytelling sport. Brands have recently gravitated
towards these lower-tiered influencers
over macro influencers, since they often
boast engagement rates (a percentage
Engagement

based on how many likes or comments a

(10k-100k)
Micro

post receives relative to the influencer’s

overall following) which can exceed 10%.
Comparatively, while macro influencers
have a broader reach in terms of follower
counts, average engagement rates plateau
Conversion

at around 2% according to Statista data.

(1k-10k)
Nano

Smaller influencers can also be a great

investment for future exposure: out of
11,500 influencers working with the
top EMV-driving brands, 20% graduate
from micro to mid-tier per year, and 11%
from mid-tier go on to become macro
influencers, says Conor Begley, co-founder
and president of Tribe Dynamics.
Innovation Curve
But working with smaller-scale influencers
The innovation curve defines how ideas and products move from a niche to the mainstream. has its downsides too. To generate real
It is essential to get the support of innovators and early adopters in order to get a product impact, you need to engage a veritable
to spread in the market. network of influencers. Referencing
brands such as NYX Cosmetics and Alo
Yoga, which rank number 6 and 18 in
Earned Media Value for cosmetics and
100 non-luxury fashion respectively Begley
Influencers are often Early explains, “they are not working with one
Adopters, making them or two or 10 or 20, they’re working with
effective trend starters thousands” of influencers to execute an
and allies in driving new always-on approach and a “large-scale
Market Share (%)

ideas or concepts internal operation.” Additionally, micro

50 influencers are less likely to be working
with an experienced team, meaning that
the time and money spent setting up an
activation can outweigh the return.

0
Innovators Early Early Late Laggards
2.5% Adopters Majority Majority 16%
13.5% 34% 34%

EM Rogers (1962)

businessoffashion.com 10
01: Picking the Right Influencer

Source appropriate influencers

There are a few different ways brands can discover influencers with whom to
partner. There is the option to undergo in-house research on social media
platforms or, if your budget allows, hire specialised influencer marketing
agencies that can match talent with your specific campaign needs. There are
also online platforms, such as Dovetale or Hypr, which offer databases to help
select influencers based on defined characteristics.

Searching for influencers organically
is the most cost-effective method, but
also the most time-consuming. You can
start by looking for influencers who
organically post about your product,
your brand’s industry or its competitors,
using hashtags and geo-tags to identify
accounts. Even if you don’t have a
substantial marketing budget, doing
smaller deals with micro influencers
that are already advocating for your
brand “will ultimately lead to new
opportunities,” said Ali Bird, New York
director of artist management agency
The Wall Group.
Investing in in-house influencer research
can pay off later. Influencers are now
such a critical part of the marketing
stack, argues theAmplify founder
Rezvani, that outsourcing isn’t always
the most effective method for brands
to find the right partners. According to
Tribe Dynamics’ Conor Begley, Fashion
Nova “has 20 people full-time in
LA, their only job is working with
influencers… when they choose the
models for their new collections, it’s
based on who posts the most on
Instagram.” (Read more about Fashion
Nova’s strategy in BoF’s report.)
When it comes to selecting influencers,
brands should also assess the diversity
of their ambassadors. Influencer
campaigns in Western markets are
regularly scrutinised by consumers for
their representation of different body
types, races and ages. In the influencer
landscape “everybody is 25 years old
and everybody is six feet tall, skinny and
beautiful,” says Estate Five’s Craig, whose
agency makes it a point to highlight a
range of influencer voices and represents
a diverse client list of 40 influencers such
as @caralynmirand, @hautehijab and
@themiddlepageblog.
In the West, influencers that specialise
in working with accessible brands and
represent diverse perspectives and
aesthetics are often celebrated for their
ability to connect with consumers.
Along with #YouBelongNow, there
are myriad consumer-driven hashtags
(#SupersizeTheLook, #MakeMySize,
and #ChicAtAnyAge among them) that
represent initiatives to encourage and
celebrate previously underrepresented “Even though you want
people of influence.
Remember also that consumers —
to find influencers that
particularly those who luxury brands complement your brand’s
target — want to see some better
version of themselves represented by messaging, you don’t
brands. Influencers should strike the
right balance on the spectrum between want to limit yourself to
aspiration and accessibility, with specific
attention paid to the make-up of the
influencers only working
brand’s target audience. Whether your within your vertical.”
brand is more aspirational or accessible,
it’s paramount to take the time to find
Even though you want to find influencers
new personalities that complement your
that complement your brand’s messaging,
brand and involve them at each stage in
you don’t want to limit yourself to
a campaign’s development.
influencers only working within your
Keep in mind that in other parts of the vertical. According to Raina Penchansky,
world, consumers do not always respond co-founder and chief executive of the first
well to racial or national diversity. influencer talent management agency
For example, in Asia, using a Korean Digital Brand Architects, brands should
influencer in a Chinese brand’s campaign think about being multidimensional.
may not be well received due to various
“People don’t live in one space,” she says,
social and political nuances. Market
“we all follow a multitude of different
characteristics should be well researched
kinds of people. Sometimes brands
with the help of cultural experts or
make the mistake of thinking they
influencers native to a given country.
just have to be very one-note with who
Working with a talent agency can bring they’re working with.” This could mean
added value to the selection process. identifying prominent creators from
Agencies have good knowledge of their other related industries, such as interior
clients’ unique capabilities and can design or health and wellness.
advise on successful partnerships.
“First and foremost, we hear the goals
of the brands, then on those criteria we
do the screening of the influencers. We
might know they’re strong in different
territories, or they’re strong in sales,
or they’re strong on branding and they
open up great press opportunities for the
brand,” says Hannah Løffler Schmidt,
managing director of the social-
influencer and marketing company Social
Zoo, co-founded with influencer Pernille
Teisbaek.
Before approaching an agent, ensure that
you have done your homework. Agents
scrutinise the opportunity to partner
with your brand on behalf of the talent
they represent. Brigade’s Stein says that
when he assesses brand partnerships for
influencers he represents — which include
Reese Blutstein of @double3xposure and
fashion editor Shiona Turini — he looks
for brands that “really want them for
them, rather than projects where they’re
just trying to cast in 20 people.”

businessoffashion.com 11
01: Picking the Right Influencer
Case study:
Inside the #GanniGirls strategy
Danish brand Ganni, a breakout label of the Instagram boom,
began to tap into influencer networks well before it became
standard practice to secure legal endorsement contracts
through agencies and managers.
In 2015, model Helena Christensen coined the now-infamous
#GanniGirls hashtag. Christensen, with her friend and actress
Kate Bosworth, uploaded a photograph to Instagram of the two
wearing the same Ganni coat (uninitiated by the brand) and
captioned it “#GanniGirls,” – a hashtag now synonymous with
the quintessential Copenhagen girl who embodies an effortless
laid-back style. At this point, the brand didn’t even have a social
media manager, admits Ganni founder Nicolaj Reffstrup,
who took on the brand with his wife Ditte in 2009 and has
since sold a majority stake to consumer-focused private equity
firm L Catterton.
The label subsequently adopted the hashtag. Ganni quickly
embraced influencer marketing and nurtured an active group
of ambassadors, including those from then-micro and mid tiers.
Ambassadors ranged from the half-French and half-English
fashion blogger Camille Charrière and Danish model Pernille
Teisbaek to German model and editor Veronika Heilbrunner.
Choosing Ganni Girls is based on identifying how closely aligned
the influencer’s profile, their audience and the kind of product
and price point they could sell is with the brand, explains
Reffstrup. Still, it’s always been about delivering brand stories
rather than selling products for Reffstrup.
“We’ve always tried to let authenticity be the blueprint for
anything we do on social media. We’ve never been governed by
commercial ways to find product sales,” he says. The aesthetic
of the Ganni Girls adds to the brand’s effortless cool persona.
Ganni measures the impact of campaigns by considering
effectiveness rate, reach, engagement rate, impressions, click-
through-rates, website traffic and sales. “We look at effectiveness
on Instagram over engagement, as effectiveness... takes post
saves and video views into consideration [in addition to likes
and comments],” says Reffstrup. “Saves and views are important
metrics for us to take into consideration, as we only expect one
action from our audience. We see post saves, for example, as
Lesson: Influencer engagement is successful when the selection process involves a careful identification of brand
objectives and an ambassador aesthetic and profile that complements the brand’s identity. Engagement of the
right group of micro influencers can deliver a better return on investment than one-off engagement of a macro
influencer with a higher following.
businessoffashion.com
businessoffashion.com
Style Du Monde
just as important success criteria as the traditional engagement
metric, as this means a Ganni follower has saved a post they’d
like to revisit later and potentially shop or have as a reference
for style inspiration.”
Ganni has found the most success with micro influencers. When
a Ganni FW18 pink denim jumpsuit was worn by a few micro
influencers in 2018 – most of whom had approximately 30,000
to 40,000 Instagram followers – it started a trend around the
world.
“Our product ended up in Lyst’s yearly report as the most
wanted item on Instagram in 2018,” says Reffstrup. “Our
initial posts starting this movement were of the cool local
Ganni Girls wearing the jumpsuit. These posts had a 1.5%
higher effectiveness rate than the average effectiveness rate
in that period.”
In comparison, Ganni also reposted content of an influencer
with more than 500,000 followers during that same period, but
the post performed at an average rate.
Today, Ganni’s strategy focuses on engaging influential figures
who have a social media presence as a by-product of their
primary career. Examples include Ana Kraš, the Serbian-
born American furniture designer, photographer and fashion
designer (@teget 84.9k Instagram followers), and Egyptian
chef and food installation artist Laila Gohar (@lailacooks
104k Instagram followers).
This strategy illustrates how brands are seeking out influencer
partnerships with people who are artists in their own right
to keep the relationship aspirational, with “influencer”
becoming a somewhat tainted word associated with stars who
simply push product for a living. As consumers get increasingly
fatigued, the notion of what it means to “influence” has been
put into question, with some so-called influencers distancing
themselves from the moniker to emphasise their genuine
creative credentials. We are at a “tipping point,” says Reffstrup.
With this, brands are choosing individuals who resonate
with audiences for reasons other than their style to bring an
increased level of credibility.
12
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Cautionary tale:
#RevolveSoWhite
Online retailer Revolve is known for both
its influencer-heavy marketing strategy as
well as its glamorous “Revolve Around The
World” trips, which immerse influencers in
fully-branded experiences, often in exotic
locations, at the company’s expense. After
imagery was posted to Instagram from a
January 2018 trip to Phuket, Thailand, it
touched off a storm of negative attention.
Instagram users expressed outrage that
none of the brand ambassadors on the
trip were people of colour or plus-sized
and thereby projected a message to
consumers about which kinds of people
Revolve values most, prompting the
hashtag #RevolveSoWhite.
Blogger and activist Valerie Eguavoen
called out Revolve’s lack of diversity
on her blog and Instagram, further
compounding the backlash. Social media
users generated so much conversation
on the topic that Eguavoen created the
Instagram account @YouBelongNow as
a direct response to the Revolve event,
focussing on content that celebrates
people from a diverse range of
backgrounds and appearances.
At the height of the backlash, Revolve
saw its earned media value (EMV) drop to
the brand’s lowest for the year, to $83.8
million, according to Tribe Dynamics. The
dip was temporary and cannot be solely
attributed to the controversy, however,
with Revolve’s EMV bouncing back to
more than $140 million in the subsequent
two quarters. Whether Revolve has
changed its approach to influencer
selection in response to the backlash is
undisclosed, but its first partnership with
an influencer on a private-label brand is
with Korean-American Aimee Song (see
page 29).
Lesson: Brands should represent racial or
size diversity of their target audience in
their influencer selection in order to be
accessible. But diversity needs to be part
of the brand’s DNA; consumers can spot
when casting is a tokenistic afterthought.
Influencer campaigns can occasionally
turn into PR nightmares, but brands are
not always seriously tarnished as a result.
businessoffashion.com
Assess partnership fit
Equipped with the knowledge that finding the right influencers is about more
than making deals with the industry’s most followed accounts, you can begin
to assess which partners will help your brand reach its goals.
01 — Start with your objective Dior’s independent feminist spirit,” Yiling
Begin by thinking about the specific
Pan, associate editor at Jing Daily, told
BoF at the time of the backlash, with some
objectives of your influencer strategy to
of the online community citing rumours
establish your selection criteria. What are
of plastic surgery and criticising her
your KPIs? Will the partnership help you
acting ability. The brand since revealed
reach a new audience, elevate your brand
a second Chinese ambassador – actor
by association, or drive direct sales?
Huang Xuan – who received a warmer
Lyn Slater of @iconaccidental identifies online response. Brands should pay
two different types of influencer: close attention to aligning values in the
somebody who is a sales person, and delicate matchmaking game of influencer
someone who is going to broaden how selection.
consumers think about your brand.
“I’m not necessarily going to be someone 03 — Research an influencer’s
who’s going to be selling a lot of things partnership performance
for you, but I’m inspiring people to think
You should also explore the make-up of
about how to relate to your product,
your influencers’ campaign history, either
and how to use it to express themselves,”
organically or through their agency, to
she explains.
ensure that your goals can be fulfilled.
Annie Harrison, senior PR & influencer
02 — Understand your brand values
manager for Benefit Cosmetics UK, says
Brands that understand their values are she uses a free online tool by online
those best equipped to assess influencer marketing platform Phlanx to assess an
fit. Develop detailed brand identity influencer’s average engagement rate.
personas to help with your analysis.
This doesn’t have to stop with data. Ask
Kate Spade New York looks for a woman
where they have seen the most success
who is “the heroine of her own story…
on their platforms (via Instagram
someone who’s really strong and has built
stories, permanent feed posts, or
themselves on their own,” says Lalena
some other channel) and with which
Luba, VP of global public relations for
objectives. “Many of the more established
Kate Spade New York. Their partnership
influencers do have stats and information
with Medine Cohen exemplifies that
from their past work that they are always
ethos. “Our objective with someone like
willing to share with you, to a certain
Leandra is to elevate the brand and to give
extent, when you ask, but a lot of people
it personality and give it depth,” Luba says.
don’t ask,” says Luba.
Not only should you ensure influencers
have the right look for your brand, you
04 — Understand the influencer’s
should pay attention to their attitudes and
audience
behaviour. If you align on common values,
such as sustainability, the partnership
Asking for audience demographics is
will feel like an authentic part of the
essential. While some agencies and
influencer’s existing feed rather than a
influencers may not be willing to share
transparently transactional post that
raw data on their followers’ average
followers may reject.
age, nationality and gender, you can ask
Consider the case of Dior and their for anecdotal information, says DBA’s
selection of the brand’s first-ever Chinese Penchansky.
ambassador Angela Yeung Wing, the
Remember that every influencer will have
model and actress better known as
their follower count inflated by bots to
Angelababy. Although Angelababy has
some degree. Analysing over 20 million
86 million followers on Weibo (one
global Instagram account followings,
of China’s most popular social media
digital agency Fohr Card found that, on
platforms), the 2017 appointment
average, 7.8% of an account’s following
sparked intense criticism from some of
was made up of bot followers, with some
the brand’s fanbase, particularly from
influencer accounts averaging as much as
some Chinese netizens who complained
20% , as reported by influencer marketing
that her “poor reputation” in mainland
agency Mediakix. This can occur even if
China did not align with Dior’s brand
the influencer never engaged with or paid
values. “Chinese consumers don’t see
for bot followers. Beginning in November
Angelababy’s public image [as fitting] for
2018, Instagram began sweeping for
13
01: Picking the Right Influencer
“A brand-influencer
partnership is contingent
on developing a
relationship rooted in
reciprocal trust and open
communication.”
Source: Unsplash
What makes an influencer
a sales converter?
businessoffashion.com
inauthentic likes, follows and comments
from bot accounts; however, bot accounts
still remain prevalent in the industry.
Manage this risk by analysing trends in
followers and quality of engagement.
05 — Consider the influencer’s
experience and partnership history
If a potential partner has a history of
successful collaborations, consider
reviewing what kind of content strategies
have worked for them in the past and
how your brand sits among their other
collaborations. Keep in mind that
repeating the same kinds of content,
however successful the first time
around, may not resonate later with their
followers, who may already be inundated
with branded posts. While influencers
with a long history of brand partnerships
will be equipped with valuable knowledge
and experience, there can be too much
of a good thing. According to Activate
Marketing research, brands consider
influencer feeds with more than 44%
sponsored content oversaturated when
assessing partnership fit.
06 — Establish solid trust
and communication
A brand-influencer partnership is
contingent on developing a relationship
rooted in reciprocal trust and open
communication. Pool Creatives founder
Delphine Del Val advises the brands she
works with to look out for influencers
who attempt to disguise the partnership
The unicorn of influencer marketing is that
rare talent who can both build brands and
drive sales. Influencers such as Arielle
Charnas of @somethingnavy are widely
known converters: BoF reported in 2018
that a single Instagram story post from
Charnas linking to Bandier’s e-commerce
site drove over $207,000 in sales for the
luxury activewear brand in just four hours.
But what makes an influencer like Charnas
able to drive product sales in addition to
brand stories?
“It’s entirely about your relationship with
your audience,” says DBA’s Penchansky.
If sharing product recommendations has
consistently been an organic part of the
influencer’s narrative, then the ability to
transition that story into doing it on behalf
of a brand becomes seamless. If it feels
disingenuous, it won’t work.
The price of the product also has a part
to play. According to Brigade’s Max Stein,
influencers such as Leandra Medine
Cohen are rare in that they are able to
sell products at a high price point.
on their platform by removing the brand
hashtags from the negotiation. While
this is not always straightforward and
could also reflect the influencer’s concern
for their own brand dilution, consider
carefully whether the partnership is
win-win for all involved with open
communication. Not disclosing
sponsorship is also illegal in most
territories (see page 28).
07 — Don’t be afraid to flex
your formula
Partnering with the obvious influencer
choice may be a safe bet, but brands can
reap the rewards of taking a risk on a
new approach, especially when trying
to break into a new market or diversify
from competitors. Mango chose 65-year-
old college professor and influencer
Lyn Slater to be part of their “story of
uniqueness” campaign in SS17, which
presented a slight flex on the influencer
demographic selection formula while
still ensuring value alignment. While
Mango did not share specific metrics,
the brand says the relationship with
Slater “performed extremely well” for
them. By mixing up your selection you
may find an ambassador that really
resonates with your audience and enables
your brand to stand out from the crowd.
Ultimately, strategic selection is key.
“You don’t need to work with everyone
to be the best,” says Estate Five’s Craig,
“but everyone you work with needs
to be the best.”
Meanwhile, the majority of influencers’
audiences limit what they are likely to
spend, especially on an unfamiliar brand.
If your beauty product is $1,000, “you
might have 2,000 likes, but 2,000
people are not going to buy it,” explains
Pool Creatives’ Del Val. In other words:
you have to find the sweet spot that
resonates with the right consumer on
the right platform. In the US, 34% of
daily Instagram users have purchased
something from an influencer or blogger
recommendation, while 26% of those
using YouTube daily have made purchases
based on an influencer or blogger
recommendation, according to
2019 research conducted by market
intelligence agency CivicScience.
If your goal is to drive sales, ensure that
your influencer has built a relationship
with their audience that involves product
recommendations, and their audience
demographic is receptive to the price
point of your product.
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01: Picking the Right Influencer

China’s influencer
economy essentials
The importance of the Chinese market to
global fashion brands is hard to overstate.
But brands can often struggle to tap into the
value of influencers in unfamiliar markets.
The Chinese influencer or “wanghong”
economy can be more opaque than its
Western counterpart, and is further
complicated by the rapid speed at which it
is changing.

Though there are many similarities

to the Western influencer ecosystem,
fashion marketers looking to engage
with influencers in China should have
an understanding of market nuances before
planning their global influencer strategy.
Below is a cheat sheet on influencer culture
in China to get you started.

Source: Illustration by BoF

Key characteristics
• Influencers are known as KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) or wanghong (romanisation of
Influencer Terminology
the Mandarin for “internet celebrity”).

• WeChat: messaging, e-commerce and social media ‘super-app’

• Weibo: social media and messaging platform
• Taobao: Alibaba-owned e-commerce platform where many influencers operate
their clothing boutiques
• Douyin: viral short-video app, known as TikTok in the West
• Pinduoduo: social e-commerce group-buying app
Key Platforms • Xiaohongshu: review-centric social e-commerce app
• Momo, Huajiao, Yizhibo: live-streaming apps
• Bilibili and Kuaishou: these specialist video-sharing apps have recently made gains
over giant platforms like Youku and Tencent Video, which have waned in popularity
among fashion and beauty KOLs.
• Instagram: though blocked in China, the photo and video app is used via VPN access
by top-tier influencers such as Mr. Bags who have an international presence.

• Influencer networks and platforms, such as ParkLu, manage and measure brand
partnerships with KOLs.
Agencies and Platforms • In particular, China’s thriving Multi-Channel Networks (MCNs) handle influencer
management for companies such as Douyin. Unlike the rest of the world, it can be
difficult to work with Chinese influencers without going through an MCN.

• KOL “incubators” such as Ruhnn (also known as Ruhan) are one option for KOL
management and the operation of KOL e-commerce businesses.
• The remit of incubators extends beyond that of Western influencer agencies,
ranging from logistics and photo editing to coaching, training and content
creation for their influencers.
• Incubators were born out of the rarity of influencer management agencies in China
Incubators and the opportunity to monetise influencer marketing — some experts argue that
as a result, the country’s influencer ecosystem became increasingly homogenised.
• Incubators primarily build their influencers’ own brands, rather than collaborating
with third party brands.
• Though still in the minority in the Chinese influencer market, approximately 200
incubators with varying business models exist in China, founder and chief executive
of influencer marketing platform ParkLu, Kim Leitzes, told BoF last year.

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01: Picking the Right Influencer

• Like everywhere, many KOLs are singers, celebrities, reality stars, TV personalities
and models.
• Some rare personalities such as Zhang Dayi were skyrocketed to macro influencer
fame by incubators.
• Owing to the size of the market and the relative self-contained nature of the country,
follower counts of Chinese macro influencers extend beyond the scales of Western
macros, with KOLs such as Kris Wu amassing over 46 million Weibo followers.
Influencer Tiers • Different influencer tiers exist, with the challenge of balancing the reach of macro
with the intimacy of micro, much like in other markets.
• Certain Chinese influencers may be considered influential by marketers in the West
but have a different style profile or a less appealing reputation back in China.
• Similarly to Western markets, there is a general movement towards some brands
working with influencers who have a smaller following within a specific vertical,
rather than a broad horizontal community.

• A significant number of influencers have their own fashion and beauty brands
and products, due to the incubator model.
• Influencer marketing is arguably more commercialised in China than some
Western markets. Rarely does a collaboration exist without financial exchange
Brand Relationships unless a high-end luxury brand is involved.
• Like other markets, influencer fees vary greatly based on the platform, the
influencer’s follower count, content requirements and campaign type.
• WeChat and Weibo campaigns are generally priced higher, though the growth
of platforms such as Xiaohongshu means pricing has become more dynamic.

• Instead of grouping consumers into ‘Gen-Z’ or ‘Millennial’ labels, Chinese consumers

are segmented into ‘post-’80s’ and ‘post-’90s’ groups, depending on their age.
Demographics
• Increasingly, these two main demographics are grouped into 5-year interval sub-
segments with markedly different attitudes and behaviour.

• Similarly to Western markets, though later than in the West, there is a growing sense
of scepticism of branded content more broadly, not just branded content promoted
by KOLs.
Market sentiment • Trust is generally declining among consumers. This is especially true of younger post-
’90s Chinese netizens, accounting for the rise of social e-commerce, which appeals
to users looking for reliable reviews and recommendations from peers and micro
influencers more so than paid content.

• There are fewer formal dedicated regulations on influencer marketing practices

in China than in leading Western markets. As a result, transparency or disclosure
Regulations
of sponsored or gifted content lags behind, though a few companies such as
Xiaohongshu have recently implemented tools to disclose partnerships.

• Bot-driven zombie and corpse accounts are prominent in China’s influencer

economy. According to a white paper by AdMaster in 2017, 69% of KOLs engaged
fraudulent “zombie” accounts to boost follower numbers.
• Zombie accounts are fake accounts that are programmed to actively ‘like’ items
Zombie and Corpse Accounts and even post comments, used to increase engagement. Corpse accounts are
inactive and easier to identify, used to simply increase follower numbers.
• However, there is generally less stigma around fake followers than in Western
markets. In general, it is expected that fake accounts will be part and parcel
of popular KOLs’ followings.

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 02

Building
Partnerships

businessoffashion.com
02: Building Partnerships
Establishing relationships with the right influencers is a great first step, but maximum value is
created by nurturing long-term, reciprocal partnerships.

Using influencers to market products is
not about advertising to your audience,
it’s about interacting with them. Or as
Justin Rezvani, who founded Instagram
influencer marketing firm theAmplify,
puts it, “it’s influencer-relationship
management.” Brands need to think
not only about how to develop and grow
through their influencer strategy, but
also about how influencers can grow
with them, representing “a fundamental
change” in traditional marketing.
Recalling the first six months of working
with influencer Reese Blutstein, Brigade’s
Max Stein says, “We were very careful
about the brands that we wanted to
work with [to] make sure that they were
brands that we could develop a significant
relationship with.” As such, Blutstein
partnered with brands like Gucci to
create campaigns that included a street
style shoot for Vogue.com, a sponsored
trip to Italy to promote a fragrance and
appearances at Milan Fashion Week
with the brand. Thanks to the multi-
pronged approach to the relationship, “The transition from
“people associate [Blutstein] with the
brand,” Stein says. This creates a win-win a transactional to a
exchange, whereby Gucci benefits from
Blutstein’s reach and engagement and reciprocal model means
Blutstein herself builds her own brand
equity by association with the brand.
that brands have to be
The transition from a transactional to willing to devote significant
a reciprocal model means that brands
have to be willing to devote significant
time and resources to work
time and resources to work with today’s with today’s creators, either
creators, either in-house or via an agency.
Though the costs may seem steep at first, in-house or via an agency.”
the payoff is worth it. When leveraged as
a partner, influencers move from product
endorsers to more substantive brand
ambassadors, and can ultimately help
to shape your brand strategy should
you choose.
How to build these relationships? The
first steps include executing an effective
influencer outreach strategy, establishing
an objective-led payment model and
negotiating a fair contract for both parties.

Reach out effectively

Initial outreach can be challenging, especially if you’re running an in-house programme. Conversations are often conducted through
social platforms’ messaging features, with many brands leveraging Instagram direct messages as their primary channel.
In order to avoid appearing unprofessional or insincere, follow these guidelines to increase the likelihood that an influencer or
agency responds to your message.

01 — Avoid cold calls
Begin your influencer outreach by
following and engaging with your targeted
influencers on social channels where you
will later want to work with them. Share
their content, comment on their posts,
and like their photos, all of which helps to
increase your brand visibility and build an
online relationship. The approach at Kate
Spade involves following the influencer
to get a feel for what they’re doing, where
they’re going and the other brands they are
working with, then interacting with them
“directly human-to-human,” says Luba.
02 — Personalise your outreach
Approaches are far less likely to garner
a response if they are not personalised to
the influencer or agent. “It’s sort of what
I call the ‘get the people’ approach,” says
Man Repeller’s Leandra Medine Cohen.
“A lot of brands don’t actually know or
care about the influencer they’re tapping.”
While you don’t have to know every
project an influencer has completed,
it’s important to know what their
profiles are about in general and what
kind of partnerships they usually agree
to (make it clear you’ve done your
homework in your initial outreach
message to them).
Plus-size micro influencer Lottie
L’Amour says that she is frequently
approached by fashion brands that want
to gift her products to feature on her
Instagram feed but, when asked for their
size range, reveal they only extend to
UK size 12 or 14. “I’m a size 24,” she
says. “A quick look on my Instagram
will show you that.”
And although it may seem obvious, make
sure you’re getting the influencer’s real
name right, not just their username,
(L’Amour says, “you’d be surprised how
often that does happen”).
03 — Only propose well-matched
collaborations
Demonstrate that you understand the
influencer’s aesthetic and tone of voice
before reaching out. Fashion writer
and influencer Susie Lau, known online
as Susie Bubble, says while she rarely
works with beauty brands, she chose
to work with luxury French cosmetics
house Guerlain to promote their “Rouge
G” lipstick because “they are very,
very fashion-oriented, because they’re
aesthetically like an object,” which
ultimately appealed to Lau’s style.
04 — Share your goals
You should have a very specific set of
objectives and KPIs for your influencer
programme. And you should be transparent
with influencers about the nature of them
from the outset. Man Repeller’s Medine
Cohen always starts brand collaboration
conversations by asking for objectives.

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02: Building Partnerships
“Problem solving for another brand is one
of my favourite parts of what I do. You
can’t solve the problem if you don’t know
what the problem is,” she says. Without
this “you’re left to be treated like a show-
pony,” whereas sharing your goals can be
incredibly revelatory, completely changing
the influencer’s creative capacity.
05 — Make it easy
Keep your email concise and the
subject line compelling. Influencers
receive hundreds of emails every day.
For micro influencers working without
representation, it can be helpful to share
details of the proposed collaboration
upfront, to allow them to make quick,
informed decisions. Ensure that your
email includes a clear call-to-action
for next steps.
Macro influencer Aimee Song
(@songofstyle), who has over five
million followers, says that brands she’s
not previously worked with can make
their outreach smoother by providing
a slide deck to assist evaluation. This
might include the brand’s Instagram
handle, biography and website, in addition
to the reasons why the brand wants
to partner with her and details of the
proposed collaboration.
06 — Be transparent
If your programme is built on gifting, be
transparent about it. Influencers don’t
want to be told that they will be paid in
exposure or product — “you can’t pay
rent with products,” says Pool Creatives’
Delphine Del Val.
Do not let fear of consumer opposition to
advertising prevent you from following
advertising standards and regulations
to declare the partnership. Not only is
it a legal requirement in most territories,
but consumers do not want to feel like
they are being duped. Describing the
collaboration with Leandra Medine
Cohen, Kate Spade’s Luba says, “I think
that there’s a trust in her followers that
if she does partner with someone, even
if it’s very clear that she’s being paid, that
she’s made that choice for reasons that
are true to her and to who she is.”
07 — Switch transactional
relationships for collaborative ones
When working with influencers who have
professional expertise — for example,
stylists, photographers, editors, chefs,
or any number of other creatives — that
extends beyond their digital platforms,
acknowledge that you’d like to highlight
their unique skillset when designing
and pitching a collaboration. In fact,
some creatives are sensitive to the term
“influencer,” expressing that it diminishes
businessoffashion.com
their professional qualifications. Agents
have been known to strike through any
mention of the term “influencer” in
contractual agreements and replace it
with “talent” or “ambassador”. Whether
you’re interacting directly with an
influencer or an agent, brands need to
be collaborative, not transactional. This
means not asking for the influencer’s
fee upfront without any additional
information. Aimee Song says that it’s
a “turnoff” when a brand she hasn’t
worked with before reaches out and
asks: “‘Hey, how much do you charge for
x, y and z,’ without really introducing
me to their brand.” Take time to get to
know the person, their preferences and
how they work. “When there’s enough
respect between parties, that it is truly a
collaboration, and [it’s not] like buying
advertising space in a magazine,” adds
blogger, consultant and influencer
Camille Charrière.
08 — Meet in person
Before you enter into a contract, brands
and influencers need to understand
each other. “Maybe you have a meeting,
maybe you have a brainstorm,” says
Charrière, who advises on as much face
time as possible to establish partnership
fit. “You show all the other projects that
you’re working on. Maybe you want to
incorporate your other platforms, and if
you’re someone who really has got other
channels, maybe you want to be doing
something they haven’t thought of,” she
says. Higher tier influencers may expect to
meet with agents and brand executives to
discuss the partnership. The key to making
any creative relationship work, however, is
to be willing to compromise.
The rules of relationship
building, according
to influencers
“Give me credit for really paying
attention to my audience and what
engages them.”
Lyn Slater, @iconaccidental
657.6k Instagram followers
“Brands that are best at tapping the
talent have talent for a specific reason,
and they’re not trying to fit them in
a box.”
Leandra Medine Cohen, @leandramcohen
808k Instagram followers
“Communicate clearly what you want,
but then also listen.”
Tamu McPherson @tamumcpherson
231k followers
“If you nurture the relationship, both
parties get more out of it.”
Susie Lau @susiebubble
456k Instagram followers
“If it’s just something that I wouldn’t
wear normally, or use normally, then
I wouldn’t work with them.”
Aimee Song @songofstyle
5.2m Instagram followers
“If you invest in them, they will
over-deliver every time and they
will invest in you.”
Tina Craig @bagsnob
450,000 Instagram followers
“The brand has to be able to listen when
you say that something doesn’t work.”
Camille Charrière @camillecharriere
724,000 Instagram followers
“I appreciate the fact that brands
value me enough to send me things
for free, but if it’s not something I’m
going to wear I end up donating it…
I wish that brands would reach out
before sending things.”
Isaac Hindin-Miller, @isaaclikes_
42,200 Instagram followers
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02: Building Partnerships

Choose an appropriate compensation model

As quickly as influencer marketing has
grown, so too have partnership fees.
Still, there is no industry standard or
rate card for how much brands should be
paying for different forms of activation.
This ambiguity can bring a potential
partnership to a grinding halt, with
inability to agree on fees cited as the
most common reason why influencers
reject a deal, according to a report
by Activate Marketing.
A flat fee that is unrelated to the
outcome of the partnership is the
most common model. Depending on
the campaign objective, performance-
based compensation is also common.
“There is no industry
Brands should have the baseline standard or rate card for
expectation that investing in a quality
influencer campaign will not be cheap how much brands should be
if they really want to move the needle,
says Paper magazine creative director paying for different forms
Drew Elliott. But with a strategically
executed compensation model aligned
of activation.”
to your objectives and influencers’
expectations, brands will be best
placed to negotiate payment and
maximise their ROI.

Payment and gifting models

Model Approach Advantages Disadvantages Examples

Not related to outcomes Fixed dollar amount

Low admin requirements (unless bonus is agreed) paid on contract
Flat fee Pay-for-play Meets expectations Often requires large signature and delivery
budgets of work

Increasingly common Risks becoming Cost per engagement

transactional (CPE), cost per click
Performance based Affiliate marketing Motivates influencers (CPA), cost per
to meet KPIs Not yet widely adopted acquisition (CPA)

Can provide content No obligation to deliver

at scale
Content quality may
Budget required for be variable
Gifting In-kind product only New product sampling
Can be an effective trial Price point has to be low
to identify high- enough to gift without
performing influencers guarantee of return

Influencer becomes
Gifted product is the
salesperson rather
only upfront cost Influencer-curated
Commission Reward-style than collaborator
Incentivises influencers Instagram shops
to convert to sales Feels very commercial
to audiences

businessoffashion.com 20
02: Building Partnerships

Understand fees
Brands, influencers and agencies alike agree that the inconsistency of fees
can make influencer marketing feel like the Wild, Wild West. “It’s 50% science,
which probably means it’s 0% science,” says Brigade’s Stein. There is no rate
card or benchmark and, while not willing to reveal exact numbers, industry
sources have told BoF that there can be huge differences between fees paid
to influencers who have profiles of a similar scale and reach. Luckily, there
are a few guiding principles that can help you gauge appropriate remittance
for a fair value exchange when assessing a fee.

“It’s 50% science, 01 — Scope of work very detailed, outlining specific

restrictions about particular competitors
The difference in fees for a one-time
which probably means sponsored post versus a year-long
and the number of posts either side of the
partner post. For macro influencers such
it’s 0% science” contract for a combination of event
appearances, Instagram stories and
as Aimee Song, the exclusivity period is
often two days, unless she’s becoming
Max Stein sponsored posts is significant. As such,
the face of the brand.
scope can be a relatively objective
measure, reflecting the amount of time, Isaac Hindin-Miller, a New York-based
budget and resource demanded of the DJ and content creator who frequently
influencer. “Is there video involved? Do works with men’s fashion and grooming
they need to hire a videographer? How brands, believes that deals based on
much imagery do you want?,” asks DBA’s exclusive relationships are the future
Raina Penchansky. The more content, of this business. “I love an exclusive
resources and touchpoints required, deal when it comes my way so long as it’s
the higher the fee. a product or brand that I actually wear
or use,” Hindin-Miller says.
02 — Usage
05 — Your brand and product
The fee should equate to the amount
of exposure you are asking of your Referring to her own brand partnerships,
influencer and their content. Brands Craig says, “I worked with brands I loved
will sometimes view social campaigns for free just because I wanted to, and
as an inexpensive method and will want more often than not these became very
to reuse assets on their website, email lucrative relationships.” She advises the
marketing and catalogues. This can influencers she represents at Estate Five
increase an influencer’s fees significantly, to consider working with a brand they
says Paper’s Elliott. “It’s going to cost you love even if the fee is below expectations.
more if you move them into your omni- Depending on the relationship the
channel approach,” he explains. influencer has with the brand, it can be
leveraged in the negotiation process.
03 — Engagement and reach
Audience size and engagement data from
existing campaigns undoubtedly impact
fees. This can be the primary driver in
calculation for some digital marketing
agencies and platforms. And there’s a
plethora of online calculators available
to predict fees based on Instagram data.
In any case, while follower count is the
most cited variable that has an important
impact, it’s only one of several variables
used to determine the fee structure.

04 — Formal and informal exclusivity

If you want an influencer to work with
your brand exclusively, the fee will
increase to make the contract exclusive,
to compensate for work the influencer
may miss from other brands.
The exclusivity period can be for a whole
season, or even just 24 hours either side of
a sponsored post. Year-long engagements
are more regularly exclusive than smaller
scale operations. Exclusive deals can be

businessoffashion.com 21
02: Building Partnerships

What’s normal when it comes to contracts and deliverables?

While influencer partnerships have previously been based
on what Benefit’s Harrison calls “a gentleman’s agreement,”
formal contracts are necessary before entering a paid influencer
partnership. Though you can technically enter into contract for
a gift-giving model without payment, “that is not appropriate,” says
Brigade’s Stein, because a gift is not a form of payment
The contract or “term sheet” outlining an influencer-brand
relationship will feature a number of essential elements that need
to be negotiated. If you are a new face to an influencer or agent,
the negotiation process can be slow. “If it’s a project that’s [for] a
year, we could have been discussing it for six months before even
getting the contract,” says Pool’s Delphine Del Val. Once you have
established a relationship based on trust, the process of finalising a
contract is usually much smoother.

The term sheet

Provide specific and measurable details outlining the nature of the collaboration, including:
• Number of activations
Services and deliverables • References to your creative brief and branding guidelines
• Captions and hashtag requirements
• Data reporting requirements

Detail the partnership schedule with key dates, including:

• Dates and times to publish content
Timeline • Dates of specific events and appearances
• Review and approval stages
• Frequency and cadence of posts
• Insights and results delivery period

Outline the length of time that the partnership will encompass. This varies from one-off to
year-long partnerships, and sometimes longer.
Term Also include the term for retaining partner content on an influencer’s feed, as influencers
may want to remove branded posts after a period of time.

Explain the territory that the contract encompasses. “Online-only worldwide” is common
for digital campaigns.
Territory and usage Usage also includes the platforms on which the assets will live, and any rights for reuse
by the brand. It is recommended that brands secure the right to leverage assets where
possible on paid social and non-social channels.

Negotiate whether you will pay to take the influencer talent out of the market with an
Exclusivity
exclusive arrangement and for which period of time.

Build in at least two layers of approval. This grants brands the right to reject the content
Approval if the creative brief has not been met. Brands will often request final sign-off before
publication of assets if they are paying for their creation.

Detail the payment model, amount and schedule. If using a flat-fee model, it’s
Payment terms recommended that payments are distributed throughout the partnership, such as 50% on
signature, 50% on completion. Payment is normally expected within 30 to 45 days.

Include language that ensures the influencer will responsibly comply with and not violate
Standards compliance
advertising standards and guidelines.

Clearly discern who owns assets. Reach a clear consensus and determine who owns social
IP ownership
content before, during and after campaigns.

Explain how the influencer’s data will be received and used internally by the brand, how it
Data protection
will be kept on record and for how long, in compliance with data protection laws.

Outline protocol if the influencer does not follow through on the contractual agreement,
Termination
including a crisis plan to provide a level of security for the brand’s investment.

businessoffashion.com The contents of this article are for general information purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. Specialist legal advice 22
should be taken in relation to specific circumstances.
02: Building Partnerships
What common challenges look like and how to address them
Dispute about whether content is on brief
Influencer doesn’t show up to the
agreed event
Influencer says or does something
inappropriate
Influencer dislikes the product
Influencer is inexperienced and lacking
talent representation
Your budget is at odds with an influencer’s
quoted fee
Cautionary tale: Luka Sabbat vs. PRC and Snapchat
PR Consulting (PRC) filed a lawsuit
against model, actor and influencer
Luka Sabbat in October 2018 accusing
the social media star, who has 1.8 million
Instagram followers, of failing to fulfil
a contractual brief to promote Snapchat
Spectacles on Instagram in 2018.
In the filing which PRC made to the
Supreme Court of New York, it claimed
that Sabbat agreed to share one Instagram
feed post and three stories, and specified
the location of the photography, the CTA
hyperlinks and swipe-up, in addition to the
review process and schedule for submitting
data on comments, reach, likes and views
to PRC. PRC and Sabbat agreed Sabbat
would earn $60,000 for the deal, earning
most of the fee upon signature ($45,000,
75% of the overall contract value).
businessoffashion.com
Provide as detailed a creative brief as possible and agree on at least two rounds
of approval
Include a termination clause for worst-case scenarios. Arrange a proportion of the fee
to be paid upon delivery of work
Build a crisis management plan into your contract
Consider choosing another partner to avoid inauthenticity
Dedicate adequate resources to relationship management and provide as much creative
and administrative direction as possible
Negotiate and never accept an initial offer. Use tools in your arsenal other than payment
to demonstrate value
PRC claims Sabbat shared just one post Lesson: Ensure that your influencer choice
about Snapchat Spectacles and didn’t is in alignment with your brand and that
shoot the photographs in public or return they are actually passionate about sharing
data for analytics within the stipulated your product with their community.
24-hour window. The lawsuit claims Structure a level of security into your
Sabbat admitted the breach and refused contract by creating a payment model
to reimburse the $45,000 upfront fee. that incentivises compliance; stagger
PRC is seeking $90,000 in damages. payments based on dates or deliverables,
so that payment can be made when a
While under-delivery is not uncommon,
brief is fulfilled. Your contract should
this kind of dispute is normally handled by
also include a termination clause which
brands and agencies privately. Not only do
outlines the protocol for an influencer
many find litigation to be expensive and
not delivering on your agreement to help
time-consuming, there’s a risk of creating
protect your investment.
a media storm in response to suing (and
potentially antagonising) an influencer
with such a large following, which could
be potentially more damaging to the brand
than the loss suffered from under-delivery
of an influencer’s work.
23
02: Building Partnerships

Negotiation techniques

Payment Structure Understand your budget, business objectives and needs before entering agent or
influencer discussions

Contract Term Understand that acting as an influencer can be a full-time job; offering in-kind
product rather than payment is typically less appropriate in the industry (unless
there is potential for an ongoing relationship or future work)

Compensation Consider the perspectives of both sides — influencers value up-front transparency
from brands on objectives, creative freedom to meet audience expectations and fair
payment, so find compromise

Exclusivity Term Focus on building a long-term relationship rather than getting a one-off deal:
partnerships drive value

Other Levers Don’t just focus the contract negotiation on monetary compensation; consider
other things that may appeal to an influencer, such as creative freedom

What to include in your in-

house influencer budget
Time and Staffing: Building and executing
an influencer marketing strategy will require
internal resources, which may include a
marketing manager and data analyst to
track performance, as well as time to
coordinate goals.

Software Costs: Consider purchasing access

to a platform or proprietary software that
searches and matches influencers with
brand objectives to supplement the work
your in-house team is doing. Separately,
your team may consider paying for software
to help measure influencer campaign
performance.

Marketing Agency Fees: Hiring an agency to

manage influencer hiring and relations can
save time and effort, but can also cost much
more than in-house management.

Influencer Fees: Influencers will charge fees

for content creation and partnership as part
of the contractual agreement.

Legal Costs: Legally-binding contracts

should be reviewed by internal or external
counsel before they are signed by either
party involved.

Source: Unsplash

businessoffashion.com 24
02: Building Partnerships
Case study:
Benefit Cosmetics UK’s
winning gifting strategy
While the beauty space is flooded with high-profile influencers,
Benefit Cosmetics’ influencer partnerships strategy, rooted
in gifting product, has proven successful. According to Tribe
Dynamics, the brand ranks number five in Earned Media Value
in the cosmetics segment, generating $565.5 million in EMV
in 2018 (for comparison, Anastasia Beverly Hills, the cosmetics
brand with the top performing EMV, generated just over
$1 billion during this time, followed by MAC which generated
$722.6 million).
“I would say 95% of our work [with influencers] is on an organic
basis,” says Annie Harrison, senior PR & influencer manager
for Benefit Cosmetics in the UK, who leads the brand’s in-house
influencer team, which launched in early 2019.
Benefit UK’s in-house influencer team is responsible for
working with its database of 350 influencers (a roster the
brand plans to expand to a minimum of 450 influencers
by mid-2020) whose followings range from 50,000 to more
than two million. The brand bases its influencer partnerships
strategy primarily around gifting, relationship-building and
trips, Harrison explains. Each of its influencers receive new
products as they launch and are invited to brand events,
some of which are exclusive experiential brand trips for
influencers with highly relevant audiences. For example,
in April 2019 the brand took some of the UK’s top beauty
influencers, such as Jamie Genevieve (1.2 million Instagram
followers), on a “Hoola Trip” to Holbox Island, Mexico to
re-promote the existing Hoola franchise and launch new
shade extensions. Influencers shared on their channels that
they were provided a range of Benefit products and took
part in activities, parties, dinners and more.
Lesson: Despite the movement away from product-as-payment, brands can still generate significant value
from well-executed gifting strategies. This is particularly suited to products that are low-cost and can be gifted
en masse without major cost to the business. The appropriate KPIs are therefore related to the reach of the
marketing message to evaluate mass adoption.
businessoffashion.com
businessoffashion.com
Benefit Cosmetics
The goal of the strategy? “Always-on communication,” says
Harrison. To measure success of the gifting approach across
Instagram and YouTube, the two social channels Benefit focuses
on most, the brand measures mentions of a product name in
comparison with their competitors. The KPI is media exposure
and share of the conversation. “If they’ve listed it in a hashtag,
or just spelled it out, that is a portion of a share of voice,” says
Harrison. With this objective in mind, the brand has found
that the bigger the influencer and the higher the following,
the quicker they achieve their goals. When it comes to micro
influencers, Harrison says that “it takes a lot of resources and
budget when we don’t get bigger payback… everything we do
has to ladder up to achieving our KPIs.”
The strategy seems to be working. The brand’s influencer
marketing budget is up 13% year-over-year, Harrison says,
with that money reapportioned from existing PR and digital
marketing funds. Its market share and share of voice for brow
products is steadily growing year-on-year, she says, suggesting
that influencer marketing has had a direct impact on the brand’s
success in the brow category.
On the paid-for sponsorship side that makes up approximately
5% of their influencer marketing output– compared to the other
95% dedicated to gifting – the brand contracts “brow heroes”,
influencers from different backgrounds, ethnicities and ages who
are contracted to post exclusively about Benefit products. The
company plans on expanding their commercial partnerships over
the next few years to facilitate the use of trackable product links,
ensure compliance with advertising standards and to safeguard
investment with contractual agreements, which they’ve not
introduced until now, says Harrison.
25
25
 03

Executing
Engaging
Campaigns

businessoffashion.com
03: Executing Engaging Campaigns
There is no set template for the ‘right’ content strategy. Brands should leverage the influencer’s
knowledge of their own audience to determine the content that will resonate, how it should be
delivered and at what cadence.

The most successful influencer

programmes are no longer one-
dimensional. Effective content strategies
involve a 360-degree integration between
influencer and brand, often targeting
several KPIs. Commit time to establishing
a robust content and activation strategy
by thinking beyond one-off sponsored
posts to long-term, win-win relationships,
offline activation, and engagement with
wider cultural conversations. “There’s
influence, and then there’s content
creation,” says DBA’s Raina Penchansky,
“and you have to be doing both today.”

Brands need to tailor their content

strategies based on the strengths of
the talent with whom they’re working.
Agencies such as The Wall Group and
Streeters represent artists and creatives
that brands leverage as influencers,
Source: Unsplash
utilising their specialist expertise.
Some influencers have the credentials
to collaborate on co-branded product
lines, while another influencer’s unique
The six principles of influence aesthetic may be best leveraged in a
curated Instagram shop that cohesively
brings the brand and influencer together.

Reciprocity
Personalised value
generated for the
consumer

Scarcity
Consensus
The uniqueness
Behaviour of other
of the product
similar people
or brand

Influence

Liking
Authority
Similarity between
Credibility of
influencer and
the influencer
consumer

Consistency
Repeated, expected
behaviour

Source: Robert Cialdini (1984)

businessoffashion.com 27
 03: Executing Engaging Campaigns
Trends in influencer posts and likes on key platforms
Average Posts per Influencer (Jan & Feb Aggregate 2018 vs. 2019)
70
60
50
Average Posts
40
30
20
10
0 0
2018
Trends: Instagram: Increase in average influencer posts and likes per post;
Youtube: Increase in average influencer videos, decrease in average likes per
video; Facebook: decrease in average influencer posts and likes per post.
Play the long game
One-off engagements are not only less
impactful than longer activations, but they
also require substantial resources to build
and support at scale, not to mention they
can be less appealing to influencers.
“Don’t come to me for a one-off,” says
Estate Five founder and influencer Craig.
Instead, she encourages brands to choose
a handful of ambassadors to work with
over a six-month plan to generate brand
trust in the influencer’s community. This
is more analogous to celebrity
ambassadorships where, through multiple
touch-points and consistent messages
over a period of time, the celebrity
becomes “the face” of a brand.
Although long-term deals can be more
valuable, that does not mean there is
no longer space for one-off activations.
This tactic can be particularly powerful
when trying to generate buzz around
a particular moment, such as the drop
of a new product. Additionally, one-offs
are suited to sales-conversion-oriented
Regulatory guidelines
In 2017, the US Federal Trade Commission
(FTC) sent letters to various influencers
and marketers reminding them
of advertising and sponsored post
regulations. While the commission
continued to pressure the industry
to disclose paid promotions, a 2018
report by influencer marketing agency
Mediakix indicated that 93% of influencers
businessoffashion.com
Average Likes per Post (Jan & Feb Aggregate 2018 vs. 2019)
7000
6000
5000
Average Likes
4000
3000
2000
1000
2019
campaigns, or to build up to something
more substantial in the future. Still, this
strategy should not be the only one in
a brand’s arsenal. “I see a lot of brands
that maybe do that for the first or second
time and are disappointed with the
outcome,” says Brigade’s Max Stein.
The goal is to deploy what DBA’s
Penchansky calls a “two-pronged
approach.” Adopt one-off activations to
talk about something new, coupled with
a group of core influencers who your
brand engages with over time over
multiple channels and phases.
Diversify how and where
you’re sharing content
Brands should be looking at building
campaigns that include a variety of
outputs such as sponsored posts, product
reviews, personal appearances and events.
“I really enjoy doing those,” says
influencer Lyn Slater, referencing
multifaceted campaigns. “They allow me
to really have a big breath of how I can
and celebrities still did not comply
with FTC regulations. As consumers
become increasingly wary about online
transparency and authenticity today,
brands and influencers should ensure
they are meeting the local legal
requirements for all campaigns.
The law is different in each jurisdiction.
To ensure your content meets regulatory
guidelines, be sure to check the relevant
governing sites, which differ by territory.
2018 2019
YouTube Instagram Facebook
Source: Tribe Dynamics
express myself as the creative.” This
means looking at ways to creatively
collaborate: “a high percentage of the
companies I work with on Instagram book
me to DJ their events and parties,” says DJ
and content creator Isaac Hindin-Miller.
“For me it’s the best possible arrangement
— I DJ the event, wear or use the products
and post about it all on Instagram. It’s
a 360-degree relationship.”
Consider also hedging your bets against
the risk of a social media platform going
under, be it through a tech glitch that
results in a lengthy blackout or something
more severe (as was the case with
short-form video app Vine, which
was discontinued in 2016). “Instagram,
Twitter, Snapchat, those are all on lease.
You don’t own any equity. You are just
leasing that space, you don’t even own
the photos that [are on it]. Once it is
gone, you have lost all your content,”
says Estate Five’s Craig. “You have got
to build your own digital real estate”
is the first lesson she shares with talent
she manages at her agency.
These include:
United States Federal Trade Commission:
ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center
Canadian AdStandards:
adstandards.ca
European Union Competition Dictorate:
ec.europa.eu/competition/index_en.html
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03: Executing Engaging Campaigns
“It can be riskier to
not take a stance when
marketing to consumers
who prefer brands with a
social purpose.”
businessoffashion.com
Engage in bigger The power of offline
zeitgeist issues Online campaigns can be supplemented
by offline events to create the sense
Maximising influencer strategies means
joining conversations about broader
of a fully integrated influencer-brand
collaboration for audiences.
zeitgeist issues, ranging from social justice
to political and environmental issues –
This can involve creating content in an
topics that brands previously considered
environment designed by the brand on
immersive events and trips. Consider
radioactive which are now central to
connecting with an evermore educated
Aimee Song’s ongoing relationship with
online retailer Revolve, for whom she
and politically “woke” consumer base. In
a politically polarised landscape in the
was an early fixture in their 2,500-strong
influencer network. While the company
West, where Millennials are engaged in
has come under fire for its lack of
online activism like never before, engaging
diversity in its ambassador selection
in the right conversations can be a great
in addition to its non-disclosure of
marketing opportunity, if executed
sponsored posts, it’s known as the
correctly. In fact, it can be riskier to
poster child for building a brand and
not take a stance when marketing
driving sales with influencer activation;
to consumers who prefer brands with
in 2018 influencers helped generate
a social purpose. According to research
nearly $500 million in sales of clothing,
by The Economist Group, 79% of
accessories and beauty for the site.
Millennials prefer to purchase products
from a company that operates with Song says that Revolve’s brand trips
a social purpose, while 75% are proud work so well because, “Revolve does
to be a customer of a company that a really good job at selling a lifestyle,”
operates with a social purpose. by asking the influencers not to explicitly
promote the clothing, but share their
Take Jamaican-born street-style
experience in the clothing. “The
photographer and blogger-turned-
audience feels like they’re there,” she
influencer Tamu McPherson’s work
adds. Some of the trips are contractually
with Gucci, which began in 2015. As part
bound, while others are without formal
of this relationship, which has involved
agreements. In May 2019, Song launched
sponsored posts for Gucci’s Bloom
her own apparel collection: Song of Style
fragrance, she’s also sat on roundtables
x Revolve. The 50-piece collection is
and panels for the brand. This includes
owned by Song and is part of a multi-
an internal panel on diversity, and
year exclusivity deal with Revolve – the
a roundtable on the 2019 controversy
first influencer-fronted private-label
surrounding Gucci’s withdrawal of
brand sold on the retailer’s site.
a sweater criticised for resembling
blackface imagery. These were Estate Five’s Craig suggests less
opportunities that naturally evolved out expensive alternatives to brand trips.
of the relationship. “I was invited to speak “Maybe do a personal appearance, or
about my experiences as a black woman,” host a lunch, so people are there and
says Tamu. “My mission in doing this is to are intimate and share stories.” Brands
bring about change,” she explains. Gucci should recognise the power of offline
has also taken a stance on political issues activation to connect with brand stories
such as gun control in America, pledging told on online media.
$500,000 to the March For Our Lives rally
in 2018. Gucci’s position reflects its own
internal values in addition to those of its
Millennial-heavy customer base.
“Audiences are going to be looking at
people that they respect,” says Pool
Creatives’ Del Val. Influencers who have
really mastered the technique of having
conversations with their audience, either
through video, podcasts or written pieces,
who have managed to create content that
lives outside of their Instagram feed, have
“really branded themselves perfectly,” for
this shift says Del Val. “I think Instagram
Stories and Instagram TV are really going
to be where people with ideas are going
to be able to live.”
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03: Executing Engaging Campaigns
Case study:
Establishing Good
American’s #GoodSquad
Body inclusivity is at the core of the apparel brand Good
American’s DNA. The brand, which Emma Grede and Khloe
Kardashian founded in 2016, offers sizes 00 through 24 in jeans
and athleisure. And its commitment to inclusivity is reflected
in its influencer marketing strategy.
Finding the right partners to market Good American in an
authentic way wasn’t as easy as tapping the usual influencer
and model network, says brand director Jamie Girdler. Instead,
the Good American team organised open castings with fans of
the brand. “We need to work with a really huge, diverse group
of women that are going to fairly represent themselves and our
customers in our campaign,” Girdler says.
The #GoodSquad is now made up of about 100 official brand
ambassadors, from celebrities and curve models to girls from
the open castings who are engaged in deals for anywhere
between three and six months. Instagram is the channel
where Good American focuses most of its marketing efforts,
including frequent round-ups of user-generated content.
The brand measures the success of a campaign by assessing
Lesson: Carry the values of your brand identity into your influencer strategy and develop a community that
will maximise the power of your brand’s message. While not every brand will have the budget or resources
to dedicate to a community casting, they should ensure that their brand values and target consumer are
represented by their influencers.
businessoffashion.com
Good American
the earned media generated by number of posts and engagement
rates, alongside site traffic and order numbers. The KPIs
for each campaign are bespoke, tailored to the focus of the
announcement, time of year and anticipated reaction.
What’s more, the brand doesn’t heavily dictate the content:
“We never write captions for them,” Girdler says. All that
energy spent cultivating trust with content partners has paid
off: even after an influencer’s contract with the brand has been
fulfilled, influencers are still gifted product and usually continue
to attend Good American events on their own. In turn, the
influencers continue to post about the brand – without being
contractually obligated – because they are now part of what
Girdler calls the “Good American family.”
The brand has seen strong growth in return on ad spend
compared with other paid channel tactics and monitors the
lifetime value of customers acquired through the influencer
marketing channel on a continuous basis. Girdler says that the
brand currently dedicates under a quarter of the marketing
budget to influencer marketing, and that this is set to grow.
30
03: Executing Engaging Campaigns
Source: Unsplash
The creative brief
A contractual agreement for a formal
influencer programme is normally
accompanied by a creative brief,
which should provide clear and
specific visual design direction for
content creation.
“The most frustrating thing that can
happen is when me and my client
are super excited about the way
something turned out, and you share
it with someone and they’re like, ‘Oh,
we thought it would be more like this.
’But they never said that or never
showed us that,” says Brigade’s Stein.
“No one wants to reshoot.”
Stein advises that brands therefore
clearly articulate their objectives
and expectations with a visual brief.
“We love a creative brief,” he says.
“I often ask for references of what
they love generally,” in addition to the
influencer’s previous work.
businessoffashion.com
Establishing a content strategy
should include a conversation (or a
minimise potential missteps without
restricting the influencer’s creative
few) between the brand, influencer freedom to produce content that best
and agent, rather than one-way resonates with their audience and
instruction. But once guidelines maximise your ROI. “It’s like if you
are set, influencers should have the were to ask a painter to do something,
agency to create content that excites and then you told them exactly how to
their audience. This collaboration do it,” suggests DBA’s Penchansky.
method feels more authentic
(See creative brief template on
because it “usually integrates into the
page 44.)
unsponsored content the best,” says
Stein.
Ultimately, if you’re choosing the
right influencer to partner with,
it is they who will have the most
intimate knowledge about your
target audience. Influencer Lyn Slater
outlines a six-month partnership she
entered which, in the beginning, was
entirely dictated by the brand.
“I did an experiment,” Slater says.
“I did it their way, and then I did it my
way.” The result? “The engagement, in
my way, tripled,” she says. The goal is
to communicate your brand vision and
31
03: Executing Engaging Campaigns

Case study:

MANGO
How prioritising creative
direction over creative control
helps #MangoGirls deliver

The #MangoGirls project began in 2016, having evolved according to the brand, the Mango Girls normally over-deliver.
from an earlier marketing strategy that highlighted “The reason I stayed on a journey with Mango for so
mid-aughts bloggers such as Andy Torres. The concept today long is because we kept on finding new ideas,” says Mango Girl
aims to associate the brand with women whose values and style Camille Charrière, whose partnership with the brand was
align with Mango’s spirit. The brand engages around 25 women renewed season-by-season.
at a time across five continents; ambassadors have included
Mango says the ultimate goal of the project is to expand what
Lucy Williams, Jeanne Damas, Ada Kokosar and Candela
its brand means to consumers, although it’s not just about
Pelizza, to name a few.
telling stories. “We do have KPIs,” the Mango spokesperson
says, adding that, “at the beginning, it was about the numbers,”
The influencers selected to be Mango Girls are chosen for
with emphasis placed on engagement metrics. But as the Mango
their personality, style and vision, in addition to their
Girls partnerships grew, so too did the brand’s community. “We
position in the wider fashion industry. “We don’t normally
have almost 100,000 organic posts by people who want to join
work with influencers that only do influencer jobs,” says
the squad. So this is really something you can measure, and it’s
a spokesperson for the brand. The average Mango Girl has
still growing every month.”
around 200,000 followers.
In order to assess if the #MangoGirls content published on
Mango Girls partner with the brand for a minimum of one
social media channels work, the brand compares an influencer’s
season or six months. They each make a selection of products
posts with their average engagement rates to see if it is above
from the collections on a monthly basis, style them as they
or below the average. In addition to comments and likes, the
wish, then create content in their own voices.
communications team looks at other metrics such as reach,
saves and shares, and click-throughs for links. If the content
A creative brief is shared with any new influencers to the brand,
has been published by media outlets, it also a sign of good
and they then agree on a fixed number of Instagram posts. But,
performance, says a spokesperson for the brand.

Lesson: A truly collaborative partnership works when both parties align on vision and when creative direction is
prioritised over creative control.

businessoffashion.com
businessoffashion.com 32
32
 04

Measuring
Appropriate
Metrics

businessoffashion.com
 04: Measuring Appropriate Metrics
The availability of data and measurement tools has increased alongside a growing appetite to
determine ROI for influencer marketing. But brands can reduce the friction of performance
measurement by selecting metrics that align with objectives.

Brands frequently cite measurement “But I gotta be totally honest, we’ve

as the biggest pain point when it
comes to influencer marketing.
Despite a surge in new analytical
platforms and agencies that aim
to shine a light on the opaqueness
of digital marketing performance,
murkiness around which metrics to
measure and when persists.
In addition to the quantitative
ambiguity, there’s the added risk of
miscalculating by placing too much
emphasis on the numbers. “I really
like to, if I can, break things down
into facts and data that I can work
with,” says Ganni’s Nicolaj Reffstrup.
never really succeeded in nailing
that.”
On striking the right balance
between data measurement and
the more unquantifiable benefits
of influencer marketing, Brigade’s
Stein says, “it’s awareness, it’s
brand association. Of course, sales
are part of it, but at the same time,
no one would have taken one ad in
[a publication], waited to see how
much they sold from that ad, and say,
‘We don’t want to advertise in that
magazine any more.’”

Source: Unsplash

“No one would have taken
one ad in [a publication],
waited to see how much
they sold from that
ad, and say, ‘We don’t
want to advertise in that
magazine any more’”
Max Stein
Choose reliable metrics
Given how much data is available, it’s
easy to try to measure everything.
Brands should first understand the
most widely used metrics for measuring
success, then focus only on those that
align with their objectives.
Influencer marketing metrics can be
mapped against a digital marketing funnel
framework (see page 10). The widest
metric at the top of the funnel is “Audience
Reach,” which is usually used to measure
awareness, and the deepest-level metric
is “Conversion,” regularly used to
measure sales.
While audience reach indicates the full
“potential reach” of a campaign through
the total follower count of influencers,
that number is not indicative of the
actual campaign reach. As Man Repeller’s
Medine Cohen says, “If I am averaging
between 20,000 and 40,000 likes on
a photo, and on average between 150,000
and 250,000 people are seeing each
of those photos, that’s still quite
a discrepancy between that number and
the 800,000 that’s at the top of the page.”
As such, brands should evaluate audience
reach against other metrics as well as
qualitative measures.
Use metrics aligned
to your objectives
Historically, engagement rates have been
the most common industry indicator of
a successful influencer campaign. But
as influencers increasingly shift to fully
integrated brand partners, lower-level
metrics on the digital marketing funnel
are becoming the industry focus.
Justin Rezvani, founder of theAmplify
says that, “on the brand level, it’s always
driving towards that last funnel metric,
which is your customer acquisition cost.”
He emphasises that influencers play a dual
role in that they attract new customers
while also increasing long-term value
for brands.
Understanding the business goals and
influencer campaign objectives will
directly inform which metrics to track.
If a brand is trying to build global brand
awareness, for example, audience reach
and impressions will be most relevant to
measure. Should the objectives of your
influencer marketing campaign change
over time, you should also adjust your
selected metrics accordingly.

businessoffashion.com 34
04: Measuring Appropriate Metrics

Definitions of common metrics

Metric Overview

• The full “potential reach” a post can get, calculated on the audience of the channel
where the post was published (for an Instagram post, this is the influencer’s full
follower count)
Audience Reach • If the aim is to gain brand awareness or promote content to as many people as
possible, celebrity or macro influencer reach is highest
• This is effective for awareness but can be much more difficult to measure ROI
• Generally, the wider the reach, the more expensive the campaign will be

• The number of times a post is viewed

• Impressions are a better measure of visibility than Audience Reach as it represents
the “actual reach” rather than the “potential reach” a post could get
Impressions
• A smaller proportion of followers actually see a post than all followers of an influencer
thanks to social media platform algorithms

• Comments, likes and shares on the relevant platform; this can also include
retweeting or pinning on Twitter and Pinterest.
• Users show their interest through various engagement behaviours; shares and
comments show more engagement than a “like,” which requires less effort
• Shares are the highest form of engagement, indicating a reader sees enough value
Engagement in content to share with their community
• An influencer with higher engagement from their audience is much more valuable
to brands
• Comments can also be valuable for sentiment analysis, which measures
overall customer attitudes towards the brand based on the content and tone
of customer commentary

• Response to a call to action that may span beyond just sales as a target
(e.g. newsletter sign-ups)
• ROI can be measured easily with a simple calculation: sale price per item multiplied
Conversion
by the number of extra items sold minus the cost of campaign
• If you are measuring something other than sales as a conversion, you should assign a
monetary value to each conversion

businessoffashion.com 35
04: Measuring Appropriate Metrics

How is Earned Media Earned Media Value (EMV) is an industry-

specific metric that was developed in
EMV can be used to quantify
organic content (rather than paid
Value used? response to business needs to measure advertisements) such as influencer
and compare influencer marketing marketing, which is notoriously hard
performance on a single scale. Since to quantify. This can allow brands to
its creation, EMV has become a widely benchmark and evaluate performance
published industry metric that may be of various campaigns, across all posts,
used by brands in conjunction with platforms and engagement types.
other metrics.
It is recommended that brands
incorporate multiple KPIs and metrics
EMV quantifies the estimated value
to avoid over-reliance on any one
of consumer engagement with digital
statistic, including EMV. Other industry
earned media, assigning a unique value
metrics may include campaign reach,
to content based on engagement from
impressions, engagement or conversion
followers and consumers. It is often
rates.
used in the industry to evaluate the
performance of marketing campaigns,
especially with influencer marketing,
in comparison to traditional marketing
methods. It was created following a
need in the industry for comparable
metrics.

Source: Unsplash

businessoffashion.com 36
 04: Measuring Appropriate Metrics
Source: Unsplash
“At some point, scale
becomes a challenge if
you don’t have the larger
influencers. You can’t hit
the impression and media
threshold that you need
if you don’t use someone
that has a little bit of
‘umph’, ensuring that the
audience is correct”
Justin Rezvani
businessoffashion.com
Set realistic targets
Once you have determined the best campaign metrics to track, it’s time to set
achievable goals. But how do you know which targets are realistic? Industry standards
and an influencer’s average rates can be a good place to start, especially for commonly
tracked metrics.
Set targets for short-, medium- and long-term campaign goals, and remember that
targets should be reviewed and adjusted as necessary throughout the campaign. While
everyone wants robust metrics for influencer marketing, there isn’t one standard
attribution model or secret sauce for gathering the right data.
If in doubt, a marketing agency can also help you measure success. As Paper’s Drew
Elliott says of metrics and forecasts, “an agency can help you translate those kinds of
questions into numbers that fit within your brand.”
01 — Audience reach Brands will also need to make a transition
from mid-tier to macro influencers to
Audience reach widely varies depending
on the number and type of influencers
scale up impressions. “At some point,
scale becomes a challenge if you don’t
engaged, so think about the target
have the larger influencers. You can’t hit
consumer market the business is trying
to reach and compare the total potential
the impression and media threshold that
you need if you don’t use someone that
reach of the campaign against the total
potential target market in your industry.
has a little bit of ‘umph’, ensuring that
the audience is correct,” says founder of
02 — Impressions
theAmplify Justin Rezvani.
Like audience reach, the number of 03 — Engagement
impressions a campaign achieves depends
on the scale of influencers engaged. On
Campaigns that have low audience reach
but high engagement rates are still
average, campaigns with impression rates
effective, as your content is driving real
above 3% are considered successful. And
while “cost per thousand” impressions,
consumer interaction. Benefit Cosmetics’
Harrison suggests benchmarking
or CPM, is a common digital marketing
engagement for influencers and the
metric for budgeting, there is no one
campaign overall. For Benefit Cosmetics,
single influencer rate card for the cost
“anything 3% upwards is good engagement.”
of impressions generated.
37
04: Measuring Appropriate Metrics
Many micro or niche influencers have
particularly engaged audiences. DBA’s
Raina Penchansky says, “We have people
who have 200,000 followers on Instagram,
which a lot of people consider to be
micro, but they have an incredible point
of view, they have a really highly engaged
audience [and a] conversion rate of
sometimes more than 10%. It’s not so
much what their numbers are but really
the magnitude of what they can do.”
Consider breaking down engagement rates
further. Generally, shares and comments
indicate stronger audience engagement
than likes.
04 — Conversion
Conversion to sales can be the most
difficult (and lucrative) to achieve. One
percent conversion of your total platform
audience should be considered a success
on average, while anything above this
should be celebrated. This might be
achieved through the careful selection
and support of niche or micro influencers
with a knack for converting their highly-
engaged audience to sales. Integration
of commerce, via Instagram’s in-app
shopping and Checkout features also
offer opportunities for brands seeking
conversion as their main influencer
strategy goal.
Adjust your targets based on variability
Although you may have identified the metrics to determine whether your campaign
has achieved its goal, a number of different variables – such as the typical engagement
rates of your target market – may impact the context under which you are launching an
influencer campaign and should be considered when assessing its success.
01 — Expectation management
While influencer marketing is a powerful
tool that can drive tangible results,
expectations for what an influencer can
achieve are often far too high. Influencer
marketing is usually not a silver bullet
for delivering an immediate sell-through,
and expectations for campaigns must be
managed so that targets are realistic.
02 — Sensitivity analysis
Consider building a sensitivity analysis
into your measurement plan. Sensitivity
analysis involves analysing “what-if”
scenarios, questioning how variables
can affect performance outcomes. For
example, a sensitivity analysis may
explore the campaign’s return on
investment based on different rates
of conversion generated – the brand
may ask, if the campaign achieves 2%
conversion, what is the ROI, versus 10%
conversion?
businessoffashion.com
03 — Seasonality adjustment
Influencer campaigns can be affected
by seasonality like any other marketing
initiative. The performance of a campaign
during a peak season or global event
will be different from a campaign in an
industry off-season period. Kate Spade’s
Lalena Luba says, “When it’s Fashion
Week, you’re going to see a different level,
no matter who you are within the fashion
community, in terms of engagement
than when it’s just outside of that time.”
As global attention towards the fashion
community increases during Fashion
Week, fashion and beauty campaigns can
generate higher average engagement.
Conversely, brands should make note of
global events that may act as detractors
from a campaign launch, such as award
shows or galas, and shift schedules where
possible. Taking into account seasonality
and the direction of the industry can
help inform the expected performance
of the campaign.
Track your results
Once you’ve decided on your target
metrics, tracking your campaign’s
performance is a somewhat simpler
task. Many social platforms have
incorporated tools that can provide
an abundance of data and tracking
capabilities. Considering the platforms
your campaign will use and incorporating
these platform tracking methods will
make measurement easier.
Sponsored Website & Blog Posts: Web
analytics, such as Google Analytics, can
track conversion and click-through rates
through website traffic.
Unique Promotion Codes: Providing
influencers with unique codes, links
or another similar tool enables unique
influencer performance tracking, which
is especially useful when conversion
is a campaign’s goal. If using
personalised discount codes to drive
online sales, you can set a minimum
spend to avoid devaluing the brand.
Instagram Feed Posts: Instagram
provides in-platform engagement
analytics called Insights that influencers
can download and provide to brands,
including follower demographic data,
impressions and engagement. Of
course, hashtags can also be tracked
manually; if working with international
influencers, their hashtag may exist in
another language, for example, German
influencers often include #anzeige.
Instagram Stories: Verified influencers
(those with a blue checkmark on their
Instagram profiles who the platform has
approved) have a “swipe-up” function
in stories that acts as a trackable link to
click-through rates. Tagged business
partners have a 14-day window to see
reach, taps forward, taps backward,
replies and exits from stories.
Creators will see metrics directly
on Instagram insights.
YouTube Videos: Vloggers may include
trackable links or promotional codes
in the description box of their videos
(which they often tell viewers about in
the video content itself), which may
then be used to track conversion.
38
 04: Measuring Appropriate Metrics

Follow these principles to evaluate your overall success

Perhaps you’ve collected data from the social platforms and influencers used in your
campaign, but aren’t quite sure how to analyse the data against your original metrics.
There are many ways to measure the success of your campaign, from free online
tools to paid third-party analytic services, and even agencies that support campaign
measurement. Experts have told BoF that Tagger, Lumanu, Dovetail and Socialite are
some of the best data analytics tools currently available.
Depending on the objectives and scale of your campaign, you can measure
performance across websites and blogs, social platforms, individual influencers and
more qualitative indicators.

“You have to think of 01 — Stay organised outside of a spreadsheet. Ganni’s Nicolaj

investing in influencers
the way you would invest
in a page in a magazine
or banner”
Delphine Del Val
Source: Unsplash
Incorporating an influencer campaign into
your marketing mix can introduce new
sources of data and measurement tools.
You may find yourself with data in many
separate places – a marketing budget
managed in an offline spreadsheet, website
sales tracked through Google Analytics
and social engagement through platform
analytics, for example.
Where possible, stay organised by using
the platforms and tools your team already
leverages. Consider consolidating data
and analyses of all digital platforms in
one view on a singular spreadsheet.
Managing budgets, negotiations and
metrics can also be time consuming, so
it’s best to determine an internal point
of contact or an external team to manage
campaigns cohesively.
02 — Evaluate results
Set regular checkpoints throughout the
term of your campaign to evaluate results
and adjust as necessary. Ultimately, you
should be able to assess whether the ROI
your team identified was met and if not,
where things went wrong.
Remember that measuring success in
an influencer campaign is not without
some ambiguity. There will often be
downstream impact after the campaign
measurement window has closed, which
is difficult to measure precisely through
available data. Customers may see
a post and decide to purchase outside
of the tracked conversion time-frame,
for example.
“You have to think of investing in
influencers the way you would invest in a
page in a magazine or banner,” says Pool’s
Delphine Del Val. “It’s not because you had
your ad in all the Vogue issues that you
sold as many as you paid. We don’t know
that, there’s no exact measure for that –
because when you put your ad in Vogue,
you probably also put in Harper’s Bazaar.
So which one actually got the money?”
03 — Consider qualitative impact, too
Consider that influencers have the power
to generate brand impact that exists
Reffstrup notes that, “in order to remain
relevant, in order to engage with your
audience, we cannot be about numbers
only… I think a purely data-driven
approach will take you nowhere.”
Qualitative components of your
campaign, such as the alignment between
the story your influencers told and the
story the brand wanted to tell, can reveal
their impact over time. There may
not always be an immediate lift in
conversion through online codes or
links, but don’t discount the value of
positive brand sentiment generated
and long-tail impact on sales.
04 — Review your campaign
At the end of your campaign, reflect both
on your metrics and results as well as
what did and didn’t work for your brand.
You may consider:
• Were the campaign objectives
appropriate?
• Was the selection of influencers
in line with your objectives?
• Did the metrics selected effectively
measure against the objectives?
• Were the platforms and tools used
the most optimal for analysis?
• What would you change next time?
05 — Consider long-term wins
Ultimately, long-term value of a customer
earned through influencer marketing is
worth some short-term measurement
ambiguity. As founder of theAmplify
Justin Rezvani explains, “a user who
comes from an influencer channel should
be over time worth a lot more than a
traditional media channel as a customer.
Because we have additional forms of
conversations, we have additional forms
of experiences happening. If we know we
have converted this customer through
this channel and we continue to remarket
through that individual influencer and
that channel, our [long-term-value]
will grow over time.”

businessoffashion.com 39
Conclusion
The insights laid out in this Playbook should serve as the starting point in maximising
your influencer strategy. While creating effective influencer marketing involves
resources and a sustained commitment, influencers can be key brand partners in
forging a path towards deeper customer relationships and brand stories.

We can distil the learnings in this Playbook down into five key principles:

01 —
Base your influencer strategy around your understanding of the
consumer, your market, the message you want to convey and the
desired outcomes.

02 —
Invest in finding the right influencers; focus on alignment to your
brand and objectives rather than follower numbers.

03 —
Forge genuinely reciprocal relationships with your influencers
and engage in 360-degree integration.

04 —
Trust your influencers to understand their market; relinquish the
creative reins while making your objectives clear.

05 —
Establish your objectives and metrics in advance and monitor
throughout and after campaigns.

In a social media landscape where consumers are as diverse, hyper-connected and

sceptical as ever, keeping track of the evolution of influencer marketing will be
essential for brands to stay one step ahead. Fashion professionals should remain
flexible with their strategies in order to adapt to changing markets and consumer
sentiments. Influencer marketing may not be a silver bullet, but one thing is for certain:
the age of influence is here to stay.

businessoffashion.com 40
 05

Appendix

businessoffashion.com
Appendix

Paid, Earned, Shared and Owned Framework

Unaffiliated product reviews

Organically generated
third-party publicity

Earned
Media

Affiliations,
ambassadorship, Product collaboration
sponsored content Paid Shared Collaborating on and
Exchanging money for Media Media amplifying through
distribution of owned ads shared channels
or creative content

Owned
Media

Amplification
Distributing owned brand media

Consumer Persona Template

Age: Favourite Brands:

Location: Favourite Products:

Occupation: Motivations:

Income: Purchase Behaviour:

Interests:

What is her product need?

businessoffashion.com 42
Appendix

Evaluating influencer key value drivers

LOW HIGH

Reach

Sales power

Engagement power

Affordability

Experience

Impact on brand image

Ease of contact

Resource & effort required

Existing brand exposure

Specificity of audience

Plot influencer selections onto this scale to evaluate their profile in line with your campaign objectives.

How to prepare yourself to talk to an agent

Understand and determine budget for full campaign

Outline business objectives for the campaign

Create target KPIs that align with the business objectives

Confirm your target campaign live date

Decide on any major project milestones

Prepare creative brief

Define key approval points and reporting frequency

businessoffashion.com 43
Appendix

Creative Brief Template

Client Name: Visual references mood board:

Campaign Name:

Description:

Platforms:

Key Objectives:

Product Name:

Key Messaging & CTAs:

Tone of Voice:

Design Elements:

Location:

Required Hashtag(s):

Regulation
Requirements:

Styling
Recommendations:

Things to Avoid:

Brand Guidelines:

businessoffashion.com 44
Appendix

Aligning objectives and metrics

Company Objective Metrics to Measure

Drive Sales Conversions (sales or purchases)

Gain additional
Sign-ups
subscribers to service

Increase website traffic Click-through-rate (clicks and traffic to site)

Acquire new customers Sign-ups, downloads, etc.

Driving mass awareness Audience Reach (promoting to as many people as possible)

Interacting or targeting Engagement (comments, likes and shares to drive

with a customer segment conversation)

Building positive brand

Customer sentiment analysis; building positive brand affinity
associations

Evaluating social platforms

Advantages Disadvantages

The most popular platform for brand content strategies. As Instagram posts are the most common form of
An influencer posts a sponsored photo and caption on brand content, single posts can get lost in the noise and
Instagram Post Instagram featuring the brand – the brand can later reshare remain unseen.
or repurpose content based on agreed-upon terms. Less authentic feel – sponsored posts are common.

Stories expire after a short period of time making their

An up-and-coming trend in influencer marketing. Instagram
useful life (and reusability) highly limited. Less room
Instagram Story Stories are more authentic, featuring photo or short video
for taglines, phrases or hashtags, but can incorporate
clips promoting a brand at the top of the app.
“swipe-up” call to action.

Instagram TV/ Live allow influencers to “Vlog” about a

Less popular sub-platforms of Instagram with less
Instagram TV/Live brand live, where followers can tune in to listen. Effective for
viewership; though on the rise.
products (like those on YouTube).

Video content – popular for a vlogger who can demonstrate Ineffective for non-product-based partnerships or
or show a product. Historically, most popular for make-up brands that do not have a video-friendly product.
YouTube or demonstrating clothing quality. Strong engagement Videos take quite a bit of work and therefore tend
from followers. to cost more than posting.

Limited only to visitors to the website or blog,

The original platform for paid partnership content. Enables
but more in-depth abilities.
Website/Blog Post the influencer to write longer-form reviews and perspectives
More time and effort – may be more costly.
on a product or brand, with multiple photos.
More creative freedom required for blogger.

Short and to the point; can be reshared on brand

Facebook Post Facebook page.
Less popular; Facebook engagement is lower.

Twitter Post Very short and to the point – typically text-based. Less popular; Twitter engagement is lower.

businessoffashion.com 45
Appendix

Top 30 fashion brands ranked by EMV

Rank Fashion Brand Total EMV Instagram EMV % of Total

1 Fashion Nova $1,005,691,706 $951,609,707 94.62%

2 Nike $893,659,245 $661,542,374 74.03%

3 Gucci (Fashion) $578,556,361 $479,544,835 82.89%

4 Adidas $529,812,045 $434,830,627 82.07%

5 Revolve $456,437,041 $442,713,619 96.99%

6 PrettyLittleThing $435,084,364 $414,723,221 95.32%

7 Zara $426,768,876 $380,162,026 89.08%

8 Nordstrom $354,159,899 $285,406,432 80.59%

9 Chanel (Fashion) $353,390,727 $304,146,455 86.07%

10 ASOS $301,083,449 $254,727,106 84.60%

11 H&M $292,981,297 $246,318,860 84.07%

12 Dior (Fashion) $281,553,982 $241,534,065 85.79%

13 Louis Vuitton $278,622,037 $239,042,217 85.79%

14 Forever 21 $273,178,389 $237,920,056 87.09%

15 Topshop $249,462,255 $216,911,306 86.95%

16 Urban Outfitters $225,785,828 $195,707,110 86.68%

17 Versace $225,356,324 $172,912,106 76.73%

18 Saint Laurent (YSL) (Fashion) $221,966,817 $199,194,726 89.74%

19 Victoria's Secret $219,333,500 $168,841,372 76.98%

20 Boohoo $188,813,254 $169,207,756 89.62%

21 Balenciaga $172,342,446 $148,662,294 86.26%

22 Puma $170,396,264 $140,307,450 82.34%

23 Off-White $169,542,605 $150,383,308 88.70%

24 Levi's $166,556,736 $147,015,694 88.27%

25 Gymshark $157,263,253 $127,563,020 81.11%

26 Prada $154,433,546 $126,899,946 82.17%

27 Free People $152,372,637 $138,922,171 91.17%

28 Vans $136,976,239 $113,885,869 83.14%

29 Christian Louboutin (Fashion) $135,372,188 $121,750,347 89.94%

30 Fendi $130,231,945 $114,831,844 88.17%

Source: Tribe Dynamics

businessoffashion.com 46
Further reading
BoF Education Courses

Build a Direct-to-Consumer Brand with Jen Rubio

Digital Marketing with Drew Elliott

BoF Sources

5 Ways Brands Can Stand Out On Social Media

A Guide to Working With Niche Influencers
Are Influencers Really Worth the Money?
Are Influencers Threatening Designer Beauty Lines? Not So Fast
Do Influencers Need Regulating?
Fashion Editors or Influencers? Sometimes It’s Hard to Tell
FTC Cracks Down on Influencer Posts
Has Fashion Week’s Influencer Bubble Finally Burst?
How Can Fashion Brands Capitalise on Instagram Live?
Influencer Marketing Lessons from Fashion Nova and Zara
Influencers Are Investors Now, Too
Inside the Fashion Nova Hype Machine
Instagram Killed the Fashion Magazine. What Happens Now?
Instagram Unlocks In-App Purchasing
Is Arielle Charnas the Future of Fashion?
Meet Fashion’s Next Generation: Over 60s
On Social Media, Health Is the New Handbag
The Brand-Influencer Power Struggle
The Case for Seeking Out More Diverse Influencers
The Global Influencer Economy, Part 1: The Dangers of Playing it Safe
The Global Influencer Economy, Part 2: Why Credibility Trumps Celebrity
Today’s Instagram Star May Be Tomorrow’s Cosmetics Mogul
Welcome to China’s KOL Clone Factories
Why Influencers Are Critical to Tapping Chinese Millennials
With Privacy Changes, Instagram Upsets Influencer Economy

Other Sources

Activate Marketing (2019). Double or Nothing: Betting Big on Influencer Marketing. Retrieved from: https://try.activate.social/
double-or-nothing-betting-big-on-influencer-marketing
AdWeek. (2016). Influencer marketing hit the mainstream in 2016. Retrieved from http://www.adweek.com/digital/influencer-
marketinghit-the-mainstream-in-2016-report/
Augustine, K. (2019). 1/5th of American Consumers Have Made a Purchase Based on an Influencer. Retrieved from CivicScience:
https://civicscience.com/1-5th-of-american-consumers-have-made-a-purchase-based-on-an-influencer/
Business Insider. (2018). The Influencer Marketing Report: Research, strategy & platforms for leveraging social media influencers.
Retrieved from: https://www.businessinsider.com/the-influencer-marketing-report-2018-1?r=UK&IR=T
Cialdini, R. (1984). Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Melbourne: Business Library.

businessoffashion.com 47
Further Reading

eMarketer. (2018). eMarketer Releases New Global Media Ad Spending Estimates. Retrieved from eMarketer: https://www.
emarketer.com/content/emarketer-total-media-ad-spending-worldwide-will-rise-7-4-in-2018
Erdogan, B. Z. (1999). Celebrity endorsement: A literature review. Journal of Marketing Management, 15(4), pp. 291–314.
Feick, L. F., & Price, L. L. (1987). The market maven: A diffuser of marketplace information. The Journal of Marketing, pp. 83–97.
Freberg, K., Graham, K., McGaughey, K., & Freberg, L. A. (2011). Who are the social media influencers? A study of public perceptions
of personality. Public Relations Review, 37(1), 90-92. doi:10.1016/j. Pubrev.2010.11.001.
Gartner. (2018). Luxury China: Influencers. Gartner.
Gladwell, M. (2002). The Tipping Point. Boston: Back Bay Books.
Hootsuite. (2019). The global state of digital in 2019. Retrieved from: https://hootsuite.com/en-gb/resources/digital-in-2019
Hume, J. (2018, August). State of Luxury Resale: Midyear 2018. Retrieved from The RealReal: https://realstyle.therealreal.
com/2018-fashion-resale-consignment-trends-millennials-sneakers/
InfluencerDB. (2018). Report: state of the influencer marketing industry. Retrieved from: http://info.influencerdb.com/state-of-
influencer-marketing-industry-report.
Katz, E., & Lazarsfeld, P. F. (1955). Personal influence: The part played by people in the flow of mass communications. New York:
Free Press.
Katz, E. (1957). The two-step flow of communication: An up-to-date report on an hypothesis. Public Opinion Quarterly, 21(1), pp.
61–78.
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Mediakix. (2017). 93% of top celebrity social media endorsements violate FTC guidelines. Retrieved from Mediakix: http://mediakix.
com/2017/05/celebrity-social-media-endorsements-violate-ftc-instagram/#gs.7bh1rq
Mediakix. (2017). Instagram bots: how fake followers are impacting social media marketing. Retrieved from Mediakix: http://
mediakix.com/2017/05/instagram-bots-guide-what-marketers-should-know/#gs.7avdnn
Ohanian, R. (1990). Construction and validation of a scale to measure celebrity endorsers’ perceived expertise, trustworthiness, and
attractiveness. Journal of Advertising, 19(3), pp. 39–52.
Retail Dive. (2017). Study: Instagram influences almost 75% of user purchase decisions. Retrieved from: https://www.retaildive.
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Watts, D. & Peretti, J. (2017). Viral marketing for the real world. Retrieved from: https://hbr.org/2007/05/viral-marketing-for-the-
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businessoffashion.com 48
Attributions and
Industry Sources
• Aimee Song, writer and influencer @songofstyle
• Ali Bird, director of The Wall Group
• Annie Harrison, senior PR and influencer manager at Benefit Cosmetics UK
• Camille Charrière, journalist, consultant and influencer @camillecharriere
• Charlotte Alexa, agent at Streeters Creative Management and Representation
• Conor Begley, co-founder and president of Tribe Dynamics
• Delphine Del Val, founder of Pool Creatives
• Drew Elliott, creative director of Paper magazine
• Hannah Løffler Schmidt, co-founder and managing director of Social Zoo
• Isaac Hindin-Miller, DJ and content creator @isaaclikes_
• Jamie Girdler, brand director of Good American
• Justin Rezvani, founder of theAmplify, Forbes 30 under 30 in marketing and advertising
• Lalena Luba, VP of global public relations for Kate Spade New York
• Leandra Medine Cohen, founder of Man Repeller and influencer @leandramcohen
• Lottie L’Amour , writer and influencer @lottielamour
• Lyn Slater, college professor and influencer @iconaccidental
• Mango, PR team
• Max Stein, founder and CEO of Brigade Talent
• Nicolaj Reffstrup, co-founder of Ganni
• Raina Penchansky, co-founder and chief executive of Digital Brand Architects
• Susie Lau, writer and influencer @susiebubble
• Tamu McPherson, photographer, editor and influencer @tamumcpherson
• Tina Craig, founder of Estate Five and influencer @bagsnob

Special Thanks
Sophie Agar; Alice Scholes; Suri Singh, Founder of Repeat Agency; Liesa Stecher.

businessoffashion.com 49
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