What comes to your mind when you see the Instagram logo or hear people talk about Instagram?
Images? Videos? Influencers?
Because of Instagram’s affinity with picture and video content, fashion brands influencer marketing has thrived on Instagram and amassed much consumer engagement. By using professionally edited visuals, well-targeted ads, and other Instagram tools, fashion houses have successfully grown their audience over the years and at a fast rate.
Research by intelligence firm, L2 in 2015, predicted Instagram’s growth as a social media platform and how fashion and beauty brands are banking on Instagram’s popularity. According to the report, a third of the world’s Internet population will be on the visual app by 2018. It also recorded a growth in the presence of L2’s top fashion companies on the platform from 75% in 2013 to 98 percent in 2015. And these predictions didn’t fail as a greater number of fashion companies continue to use Instagram to grow their community.
If you have a fashion brand, now is the time to get into influencer marketing to grow your company. Below are the benefits you stand to gain with influencer marketing.
The benefits of influencer marketing
To start with, influencer marketing will help you to effectively reach your targeted audience. All you need to do is to find the right influencer that has the audience you need; then partner with him/her to develop an effective content strategy, boost your engagements and gather more leads. Through this online marketing strategy, businesses -small and big, can build trust with customers and create more brand awareness.
Since Instagram remains one of the social media platforms where influencer marketing thrives, we compiled this article highlighting 5 top fashion brands that have grown exponentially (inside and out of Instagram), all thanks to influencer marketing.
5 Fashion Brands using Influencer marketing to grow
1. Nike
Nike, the US-based athletic footwear and apparel brand is the leading company in its industry. Nike tops the market as the largest athletic footwear maker around the globe with over 1k retail shops globally, 75.4k employees, and a global net income of 2.54 billion dollars as of 2020. Five years ago, Nike net worth was at 3.27 billion dollars and grew exponentially to 4.3 billion dollars in 2019 all thanks to their investment in influencer marketing and use of valuable content
Nike does not just sell shoes, it sells emotions and builds connections with people. They are growing their business with social media influencers on different platforms including YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. The most recent is their partnership with Colin Kaepernick -an American civil rights activist, which resulted in a 1,400% increase in social media activity and 6 billion dollars in sales.
Image source: https://www.singlegrain.com/marketing-strategy/nikes-39-billion-marketing-strategy-just-do-it-like-nike-does/
Other partnerships Nike has done with influencers include; collaboration with rap and hip hop musicians like Kanye West,
- Partnership with tennis Queen, Serena Williams
- And their partnership with the popular footballer, Cristiano Ronaldo
- Their collaboration with Michael Jordan, for Jordan Brand, a myriad of different basketball performance sneakers.
2. Asos
As Seen On Screen (ASOS)’s Instagram page shows that this popular fashion brand understands that all consumers want to feel a personal attachment to their favorite brand. The brand started an online marketing strategy called Insider Influencer Program. Under this program, they partnered with 29 influencers with different looks, body sizes, and features. They did this because a fashion audience relates better with this kind of post since almost everyone will find an influencer in a dress or two that will suit their body features. They also created ASOS-branded Instagram and Pinterest accounts, and a page on the website for those influencers.
ASOS has, through this strategy, generated a lot of leads, boosted their engagement on Instagram, and made huge sales. For instance, When the company signed its first plus-sized influencer, Felicity Hayward in 2016, they experienced an 800% increase in the company’s curvy section.
Below are some other ASOS influencers that helped them boost their social media presence and increase sales.
http://www.starstyle.com/selena-gomez-nobu-malibu-sp497974/
3. Eileen Fisher
Eileen Fisher is a women’s wear fashion brand that does not concern itself with trends. Established in 1984, this brand focuses on designing timeless pieces through sustainable practices. The most beautiful thing about the fashion company is its environmental consciousness.
Although this brand was a late bloomer in the influencer marketing industry, by the end of 2020, they had a total of 102k followers and 14.7k engagements when they partnered with influencers.
- Amanda Gorman: Gorman is an American Poet and activist, she is one of the influencers that participated in Eileen Fisher’s “power in the words of women” campaign in 2017.
4. Adidas
Adidas originally made sports footwear, however, they have over the years evolved to include other sports apparel. This shoe brand is well known for its use of influencer marketing for social media promotions.
For instance, the brand collaborated with celebrities like Iga Wysocka and Selena Gomez to hold the #MyNeoShoot contest in 2015, for which they got over 12k entries. Furthermore, their follower count on Instagram increased by 41k, and the hashtag received a lot of mentions on Instagram. Adidas also experienced a growth in sales by 24.2% after the promotion.
Adidas also partnered with Michel Leroy -a photographer and member of PhotoShelter to stage a photo shoot for their “Style Suite ” at the NBA All-Star -a weekend festival of the National Basketball Association held annually in February during the middle of NBA season. After the photo shoot, the images bearing Adidas branding were delivered to celebrities, who posted them on their different social media handles. This helped to raise more awareness about the brand.
Meanwhile, Adidas started a women empowerment campaign in 2020, titled; ‘’Unleash Your Creativity in a bid to be women inclusive. The program presented 15 inspiring women athletes including, WNBA all-star, Candace Parker, British and European kickboxing champion, Ruqsana Begum, fitness influencer Hannah Bronfman, and others.
Before that, they partnered with a team of 25 female influencers like retired former tennis world number one Ana Ivanovic, to promote their products. The goal was to get more females to buy their products and this strategy worked because the brand experienced huge sales after the campaign.
- Examples of celebrities/influences who have partnered with Adidas are; Footballer, Mesut Özil
5. J Crew
J Crew is a popular men and women apparel retail shop with a net worth of 2.4 billion dollars. J crew understands what partnering with influencers can do for its business, so, they collaborate with famous online personalities to create promotional content.
They recently partnered with YouTube celebrity, Casey Neistat, featuring 17 tips to travel in style to promote the brand’s Ludlow Traveler suit. This campaign in addition to other social media strategies by the brand increased the company’s net worth to the current figure (2.4 billion dollars). It increased their Instagram followers to 2.1 million.
The brand has had corroboration with social media influencers including;
Influencer marketing has proven to work magic for fashion brands. If you are still scared, now would be the time to put your fears away and do what’s right for your brand; because everyone is on social media and you should be where your customers are.
However, I advise you to take the time to analyze your brand and what you wish to achieve with the campaign. This will help you figure out the right influencer for your brand. When you find them, contact them, strike a deal and watch your brand grow in months or less.
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