The Power of Influencers — GVSU PRSSA – Grand Valley State University Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America

In advertising today, there is a large demographic of people who fast forward through commercials, skip the advertisements and despise being sold to. Brands have to find new ways to promote their products.

Most of these people are spending their time online, consuming the endless feed of content that is Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. These outlets hold the key to breaking through to your brand’s audience.

Digital Influencers are content creators with large online audiences. They can be typically be found on visual platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube or any blogging platform. These digital influencers have the ability to influence their audience’s purchase habits through content such as monthly favorites or just talking about the products they are loving right now.

With the help of Digital Influencers, you can take your next campaign to new heights by incorporating your product/brand into their regularly scheduled content. Below are some of my favorite examples of brands utilizing online influencers:

Daniel Wellington

If you haven’t heard of Daniel Wellington watches, you have probably seen them. This brand did an amazing job utilizing all different kinds of influencers to reach a wide range of audiences. They were able to successfully partner with lifestyle bloggers, travel bloggers and even creative bloggers.

Ipsy

Ipsy is a makeup subscription service that sends you a new bag of makeup to try every month for $10. Their YouTube channel often sends free products to influencers to try and review.

If you notice, it is clarified in the video that it is sponsored by Ipsy, not once, but twice. In the past few years, the FTC has strongly enforced that sponsored videos are clearly marked as just that. In the video, she reviews all of the products, shares her opinion on them as well as her experience.

Urban Outfitters

A great example of placing your content into content would be this blog post by Aspyn Ovard for Urban Outfitters. Aspyn Ovard is a lifestyle blogger and youtuber. In this blog post, you’ll notice she casually mentions the popular clothing brand in her room makeover blog post. Throughout the post you wont find any item that she mentions that isn’t from the Urban Outfitters. She mentions at the very bottom of the blog post that it was sponsored but also mentioned in her vlog. That is two different platforms with different audiences that now know about Urban Outfitters home décor selection. It was a great piece of content that was heavily branded. You can find the full blog here.

These are just a few of my favorite examples of successful brand and influencer relationships. What could an influencer do for your brand? Feel free to leave comments below with your favorite influencer campaign!

Ashley Mamula is Grand Valley PRSSA’s VP of Chapter Development and an Account Associate for GrandPR. She has a passion for thrifting, making her the perfect fit to be working as a Marketing Assistant at Goodwill of Greater Grand Rapids. As an advertising and public relations major, she loves learning about the latest PR trends.