12 Best Influencer Marketing Campaigns in 2023

Nowadays, businesses are constantly looking for new ways to reach their customers and pitch their products or services without falling into the sea of forgotten brands. As traditional marketing techniques seem to become less and less effective lately, influencer marketing campaigns can be a way to catch your potential audience’s attention and leave them with a lasting impression.

This strategy can be extremely advantageous, but it also carries some risks. In fact, engaging an influencer can be expensive, and working with the wrong figure could do more harm than good to your brand’s image. 

So, in order to help you come up with a safe strategy that delivers results, I came up with this list of 12 influencer marketing examples you can learn from.

Let’s go!

 

What Are Influencer Marketing Campaigns?

Influencer marketing is born from the collaboration between brands and people with large followings online, also known as influencers. This tactic combines the power of celebrity endorsements with the effectiveness of content marketing, as influencers share posts on a periodic basis.

Due to their constant work online, influencers have built a keen and enthusiastic audience that values their opinion and is willing to follow their actions. That’s why they oftentimes have the power to influence other people’s purchasing decisions and impact their view of a brand. 

Influencer marketing campaigns are about taking advantage of this ability to help fulfill your objectives and stay competitive online.

 

Benefits of Influencer Marketing Campaigns

Unlike other marketing strategies, influencer endorsements present some unique benefits to businesses:

• They offer a high return on investment. Marketers who use this tactic declare that it offers the second-highest ROI of any marketing trend, just behind video content marketing.  And as the best influencer marketing campaigns often involve sharing videos on social media, this technique may be the most profitable strategy businesses have today.

• They’re a powerful tool for increasing brand recognition and customer trust in your products. You’ve probably heard of the effectiveness of word-of-mouth to build credibility with potential leads. Well, influencer marketing works similarly. An influencer’s social following is made up of people who are already familiar with them and value their opinion. That’s why their thoughts on a brand or their products have a lot of value. If you work with the right people, you’ll gain access to a wide audience of potential leads who will start paying close attention to your brand.

• They can help you enter new markets and reach new audiences. When you’re about to launch a new product, building brand awareness is key. But frequently, it takes a lot of effort and money to establish yourself in the minds of new clients. Being promoted by an influencer can be an easy way to gain exposure with a broad audience and build hype around your product or service just before launch.

 

The 12 Best Influencer Marketing Campaigns of 2023

As you can see, these marketing campaigns can be the boost you were looking for for your business. To guide your efforts, here are 12 influencer marketing examples of brands that effectively used this strategy to their advantage, along with some tips to teach you how to do the same.

 

1. Candlewick Press – Choose the Right Channels

Young Adult is a genre that has been steadily growing among book lovers. The younger generations often search for book recommendations online, and TikTok has become a key place to find like-minded individuals. Under the hashtag #booktok they post reviews, offer suggestions, and share their favorite novels.

Candlewick Press decided to take advantage of that to drum up buzz for new releases and partner with Azanta Reads, a booktok influencer with 28.8K followers. Explaining the intricacies and plotline of a book without boring the viewers can be hard, but here, Azanta uses creativity to showcase all of the characters’ emotions and give a taste of what the novel is all about.

It’s important to leave the influencers you’re collaborating with room for originality. More often than not, they have a lot of experience in the area they’re targeting and know their audience better than anyone. By offering them creative freedom, you may find new, unique ways to market your product.

 

2. Byelliebeauty – Expand Your Reach

The best influencer marketing campaigns have the effect of increasing your reach, building brand awareness, and even going viral. This is what happened to Byelliebeauty, a small make-up business from the UK, whose brow shape went viral after collaborating with  Instagram trendsetter Sarah Ashcroft.

After Sarah posted a photo using Byellie’s brow-setting gel, an immediate domino effect took place among creators. In influencer marketing, there’s a common phenomenon where influencers with smaller accounts start imitating people with bigger followings, sharing their own reviews of a product too. This is because for people looking to build a following online, jumping on trendy topics is crucial.

After Sarah’s review, Bielliebeauty benefited from this domino effect too. And to take advantage of it, she started answering and reposting other creators’ reviews on her own page. Influencer marketing campaigns can give you an incredible increase in exposure and, consequently, sales. 

But it’s important to answer accordingly and repost those creators who mention you. They’ll benefit from the exposure, and continue reviewing your brand. 

 

3. Yuka – Work with Microinfluencers

Yuka is a French mobile app that shows users information about the impact of food and personal care items on their health just by scanning their barcodes. In order to increase the market reach of such a niche product in the US, they decided to come up with an influencer marketing campaign.

The brand collaborated with various influencers who showed how some products could be harmful to their health while showcasing how easy it is to use the app –like in this video with @_itsbrit_, a micro-influencer from Southern California. Although her following may not be the largest, the video has been viewed 1 million times and got 149.2K likes so far.

Even if you lack a big budget, you can still work with users with smaller followings to promote your brand to a more niche audience. As long as you create effective digital content that attracts the right public, you’ll definitely see the results of your actions.

 

4. Bulldog – Reach New Markets

Attracting customers can be hard when you’re about to launch a new product, especially if you’re trying to appeal to a skeptical or wary audience. Bulldog, a men’s skincare company, faced these challenges and overcame them by creating one of the best influencer marketing campaigns out there.

Since men aren’t typically the most avid purchasers of skincare products, Bulldog decided to make a series of videos tackling common shaving mistakes. The goal was to educate their audience on the benefits of taking care of their skin through funny, entertaining activities in the streets.

When you’re trying to generate brand awareness, it’s important to identify and collaborate with those influencers who are most relevant to the niche you’re targeting. Followers will value their opinion, and it can be the deciding factor in building a lasting relationship with that new market you’re trying to position yourself in.

 

5. Gymshark – Create Challenges

Gymshark, a sportswear brand, has consistently leveraged influencer marketing throughout the past years, but one particularly successful campaign was its #66DaysChallenge. This company partnered with influencers who have a strong presence on TikTok to come up with a trend that urges users to change their lifestyles with positive habits and physical activity.

Challenges are a great digital marketing idea to increase engagement with your brand, which is why both influencers and brands love them. And what makes #66DaysChallenge one of the best influencer marketing campaigns is how it leaves users free to add their own touch to the dare.

In this video, training-content influencer LittleTFitness joins the campaign by sharing a mobility exercise for her followers to do. Other users can take up the challenge and even add their own, encouraging content creation while increasing the brand’s reach and share of voice.

 

6. Nord VPN – Be Authentic

NordVPN, a virtual private network, relies heavily on influencer marketing campaigns on YouTube to showcase its brand. This social media platform has become home to a large demographic of tech lovers who oftentimes contribute with tutorials, give each other tips on new software, or share their daily experiences.

That’s why Nord VPN created this partnership with Mayuko Inoue, an influencer whose content strategy is focused on the topics of technology and her daily life as a Software Engineer. Without being overtly promotional, Mayuko shows how this VPN changed her life, allowing her to securely surf the internet no matter where or on what website she’s in.

What makes this video effective is how NordVPN is seamlessly and naturally integrated into it. Influencer marketing helps you show your product in a casual manner by demonstrating how real people use it. And by watching their videos, you may even learn new ways of taking advantage of your goods, benefits you hadn’t thought of, and another side to your own brand.

 

7. Forthglade – Increase Your Brand Authority

Forthglade is a dog food brand that prides itself on selling high-quality, healthy products. And in order to showcase that, they came up with this collaboration with influencer and veterinarian, Dr. James Greenwood.

Any pet owner wants the best for their animals, so in their campaigns, Forthglade wanted to provide real, expert advice on how to care for your best friend. Together with Dr. Greenwood, they came up with a content marketing plan based on different topics like best diets, optimal training, or how to look after your senior pets.

Collaborating with influencers who are also knowledgeable on a particular subject can help you boost brand authority and establish yourself as a subject-matter expert in your industry among your customers. This could be the last step in persuading a potential customer to actually make a purchase.

 

8. Toyota – Keep an Eye on Trends

The best influencer marketing campaigns don’t necessarily have to involve humans  –nowadays, animals can be influencers too! That’s the case for Loki the Wolf Dog, a part husky, part malamute, and part wolf dog with almost 2 million followers.

His owner, Kelly Lund, posts daily content about their day-to-day lives in the extreme conditions of the North American wilderness. Toyota took notice of their growing popularity and partnered with this fluffy social media star giving them a 4 Runner to drive through the snow-covered mountains, venture through the desert, and camp under a peaceful, starry sky.

For a long time, dog content has been popular on the internet—and lately, even among nature lovers, who follow influencers as they travel to desolate places with their adventure-loving furry friends. It’s important to keep an eye on trends in your industry and come up with content like this that can be relevant and interesting for your target audience.

 

9. Tommee Tippee – Be Empathic

Tommee Tippee is a well-known company that has provided parents with innovative baby products for more than 50 years. To promote the “Parent Room,” a new website space for parenting advice, they created an influencer campaign.

With the hashtag #Thetruthis, the brand invited influencers to share their daily life struggles as parents, and the real challenges of parenthood. Their intention was to give new parents a sense of belonging and self-assurance while showing that their brand stays involved in their struggles, even after their products have been purchased.

This influencer marketing example shows us that it’s important to be empathic. Understanding your customer’s worries and needs is more than just offering the right product: it’s about listening and building a lasting relationship that will benefit you both in the long term.

 

10. Notion – Build Relationships

Notion is a connected workspace that helps teams and individuals keep better tabs on their daily activities, and a brand that takes influencer marketing campaigns to another level. 

Last month, they hosted an event and invited various creators to gather and share their expertise. Additionally, this business offered insights on better ways to leverage Notion as content creators, and advice on building partnerships with companies. 

This goes to show that besides promoting your product, influencer marketing is a great way to build relationships. By offering spaces where users and potential brand ambassadors come together, you can become a prominent, trend-setter figure in your industry. All while being connected to the influencers that hold the most ground.

 

11. Thinx – Gain Feedback from Prospects

The most effective influencer marketing campaigns not only increase sales but also provide feedback to brands to improve their products and better satisfy their target audience. Following this line of thought, Thinx, a feminine hygiene company, hosted an event with 25 influencers in Los Angeles.

In this gathering, Thinx received feedback from each of these important figures around their new athleisure line before developing the actual products. Then, the company used the data they collected to launch clothing items that their customers would find appealing. 

But this influencer marketing example doesn’t stop there. When they launched the new clothing brand, Thinx offered unique discount codes for the influencers that were invited to exclusively share with their followers, which helped them increase sales.

 

12. Dunkin’ Donuts – Make Sponsorships

The best influencer marketing campaigns aren’t made just of specific, short-term actions. In fact, you can work toward building a lasting relationship with a potential celebrity that’ll help you both grow in the long run. Dunkin’ Donuts realized this early in the game, which is why they came up with a partnership with TikTok star Charlie D’Amelio after she expressed her taste for the brand.

In addition to posing with Dunkin’ products, the brand allowed her to do an account takeover, and make her own TikTok content for the campaign. Additionally, they even created a beverage called “The Charli,” and promoted it online under the hashtag #CharliXDunkinContest.

Influencers and businesses often share a common goal, which is gathering a positive reputation and increasing their relevancy online. Sponsorships can be a way to combine resources and work together to achieve that.

 

Wrapping Up

Influencer marketing campaigns can be low or high-budget, involve celebrities or nano-influencers, span multiple platforms, and target a wide range of audiences, making them a complex technique that takes time, communication, and collaborative effort to master.

In order for it to work, make sure to always work with honesty and authenticity. If the influencer’s audience is the same as yours, chances are you share the same interests, values, and goals. So work together, and try to find the best strategy that’ll benefit everyone in the long term.