Fashion and influencer marketing go together like bees and honey. One-quarter of all sponsored posts on Instagram are fashion related; it's the most popular vertical among influencers. The visual aspect of clothing and the associations of lifestyle form instant longing for audiences, resulting in rapid-fire engagement and interest.
Listed below are seven Canadian and American fashion brands that are experts at using influencer marketing to amplify their brand image, engagement, and drive sales.
Peace Collective
Frank and Oak
Lulu Lemon
H&M
Express
Nike
Ralph Lauren
Yanal Dhailieh, the founder of this Toronto based apparel brand, states that "100 percent of our marketing budget is spent on Facebook and Instagram". Currently, on Instagram alone, they have nearly 100,000 followers. How do they achieve such a large following? They partner with influencers to showcase their unique products and create authentic relationships with their followers. The apparel is Toronto-centric and manifests a sense of pride attached to Canadian identity.
Along with collaborating smaller nano and micro-influencers, Peace Collective strategically chooses Toronto figures to partner with, Jose Bautista from the Blue Jays. In this post, Bautista urges fans to follow Peace Collective.
Not only that, but every purchase at the time supported the non-profit Breakfast For Learning. The company earned $15,000 for the initiative and thousands of new followers. Peace Collective implements a variety of influencer types to get the advantage of each audience following.
Founded in Vancouver B.C, this upscale women's fashion brand, as stated on their Instagram, provides everyday luxury to its clients. Aritzia is delving into influencer marketing for their social media strategy to generate revenue growth and to boost their e-commerce sales primarily.
They have successfully invited celebrity influencers such as Kendall Jenner to promote their fashion, and received astounding numbers on her posts, nearly two million likes. That's for a company with just shy of a million followers on their own Instagram. Other celebrity partners include Hailey Bieber and Sophia Ritchie.
Artizia knows how to garner engagement for their social media presence. On their Instagram, they include a highlights section titled "Aritzia IRL," where they feature snaps of macro-sized influencers wearing cute Aritzia inspired outfits demonstrated in the picture below.
Artizia blends celebrity, macro, and micro-influencers to appeal to various audiences and increase their engagement and social media reach.
This Canadian owned athletic apparel brand has a unique approach to influencer marketing. They gather local influencers, or brand ambassadors, as they call them located in specific locations near their stores. Focusing on communities that are local to their shops creates a tight-knit, accessible audience base to market to.
By focusing on smaller nano influencers, they create more robust engagement among niche communities of yogis, runners, chefs, and athletic studio frequenters. They acquire them through their website or spot them on social media.
Lululemon has positioned themself as an essential part of social culture and, and from this, fosters emotional connections through the use of influencers. This company gains thousands of different niche audiences with similar interests and are devoted fans of their ambassadors. It works well with their type of products because motivation and inspiration are a considerable aspect of working towards a physically active lifestyle.
Who knew an apparel brand that originated from a hunting and fishing store could be such a substantial modern fashion player? It is quite possible because they know how to adapt and employ change to their brand image through marketing. Currently, they use influencers as a digital marketing strategy, which has brought them immense success.
H&M achieves devote communities online by enlisting smaller celebrity influencers such as:
Certainly larger than macro-influencers, these celebrities are still small enough to have higher engagement with their followers. H&M came back with a social reach of nearly 12 and a half billion for a single influencer campaign.
This American fashion brand creates apparel targeted towards stylish young men and women. Express wished to increase their brand awareness and buzz specifically with their target U.S male audience.
Their solution was to implement and increase their use of micro-influencers by 10x. Express even recruited influential employees and customers. They wanted to reach out to people who genuinely enjoyed their brand and had connections to key markets that could significantly return their investment.
By giving their male influencers promo codes to share with their audiences, Express linked influencer content directly to their sales to efficiently increase their conversions. Express successfully increased their Instagram impressions to 15%, and increased average engagement by 133% with their micro-influencer activity. It ultimately increased its online sales by 24%.
This athletics footwear and apparel store that is the parent to the iconic "Just Do It" slogan knows that being on top doesn't last unless you keep working. Nike partners with Youtube influencers to market their products in a meaningful and transparent way.
Nike's audience is extremely diverse, as it is comprised of athletes, rappers, entrepreneurs, and just regular people. They were in the game of sponsorships with substantial athletes, and have now shifted towards focusing on their social media efforts and collaborating with influencers.
For example, Nike works with What's Inside, a Youtube channel father-son duo that has captured nearly seven million subscribers. The videos' premise is to cut the shoes in half and investigate what each product is made of. In this way, Nike allows trusted voices to take their Air VaporMax shoes, and others, to the test. This creates an air of transparency and authenticity for the Nike brand by showing that Nike believes in their products' value. This belief translates over to the viewers.
Nike has increased its reach and audience range by providing consumers with relevant content that aligns with their interests. They know how to provide fresh content by allowing others to shine the spotlight on their brand.
This notable, high-end American fashion brand was established in 1967. Despite having a reputation for tradition, they are far from conventional in their marketing strategies. For Pride 2020, Ralph Lauren celebrates and supports the LGBTQIA+ community by releasing a ten-piece gender-neutral Polo Pride collection for adults and children.
Ralph Lauren partnered with a diverse range of influence charged individuals such as Daniel Levy and Kristen Kish on their Instagram to showcase their new collection with the hashtag #westandtogether. By accessing the LGBTQ+ community leaders, Ralph Lauren can connect with the target audience for this clothing line to generate more sales and engagement. They successfully created relevant and engaging content that linked their brand to a social issue they care about. Every portion of a purchase from this collection goes towards The Stonewall Community Foundation.
By having influencers share their videos, photos, and stories, they shared voices of the LGBTQA+ community to authentically garner a greater audience for their brand and spark a fire of engagement within their online presence.
Here at Blitz Marketing, we excel at connecting brands with their ideal customers through selective influencer marketing and management. If you're interested in finding out more, please feel free to reach out to our team of specialists at hello@blitzmarketing.co.
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