To recap, influencers aren't just celebrities, they're anyone who has an actively engaged social media community and move those people to take action. Vogue is one company that seems to have identified this early on and has created their own Influencer Network. Their network is made up of super fans aka, hard core "fashion and beauty enthusiasts hand-selected by Vogue". Vogue is incredibly smart for doing this. They have essentially created an exclusive network and making it enviable to be aligned with Vogue and talk about the brand with friends. Put simply, Vogue is making it attractive for fans to do their marketing for them. In return, fans are the 'first to know' about new products, industry events and the like. But what is smarter than this is that Vogue gives each fan an influencer score, a measure of how many people see your posts about Vogue. The influencer score is akin to Klout or Kred in some respects , and adds a level of gamification that entices fans to compete to be the ultimate fan. For Vogue, this results in a greater amount of posts generated, seen by a greater number of potential customers. Moreover, as these customers are influencers by those they trust (the influencers), those posts are likely to have a higher conversion rate to sale and lead to increased sales. Brilliant.
However, this isn't the first time a company has created such a campaign; movies have been doing it for years. Harry Potter and The Hunger Games are two prominent examples of movies that have used their own fans as influencers/super fans to promote up and coming films. Late last year in November 2014, Frontline presented a documentary called "Generation Like" which followed teens use social in all aspects of their lives, shining a light on the proliferation of social media take-up among teens and the ubiquity of smart phones. More specifically, Generation Like showed how the Hunger Games was working with young teens and avid fans, such as Ceili Lynch, to launch the Hunger Games sequels. While the documentary portrays the movie production companies as a predator who uses innocent teens for advertising, it demonstrates fans willingness to be involved in a campaign if there is incentive. In the case of The Hunger Games, incentives came in the form of being noted as a top fan among thousands of other teens competition for the title, giving them notoriety amongst their peers, exposure and access to exclusives that they would never had had otherwise.
Why do I love this strategy?
- Vogue only has to focus on a core group of fans to promote their products, or brand. The influencers come to the band, in this case Vogue, and those influencers also bring their targeted audience.
- Influencers have already created active followings that are actively engaged with that particular influencer's content. Following parrot's principle, this saves a huge amount of time and money creating blanket campaigns, instead it allows the company to target those already aligned with the company's strategy. As influencers have credibility with their audience, followers are more likely to take recommendations from what influencers say.
- Vogue can take the creme of the crop, making the network exclusive. This ensures each fan is accountable for the quality of his or her posts.
- They are creating their own media network, a new form of leveraged distribution. Other brands are paying big bucks (up to $100K+) for the same result. Furthermore, creating an owned network means that Vogue can call upon it each time it needs to, unlike other forms of paid advertising.
- Competition - Vogue have implemented an influencer score and you can increase your score by sharing your posts on social media. Again, they have associated reward with actions Vogue wants fans to take.