Native branded content with influencers benefits brands, influencers, and publishers because it provides an opportunity for each to reach and connect to new audiences. In fact, influencers play a major role as introducers and can help expose publishers to both existing and new audiences.
In fact, 84% of traffic driven by influencers are new customers.
We’ve assembled some compelling case studies on how publishers have worked with influencers. Results are shown when available or permissible for use.
Barstool Sports is a sports & pop culture blog covering the latest news and viral highlights of each and everyday with blogs, videos and podcasts.This year, and on the Friday just before Super Bowl weekend, the publication launched ‘Super Brawl’, a $15.99 pay-per-view stream of an amateur boxing match. Among the highlights: one of its employees will enter the ring to fight an audience member from the comments section.
For CEO Erika Nardini, it’s further proof that Barstool Sports is a next-generation media brand:
“We are in a relationship economy,” she said. “I believe that influencers are the new publishers.” Her focus is to monetize those relationships in a way that feels natural to Barstool’s readers. And it seems to be working, since fans are buying everything the publications sells, from funny t-shirts to $100-per-year subscriptions to ‘Barstool Gold’.
New Amsterdam Vodka or Kraft Heinz are among brands who were integrated in the publication’s podcasts and videos. In fact, Barstool Sports is taking the publisher-advertiser relationship to another level by merging advertising and editorial. ‘We are very overt when we are marketing a product, and honest we are promoting something.’ said Nardini.
The publication chooses to avoid delivering bland stats about touchdowns and instead developed a unique voice that’s personality- driven through their own employees and social media stars. So for any niche publication wishing to use influencers, they must not only think about how to create a loyal community through their content, but they also need to develop expertise in building a consumer brand.
Barstool’s audience is modest by today’s standards, under 10 million visitors a month, but the publisher has something many in the industry are struggling with: audience loyalty and hefty e-commerce revenues.
LA Times’ Test Kitchen Director, Noelle Carter and Deputy Editor, Jenn Harris.
May 2019 marks the return of Food Bowl, the month long food festival from the Los Angeles Times, now in its third year. Over the course of 31 days, the festival will celebrate the vibrant food community of the city through dining events, forums, panel discussions, pop-ups, cooking demos, culinary collaborations and cocktail parties. Food Bowl will also discuss issues of food access, sustainability, hunger and waste reduction.
To amplify the buzz and excitement surrounding the event, the LA Times are using influential chefs and foodies from around the world to promote the event. Food Bowl sponsors include founding partner Citi, High West, Jose Cuervo, Sapporo and Wines of Germany. Jenn Harris, the publisher’s deputy editor, said that ‘‘#LAFoodBowl is blowing up, and I love that people are saying ‘Who wants to meet here?’ A lot of the food is free, and you don’t have to pay. The supermarket area is only $10, so it’s not like a $150 VIP ticket. It’s supposed to be accessible, so I think accessibility, celebrity chefs, and social media are coming together for a perfect storm to make this work. I love it.’’
Influencers commissioned to promote Food Bowl generate at least 10.8K views on their videos and pictures on Instagram
The idea of expert networks isn’t new, but as publishers want to cash in on the burgeoning influencer marketing space, publishers are finding new ways to drive measurable ROI through influential contributors. Just like The Drum, Forbes or The Washington Post, Quartz has put more authority with their in-house team to find the best minds in their best areas.
This strategy fits into a bigger scheme of audience development and engagement, especially on third-party platforms like Facebook. However, the stakes are even higher with expert networks. Publishers such as The Information have discovered that smart comments from impressive sources are a great way to build a community that attracts subscribers.
When enrolling influencers, Quartz doesn’t require of its experts to contribute full articles, Huffington Post way. Its Pro Network, made of nearly 70 people from Richard Branson to Arianna Huffington, help drive better conversations around the news shared in the app.
The Quartz Pro Committee, a team of five Quartz employees, is responsible for identifying and recruiting people to contribute thoughts and commentary to Quartz’s mobile app
Being able to show off an influential audience is helpful for publishers, but how do you attract experts to contribute to your publication when there is no financial reward for them? Quartz and other publishers simply frame the offer as a brand-building opportunity, similar to contributing to an article or moderating a panel.
In fact, several experts have managed to build audiences on Quartz’s app larger than the ones they have on social media platforms. For example, Philip Lipscy, a professor of political science at Stanford University, has over 75,000 followers on the Quartz app; on Twitter, he has 1,400. Allison Baum, a venture capitalist, has over 93,000 followers on the Quartz app; on Twitter and Medium, she has 1,200.
Every month, the Quartz Pro Committee is in charge of outreach to new candidates.
