Perspective
6 tips for working with creators on your next campaign
Creators are a Brand’s super power.
“Nearly 40% of surveyed Twitter users say they’ve made a purchase as a direct result of a Tweet from an influencer,” according to study for which we partnered with @Annalect. That research, released this spring, also found that those who use Twitter trust creators nearly as much as their own friends.
While creators bring incredible engagement and value to any advertiser, activating with them requires significant legwork and coordination. This is precisely why @JoinNiche was founded in 2013.
Niche pairs its network of over 35,000 social media creators with brands to create engaging content. Now, more than 600 campaigns later, we’ve found that working with creators offers a significant bump in campaign results.
Some highlights from the first half of 2016 include:
- Promoted creator videos drove a 36% cheaper CPV than other promoted Twitter videos by the same advertisers.*
- Creator campaigns provided an average 84% increase in brand awareness.^
- Creator content drove an average 15.3% increase in intent to purchase.^
While creator content is a powerful way to boost your campaign, the relationship needs to be executed correctly. Here are six tips to help you best partner with creators to get better results on your next campaign.
1. Do one thing and do it well.
Whether it’s driving awareness or user generated content, it’s important to focus on one marketing objective per piece of content. Focusing on one purpose simplifies the brand messaging and allows the creator to be more expressive. Think of a creator as your partner and provide them with the creative freedom to be authentic and create content in their own voice. This drives meaningful engagement with their audience. The result of this collaboration is quality content that hits your desired objective.
2. Focus the caption to drive one action.
Captions may seem trivial, but are actually important elements. Captions should either strongly associate the brand with the content or drive the viewer with a call to action. Whether the caption extends the video's narrative, brings a hilarious joke full circle, or asks for responses, a clever caption can make all the difference.
3. Fit the medium and platform.
Content that is popular on Vine and Twitter is very different than the content that exists in traditional media like TV. This relationship holds even more true for branded creator content. Short-form video on social should be native and custom for each platform. Creators are experts in their craft and know what content works on each platform.
4. Showcase products naturally.
Organic branded content is most effective when the product is integrated authentically into the story — not a forced placement or haphazard add-on.
If the product is shown out of context or is overly featured, it will appear out of place in an organic creator's feed and could result in fewer likes, replies, or retweets.
5. Authentic content comes from authentic partnerships.
There are millions of creators, but a few key attributes can determine if a creator is a fit for a branded campaign. Consider the following factors: brand fit, content quality, the creator’s audience demographics, and a creator’s audience size.
@JoinNiche has tens of thousands of creators globally and we help you find the creator(s) who best fit brand and agency partners’ campaigns.
6. Continue the interaction.
Engagement is a constant, fluid, and ongoing process. This means that the marketer-creator relationship doesn’t end after a creator posts. In fact, there's lots of work to be done: replying to comments, reposting and engaging with user-generated content, sharing on owned channels, and adjusting ad spend in near real time to activate around content that resonates.
Follow these tips for your next creator campaign to engage and entertain your audience, and to forge a successful marketing partnership.
Editor’s note:
The Vine Archive serves as a time capsule of all content posted to vine.co from 2013 to 2017 and the Vine Camera now allows anyone to create short looping videos and post them to Twitter.
As of April 2017, we’ve updated our product names and video campaign objectives on ads.twitter.com:
Product names:
- Promoted Video stays Promoted Video
- Premium Pre-roll becomes In-Stream Video Ads
- Amplify Packages becomes In-Stream Video Sponsorships
Campaign objectives:
- Promoted Video becomes Promoted Video Views
- Pre-roll becomes In-Stream Video Ad Views (Pre-roll)
- Mid-roll becomes In-Stream Video Ad Views (Mid-roll)
Footnotes:
*In a 2016 survey of over 200 pieces of content from internal Twitter data.
^In 10 measured Nielsen brand effect case studies.