Have you ever seen your favorite Instagram model include the hashtag #ad in one of their posts? Have you ever noticed a YouTuber teaming up with a major company? Influencer marketing has changed everything we know about effective advertising. Approaching audiences through familiar faces and accounts, it’s becoming more popular and common across social media sites.

By pairing products with familiar faces, marketers have realized how lucrative this approach can be. The average earned media value (EMV) of influencer marketing campaigns in 2016 shows marketers made an average of $11.69 for every dollar spent on paid media.

Though influencer marketing is a new approach to advertising, there are already numerous examples that show how successful they can be. Ranging from unknown to trusted brands, these are some of the best influencer marketing campaigns to graze the phone screens of millions.

Top 10 Best Influencer Marketing Campaigns

By Ryan Eaton

Mercedes Benz

https://www.instagram.com/p/BCohjZmDGiA/

Though most luxury brands try to remain exclusive and desirable, Mercedes Benz utilized this new style of marketing to appeal to a younger demographic. Working alongside Kelly Lund and her wolf-dog Loki, they created a 360-degree video of their car driving through the Colorado mountains with Loki running by its side. The audience saw the immaculate landscape and pristine, luxury car through Loki’s point-of-view.

In addition to the commercial, Mercedes Benz also made their campaign’s presence felt on Instagram. From Loki’s account, they released sneak-peaks of the commercial while building up hype about their product. Instagram alone generated 173 million impressions, 2.3 million likes and comments, and $4 million worth of earned media. The campaign’s success relied heavily upon the innovative approach that matched the message of the luxury product.

Wish

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj74WNfA8k7/

Wish’s #timeonyourhands campaign promoted their online shopping app. They strategically teamed up with some of the biggest names in soccer at the time of the World Cup. The ad focused on showing what these soccer stars would do with all the free time they now had. Players like Paul Pogba, Gareth Bale, Neymar Jr, Tim Howard, Gianluigi Buffon, and Claudio Bravo all posted ads on their Instagrams with the hashtag #timeonyourhands. They then interacted with each other’s posts, causing engagements to skyrocket.

With the humorous nature of the ads, alongside the perfect timing of the World Cup, the brand leveraged hype around the event effectively. Neymar Jr’s ad alone raked in 2 million views on Instagram within its first two hours.

Youfoodz

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYX4icIn2AO/

Youfoodz is an Australian fresh meal company that used Instagram influencers to promote the launch of their new winter menu. They carefully selected micro influencers who pertained to health, fitness and food niches. The campaign consisted of 81 influencers who together posted 167 times on Instagram with the hashtag #mealtimereimagined and shared over 162 Instagram stories.

The results were astounding. They received 69,938 direct engagements and 507,909 impressions on campaign content. Additionally, they reached a whopping 1,457,142 Instagram users.

Choice Hotels

To raise awareness and create a positive image while increasing consumer recognition of their brand, Choice Hotels used authentic influencer content to effectively market themselves. Selecting influencers across the country, they relied on genuine, firsthand experiences that were shared across the influencers’ accounts.

The campaign proved to be extremely successful, creating over 250 pieces of content and amassing a reach of 40 million. Instagram alone saw 7,000 engagements from only 40 posts

Lagavulin Whiskey

Thinking with somewhat reverse psychology, Lagavulin Whiskey chose to increase their product’s popularity by targeting a very specific audience. They created a YouTube channel titled “My Tales of Whiskey” starring Nick Offerman. Their top video features Offerman simply sitting next to a fireplace and sipping whiskey for 45 minutes.

Relying heavily on Offerman’s cult following, the video went viral. In one week, they received over two million views, and their channel’s subscribers jumped from 5,500 to 23,000. The video even received a Shorty Award for Best Influencer Marketing Campaign in recognition of the successful, creative approach.

Walmart

https://www.instagram.com/p/BS_od6bAXdX/

When it comes to promoting charitable initiatives, influencer marketing can be an extremely effective strategy – as proven by one of the largest companies in America. Walmart collaborated with seven, diverse big-name influencers on Instagram, with a combined following of 29.5 million, with the goal of raising money for Feeding America.

Walmart donated 90 cents to the organization for every like, share, or comment using the hashtag #FightHunger on the sponsored posts. It proved to be a successful campaign, paying for around 19 million meals and raising a whopping $1.65 million while also boosting Walmart’s public image.

Sprint

Sprint targeted five influencers they felt embodied the hashtag #LiveUnlimited. These large personalities, with even larger followings across social media, were used in Sprint’s commercial to gain attention from a younger audience. From former Vine star Lele Pons to fitness guru Bradley Martyn, the diverse group covers a total of 30 million Instagram followers.

The campaign successfully resonated with a younger demographic through the perfect selection of influencers and appeal through the “cool factor.” Additionally, they made sure to put the creative control in the hands of the influencers, an important aspect of influencer marketing.

Pedigree

https://www.instagram.com/p/8vTB5BonBt/

Pedigree, a dog food brand, devised a plan to market their product while standing up for a noble cause. Coining the phrase, “Buy a Bag, Give a Bowl,” Pedigree vowed to give a bowl of dog food to a dog in need for each bag they sold. They used influencers to spread the word through blog posts, social media posts, and video content. Influencer Kristyn Cole connected the slogan to a touching story about her own dog in an Instagram post that she shared to over 90,000 followers.

After the campaign, Pedigree saw an increase of 1.3 times in total media value. They were also able to generate around 43 million impressions and over 62,800 content views. Their blog post engagements also surpassed 9,300 hits.

Time Warner Business Class

Influencer marketing isn’t always brand to consumer (B2C). Brand to brand (B2B) campaigns have also proven to show success. Time Warner Business Class created video testimonials featuring some of their small business customers. Their customers included Green Dot Public Schools and Spectrum Enterprises. Each video highlighted Time Warner services’ importance in their own company’s success. They also discussed how Time Warner Cable helped them reach goals.

Each video ended with a call-to-action. This encouraged their viewers to install the e-book “Might Mid-Market” to learn more about the connectivity solutions that are available under Time Warner Business Class.

Lenovo

To drive awareness of their new YOGA 3 Pro and the YOGO Tablet 2 Pro, Lenovo worked alongside trendsetting millennials who posted about their “day with YOGA” through genuine videos and blog posts. Their influencers had a combined following of over 400,000 and Lenovo managed to amplify their campaign’s audience through paid media buys.

The campaign generated 51 million social impressions, becoming the eighth trending topic on Twitter. Their giveaway contest, which targeted loyal readers, also received over 61,000 entries.

Use NeoReach to create one of a kind influencer marketing campaigns. Get started with us today!