From Food to Fitness: How Two Brands Picked the Right Influencers
When looking at the way that marketing has transitioned over the years, the majority of brands have transitioned from traditional marketing to having influencers market the product that they are trying to sell. As someone who follows and watches a decent handful of content created by influencers, I have noticed that there are several categories of products that influencers are sponsored for, such as technology products like Casetify and fashion hauls from Princess Polly. Two product categories in which a couple brands have done a great job with influencer marketing are in fitness and in food.
A brand in the fitness category that I have seen influencers work with is Fabletics. This is a fitness brand that sells activewear to both men and women. Founded in 2013 by Don Ressler, Adam Goldenberg, and Kate Hudson, they noticed that there was a gap in the activewear department where the majority of fitness brands were luxury items, but there was no affordable workout brand that had high quality products. Their mission then became to “create clothing that inspires you to stay active, whether that means competing in an iron(wo)man competition, sweating in the studio, or chasing after your kids. Our on-trend designs are high quality at prices you’ll feel good about. This is where the inspiration starts. Beyond the clothing, we foster a community of people who embrace our mantra — “Live Your Passion” — every day.” And after scrolling through their website and looking at what their brand has to offer, I believe that they have done a great job in not just making their mission a reality, but also being body positive, since this is a major insecurity in all women.
Two great examples of influencer marketing in Fabletics brand ambassador program are the influencers Ava Jules and Sierra Schultzzie. Ava Jules, a 20 year old YouTuber, who does a lot of videos that are day/week in her life, adventures in her gorgeous home of Hawaii, and videos about body confidence. Since I have been watching her videos for years and have been a subscriber for a while now, I have noticed that she fits the Fabletics ambassador role perfectly. From her videos talking about body confidence to even the posts she creates with their products, she displays the body confidence factor throughout her content.
Sierra Schultzzie is also another YouTuber that I have been following for a while who does all things “mid and plus sized fashion, try on hauls, brutally honest reviews, recreating celebrity photos, style swaps, body positivity and more.” When seeing her do videos in partnership with Fabletics, she talks about how supportive the brand is for including a full range of sizes and the way that the clothes make her feel confident about her body. She displays this message through her Instagram posts with Fabletics as well. Both Ava and Sierra are definitely influencers that fit the brand ambassador role for Fabletics by following their mission about being confident with your body because it is what makes you YOU!
In the food category, another brand that has picked great influencers is Hello Fresh. This is a meal delivery service that provides you with a recipe and the correct amount of ingredients that you need to make this one meal. The goal of this company is to help with reducing the waste of food and letting you become more confident with cooking in the kitchen. It is also a product that helps you make quick and healthy meals without stressing about what to cook. Two influencers that I have seen talk about HelloFresh are Gracie O’Connor and Men Try Videos.
Gracie O’Connor is a college YouTuber who goes to the University of Alabama and produces college, fashion, and daily lifestyle videos about how to be a #GOGetter. She talks about how HelloFresh has helped her cook healthy meals while being a busy college student. In her videos, she displays her cooking one of the Hello Fresh meals and talks about how quick and easy it was for her. As someone who is also in college as a graduate student, I was able to relate to her about how stressful going to the grocery store is and the convenience of having Hello Fresh provide quick, easy, and healthy meals with all of the ingredients and recipes included.
Not only does she talk about Hello Fresh well, but also Men Try Videos is another team of influencers that have worked with them too. Men Try Videos is run by Austin and Cam, two guy best friends that simply put, do videos about trying things they never have. Within their videos, they also show cooking with Hello Fresh and talk about how great the company is for the active family lifestyle. From their videos, I have been convinced about how versatile the Hello Fresh service is for both an individual in college like Gracie and myself to even large families.
Influencers that work with brands like Fabletics and Hello Fresh are beneficial to the marketing strategy because they help demonstrate the brand’s purpose through their content. “Your brand purpose is different from your vision; it is the passion within your brand, ‘it outlines why you exist’ (Couchman, 2017)” said Julie Atherton, the author of Social Media Strategy: A Practical Guide to Social Media Marketing and Customer Engagement. Influencers have a relatable element where they can take the brand’s purpose and incorporate it within their content. Also, another way influencers are beneficial is stated by Arnaud Roy, a writer for relevance.com. He states “Influencers have the power to boost credibility and extend your content’s reach into new communities, as well as be critical partners in generating content.” He also displays this graphic from his article about the five roles that influencers can be when working with a brand.
Overall, influencer marketing is becoming the best way to market products and these four influencers have surely been successful towards the brand’s marketing plan.
