12 Influencer Marketing Examples to Get Inspired By

Advertising your products in collaboration with celebrities is not a new idea. But influencer marketing changes that process a bit by replacing big stars with social media personalities that have from several thousand to millions of subscribers.

You are probably here because, other than your regular email marketing and blogger guest posting, you also want to start collaborating with influencers (maybe for brand awareness or for leads), but you are not sure what kind of campaign to do. That’s why we have curated a list of twelve influencer marketing campaigns from three popular platforms that you can take a look at and take inspiration from.

But before that, let’s understand what influencer marketing is about.

What is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing is about brands collaborating with influencers to promote their products and services with the content that influencers create. As a digital marketing approach, it is highly trendy (valued at $13.8 billion in 2021) and effective as 80% of consumers have bought a product after seeing an influencer recommend it.

If you are wondering what this type of marketing looks like, this is a typical example:

Michael Le is a TikTok celebrity with 51 million followers. In the video above, we can see that he is collaborating with the fashion brand Hugo and advertising their products.

We have many more interesting examples like Michael that you can use for your inspiration, but before jumping to them, let’s understand what influencer marketing campaigns can look like.

4 Types of Influencer Marketing Campaigns

The beauty of doing marketing with the help of influencers is that you have the creative freedom to come up with any type of campaign idea and get conversions out of it. 

However, if you don’t know where to start doing endorsements with influencers, there are several popular types of campaigns that you can consider running. We have four of those campaigns on display below.

Type #1: Giveaways

People love free stuff and gifts, which is the main motivation behind organizing giveaways.

Although brands can have giveaways on their own social media channels (as part of their content marketing), you can also have a joint giveaway with a popular influencer from your niche.

These types of campaigns are beneficial to all parties:

• Brands get their outreach as there are many people viewing giveaway videos. These viewers can also start actively interacting with the brand. Sometimes brands also take advantage of giveaways and ask viewers for feedback before entering the contest. In this case, viewers also benefit from the improvements in products that the brand produces.
• Influencers benefit from the increased interest in their content (e.g., “this is an outstanding channel as it gives away cool stuff”), more views, and a higher engagement rate .
• Viewers simply benefit from actually receiving the gifts from the brand.

As an example of this type of influencer marketing campaign, let’s take a look at MKBHD’s smartphone giveaway.

Here we have Marques Brownlee, a professional tech reporter from New Jersey that runs a popular YouTube tech channel called MKBHD with 15.6 million subscribers.

In 2017, he partnered up with dbrand, a smartphone skin and case producer, to give away a whopping set of 50 smartphones – 25 Galaxy Note 8s and 25 iPhone Xs. The rules for entering the competition were simple:

• Subscribing to dbrand and MKBHD channels on Twitter for Galaxy Phones
• Subscribing to dbrand and MKBHD channels on Instagram for iPhones

With this giveaway, both Marques and dbrand aimed to boost the size of their social media audience.

But subscribing to social media is not the only way participants can qualify for the giveaway. Here are several more:

• Tagging friends in the comments.
• Signing up for a mailing list.
• Liking the post.

Some big brands and content creators even start competitions where participants need to create content on a specific topic (usually involving the brand’s products) and post it with a certain hashtag.

Type #2: Reviews & Unboxing videos

Promoting products via reviews and unboxing videos is another popular influencer marketing tactic.

There are several reasons why marketers like this type of content:

• Unboxing and review videos are very popular. The monthly search traffic for unboxing videos on YouTube is around 90,000 while the most popular review video has 90 million views.
• These videos significantly influence buying behavior. Over 90% of consumers go through the reviews before buying a product, and positive reviews can get brands an 18% increase in sales.

The process of finding influencers and collaborating with them is fairly simple too. You are sending a sample of your product to the influencer with the request to unbox and/or review it (sometimes they will place your affiliate link somewhere in the content too).

This product sample is usually a gift to the influencer although you might also need to pay them for their review if they have a popular channel with millions of followers. 

Now let’s see what this type of content looks like with the TheRelaxingEnd YouTube channel.

The person behind this is Lauri from Finland. His channel focuses on reviewing gaming-related devices, including unboxing various smartphones, graphics cards, etc., and playing games with them.

Lauri has collaborated with OnePlus to promote its flagship smartphone – OnePlus 10 Pro. In the unboxing video, Lauri showcases the screen, memory, and other phone specs that let it run graphics-heavy games smoothly, thus appealing to the mobile gaming audience.

Type #3: Sponsored posts

Posts based on sponsorship are the basic and classic way of promoting your products with influencers. But being basic does not mean it is outdated, as many large brands still employ this influencer marketing campaign type along with others.

In terms of the format, sponsored posts are quite diverse. Here are some possible variations:

• Posting photos and tagging the brand on them. This would usually involve the influencer using your product in some way in that photo (or an Instagram story).
• Posting any type of content (both photos and videos) and tagging the brand in the description. In the case of Instagram posts, they will mention your brand’s “@” handle along with your campaign’s hashtags in the post’s caption. In the case of YouTube videos, they will either mention you in the description or a comment that they pin at the top.
• Having direct advertisement in videos. In this case, influencers will post videos with their regular content, but they will dedicate a section of that video (usually 30-60 seconds long) to directly advertising your products. This is also the easiest one to do from the video editing perspective, thanks to video editor products available online.

Please note that when doing a paid promotion, influencers will usually use the hashtag #ad or other hashtags that indicate that they are paid to spread the word about the product, as it is required by law.

With the sponsored post formats clear, let’s look at an example of it.

There is definitely no need to introduce Kim Kardashian and explain why she has 307 million followers on Instagram. Instead, let’s focus on this post. It is part of a partnership with Picsart, a mobile photo editing app.

Kim took her photo, edited it in Picsart to showcase some of its visual effects,  posted it on her channel, and tagged the company. As part of the partnership, she also took a selfie with the Picsart’s CEO at the World Congress On Information Technology in 2019.

Type #4: Product placements

Product placement is a much older concept than social media and influencers, as it was a popular approach to advertising in cinema.

The idea behind product placement is to showcase the product in a natural way (e.g., the movie hero using an Apple laptop) without directly saying that it is a paid promotion (although you are still required to disclose it somewhere in your content).

Considering the level of connection and trust that influencers have with their target audience, product placement is especially effective in the content that they create. If people see the influencer, who they consider an authority, use or showcase a product, they are likely to think that the product in question is a good one.

When it comes to the types of product placement, these three are the most popular ones:

• Ordinary product placement. This is the case we have mentioned above when your product appears in the video/photo in a subtle and organic way.
• Active product placement. With this type, instead of just showing your product, the influencer will interact with it and give more details about the product’s capabilities.
• Sponsored content. It means that the brand has paid the influencer for creating a piece of content (usually a video) that is entirely about the product they want to promote.

To illustrate this type of campaign, let’s look at the Mrwhosetheboss channel on YouTube.

This channel belongs to Arun Maini, a British-Indian influencer who posts content on gadgets and smartphones.

In this video, Arun has a discussion with a fellow influencer Marques Brownlee (the guy from our giveaway example), where they go over 25 questions from their followers. Although they do not explicitly advertise any smartphones, they do speak about and showcase a couple of them as part of their discussion.

Wrapping up with the product placements, there are many ways to promote your products with the influencers, so your creative mind is your limit. But the four types we discussed are the most popular ones, and they are definitely worth trying.

Now, let’s move on to our main part, the great examples of influencer marketing for your inspiration.

12 Influencer Marketing Examples from Different Social Channels

The influencer marketing space is full of clever solutions and campaigns, and we have twelve of them curated for you here.

To make our list of solutions easier to digest, we have separated our examples into three categories:

• Instagram campaigns
• Tik Tok campaigns
• YouTube campaigns

The reason is that the way influencers and marketers make their campaigns will differ based on the platform they use. For instance, on YouTube, you can have a 20-minute long review where you get into details about the product in question, while on Tik Tok, your time is limited, and you need to squeeze your promotion into a single minute.

Influencer marketing is possible on other platforms too, such as LinkedIn (where the target market can be entrepreneurs or millennial professionals) and Snapchat (as a cost-effective option to find potential customers), but Tik Tok, Instagram, and YouTube are where the main action happens.

Now let’s move on to the case studies themselves. And we begin with Instagram.

Instagram Influencer Marketing Examples

Instagram is a booming social media platform with around 1.22 billion monthly active users (MAU). Both the influencers and the marketers are quite active on this platform, too, as more than 90% of marketers who work with influencers have Instagram on their channels list.

Example #1: Daniel Wellington

Daniel Wellington is a producer of watches and jewelry from Sweden.

Other than their products, Daniel Wellington is also famous for being one of the pioneers of influencer marketing on Instagram. They started their influencer campaigns back in 2011 when Instagram was still young and considerably smaller compared to its size today.

Another aspect of digital marketing strategy they instituted was their focus on micro-influencers and nano-influencers. They figured out that if they promoted their watches with 20 influencers with 5,000 followers each, the result would be more significant than collaborating with a single 100,000 audience Instagram personality could deliver.

From 2011 and up until today, Daniel Wellington’s marketing operations remain influencer-first, and we can see one of its examples below:

Stine Skogsrud is an Instagram nano-influencer from Oslo with a following of 10K.

Although we can see some posts on her page that put her in the “lifestyle” niche, such as her trips, food posts, and her house, most of her content is about fashion.

As a fashion influencer, she has partnered up with Daniel Wellington to promote their watches for women. Stine has incorporated these watches into the outfits and looks that she posts on her Instagram account.

Example #2: SKY

Our next Instagram campaign example is about SKY, a British television and internet provider.

SKY has recently started offering hardware along with its services. They have their own television set called Sky Glass that you can get as part of a bundle with their TV and internet. Consumers do not pay Sky Glass separately; they subscribe to SKY services and get the television set as part of it.

SKY has been very vocal about this TV set and the bundle it comes with. Along with all the classical marketing channels, they have also opted for influencer marketing on Instagram.

Here is one of the posts that an influencer has made to promote Sky Glass:

The influencer in question is Instagram celebrity Zoë Sugg who has 9.3 million followers on her channel. The niche that Zoë has on Instagram is lifestyle. She posts everything, from her looks, vacations, and home decorations to her family life and leisure. 

This makes her the perfect candidate to promote the Sky Glass, as it would organically go along with her home leisure posts. The example above is exactly that type of post as we can see that she is relaxing with her husband and watching TV on Sky Glass.

Example #3: Honor

Honor is a Chinese smartphone manufacturer born as a subsidiary of Huawei to target the mid-low price tier.

Along with many of their peer smartphone brands, Honor actively employs social media personalities to help promote its electronics lineup.

Honor is currently advertising its smartphone model X8 with a campaign called “#CheerForHonor8x”. This campaign has produced more than 500 posts on Instagram alone, including:

• Mobile phone stores that feature their happy buyers of Honor X8.
• Professional photographer influencers have taken stunning photos using this smartphone.
• Reviewers who have tested the X8 out and made a post about it.

Some well-known influencers and celebrities have done sponsored posts. We can look at one of them below.

The person in the photo is Felix Kjellberg from Sweden, who is more famous under the alias of PewDiePie.

PewDiePie is among the most famous and successful social media influencers, with 111 million followers on YouTube alone.

In the photo above, he is simply taking a picture with Honor X8 and boasting about it.

Example #4: Starbucks

Our final influencer marketing campaign on Instagram is from Starbucks.

Starbucks is an American multinational chain of coffee shops and roasteries that actively collaborates with influencers of all sizes to promote its drinks. They are mainly active with two campaign types:

• When there is a new product, and Starbucks wants everyone to know about the new addition to their menu.
• When there is a seasonal menu that will be available for a limited time (e.g., pumpkin spice latte during the Halloween-Thanksgiving season)

There are also ads for Starbucks’ existing coffee lineup, just like the example here:

The influencer in question is Jessica Rose, a starter nano-influencer who operates in the lifestyle niche.

Jessica has a hobby of caring for plants, and her post here showcases her passion for greenery and Starbucks coffee.

To wrap up, Instagram is an active place of gathering for many famous influencers, and brands are taking advantage of that to promote their products in various ways.

Our next platform is the most trendy one out there. Let’s move on to Tik Tok.

Tik Tok Influencer Marketing Examples

Saying that Tik Tok is on the rise would be a vast understatement. Created by ByteDance, a tech giant from China, Tik Tok was originally intended for 15-second song lip sync videos performed by teenagers (at least that was their target demographic). But soon, it became so popular that in late 2021 Cloudflare declared it #1 on the internet by traffic (surpassing Google).

As everybody’s on Tik Tok now, it is natural to see brands and best influencers actively doing influencer marketing on this platform too.

Let’s look at some of their examples.

Example #1: Gymshark

We begin our Tik Tok list with Gymshark.

Gymshark is a British manufacturer of sports apparel and accessories that actively uses the latest technology and marketing trends to sell its products.

They are actively embracing eCommerce for selling and the entire stack of digital marketing approaches (including paid ads, SEO, social media marketing along with its tools, etc.) for increasing acquisition. Among these approaches, Gymshark pays special attention to eCommerce influencer marketing.

Among the many influencer campaigns Gymshark has done, we want to highlight the following one with Elora:

Elora Gummerson is a Swedish health and fitness macro-influencer with 350,000 followers on Tik Tok. Her content includes tips on staying in shape, losing weight, and buffing up. She has even developed her own workout program available on a specialized app.

Elora is in a paid partnership with Gymshark to showcase and promote their latest line of women’s sports clothes called Adapt Camo.

Example #2: Calvin Klein

If there is one clothes brand that loves celebrity and influencer marketing, it is probably Calvin Klein.

Founded more than 50 years ago in Manhattan, Calvin Klein is a widely recognized fashion brand that is also well known for advertising its underwear with the help of celebrities.

Their campaign “#MyCalvins” was a series of interviews with famous stars like Kendall Jenner and Shawn Mendes. But Calvin Klein did not limit its reach to the big stars only, as they have also actively worked with large and small influencers within the scope of “#MyCalvins”.

Here is one of these influencer posts:

The channel where this post is made is called wabbs_x, and it is run by Mia Wells, a fashion model from London. In the post, she is wearing one of the bra models that Calvin Klein is promoting as part of their “#MyCalvins” campaign.

Example #3: Chipotle

Up next, we have Chipotle and its viral challenges.

Chipotle is an American fast-food restaurant chain that specializes in Mexican food. The company is an active user of social media, and, along with its own channels, it also appears on the channels of the influencers.

Chipotle likes to do challenges that can go viral. One of them was the “#ChipotleLidFlip” in 2019, which involved people hitting the Chipotle lid with a burrito bowl and flipping it. Here is one of the submissions for the challenge:

The person in the video above is David Dobrik, a Slovak-American internet celebrity with 26 million subscribers on Tik Tok. David joins the challenge (although the #ad indicates that Chipotle has paid him for that) and successfully completes the lid flip challenge.

Example #4: Guess

Our final brand in the Tik Tok section is Guess with its takeover strategy.

Guess is an American clothing and fashion accessory producer headquartered in Los Angeles.

Just like many fashion brands, Guess is actively involved in influencer marketing too. In 2018, they launched a challenge with the hashtag “#inMyDenim” that featured people in their “before” and “after” looks. In the challenge, the “before” look had to be inferior, while the “after” look would be luxurious and feature Guess clothes. 

There was also a Tik Tok takeover ad that would take viewers to the campaign hashtag.

Below is one of the “after” looks of Tik Tok influencers:

Ourfire, a Tik Tok channel with 5.7 million influencers, decided to join the “#InMyDenim” challenge too. Following the challenge’s rules, they had a before/after transformation, including Guess clothes and a bag.

To conclude, Tik Tok is the hottest social media platform right now, with a massive user base and endless opportunities to promote your brand.

We have reached our final platform, the oldest one among the bunch – YouTube.

YouTube Influencer Marketing Examples

YouTube, despite being older than the other two (launched in 2005), is still a very large and important platform. After all, it is the second-largest search engine after Google, with 3 billion searches every month.

Coming up next are four interesting campaigns that brand marketers have implemented together with YouTube influencers. And we will begin our list with Subaru.

Example #1: Subaru

Subaru is a well-known car and automotive manufacturer headquartered in Japan.

One of the notable cases when Subaru employed influencers to advertise its cars, was the “#MeetAnOwner” campaign. This campaign was a series of videos featuring the Subaru Impreza in different settings and locations.

Devin Graham and his friends were among the influencers that took part in this campaign.

Devin’s channel devinsupertramp (with more than 6 million subscribers) is about extreme situations and acrobatic tricks.

The video above is extreme, too, as the guys are building a slide right at the edge of a 500-foot cliff and slipping off it with a parachute. Although the Impreza is not the main hero in this clip, Devin has made sure that the car gets decent attention in it.

Example #2: Jim Chapman

The case of Jim Chapman and his work with two hotels in the Maldives is quite interesting too.

The two hotels in question are Faarufushi and Kandoluhu, both of which offer luxury experiences, including bungalows built on the inner atoll area where you can access the water right from your cabin.

These hotels have provided Jim with free accommodation in their best suites in exchange for Jim making a video about his experiences in these hotels.

Jim Chapman runs a YouTube channel with 2.1 million followers and features content in the lifestyle niche, including travel experiences.

Although the video is about his travel to the Maldives and his experience there in general, the hotels and their suites took a significant part of the video.

Example #3: Native

Our next example is about beauty products featuring Native.

Native is an American beauty retail company that makes its products with no-cruelty testing and using a minimum number of ingredients, avoiding the ones that can harm your health and body the most.

To advertise its series of deodorants, Native has turned to the influencers, in particular the beauty niche representatives on YouTube.

Our example will feature a face we are familiar with already – Zoë Sugg.

Although Zoë’s niche is lifestyle, she still occasionally makes videos featuring beauty products. Our example was one of them, where she does her makeup and speaks about the dress she wants to wear to go to the beach.

In the video, she also briefly mentions the Native deodorant that she claims she has been using recently and loves it.

Example #4: Coinbase

Our final influencer marketing campaign is about Coinbase and its participation in talk shows.

Coinbase is an American exchange platform where you can buy and sell cryptocurrency and simply store it in a wallet they provide or borrow cash with Bitcoin collateral. 

To increase their acquisition rate, the marketers at Coinbase started offering a special promo code that would give $10 worth of free Bitcoin to people who have signed up on the platform.

To let more people know about this discount code, they started partnering up with the right influencers, including podcast talk shows like our example below.

The channel here is called What’s Good Podcast. It is a talk show, the hosts of which discuss the latest trends, news, and interesting topics.

In episode 148 of their podcast, where they interviewed Harry, another influencer from the channel W2S, they also spoke about Coinbase, including all the features it has, and presented the promo code to their audience. 

To sum up, there are plenty of interesting and creative ways to advertise your products with influencers on YouTube too, and the examples above are proof of that.

Now Over to You

Influencer marketing is a highly relevant and popular approach. Thanks to their audience’s high engagement and the influencers’ trustworthiness, influencers can change the buying behavior of their followers and lean them towards purchasing your products.

We hope you found an inspiring example of influencer campaigns from the list we featured here. Have fun turning your creative side on and making your own influencer marketing campaign!

We have more influencer content and digital marketing guides, just check out our blog.