Influencer niches and why you need to blur them
Influencer marketing used to only work in a certain way. Creators would be part of a specific vertical and advertise products in that vertical to their followers. What is a vertical?
A “vertical” in the influencer world is essentially a niche or category that an influencer specializes in. Think of it as their main lane, where they focus their content and build their expertise. For instance, if an influencer is all about makeup tutorials, skincare routines, and beauty product reviews, they’re part of the beauty vertical.
Traditionally, brands would stick to these lanes when choosing influencers.
Skincare brand? You need a beauty influencer. Selling swimwear? Find a fashion creator. You get the idea.
But over the last few years, brands have started to realize that to maintain engagement and keep audience interest, they should lean into blurring the lines between their products and the creators they collaborate with
When we talk about this, we don’t mean choose any old influencer from any niche. It might not be quite right to take a crypto podcaster and ask them to promote the latest beauty blender. We still have to be considerate about which talent is right for the brand, but with a twist. If our crypto podcaster is actually a true makeup fan, then who knows – it could be a genius pairing!
We spoke to Katie Soper, Account Director at Brainlabs, about how brands can win big when they get this right (as well as the hard data we’ve seen to back this strategy up).
The best partnership might be the unlikeliest
A brand’s focus should be on finding creators who engage their audience and can sell the product in their own way. It doesn’t matter if they’re in their vertical or not. We’re not saying that partnering with obvious vertical choices is bad. Of course, if you’re a fashion brand, you’re going to want to work with fashion creators. But more and more, brands don’t need to rely solely on it.
Katie says, “Just because you’re a beauty brand doesn’t mean you should only work with beauty creators. You actually should start looking at other areas that you can tap into. The only thing you actually need to be looking at is who their audience is. People aren’t single minded. They’re complex and multifaceted with numerous different interests. Find out what those interests are and tap into them to break through the noise.”
So, we don’t want to just roll the dice to choose different talent. We need a methodology that will ensure whoever you partner with will achieve high-performance results… which we pretty conveniently have for you.
- Know your audience, like, really get to know them
It seems obvious. But to truly understand the different creator verticals you could tap into, you need to understand your audience. Who are they? What else are they interested in? What are their pain points, and how can they be solved? Brands then need to collaborate with creators with similar audiences to theirs. While you’re focusing just on finance influencers to get your new banking app downloaded, you’re missing out on the travel enthusiasts who could make more of your low-rate exchanges. Think beyond your brand positioning and understand what else your audience cares about.
Utilize social listening tools (we use our in-house proprietary tools like Bytesights) to understand two things. First, the content, creators and communities that your audience wants to be a part of. Second, which influencers resonate with these to help you find the right match that will allow you to take an informed risk and work within different creator verticals.
- Big risks make for big rewards
The fragrance niche is known for typically staying within creator verticals. Perfume adverts usually feature models or other conventionally beautiful people conjuring up the scent of the perfume, exaggerating the shape of the bottle, and getting customers to imagine how sexy they’ll feel wearing it.
Generally, these types of creators film GRWM and review content that focuses on the perfume’s features. But what if they were to take a different direction?
Partnering with a comedy creator, for example, is not what you think of when you imagine a perfume advert! But interestingly, this content has proven to be an instant hit.
In this video, the creator doesn’t focus on the perfume’s features, smell, or appearance. In fact, the creator is seen only briefly putting on the fragrance at the start and end of a comedy skit. But the subtle integration made the campaign more successful than any other we’ve done with this client. One Instagram user commented, “I usually skip past ADs but not your ones 👏😂😂”.
The perfume retailer has a history of successful campaigns and very easily could have taken the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ approach. But they took a risk and went against the norms of their industry.
There’s nothing wrong with following trends and sticking with what you know, but our client’s pioneering mindset is what gets game-changing results. They trusted our knowledge that this risk wouldn’t actually be risky for them, and it seriously paid off.
- Make sure your values align
Even if brands and creators are in separate niches, their values should still align. Brands should avoid working with influencers who clearly have different points of view or who don’t genuinely like their product. Authenticity is the number one factor in influencer marketing – customers will spot fakeness and be turned off by insincere creators and brands.
- Tap into adjacent conversations
People who want to buy makeup aren’t just talking about beauty, and typically don’t just follow beauty creators. So just like creators can be in different niches, a brand’s content can even follow different trends outside of their industry.
Take a young professional who hasn’t started their retirement plan yet. A demographic that might not even know they need help with their retirement investment. But what about cooking? There are tons of incredible foodtok creators out there with followers from this audience. This video with @Dannylovespasta and Fidelity Investment was a winning collab. So, would you think of an investment brand when you look at foodie content? Probably not. Does it work? With 3.4 million views and 114.7k likes – that’s a resounding yes.
As long as a brand’s audience is still interested, anything is fair game. And yep, you guessed it – Bytesights can help brands find these conversations as well.
Other niches are also seeing success
Brainlabs has tried and tested blurring creator verticals and we know that it works. We’ve collaborated with Sheba on two separate campaigns with influencers in different niches.
Makeup artist @enillasmu paired a smokey cat eye with her two cats to deliver a creative campaign that viewers called the “perfect collab.” With 10.1M views on Instagram, it’s clear this was a winning strategy. They also worked with ceramics creator @jorjadela who made a beautiful custom food bowl to advertise the Sheba pouches. The video achieved nearly 22M views, with fans sharing their love in the comments.
We’ve also partnered with Estée Lauder to create a campaign with artist @thisartperson, who painted using only makeup to advertise the brand’s Double Wear foundation. Viewers were impressed by her talent, with one commenter stating “No way that’s makeup, damn girly”. She garnered 523.7K views and 46.4K likes.
By thinking outside the box and creating unusual content, these brands have expanded their reach and sparked conversations with new audiences, who may not have previously considered their products.
Jump verticals with the safety net of data
The keys to success in blurring creator verticals are knowledge, tools, and the confidence to take a risk.
This doesn’t have to mean brands go all in on one “risky” creator. They should test the waters and assess what works. For example, if you’re a tech company, you could do five activations with tech influencers and one with a comedy influencer. Measure the performance, and if the comedy campaign draws engagement, try adding additional types of creators.
Katie says, “Blurring creator verticals should be done on a test-and-learn basis. We’re not saying to completely re-strategize or change everything, but allow yourself a little bit of budget to test it. We have tried a few different verticals and it can really help you realize what’s great for your brand.”
If you’re unsure which types of creators could be right for your brand, or looking for the data to back up your ideas, it’s always worth talking to an expert (come say hello).
