7 Examples of Influencer Marketing during COVID-19

While the world’s economies struggle with the realization of an imminent financial crisis, businesses everywhere are still trying to survive here and now. You would assume that in such extraordinary circumstances, influencer marketing should be dead. However, that’s not the case. Many brands are indeed cutting their budgets across all industries and many ongoing marketing campaigns are being paused or cancelled.

Right now, it’s the perfect opportunity for brands and influencers to start collaborating again. With people spending more time at home, more attention is paid to online and social media channels such as Instagram and TikTok making creators a natural fit for brands looking to share thoughtful and relevant content.

With that being said, we have pulled together 7 examples of how different brands and companies are using creators during COVID-19 as inspiration for your influencer marketing efforts.

1. Gymshark promotes at-home workouts

Gyms are closed, which means that the home is the new fitness center. Gymshark utilizes its athletes to create workout-at-home programs. Here, we have @brittnebabe teaching us an absolutely fire ab workout. This is also an example of utilizing macro-influencers and micro-influencers. @brittnebabe has 1.7M followers on Instagram, imagine the amount of influence she has on this platform.

2. She The Seeker maximizing stay-at-home fashion opportunities

Shetheseeker reposts a picture of @amandaschweers on to their own Instagram page showcasing what Amanda is wearing during the weekends with their outfits. Micro-influencers are great for promoting online clothing shops.

3. SkipTheDishes gets an actor to promote delivery services

One of the smarter influencer marketing campaigns in the book, get an actor to promote for you. SkipTheDishes gets Jon Hamm to make a video telling everyone to tip the drivers. Actors are what we like to call Macro-Influencers as they are more famous and have a larger reach.

4. Goli Nutrition encourages an immunity boost

A brand leaning into the ‘health at home’ message is Goli Nutrition with their sweet apple cider vinegar gummies, who partnered with @chefwhitneymiller to talk about how their gummy products are incorporated to her daily morning routine. Whitney Miller was the season 1 winner of Master Chef, which means that she has a lot more reach and influence swaying her fans and followers to try out the products.

5. Cactus Club Cafe gets Snoopdogg to promote a contest

I don’t know about you but if I see a chance to get free money for food, I will always enter. Cactus Club Cafe getting Snoopdogg to promote a contest for them must have cost them a fortune. As you can see the criteria to enter, 99% of the contests always require participants to follow an account. These campaigns generally see a huge spike in followers during the contest period.

This one video by Snoopdogg earned Cactus Club a whopping 13000 likes which means they potentially got another 13000 followers.

Stay tuned for more in-depth articles on how to run influencer marketing campaigns such as this one.

6. WHO and Instagram turning to big creators for health and safety

The World Health Organization turned to Instagram and it’s creators with huge followings in order to spread awareness and to share best safety practices around COVID-19.

@dudewithsign has a reach of 7.4M on Instagram which makes him a perfect creator to reinforce the ‘stay at home’ message. It also helps spread up-to-date information to all Instagram users during a worldwide crisis.

As you can see it says “Paid partnership with Instagram” right under the creator’s name. There is a good chance that Instagram themselves are promoting this post across their entire platform.

7. ILIA Beauty shows how beauty can be accomplished at home

Creator @Jessmvaldes demonstrates how that dewy, day at the beach glow can be accomplished even while you’re staying in. Not only does this show their audiences how to use the product, it also helps eliminate some of the intimidation factors when trying new beauty products.

@jessmvaldes would be considered a Micro-influencer as she only has 2.5k followers. However, this is ideal for some brands and one type of Influencer marketing campaigns I will talk about in another article.