Raise your hand if you have been #influenced by someone you follow on social media. Generation after generation is more “online” than the one before, and often are seeking inspiration on what to wear, where to go and what to eat. Tapping into the $13.8 billion industry of influencer marketing is a smart way to resonate with consumers in a more personal way. Influencers create your organization’s social content, speak straight to your target audience and can build an authentic trust with their followers.
To kick off the grilling season, we partnered with Cargill on an influencer campaign to raise consumer awareness of its Shady Brook Farms®, Morton’s of Omaha® and TGI Fridays® brands. Through the campaign we provided valuable grilling resources and recipes so that consumers considered buying one or more of these brands for their summer barbeques, holiday celebrations and grilling recipes. Unlike previous campaigns, this was an opportunity to promote multiple proteins at the same time—from Shady Brook Farms Turkey Patties, TGI Fridays Beef Patties to Smoky BBQ Seasoned Skin-On Boneless Turkey Breast and Morton’s of Omaha Salt & Pepper Beef Brisket.
We selected a diverse roster of influencers who were subject matter experts in food, recipe building and grilling. First and foremost, we wanted to partner with true content creators. Meaning, individuals who could shoot engaging and beautiful content, who could demonstrate the product in a favorable light and be an influencer second. We worked with Cargill to recommend and lay out the vetting/casting criteria. Once finalized, the content creators featured pairings of brands in their content to show diverse protein options and how to prepare meals with multiple proteins with a focus on grilling. The influencers, being experts in recipe development and grilling, shared tips, recipes, and overall best practices to their audiences. The selected influencers already had a strong reach in our preferred geographic region and with our desired demographic, but we also amplified and boosted the content for our campaign’s target audience.
Influencers leveraged an assortment of the brands to develop some delicious concepts, such as a unique “BBQ-cueterie” board paired with a homemade peach BBQ sauce, breakfast barbecue hash, maple bacon onion jam burgers and roti beef and turkey tacos. Take a look below!
The campaign results were fantastic! The influencer-curated recipes were very popular with their audiences and received great engagement. The campaign partnered with two influencers to create content that gained 12,942 total engagements, along with a significant amount of people who saved the recipes and posts as inspiration for their own grilling season. Saved posts make it easy for social media users to reference back to the post and add the recipe to their personal collection. This is a strong indicator that the content resonates with the target audience.
Overall, the campaign produced five recipe concepts, one blog post, over 17 image assets and supplemental video content for the client. The recipes and content were creative yet still easy for the home chef! New assets, great engagement and consumers commenting about driving to their local retailer to pick up product made this campaign a success!
If you are interested in learning more about influencer campaigns and how it could fit with your brand, contact us.
