Unilever Turns To Experts To Promote Products

The gap between scrolling and shopping is continually shrinking, as the online commerce experience is reinvented around the discovery element inherent to scrolling (and, ideally, pausing) through a social feed. It’s becoming more and more apparent that the key to a resonant influencer engagement and creator-led campaign is authenticity. Consumers are much more savvy now than they were 3-5 years ago, meaning that real, relatable content conveying true knowledge, often tempered by passion, for specific areas of expertise is endlessly valuable when it comes to building a brand and establishing trust. Consumers today are endlessly curious to learn, and  leading brands are turning to professionals to promote their products and services. 

The Uncovery is one of the organizations betting on this innate desire for self-improvement to promote its products within a social media marketing context. For product lines like  Mojo wellbeing, which is targeted toward consumers experiencing perimenopause and beyond, educational influencers can make a huge difference in the path to purchase by closing the consideration gap. Each brand the incubator launches is different, but what they all share is a purposeful strategy around consumer education that leverages professionals as nano-ambassadors and relies on a proper brand “fit” more so than follower count. 

Dermatologist Dr. Lindsey Zubritsky, known as the “Derm Guru,” as well as beauty influencer and well-known skin care expert Amy Chang were a key part of promoting the Uncovery’s Target-exclusive brand Ferver, which harnesses fermented skincare ingredients for a variety of scientifically-proclaimed benefits. Another brand from The Uncovery is launching mid-September, and the strategy will be to work with a lesser known influencer who really fits the brand profile. The new skincare line is targeted toward consumers with acne prone skin, and the hero-influencer for the campaign and brand will be a micro influencer struggling with acne herself, who will work with The Uncovery hand-in-hand to build both the upcoming brand and her own creator platform. 

Influencer engagements are a two-way street, and brands and influencers respectively need to consider their goals when evaluating a brand partnership. As professionals, these informed advocates are hugely influential, providing consumers with verified recommendations and reviews that go beyond surface-level understanding to instead serve as educational resources, trusted guides and certified community members within specific areas of expertise on behalf of their partnered brands and retailers. As such, they should consider a brand partnership as an extension of their own personal branding and do their due diligence prior to any engagement. Brands should also do their diligence, as a nano influencer who is closely engaged with a niche audience of 1000 followers may be a more valuable commodity than a major influencer with 100K followers depending on the campaign.

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This article originally appeared in the PSFK iQ report, The Influencer Marketing Landscape.