Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is now a major consideration within most digital marketing plans. But did you know that influencer marketing spend is actually growing faster than investment into regular social ad spending?

That’s one of the many findings in Insider Intelligence’s influencer industry report, which looks at the key trends that are driving influencer marketing investment, and what brands need to factor into their ad plans.

You can download the full report here, but in this post, we’ll take a look at some of the key notes.

First off, Insider highlights the growth of influencer marketing, and how brands need to adjust their strategies to align with the new trend of influencers as major celebrities.

“The time to act is now. Influencer marketing spending will rise roughly 3.5 times faster in 2023 than social ad spending will. That’s a testament to the resilience of creators, even amid economic concerns and major competition.”

It’s not overly surprising to see influencer marketing budgets increasing at a faster rate than regular ads, especially given the rise of more creative-led platforms like TikTok, and short-form video in general.

But it is important to note that more businesses are looking to lean on creators to amplify their brand messaging, which is changing the way that consumers are receiving such content, and could thereby reduce the impacts of regular ads.

Insider also notes that the Hollywood writers’ strike could drive more opportunities for influencer marketing, as more creators look to alternative opportunities to generate income (within the bounds of strike activity), while the push from social platforms to win over top creative talent will also provide more opportunities for brand partnerships.

That’ll open the door for more influencer marketing considerations, and could pave the way for new, more resonant influencer campaigns, by making it easier for brands to work with these users.

The full report also includes insights into how influencers are making money through an expanding range of opportunities.

It also looks at how influencers are fast becoming the key entertainers of their generation, with many now driving far more interest than traditional entertainment stars.

“They’re coming for TV. The trend toward episodic creator content is on the rise, with TikTok creators like Remi Bader and Ted Zhar leaning into predictable, TV-style videos on their channels. Few creators have successfully crossed over to scripted TV content on bigger screens, but there is consumer interest for it: Nearly two-thirds of US adults ages 18 to 24 and roughly half of those ages 25 to 34 were likely to watch a scripted TV show or movie featuring their favorite creator.”

That’s another big element to factor in. Over time, social networks are moving away from the “social” aspects, and more towards entertainment, again led by TikTok, which labels itself as an “entertainment platform.” Within this, social apps are now less complimentary elements, and more the main event, with people spending an increasing amount of time consuming content on their mobile devices, scrolling through endless streams of video clips.

In many cases, it’s no longer where you go to discuss the latest entertainment trends, but where those trends originate, which could become a much bigger consideration for those looking to maximize audience reach.

Paramount Advertising recently launched the CBS Sports Creator Studio to connect brands with sports influencers and creators to access pre-game events, parties and behind-the-scenes content. Brands also have an opportunity to create white-label content with athletes and creators aligned to a specific sport, season or cultural moment.

Paramount Advertising is an umbrella business division of the media conglomerate whose properties include BET, Comedy Central and CBS, the latter of which will broadcast Super Bowl LVIII in 2024. The content studio will use Paramount Advertising’s platforms to amplify content and its cross-platform reporting to deliver insights to advertisers. 

As sports audiences are increasingly using two screens at once — particularly with the rise in sports betting apps — the CBS Sports Creator Studio is a bid to help brands develop interesting and engaging second-screen content. It arrives ahead of what’s shaping up to be an important year for the broader Paramount company, which, in addition to having the broadcasting rights for the big game on CBS, will also stream the championship to Paramount+ subscribers. 

Despite an increasingly fragmented viewing landscape, the Super Bowl remains one of the single biggest tentpole events of the year. Integrating influencer marketing into the mix in a bigger way makes sense as younger sports fans spend more time on digital platforms. 

“These younger audiences are following our events on social platforms, we think that there’s an opportunity there to kind of put these two things together,” John Bogusz, executive vice president of sports for Paramount Advertising, told The Hollywood Reporter. “Impressions are growing, people are following the events on their phones, and we can offer that to advertisers to tie in more with their campaigns with our events.”

Paramount Advertising says the new offering will provide brands with extensive creative collaboration throughout the entire development process; access to a roster of influencers across numerous sports and platforms; amplification capabilities to optimize campaign performance; and access to The Match Report, a proprietary influencer campaign-tracking dashboard. 

At launch, the CBS Sports Creator Network carries three initial offerings: Influence X Tentpole, which will center around large, tentpole events across Paramount’s network, including the Super Bowl and March Madness; Influence & CBS Sports IP, which will offer behind-the-scenes access to CBS Sports studios, talent and footage; and White Label Influence, which will pair brands with athletes or content creators. 

The news is the latest indication that marketing that leverages influencers and creators continues to be a key focus for brands. New research shows that influencer marketing spend is growing faster than traditional social ad spend.

Sponsored content

By Inmar Intelligence

You, like many other marketers, are likely using the trainwreck known as “2020” to reevaluate your philosophies, past and pending investments, the efficacy of certain tactics, and, last but not least, visionary opportunities to create seismic growth for your brand. Beyond mask-wearing and hand-washing, this is a safe and healthy practice for marketers in this climate.

As you analyze the broad spectrum of marketing tools to which you have access, you’ll likely notice you have labeled different vehicles according to the widely-accepted interpretation of their primary purpose — consumer promotions drive trial, TV and digital display create awareness, influencers inspire, email drives loyalty and so on. This isn’t pigeonholing for pigeonholing’s sake; instead, it’s your method of creating a classification system that specifies your go-to tactics for achieving any variety of objectives. 

But as you move between planning seasons and copy/paste your list of available tactics, you often miss some of the advancements made in these industries and undervalue their newfound preparedness to solve a wider array of challenges. Influencer Marketing, for example, is a routinely misunderstood industry because of the rate at which it evolves. Each year there are new channels, new measurement capabilities, new concerns and new creators bursting onto the scene, yet, because your attention is constantly pulled in no less than seven-hundred directions, it’s difficult for you (and even for many of the industry’s providers) to keep pace.

Typically grouped with other top-funnel tactics, Influencer is classified by most as an effective tool for creating brand and product intrigue as an early step in the consumer journey. For many years that’s exactly what it was. We all thought, intuitively as consumers ourselves, that it probably impacted purchase decisions in some way, but there was no definitive evidence to prove it and marketers valuing attribution over instinct largely steered clear. Today, though, it’s possible (and, by all means, advisable) to fight beyond the fluff and evaluate these spends in ways once considered unrealistic. 

These are some of the new fundamentals of Influencer Marketing, each allowing you to measure its impact more accurately and, in some cases, merge fragments of the consumer journey into a single touchpoint.

Influencer “Assist Rate”

As a disciplined marketer you’re well-versed in the art and science of multi-touch attribution, and part of Influencer Marketing’s evolution has been recognizing its rightful place (and criticality) among those “touches.” Clarifying the difference between influencing a sale — compelling a consumer in the direction of your brand over others — and enabling a sale — simply facilitating a transaction — is an important distinction you must make when building and evaluating these models.

In a recent webinar where Inmar Intelligence’s Leah Logan presented alongside Austin Ratner, Affiliate and Digital Partnerships Manager at HP, we learned about their strategy for isolating various stages in purchase journeys for consumer electronics items. HP has determined that, though influencer-created content may not be the first or last touchpoint, it is an important piece in eliciting sales for their brand that may not have otherwise occurred. Using calculations modeled specifically for their business and its categories they understand that influencers “assist” in 40 percent of purchases occurring through various eCommerce channels, versus a 14 percent average assist rate for other tactics.

Developing similar methodologies to understand how, when and where positive actions for your business are influenced can more accurately guide your investments. Your business may be wildly different from HP’s — for example, consumers don’t behave the same when searching for meat marinades as they do when searching for a new laptop — but it’s critical to understand which spends are wasteful and which are directly or indirectly responsible for turning demand into purchases.

Replicating Familiar Experiences, and Making Them Shoppable

We could all have a quick gripe sesh about the lack of visibility into walled garden performance, and the need to play directly with platforms (and dish out a significant share of your budget to them) in order to gain valuable attribution data or properly tag placements for your own analysis. We completely understand why they’re guarded with this information and altogether hate it at the same time. It just is what it is, that’s that, and [insert third cliche here].

It’s possible, however, to create “extensions” of walled garden ecosystems that look, feel and function similarly, but with added features that enable seamless shopping and, in some cases, include promotional offer integration. Creating experiences similar to those provided by walled gardens — such as microsites showcasing sponsored content and use cases in a feed-style format — is not a new concept, but is one that elicits user behaviors comparable to those witnessed on popular social platforms and creates a higher likelihood of purchase follow-through.

Combining commerce features with doppelganger extensions of native environments gives you a way to merge touchpoints and bring intuitive shopping mechanisms into the content discovery experience for viewers. Shoppers will continue to shop at their own pace and with their own, unique variety of touchpoints, but solutions exist to help them simplify the process.

Smarter (and Distanced) Events and Experiences

Odds are the event plans and engaging shopper experiences you had scheduled for this year were spoiled, but the lack of physical gatherings and encounters with retail associates doesn’t eliminate the possibility of personalizing unique interactions with your customers.

The new age of Influencer Marketing was already slated to include expanded roles for everyday creators as brand spokespeople, and the pandemic has only accelerated that plan. Across various industries influencers are playing the part of virtual store associates, creating social broadcasts (both one-to-one and one-to-many) for brands and bringing trusting audiences into the experience. They’re creating new looks for apparel companies via at-home try-ons, online “masterclass” tutorials for beauty brands, and hosting nightly or weekly events where they share new recipes, all streamed live on social platforms or via one-to-one channels like video calling.

These interactions between online personalities and audiences large and small bring an unparalleled amount of personalization and democratization to your marketing toolkit, as you allow real people (armed with necessary guidelines and guardrails, and often joined by moderators) to share their actual use cases in an informal setting. Even better, new technologies enable many of these sessions to be shoppable and attributable by facilitating ways for viewers to seamlessly purchase the item(s) showcased with a single click.

As you’re navigating this new world and doing so under heightened scrutiny surrounding each dollar spent on advertising, it’s important to refresh what may have become outdated observations of growing industries. Influencer Marketing has matured beyond its nascent stages and is ready to become a powerful and relied-upon tool in your arsenal, just as it has become an irreplaceable step in consumers’ complex paths to purchase.

The hunt by consumers for more affordable versions of premium products is nothing new. However, the rise of TikTok has been marked by a surge in popularity around “dupes” — a term short for duplicates meant to denote a less expensive product alternative — tasking marketers with doubling down on their value pitch for fear of losing sales. For Olaplex, one of TikTok’s most duped hair care brands, that meant asserting that the only brand worthy of being its dupe is Olaplex itself. 

On Sept. 25, Olaplex with the help of over 100 earned and paid influencers launched an unboxing campaign around a new fictitious product, Oladupé. The product, which was actually a repackaged bottle of the brand’s Olaplex No. 3, is meant to tease how often Olaplex is duped on TikTok — with the hashtag #Olaplexdupe having over 30 million views alone — while also educating the app’s users about the quality of its products. Just days after launching, the hashtag tied to the campaign, #Oladupe, had already gained over 5.5 million views. 

“Imitation is the highest form of flattery, and I think what we wanted to do is really use this imitation, this discussion around dupes to really have fun with the fact that you can imitate us, but you can’t replicate us,” said Olaplex CMO Charlotte Watson.

The influencers selected for the effort were meant to reach the global hair care professional and consumer communities, with individuals chosen including Lelani Green, Yesly Dimate, Shae Alexis and Audrey Boos, among others. To further cement the dupe concept, the brand also enlisted celebrity “duper” Taylor Madison, a creator who shares a strong resemblance to Kylie Jenner.

Olaplex is a premium hair care brand — with its No. 3 product ringing up at $30 — and is available both online and in stores like Sephora and Ulta. The independent brand in August announced its second quarter earnings, reporting that net sales were down 48%, led by a drop in sales for its professional channel of 61%. In the company’s announcement around the earnings, CEO and president JuE Wong said that the brand is attempting to stabilize demand trends in the second half of the year while increasing and optimizing its marketing investment. 

Unveiled through an unboxing, creator videos promoting Oladupé revealed the product as the best alternative to the real thing. Packaging looks nearly identical to Olaplex’s actual product, though its label instead reads Oladupé No. 160 — a number selected in a nod to the company’s 160 patents. Viewers were then directed to a microsite where the first 160 visitors could secure a free bottle of Oladupé, actually a bottle of Olaplex No. 3, which was sent to them along with an explanation of the stunt. Consumers had a wide range of responses, Watson said, and every free Oladupé bottle was claimed within two hours.

“Obviously there were all sorts of reactions, people kind of bought into this dupe because there are so many other dupes out there,” Watson said. “We were seeing conversations happening around [it], and people calling Olaplex out — it was great to see a lot of people also hopping into our defense and sort of saying, ‘Well, you can't dupe Olaplex.’”

A few days following Oladupé’s debut, Olaplex revealed the truth behind the faux product through additional influencer content along with a video shared on both the brand’s Instagram and TikTok. The post notably featured a deepfake version of Wong, who asserted that nobody can copy the brand’s “patents, ingredients or bond-building technology” before actually appearing as herself, a move meant to drive home the message of how easy it is to get duped. The marketing stunt was strategized with agency Movers+Shakers and marks the first collaboration between the two companies.

The Oladupé campaign by end of day Wednesday, Oct. 4, had received 20.1 million impressions and 24 million views of the hashtag #Oladupe. The effort was strategized for the U.S and was also replicated and shared in the U.K., Canada, Australia and France markets, marking a milestone for the brand, according to Lisa Bobroff, vice president of global communications and consumer engagement for Olaplex.

“We have the same advocacy and love for the brand in all those territories, so it’s been great to see it as a coordinated global campaign as well, which I think is probably a first for us,” said Bobroff.

The beauty of social listening

Beyond directly addressing the popularity of Olaplex dupes, the company’s latest campaign also aligns nicely to its ethos as a socially native brand, Watson said, noting that Olaplex, founded in 2014, spent its earlier days on Facebook communicating with its stylist community via online forums as a way to help inform its strategy. Since then, much of that community has naturally navigated to TikTok, she added, where the brand currently has over 334 million followers.

“Our social landscape is sort of critical to the way that we go to market … We pride ourselves on really staying very close to the community, social listening, understanding what the community is engaging in and the various insights and trends that are happening on the different platforms,” Watson said. 

A focus on social listening has also helped the brand tap into authentic conversations and organic trends that stretch beyond the #Oladupé campaign. For example, the brand in early 2022 noticed a trending hashtag on TikTok called #Olaplexbun, a label used for consumers to share their Olaplex-supported bun up-dos, and used it as inspiration for its own hashtag challenge and first official TikTok campaign, #Olaflex, a marketing move tasking consumers to share before-and-after content using Olaplex. Within 72 hours of the campaign’s launch, the hashtag reached over 3 billion views.

A focus on TikTok is becoming increasingly valuable to Olaplex given the popularity of the platform for sharing hair content — the hashtag #hairtok has over 86 billion views alone. Further supporting that value is the app’s ability to help the brand shore up a stronger connection with a core younger user base whose spending power is growing, Watson said.

“It’s a demographic that’s increasingly important for us, and I think TikTok enables us to really speak to that audience in a way that resonates with them,” Watson said. “We know that the audience has a huge influence on beauty trends and on other generations and will be the consumer of the future for us.” 

To continue engaging with the community, Olaplex will stretch its Oladupé marketing campaign with additional influencer activations and content recapping the cheeky effort, making a point to plug into hype surrounding dupes while at the same time making a case for all the reasons why the brand is “undupable,” Watson said.

“What we're doing is we're identifying trends and conversations that are organic on the platform that happen to have our brand, because we have very high awareness on the platform in the center of it, but then we're able to build upon these trends ourselves to, I guess, shape the narrative and have fun,” Watson said. “And if we are at the center of this conversation, let us have a stronger voice in the conversation.”

Fan or not of Bravo TV’s reality show hit “Vanderpump Rules,” when news broke of a cheating scandal involving three of the show's castmates, the internet’s uproar was tough to ignore. Looking to market around the buzz, BIC saw an opportunity to partner with Ariana Madix, the victim of the infidelity, to generate a quick-witted social media play addressing another of life’s “irritants” — a clogged razor.

While seemingly an unlikely match, the spontaneous tie-up between Madix and BIC is meant to promote the brand’s new EasyRinse line of razors and pairs with its larger campaign, “All Shave. No Clog.” The move, which yielded a comical spot spanning Madix and BIC’s social channels, linear TV and YouTube TV, has so far paid dividends, boosting sales of the women’s EasyRinse razor by 35% in the two weeks following the initial post and unlocking the highest social media engagement for BIC’s razor division in recent years.

For Katie Potocki, marketing director of blade excellence for BIC, the collaboration was a no-brainer as the brand angles to form an authentic connection with consumers.

“This was really unique in the sense that I think a lot of people can relate to what has happened with the relationship with Ariana,” said Potocki. “We felt that it matched her personality and particularly matched BIC’s personality.”

The falling out of Madix and reality star Tom Sandoval — which has been dubbed the “Scandoval” — is a clear reference point in BIC’s 30-second spot. Throughout the video, Madix is seen cleansing her surroundings, noting that she’s ready to talk about something that’s been keeping her from living her best life, with the “something” later revealed as a razor full of hair. With BIC EasyRinse, the star claims she is able to kickstart a new “unclogged” chapter of her life. 

In the period following its launch, the video gained 1 million views on TikTok, 20.5 million views on Instagram Reels and nearly 450,000 views on YouTube. The effort additionally marks the highest social media engagement rate to date for the EasyRinse line specifically since its unveiling in early 2023. Moving quickly for the effort was key, Potocki said, noting that the time between ideation and production was around three weeks. 

Aside from social media, additional marketing muscle came from airing the spot during all three “Vanderpump Rules” reunion episodes on linear TV and YouTube TV, with the last episode airing on Wednesday (June 7). For each week, the brand added a different end-card to the spot inclusive of an on-theme one-liner, the latest reading “because karma is a vibe,” underneath the “All Shave. No Clog.” tagline.

The linear TV media buy marks a departure from typical tactics deployed by the brand, but was important to establishing a deeper connection with the viewers of the show, which have proven valuable, Potocki said.

“While that’s not typically where we start, as we look at the consumer journey and where our target consumer is, it made sense to reach those Bravo enthusiasts,” the exec said.

Over the past five years, Potocki and the BIC team have observed that the razor division’s target consumer has gravitated toward social and digital platforms and away from traditional channels, the exec continued. Accordingly, the larger “All Shave. No Clog.” campaign for the EasyRinse line focuses on such platforms. The campaign kicked off on the first day of spring, a time labeled by BIC as “The Great Spring Unclog,” featuring comedian Eric Andre and actor Annie Murphy, who starred in a 30-second streaming and digital spot of their own. 

Along with streaming, social media, PR activations and retail displays, among other activations, a focus on influencer marketing, such as the collaboration with Madix, is a primary focus for the campaign, which will last through 2024. While influencer activations for many brands have been dominated by social media creators in recent years, celebrity buzz has continued to be desired by marketers, as seen following the “Vanderpump Rules'' uproar. Along with BIC, Madix has recently formed partnerships with other brands, like finance app SoFi, fast-food chain Raising Canes and Frito-Lay. For Potocki, such partnerships are critical to driving relevancy.

“We’re in a very crowded market,” the exec said. “The razor category is incredibly competitive and ensuring that we relate not just in our feature message but also what’s current, what’s cultural, what matters, is really important.”

Creative for BIC’s Madix tie-up was handled by agency M Booth, while paid buys during the “Vanderpump Rules” reunion episodes were handled by Merkley.

BIC has frequently tapped into popular culture to market its products, with the latest effort no different. Another flashy move by the company came earlier this year through a partnership with Snoop Dogg, Willie Nelson and Martha Stewart around 4/20, a popular holiday celebrating weed culture, to promote its EZ Reach Lighter. Last year, BIC-owned reusable notebook brand Rocketbook teamed with cast members of popular series “The Office” to make a play on the fictitious paper company’s switch to reusable products.

For the duration of the “All Shave. No Clog.” campaign, BIC plans to search for additional opportunities to tap into cultural moments to share “unclogged” wisdom, according to the exec.

“We continue to look for moments to amplify, like we did with Ariana, when we find a moment where we can unclog a situation, unclog a life, we will tap into it,” Potocki said.

On June 29, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released an updated version of its Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (Endorsement Guides), along with updated Endorsement Guides FAQs, to address, among other things, social media influencer marketing. 

Influencers have an ability to connect brands with their target audiences in a way that is more impactful, intentional and authentic than any other advertising medium. Think about it: In which of the following scenarios are you more likely to make a purchase?

1. You are flipping through a catalog for a clothing brand and a cute swimsuit catches your eye.
2. You are scrolling Instagram when your favorite influencer/virtual BFF pops on stories to try on the same swimsuit. The influencer shows you all the angles, colors and styles, gives you a direct link to buy and a unique discount code. 

If you are a millennial (hi, it’s me) or Gen Z, it is a safe bet you picked the second scenario. 

That said, many influencers gain the trust and loyalty of their followers through organic — think non-sponsored — content such as ask me anything (AMA) question boxes, monthly engagement giveaways, get ready with me (GRWM) videos, to be read lists (TBR) and more. As you might imagine, the line between organic and sponsored content can easily become blurred, like when a GRWM video includes a mix of products that were purchased and gifted. This is where the Endorsement Guides come in.  

The Endorsement Guides provide guidance on what practices may be unfair, deceptive or in violation of the FTC Act. With respect to influencer campaigns, the Endorsement Guides include a set of guardrails for brands, influencers and other intermediaries such as ad agencies and public relations firms involved in the dissemination of sponsored content. Below are several key updates that influencers and brands should be aware of.  

When is a disclosure required?  

When there is a material connection between an influencer and a brand and that connection is not reasonably expected by the viewers of a sponsored post, the connection must be disclosed. In other words, if a significant minority of viewers would not understand or anticipate the connection, then disclosure is required. This standard is not a clear one, so when in doubt, err on the side of making a material connection disclosure. These types of connections may impact the weight or credibility that a viewer gives the influencer’s opinion of the product. 

Tip: The material connection disclosure requirement applies to all influencers, from side-hustle nano influencers with 500 followers to mega influencers with more than 1 million followers. Do not wait until you go viral to learn the rules.  

A material connection disclosure does not need to include every detail of the relationship but must clearly communicate the nature of the connection so viewers can evaluate its significance. While the FTC did not prescribe magic language for this purpose, the following disclosures, if presented clearly and conspicuously (more on this below) are generally acceptable:  

• Ad: 
• Paid ad 
• #ad 
• Advertising:  
• Advertisement 
• Sponsored by XYZ 
• Promotion by XYZ 

Tip: An influencer’s unique discount code for a brand’s products is not a sufficient material connection disclosure. While it may convey that there is a connection between the influencer and the brand, it does not necessarily show that a financial relationship exists.  

Where should the disclosure be?  

In general, a material connection disclosure must be “clear and conspicuous.” In other words, per the Endorsement Guides, the disclosure must be “difficult to miss (i.e., easily noticeable) and easily understandable by ordinary consumers.” This will look different for various posting formats. For example, if the endorsement is made through visual means (e.g., an image), the disclosure should be made at least visually (e.g., superimposed over the picture or in the caption). If the endorsement is made audibly (e.g., talking about a product on stories), the disclosure should be made at least audibly (e.g., state the disclosure verbally), although both visual and audible disclosure are preferable.    

A platform’s built-in disclosure tools may not be sufficient for purposes of disclosing a material connection in a clear and conspicuous manner. In determining whether a built-in disclosure is clear and conspicuous, the FTC will consider several key factors: placement (should be difficult to miss), readability (should be easy to read in contrasting font) and clarity (should be straightforward wording). Exercise caution before relying solely on built-in disclosure tools. If insufficient, the influencer or brand may be on the hook, not the platform.  

Tip: If a brand is sponsoring a series of posts, an appropriate material connection disclosure should be included with each post. An influencer cannot assume that viewers will read more than one of their posts and associate them with each other. 

How can brands monitor compliance?  

According to the Endorsement Guides, advertisers are subject to liability for misleading or unsubstantiated statements made through endorsements or for failing to disclose unexpected material connections with influencers. A brand may be liable for a deceptive endorsement even if the influencer is not. 

To ensure compliance with the Endorsement Guides, brands should have reasonable programs in place to train and monitor their influencers. The FTC notes that, “[w]hile not a safe harbor, good faith and effective guidance, monitoring, and remedial action should reduce the incidence of deceptive claims and reduce an advertiser's odds of facing [an FTC] enforcement action.” 

Tip: Sponsored posts that are short-lived (e.g., stories) are difficult for brands to monitor in real time. Consider adding a pre-approval process to your brand’s monitoring program, particularly for these types of posts. 

In the wake of global protests against racism and police violence in the summer of 2020, many marketers assessed how they could use their brands to forge a more diverse and inclusive world, in advertising and beyond.

At the time, there was a deluge of plans and pledges made around diversity, equity and inclusion, but in the years since, the volume and intensity of such calls has decreased. Some marketers have seen their efforts face culture war backlash, while others have been dragged to court over their progress (or lack thereof) in meeting their goals.

That is not the case for Häagen-Dazs: The ice cream brand in March 2021 pledged to support diverse creators with $1.5 million doled out over three years, a commitment that it fulfilled in May 2023.

“We don’t look at purpose as a one-time thing. It truly has been a commitment and really an evolving commitment,” said Elizabell Marquez, CMO at Häagen-Dazs parent Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream. “Our team continues to be inspired by the creativity and the passion of our founders, and that’s why we’ve continued to support nonprofit organizations.”

Häagen-Dazs has distributed funds to a variety of nonprofits spanning music, fashion, art and culinary disciplines. In 2021, donations of $100,000 each were sent to Lena Waithe’s Hillman Grad Mentorship Lab, Allies in Arts, La Cocina, She Is the Music and The Council of Fashion Designers of America. Similar donations to The Tank, Free the Work, Hot Bread Kitchen, Support Creatives and Alvin Ailey followed in 2022. In April 2023, the brand made its largest commitment to date — $500,000 — in partnership with musician Anderson Paak’s Brandon Anderson Foundation.

“We love [Paak] because his organization also shares a very similar mission to what we have been wanting to do over the last few years around uplifting and engaging communities through access to the arts and experiences,” Marquez said.

Long-term thinking 

For Häagen-Dazs and its CMO, a financial contribution is only the first part of its commitments. Beyond that, the brand has worked to engage organizations by utilizing them to fuel a #ThatsDazs campaign launched in hand with its diversity pledge.

“This has not just been a one-time donation, but it’s been really about partnering with these communities and finding ways to bring them to the forefront through our creative work and our partnerships,” Marquez explained.

For example, the brand’s donation to She Is The Music helped back the nonprofit’s Connect TogetHER Mentorship program. In turn, She Is the Music provided the DJ sets for Häagen-Dazs’ Buttered Cookie Cone Festival launch. Similarly, thanks to the ice cream brand’s donation to Allies in Arts, the nonprofit was able to commission queer Chicago-based artists Sam Kirk and Jenny Q to create an original mural for Chicago Pride that then became a part of Häagen-Dazs’ out-of-home (OOH) efforts. 

In September 2023, Häagen-Dazs re-teamed with La Cocina for a San Francisco-based event called Tacolado — a mashup of taco and “helado,” which is Spanish for “ice cream” — that helped celebrate rising culinary talent during National Hispanic Heritage Month.

Häagen-Dazs is also building relationships with creators and bringing them into the process of making #ThatsDazs ad creative. The brand tapped creator Tyrell Hampton for OOH and print photography in 2021 and 2022, and brought Hampton in front of the camera in TV advertising to promote its Butter Cookie Cone product. That relationship is an example of long-term thinking, even as other brands pull back from diversity efforts — possibly at their own peril.

“Purpose has become a key pillar of our brand. Our team is already thinking about ways that we’re going to continue to support and foster all the great relationships that we have built over the last three years within the creative community,” Marquez said. “We’re looking for ways to continue to elevate talent and partner with these great organizations. So, more to come there from our brand.”

Champion has long been associated with sports, a reputation built over decades manufacturing uniforms for NFL and NBA teams. But in recent years, the HanesBrands athleticwear label has worked to expand its identity beyond the field, including through a 2020 capsule collection inspired by General Mills cereals.

The brand took the diversified approach even further with the launch of a global campaign, “Champion What Moves You,” that focuses on people who champion causes — not just those who become champions in sports. The purpose-driven effort features creators from around the world — from rappers to street artists and shoe cobblers to athletes — who turn personal passions into impactful contributions to their communities.

The push features 15-, 30- and 60-second spots airing across social media platforms and the brand’s digital channels, and includes a Champion Creators Program that provides product and funding to up-and-coming creators. The effort went hand-in-hand with the first product launches from Champion Global Vice President of Design Jay Escobara.

“This is really a highlight on our existing consumer base and really wanting to celebrate them,” said Champion’s President of Global Activewear Vanessa LeFebvre. “We’re bringing some product that’s based on their feedback and some of our archives to market. We’re excited to be able to bring the best of Champion and make it new again.”

In an interview with Marketing Dive, LeFebvre — who joined HanesBrands in 2022 after stints at companies including Adidas, Stitch Fix and Macy’s — explained the thinking behind the campaign and why the brand has committed to purpose.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

MARKETING DIVE: What was the process behind rethinking the meaning and the definition of Champion as a brand?

VANESSA LEFEBVRE: The team and I have been working on what matters to Champion. Its purpose was incomplete. Through that process of defining our purpose came the sentiment of: Is Champion a noun or is it a verb? Classically, Champion has always been about wanting to define what it means to be a champion. We did a lot of research; we were listening to consumers and to youth culture about where they’re at and where their minds are. A lot of them are facing issues of mental health and questions of, what is our purpose and what is our reason?

Through that, we really started to go back to the roots of Champion and this concept that self-expression is self-care. Our purpose has always been to be a canvas for self-expression, which led us to this pathway that Champion is a verb. We have always been championing others. Playing with that idea led to this more powerful purpose statement that we want to champion a better tomorrow and that really unlocked a lot of the work that we’re doing. That simple thought process of shifting from a noun to a verb really changed our way of thinking and it was that “a-ha” moment that you always want. 

How did Champion approach finding creators for the “Champion What Moves You” campaign?

LEFEBVRE: After we had a purpose, the idea “creators with purpose” became our muse. They inspire action, they’re going to push boundaries, they’re going to move culture forward, they’re going to build communities. They’re athletes, artists and musicians who fit these criteria. We were able to partner with Flare Marketplace and really tap into their network of creators and fit people that we think uniquely represented the creators with purpose definition. 

We’re really excited about the portfolio of our freshman class of influencers, because we think this has legs that go beyond this class, and we’re really excited to be able to have a global representation. We have people from the U.K., China, Japan, Latin America, Australia and here in the U.S., and that was very intentional. We’re a global brand but we also know that people see themselves as global citizens connected by some of these shared values: We all want to champion a better tomorrow.

Somebody like SignKid, who is a Deaf rapper and is really communicating with a community in a different way, is really relatable. When you see his story, it actually doesn’t matter where in the world you are. The story hits home and you understand his message. Or the Little Devils softball team, in Mexico, this group of women who are, through sport, coming together as a community and championing the ability to play, have an outlet and build a community together. Being able to highlight these different communities and individuals is really bringing our purpose to life and using our medium as a platform for self-expression.

What inspired the global approach to the creator roster?

LEFEBVRE: Think about going through your own feed… I'm often watching content from different places around the globe, and sometimes I’m not even aware of it. That is something that we want to harness. 

Sixty percent of the Champion Instagram handle is actually outside of the U.S. That surprised me when I first got into this role. It’s a U.S. brand, but we have a much more international consumer, yet the content historically was much more U.S.-based. When you start to really look at who is playing with our brand, who is interacting with it, there are all of these really interesting people around the globe that the brand means something to, and they’re using our brand as their mechanism for self-expression.

How will the Champion Creator Program work?

LEFEBVRE: We’re allowing people from different backgrounds to apply and we’re rewarding them with products — actual blanks — for them to utilize. We’re also allowing them to apply for some funding to support their endeavors, as well as providing exposure. 

We’ve had these creator meetings where our Head of Design Jay Escobara has shown up, and through that, he’s fostered relationships with some of the creators. We want to continue to create those interactive moments because we know that giving exposure to up-and-coming creators is an important component of this. This is access to product, access to funding and access to talent that we think is key. Right now, it’s starting in the U.S. However, we believe that we can do this at a global scale within our different markets.

“Champion What Moves You” comes as purpose-driven marketing is increasingly under a microscope. How is Champion navigating these risky waters?

LEFEBVRE: Our commitment is to make sure people understand how important it is to have a purpose and to be true to that, we want to highlight the fact that self-expression is a form of self-care. It’s more about inviting a community to share and to express that’s the important ingredient here. I don’t think it’s controversial to say that you should be part of a community. For me, I think it’s just reminding people that we are all connected, that we all have some of the same values, that we all need to be able to express ourselves and that having a purpose and having values is important, no matter what those values are.