AKQA

Challenge: Finding Influencers Who Support a Creative Concept

AKQA developed a unique approach to influencer marketing. First, the AKQA team crafts a creative concept for the client, and then the concept is transferred across various marketing channels. The team will begin to look for the influencers who best align with the concept and can best execute it.

“We refer to influencers as “human media”: as people, they have the power to shift perception and drive influence, but power is nothing without control. Our first step is crafting for them the best creative and content concept, so they can explore all of their potentials to benefit the brand. Then we scout for the best talent on the market who can reach our target, driven by data and technology.”

Marcello Signore Influencer Marketing lead AKQA Italy

Before using Meltwater Influencer Marketing, finding the right influencer for a campaign was a time-consuming process. They had a methodology based on field research, shared data across projects, and general knowledge of influencer marketing. It proved a challenge to forecast the influencers’ reach with precision and to vet profiles for target adherence.

Without proper background information about an influencer, they felt influencer rates were being set arbitrarily. Outside of tone of voice or specific areas of expertise, there was no way of gathering data that would provide clients with an overview of what the audience they could reach with an influencer was truly interested in.

“We focused a lot on the tone of voice and brand coherency in choosing influencers for our brands, but we were striving to provide a more data-driven choice. Focusing on personality and values is a necessary step to choose a partner to work with, but it’s not enough: shared views are mandatory, but a shared target audience is fundamental. Klear enabled us to do just that: validate our choices, strengthen them and presenting them to our brands”

Marcello Signore Influencer Marketing lead AKQA Italy

Solution: Data-Driven Decision Making

When searching for the right influencer marketing tool, the AKQA team did their homework. They knew they needed a tool that not only helped them save time identifying influencers but also ensured that they were collaborating with creators that would support their vision.

AKQA identified two key factors that would take their strategy to the next level; the pool of influencers and the depth of data they could vet influencers on. Meltwater Influencer Marketing's first-party demographic data and True Reach measurement capabilities were exactly what AKQA was looking for.

“With True Reach, we stopped thinking about the followers and started thinking about the real number of people that influencer was reaching across platforms and contents. And since the metric is shared between influencers on Klear, it has given us a more consistent way of comparing influencers between different activities, phases, or countries for the same brand. This overarching approach allowed us to show clients the real impact of influencer marketing campaigns.”

Antonella Sannella Strategic Marketing Director & Business Partner

Now, not only can the AKQA team assess an influencer’s interests and their audience’s interests to ensure they support the goals of a campaign, but they can also accurately predict the impact of that collaboration. This has not only saved time when vetting influencers but provided AKQA an unbiased methodology for setting influencer rates for clients.

Success: #HairUtopia Generated 4M Impressions in 1 Day

When Alfaparf Milano, an international beauty brand, enlisted AKQA to enhance its influencer strategy, the team knew they wanted to use influencers to spark a meaningful conversation. And, as Alfaparf Milano reached into the B2C world, they desired a platform for engaging relevant consumers around their upcoming hair-coloring collection, Eden.

The Campaign

AKQA started with a concept, “Hair Utopia”, a safe space for both men and women to share how their hair-coloring experiences tied with their personal freedom of expression, and to promote acceptance and inclusivity. AKQA’s client wanted to reach a younger demographic with the Eden collection so it was important to touch on issues that resonated with the desired audience such as Feminism, LGBTQAI+, and diversity.

Strategy

AKQA used Meltwater Influencer Marketing's comprehensive search capabilities to identify influencers whose interests aligned with the goals of the campaign. Once the team identified influencers with overlapping values, they used Meltwater's advanced audience demographics to make sure the influencers were interacting with the correct audience. Then, the team used True Reach to offer the client perspective of an influencer’s proven impact and to justify the decision-making process.

Results

The Hair Utopia activation exceeded the client’s expectations:

• 4M Impression on the first day of the campaign
• 128K interactions on the first day of the campaign
• An Average reach of 100K Users

“The results were beyond our expectations. In just one day we had 128K interactions, and the average reach of the campaign was higher than estimated. It really validated our process of curating an idea in order to generate meaningful interactions.”

Marcello Signore Influencer Marketing Lead