Cancer Support Community

Maximizing efficiency from day one

“With every dollar I spend on marketing, in this case contracting an influencer, being a dollar not going to direct services for people impacted by cancer, I feel an even greater responsibility to spend wisely and mitigate risk,” says Nathalie Casthely, CSC’s Senior Director of Communications. A Meltwater customer since 2014, CSC adopted our influencer marketing solution in 2022 to replace its time- and cost-prohibitive manual processes and use data to drive successful partnerships. 

Previously, CSC’s influencer vetting, influencer management, and tracking took hours but still only scratched the surface. Manually combing through vanity metrics to evaluate content creators and campaigns made it impossible for the organization to fully incorporate influencer marketing as a regular marketing strategy. Meltwater customer support ushered the CSC team through the platform features that would make their influencer management faster and easier, like real-time reporting and in-app contract and payment portals.

“Knowing that a knowledgeable staff would be with us every step of the way to set us up for success was what made me confident that this was the best platform and team,” Casthely says. With Meltwater, she and her team had the resources it needed to strengthen their influencer marketing program without the cost of hiring additional staff.

Increasing ROI with tailored influencer discovery

Thanks to its precision, Meltwater’s influencer marketing solution enabled CSC to partner with creators who could authentically and effectively help the organization reach new audiences. “I was searching for influencers who would view the partnership as a passion project in addition to an opportunity to earn a fee,” Casthely says. She used the platform’s filters and True Reach score, measuring the real influence of content creators, to find nano and micro influencers with loyal audiences. Then, with help from the Meltwater team, she narrowed the pool down to content creators with aligning interests who also fit CSC’s budget.

In the end, CSC used Meltwater to find four influencers, including one who was outside of its budget but aligned perfectly with its organizational vision and mission. “They chose to partner with us after my pitch introducing them not only to our organization, but also to how the influencer program fit into our larger goals to effect positive change for people living with a cancer diagnosis,” Casthely says. From initial outreach and contracting to content approval and KPI tracking, Meltwater was CSC’s central influencer hub for managing the campaign. 

Despite its modest budget, the campaign generated an Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE) 19 times what was allocated, with a total reach of nearly 460,000 people, 1.7 million impressions, and 1,500 link clicks. Casthely attributes the campaign’s success to the Meltwater platform’s robust vetting features. Having the ability to find content creators who were a perfect brand fit paved the way for high ROIs. 

“Having selected influencers who felt true passion for our project, they went above and beyond the contracted deliverables,” she says. “Their authentic posts generated real conversations amongst our target audiences and went a long way to help establish CSC as a resource and trusted partner in the sector.”