3 Things to Learn from Beyonce’s #adidasxIVYPARK Marketing Strategy

Over 15 000 social media mentions on ‘#adidasxIVYPARK’ globally, resulting ina social reach of 146 Million people on 18 January 2020. That is just a quick glance at the impact that American artist, Beyonce, had when she launched her IVY PARK collection in collaboration with Adidas. Already, her name is a brand that easily sends her fanbase, affectionately known as the ‘Beyhive’, buzzing at the slightest peeks into her life. But with the launch of the much anticipated collaboration with Adidas, Beyonce’s marketing strategy extended far beyond just using herself as the face of the collection. 

Number of Social Reach vs Social Volume, Globally, on #adidasxIVYPARK [caption for the above image]

With the use of high-profile influencers and creating content that her fans continually engaged with, Beyonce relaunched her IVY PARK athleisure wear. It sold out in a matter of minutes. It trended on the day – all because her marketing strategy was designed in such a way that ensured this success. So, what can you learn from the Queen Bey? Let’s explore more.

Using the Right Influencers for Your Brand

As an industry that is set to reach $10 billion by 2020, influencer marketing is highly lucrative for any brand and business. While some fans would have wanted Beyonce to send press drops of her collection to loyal members of the ‘Beyhive’, there was a reason why celebrities and macro-influencers were used predominately for this campaign.

For one, celebrities and macro-influencers have a much higher follower – from 500 000 followers upwards – which increases the exposure that a brand receives when working with influencers like this. For a global launch like ‘#adidasxIVYPARK’, it makes sense to use some of the biggest influencers to not only create global exposure, but target their market in a way that was cost effective and would have a higher return on investment. From the Generation Z appeal that Zendaya has to Reese Witherspoon, who represents the modern working mother, reaching wider buyer personas through influencer marketing was made possible for this campaign, resulting in the collection selling out in minutes.

If you look at the Instagram post from Ellen DeGeneres below, her post received over 2 million views and over 260 000 likes – all of which are potential buyers. By using influencer marketing in this way, your chances of reaching a wider audience are greater.

Second, one of the social media trends on the rise in 2020 is the use of vertical video platforms like Tik Tok and Instagram Stories. More online users are consuming video content, and when it comes to vertical videos, the more followers the user has, the bigger the success in views and engagement. This proved to be true for the celebrities and macro-influencers used for this campaign.

From the Live video that Laverne Cox shared as she tried on clothing items, to the IGTV videos from Yara Shahidi, the combination of using vertical videos and top influencers resulted in an increased awareness on the upcoming collection, the brand trust being built throughout the campaign, and ultimately turning these viewers into buyers.

What can you take away from this? That no matter the size of your business, you can utilize the power of influencer marketing. Global fashion brand, Zara, localised their #DearSouthAfrica campaign by using about 60 South African micro-influencers to achieve their own success. If you know how to find the right influencers for your specific brand, you can achieve the same success.

If You Like It, Put a Hashtag on It

Marketers know that with any campaign, you need to have a hashtag. They’re important for cutting through all the other digital noise that arises but also helps finding posts easier, particularly on social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram. This makes standing out of a digitally noisy crowd easier, which is exactly what Beyonce did. 

Trending Themes on #adidasxIVYPARK in South Africa [caption refers to the above image]

If you wanted to look for all the content that was coming up for the launch, but only typed the word ‘Beyonce’ in the search bar on Twitter, a variety of posts would come up, and you would have to scroll through it all to find anything ‘Adidas’ related. But because there was the branded ‘#adidasxIVYPARK’ hashtag, this categorised the content specifically to the clothing collection, creating a user experience where people interested only on the collection had an easy way of finding content for it. Hashtags like this also allowed for a community of people to come together and join the conversations on the hashtag, which then creates an engaged community.

From a business point of view, using a branded hashtag increases your social media presence by making your content accessible to those interested in your brand. As social media users use hashtags to engage with each other, brands can do the same. If, for example, you use a media monitoring tool to help you discover trending topics, like #adidasxIVYPARK, you’ll participate in high-traffic conversations that lead to more brand visibility. And the more brand visibility you have, the larger the audience you reach which can then generate more leads for you.

Content is Queen 

Everyday, millions of content marketing pieces are being created. With that, the question becomes: how do you stand out? The answer? By ensuring that the content you create is valuable, relevant and connects with your audience. 

For Beyonce, the content marketing for her #adidasxIVYPARK collection already began in December 2019 for an interview with ELLE magazine. Not only did Beyonce wear clothing from the collection, but she answered questions that were asked by her fans, allowing her to connect with her audience while providing valuable and relevant content for her collection.

But, there’s more to her content marketing strategy:

Visuals and Videos 

If there is one sure way to grab the attention of an online user scrolling through Instagram, it’s  by using great visuals. Because people process visuals faster than text, our attention is drawn more to better looking imagery. 

Looking at all the images and videos that Beyonce released for this collection, you’ll notice two things:

• That a consistent colour scheme was used. The warm, bold orange and burgundy colours compliment each other, and stand out against the white backgrounds on Twitter and Instagram, making these images more eye-catching on social media.
• Hardly any text was displayed on the visuals, other than the IVY PARK branding. ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ and this was true for this campaign. As one of the 3 E’s of visual branding, the content created for #adidasxIVYPARK was easy to consume because there were very few words used and the images and videos were high quality, making it easier for people to share and engage with the content.

User-Generated Content

While Beyonce did create teaser images and videos during her ELLE interview and in early January 2020, once celebrities and macro-influencers received the collection, the online frenzy began as they shared their own images and unboxing videos showcasing #adidasxIVYPARK.

It was the images of these celebrities walking in the street or the unboxings that happened in their homes, shared all over Instagram and Twitter, that helped generate thousands of online mentions. By having these celebrities and macro-influencers create their own user-generated content, their global recognition gives brands free exposure as their content reaches audiences quicker.

While this was a global launch, there are aspects of this campaign that you can take away, localise and apply to your own marketing strategies:

• Make sure you have the right influencer that are the right fit for your brand.
• Use a branded hashtag to keep track of mentions and engage with your audience.
• Have a killer content marketing strategy that incorporates visuals and user-generated content.

From finding Social Influencers to tracking mentions during your campaign, we have a solution for you: Check out Klear's leading Influencer Marketing platform.