Influencer Marketing and its Impact!

The collaboration between Balmain and H&M had all the possible reasons in the fashion world to be successful. But the amount of success the campaign actually received over social media translated into store purchases resulted into the most successful H&M designer collaboration up to date. Balmain first tweeted about the collaboration back on May 18th of last year. Here are some of the things the brand did to reach such advertising and marketing success:

1. THE BRAND USED STRONG NAMES IN THE FASHION INDUSTRY AS INFLUENCERS

   
   
   H&M and Balmain knew exactly that in order to reach their targeted audience they needed to sync into their everyday lives. What better way to do that then to see subtle advertisements posted by your most loved celebrities? H&M and Balmain used big names such as Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid and Jourdan Dunn to promote the campaign through their own social media pages. Balmain fashion designer Olivier Rousteing, also a huge name in fashion, used his social media as a means to promote the campaign just as much as the models. This was the result of how much these influencers helped the campaign:
   
   

   Overall number of posts referring to H&M & Balmain: 553,130 posts

   How many of those mention Kendall Jenner: 116,450 posts

   How many of those mention Gigi Hadid: 87,632 posts

   How many of those mention Jourdan Dunn: 51,836 posts

   
   

2. STRONG SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE

   
   
   The campaign also successfully utilized social media in other ways than just through influencers. An advertisement promo video was downloaded into YouTube in October of last year, a month before the campaign launched in-stores, which currently has reached a total of almost 7 million views! The campaign also launched their own SnapChat story bubble and Periscope live feed so people could watch the campaign's fashion show from all around the world. Which takes us to their amazing PR campaign.
   
   

3. OVER THIS WAY WITH THE STOPLIGHTS

   
   
   Not only was Balmain and H&M strong on social media but also as we call it, they did an amazing job on the "RL" as well. The first appearance of Balmain X H&M pieces was on the red carpet of Billboard Music Awards. Models Jourdan Dunn and Kendall Jenner walked the red carpet with Olivier wearing select pieces from the then upcoming line and looking fierce. The companies also put together an enormous fashion show event just to showcase their Balmain X H&M line and all of its pieces. The fashion show had big name models walking up and down the runway as well a performance from The Backstreet Boys while they, of course, wore Balmain X H&M pieces from the male line.
   
   

4. NO, THAT DRESS IS MINE!

   
   
   So, to conclude on how successful the campaign was, at the day of the collaboration launch the website was almost impossible to shop on because of the amount of visitors trying to shop at the same time. Online was not the only busy place for the brands, the stores were absolutely packed and pieces sold out within hours all around the world. One negative point the campaign gained lots of buzz about were the fights filmed in-stores by crazy ladies who wanted that one last piece to take home. But that just goes to show how successful the overall campaign was.