Podcast and YouTube subscribers in the US are sure to be familiar with the brand Athletic Greens. The nutritional supplement drink brand has built a name for themselves by partnering with content creators for the long-term. The result - deep connections with audiences who might not have otherwise ever sought out the brand.
The Athletic Greens influencer marketing strategy is simple; find content creators (mainly podcasters, but not exclusively), partner with them long-term, track effectiveness, and adjust spends accordingly.
Easier said than done. Let’s break down aspects of this influencer marketing strategy that you can learn from and adapt for your brand.
The most important part of any influencer marketing strategy is defining what type of influencer or content creator you want to partner with. In the case of Athletic Greens, they were looking for people who are “taking ownership of their health, their personal finances, their relationships.”
A quick look at Athletic Greens and someone might say they should target fitness influencers. Those are the types of people that work out, are healthy, and take supplements. But Athletic Greens did what many brands fail to do, they looked at the audience traits, not the content. Who is the audience? What type of content do they listen to? It’s not always a straight line.
This is crucial. Athletic Greens made a point to stand by creators even during economic downturns. They are focused on building the relationship for the long-term. By giving creators peace of mind when it comes to revenue during hard times, they become more loyal.
Both brands and content creators want to move away from transactional relationships (like most influencer campaigns are run) to ones that offer more stability for not just both parties, but audiences.
These long-term relationships will result in most trust, better content, and ultimately marketing and sales ROI. Which brings us to our next benefit, which is a byproduct of long-term relationships.
The rule of seven states that people need to have seven touch points with your brand before they take action. Frequency and across channels and creators helps accelerate this. If you only invest in a few podcasters or do one or two branded piece of content, you are not maximizing your creator spend.
I first became familiar with Athletic Greens from the Tim Ferris podcast. I then heard them on the Pod Save America podcast and I most recently saw them on Mikey Chen’s YouTube channel. Across those podcasts, I must have heard at least 8-10 ad reads. If I were living in the US right now, I would 100% have bought them to try out.
Working with content creators in a long-term basis will enable the brand to drive frequency with the same audiences, driving brand recall, purchase intent, and actual purchases.
Every marketer needs data to back up their decisions and justify their spends. Everyone wishes their media metrics were as cut and dry as display advertising. Influencer marketing strategy is especially tricky. Finding the right metrics takes a little extra effort. There are three primary ways brands can track the effectiveness of their creator marketing spend.
Stitching these three tactics together will help brands understand how effective their creator marketing can be.
The number of companies selling supplements is huge. Walk into a GNC and the average person won’t be able to pick out which brands are more trustworthy. Athletic Greens has done a fantastic job of building their brand through the voices of content creators and riding their audiences to purchase.
Slice is a creator CRM that helps brands, agencies, and talent managers to better manage their creator relationships. Sign up for Slice and get a free trial to start working faster and more efficiently.
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