Creator-brand partnerships: Your next fav collab trend
Creator-brand partnerships: Your next fav collab trend https://northstrategic.com/wp-content/uploads/amex222-697x1024-1.jpg 697 592 Jonathan Forani https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/0224c5ae9357da0ca0dcbe96be87c430?s=96&d=mm&r=gBy Dustin Pollack, Senior Account Director, Social
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It’s no secret that social media is one of the key tools brands use to grab mass attention.
But in a world where consumers are consistently bombarded with information and content, putting a stop to the infinite scroll and engaging your target demographic in a meaningful way can be much more challenging—and require much more strategic thinking—than simply launching a TikTok channel.
It’s a challenge we’re consistently faced with at the agency and it’s one that inspired our team to brainstorm a new social content approach for the latest American Express Canada brand campaign.
The Amex brand story is deeply rooted in travel, which presents plenty of opportunity for beautiful visuals and aspirational storytelling. But to stand out in what can sometimes feel like a sea of sameness on social, we and the client team understood the need for something different.
Getting innovative with creator-brand partnerships
As we worked through the brainstorming process we felt our recipe for success needed to focus on three key ingredients: innovation, creative storytelling and calculated risks.
Where we landed was a partnership with VFX creator Edwin Chung, otherwise known as @ed.it.son on social. His unique creative style would help tell the Amex brand story, while tying in specific product benefits in a way we’d never done before. This creator partnership would give our audience something fresh and different than the travel diary-style content they likely see daily when scrolling their feeds.
With Edwin we were able to create eight unique videos (watch one below) in a multi-day shoot in the Napa Valley, all of which Amex is now leveraging across several social channels, including Meta, Pinterest and TikTok.
Risk and reward with Amex
While we’re still awaiting the results of the campaign, the project is about more than the metrics. It was also about more than a brand partnering with a creator to develop content for social. This was about a brand embracing co-creation and relinquishing some of the control that many brands are afraid to give up when it comes to developing owned assets for a campaign—especially when there’s significant paid media support linked to that content.
This campaign was about leaning into creativity and taking a calculated risk in an effort to drive awareness and consideration for a hero product.
It has also opened up a new way for us to think about third-party partnerships. While influencers provide value in their ability to influence a consumer’s purchase decision, with a creator like Edwin, it’s much more about leveraging his unique skillset to help a brand break through the clutter.
And while we’re still waiting to see how the content performs against KPIs, that unique skillset, combined with our approach, has already driven additional awareness around the campaign with coverage appearing in a few different publications, including Strategy Online and Campaign Canada.
To learn more about creator partnerships and North’s client work, contact us today.