Looking for the best food influencer marketing campaigns? We’ve got you covered.
If you’re looking to nail your food marketing, you need to be looking at the right collaborations. Food influencers harness 5 times better results than the average a food or beverage brand achieves through in-house means only. So if you want to create major change in your marketing and see maximum results, you need to form targetted, creator-led food marketing strategies that deliver.
So how do you know what works and what doesn’t? We’re offering a shortcut. These handpicked examples will inform, inspire and help you initiate your next food influencer campaigns. Ready? Let’s dig in.
Contents
1. KFC – A bucket shared is a problem halved
2. Oreo – The Oreoverse
3. Chipotle – New Garlic Guajillo Steak on Roblox
4. Aldi – Food for thought Ramadan awareness
5. McDonald’s – Masked Singer
6. Cadbury’s – Worldwide Hide Easter Egg Hunt
7. Doritos – Triangle tryouts competition ahead of Super Bowl
8. Hershey – Hershey She – International Women’s Day
9. TRIP CBD
1. KFC – A bucket shared is a problem halved
KFC launched this charitable campaign in March, partnering with KISS Radio DJ Tyler West. Since 2019, 5p from every Sharing Bucket at KFC has gone to Comic Relief bid to help organizations in local communities across the UK provide safe social spaces, mentoring, employment, and social skills for young people.
They have now raised over £3 million for the cause, and to celebrate, they upped their KFC Bucket donations to £1 between the 13th – 17th of March. KFC also launched a limited edition reversible bucket hat and announced that £7 of every sale goes to Comic Relief.
They worked with Tyler West to get the message out across socials and spread the word on how important it is to support young people with their mental health.
Why does it work?
When it comes to charitable work, you need to put your money where your mouth is. People want to see brands contributing real change, not just offering generic statements. 71% of Americans think companies have a greater responsibility than ever to address social issues.
But to come across authentically, you need to partner with the right creators – and that’s exactly what KFC did. Tyler West is an advocate for young people and their mental health. He’s previously worked with younger age groups with mental health issues and even plans to make a documentary focusing on the effects of trauma on teenage mental health. This would also include his own story of mental health struggles. He is clearly an ideal advocate for this kind of message and aligns with the values KFC represents here.
BONUS TIP:
To share their initiative in more ways than one, KFC collaborated with fun magician and TikToker @benhanlin. The brand clearly understands why different audiences come to different channels. On TikTok, entertainment is the top category, so talking about their cause in a fun way here was definitely the order of the day.
2. Oreo – The Oreoverse
Earlier this year, Oreo launched its latest campaign, “The Oreoverse”. They jumped headfirst into the metaverse and created interactive gaming experiences all based on the famous cookie. They also partnered with Martha Stewart, a serious household name bringing her into a new age of technology through a live stream on the OREO brand’s IG and FB in January.
Why does it work?
Oreo partnered with Martha Stewart, but they didn’t stop there. They adopted a multi-channel influencer-led approach to build on this campaign and get people talking about the Oreoverse. They collaborated with both micro-influencers and mid-tier influencers to boost awareness and drum up engagement (a clever tactic since micro-influencers especially have the highest engagement rate of any other type of creator). Using different channels and multiple influencers with varying audience pools can help you maximize your campaign results, so take note.
3. Chipotle – New garlic guajillo steak on Roblox
Chipotle is no stranger to Roblox. With their very own Chipotle Grill Simulator and a regular partnership with the game, they’ve understood how powerful interactive campaigns can be. They decided to launch their new Garlic Guajillo Steak on Roblox too, initiating a VR experience that related to real life. Users could head over to the Chipotle Grill in Roblox and grill their own version of the menu item. The first 25,000 people to correctly do so at certain times of the day received a free one in real life. They partnered with TikTok influencers to encourage users to take part and get people involved.
Why does it work?
Gamifying experiences is a proven technique that works. And who better to share these experiences than Gaming influencers? Food brands don’t always have to think within their vertical when it comes to influencers. Foodie influencers can be great, but sometimes opting for different kinds of creators can offer unique, targeted audience pools. As long as the influencer aligns with your company values, that’s what matters.
4. Aldi – Food for thought Ramadan awareness
Aldi created a YouTube series named “Food for Thought” where they brought two influencers together to cook each other a meal and have a discussion on a particular topic. This year they already talked about International Women’s Day and most recently collaborated with Islah Abur (@mistahislah) and Dr. Saliha Mahmood Ahmed (@salihacooks) to discuss Ramadan. This was positively received by social media users showing just how important it is for brands to expand their representation.
Why does it work?
Aldi listens to their audience. Younger consumers are especially pushing for equality within branding (75% of Gen Z consumers will boycott companies that discriminate against race and sexuality in advertisements). More than this, though, you can tell that Aldi are constantly listening to their fans on social. On TikTok, they respond to lots of comments showing active engagement. With this campaign, there were plenty of positive comments that the company responded to, involving their customers as a part of the conversation. If you want to understand what your audience wants and choose the right influencer collaborations for them, you need to be doing the same.
5. McDonald’s – Masked Singer
McDonald’s partnered with Masked Singer and ran this theme through their happy meals. But more than this, they actually sent Aston Merrygold to the Ronald McDonald House in Southampton dressed as the masked singer. McDonald’s is the charity’s biggest supporter, raising more than £100m for the charity since 1989 and helping many thousands of families.
Why does it work?
Since Aston Merrygold was seen on the UK Masked Singer in a Robin Costume back in season 2, it meant he was already associated with the iconic show. And what better way to launch a collaboration than with a charitable cause backed by a well-known influencer? Working with influencers in real-life settings and having them back a charitable cause is a great way to gain traction and trust with your consumers.
6. Cadbury’s – Worldwide hide easter egg hunt
Cadbury’s virtual Easter Egg hunt allows users to hide a virtual easter egg somewhere meaningful in the world. To promote it this year, they collaborated with different influencers across multiple channels.
Why does it work?
Cadbury targeted different audience pools through various influencers to show a diverse range of relatable people. This helped encourage engagement from different kinds of users. Some videos showed mums giving their kids easter eggs, some showed friends sharing the love, and some showed them getting one for their elderly parents. They covered all areas, but still with through creators with targetted audiences.
7. Doritos – Triangle tryouts competition ahead of Super Bowl
For the 2023 Superbowl, Doritos launched a dance challenge. People had the chance to be included in their super bowl advert if they posted a video of them participating. And they certainly did take part. #DoritosTriangleTryout has 16.3B views on TikTok.
Why does it work?
Trends are the way forward when it comes to powering up user-generated content. Creating a hashtag challenge that’s irresistibly catchy builds UGC. To boost it further, Doritos collaborated with TikTok influencers, which supercharged their efforts. Millennials find UGC to be 35% more memorable than content that came from mainstream sources.
8. Hershey – Hershey She – International Women’s Day
Hershey launched a special campaign for International Women’s Day. To promote their limited edition SHE bars, they partnered with influencers and asked them to talk about the influential women in their lives. They encouraged viewers to share a HERSHEY bar with a woman in their lives who inspires them. #hersheysshe had 65.4M views on TikTok and 94,645 posts on Instagram.
Why does it work?
When looking at the content created by these influencers, you see genuine, authentic stories. That’s where the “trust” element comes into it. 61% of consumers trust influencer recommendations, compared to 38% who trust brand-produced content. Why? Because they show their real selves and share personal stories. Hershey’s allowed their influencer partners to take creative control and share their own experiences. If you give influencers a strict script, you’ll lose that credibility and all-important trust factor.
9. Trip CBD
This is a campaign that’s quite close to heart. So close, in fact, that we were the masterminds behind it! We were tasked with helping TRIP to reach and engage new audiences on social. Partnering with influencers across a multitude of verticals from fitness and wellbeing to fashion and lifestyle, we created scroll-stopping content across Instagram and TikTok showcasing the drink and oil products, educating people about the benefits of CBD, and ultimately driving sales.
Why does it work?
Brand awareness campaigns are often the trickiest to nail. Gaining new customers from cold leads takes serious creativity and a level of trust that is still tricky for brands to gain from the get-go. 80% of the customers driven from our campaigns are “new customers”. Using a variety of influencers is your shortcut to building better relationships with new consumers and initiating a brand awareness campaign that works every time.
Why does influencer marketing work in the food industry?
Influencer marketing in the food industry has a 10x higher ROI than traditional advertising. So why does it work so well? People buy based on trust. They need to know that the food product they’re buying is actually going to be good.
In a world where brands are less trusted, it’s more important than ever to get consumers on your side. Influencers are the way forward for the food industry, and that’s not about to change.
Looking to nail your food influencer marketing strategy? Get in touch to find out how we can maximize your ROI on brand campaigns and drive serious engagement.
