It’s a great time to be a business collaborating with Vine stars. Using platforms like Vine to promote your brand can be a boon for businesses looking to change up their previous marketing strategies and compete in a lightening-quick market saturated with content. According to TechCrunch last year, around 100 Million people watch Vines every month, and that number has only grown. Just three years after the platform launched, casual Vine creators have leveraged their online celebrity into massive marketing deals, and there is no sign of slowing down.
But Vine is more than just product placement: co-creation of campaigns has injected incredible energy into brand marketing on Vine. When Vine stars are given the artistic license to promote products in an authentic way to their audiences, results are far-reaching and long lasting. In addition, brands know that their products that will have many more impressions than traditional modes of marketing, for far less money in most cases.
Influencer marketing is so hugely beneficial for brands that last year Twitter (who owns Vine) acquired Niche, a platform for Vine influencers and content creators. The platform connects influencers with brands most suited to their audience, and also gives more power and creative control than ever to influencers.
Social media marketing expert Aidan Cole, CEO of nGage.social and founder of Prosper Social Media had this to say about social media collaborations:
"Collaboration with social media influencers can drive purchase decisions at a large scale, especially among Millennials. As a result, brands are flocking to influencers like never before. Numerous platforms have emerged to service this need, but so far none have figured out how to monetize at scale. According to eMarketer, Social Ad revenues have experienced incredible growth from just over $2 billion in 2009 to just over $23 billion in 2015. The platform that figures out how to match the right brand opportunity with the right influencer at scale has a shot at shifting substantial Social Ad revenues their way and will dominate within an emerging market that is destined to become incredibly large."
There have been some hugely successful campaigns in the short time since Vine was launched. Here are some examples of the best collaborations that we’ve seen so far.
1. Nash Grier
Followers: 12.4 Million
Nash teamed up with Crispy M&M’s for a series of comedic Vines and a hugely successful giveaway of one million M&M’s in Times Square. Nash gave his fans bags of M&M’s, and fans got to interact up close and personal with one of their favorite stars.
2. Jack and Jack Followers: 6 Million Beginning as a comedy duo, Jack and Jack have leveraged their Vine videos into an independent musical career. Pandora invited them to play a concert in house for the company’s ten year anniversary, and Jack and Jack made a casual Vine expressing their gratitude.
3. Lele Pons
Followers: 9.9 Million
Here is an authentic, hilarious Vine showing how Pons placed Comedy Central with no jarring realization that what the user is watching is an ad.
4. Rudy Mancuso Followers: 9.7 Million Mancuso has a direct approach to his ads, and has no qualms making high quality commercials for brands in his authentic style. This Vine in collaboration with Verizon is direct and still in alignment with Mancuso’s brand.
https://vine.co/v/e6n9Jhi5EBz/
5. Cameron Dallas
Followers: 8.9 Million
Cameron Dallas’ Vine of his friends chilling on a few Ikea couches is one of a series, and each one is more casual and entertaining than the next. Using sex appeal and “squad” goals, Dallas and his friends make Ikea appealing without directly name-dropping.
6. Grayson Dolan Followers: 3 Million Dolan’s Vine has both direct Starbucks brand placement plus a comical emotional appeal to his audience regarding the loss of a spilled Starbuck’s drink.
7. Amanda Cerny
Followers: 4 Million
There is little funnier than finding the real-life hilarity in the embarrassments of daily life. Cerny captures this in her “Kotex Cartel” Vine, where a tampon passed between women is likened to a drug deal. The Kotex stamp at the end of the Vine reads like a part of the farce, not a forced branding.
8. Jake Paul Followers: 4.6 Million Playstation tapped their market -- young males -- collaborating on this Vine, touting their new Project Morpheus virtual reality visor using just the right influencer.
9. Brittany Furlan
Followers: 9.7 Million
Sporting the ironic hashtag #ThisIsNotAnAd, Furlan uses her physical comedy to hawk Smart Water with hilarious results.
10. Jerome Jarre Followers: 8.5 Million Influencers can be a perfect way to promote a new movie. The impressions received are far more than traditional methods, and can be as simple as this Vine from Jerome Jarre. While in attendance at Paris Fashion Week, he videos Ben Stiller as Derek Zoolander, their interaction and Stiller’s iconic “Blue Steel” a perfect way to stir up excitement for the upcoming premiere.
11. King Bach
Followers: 14.4 Million
King Bach has made multiple Vines over months inside a Jimmy John’s, with conspicuous logo placement both inside the restaurant and on his person. This Vine is perfection in terms of what can be achieved when the influencer has complete creative control over the collaboration.
12. Amymarie Gaertner Followers: 4.1 Million Gaertner has upped the ante on Vine product placement with this high-production, polished commercial for HP X360, featuring monster trucks, trick shots by Brodie Smith, and Gaertner’s signature dancing.
13. Jerry Purpdrank
Followers: 8.8 Million
Collaborations between influencers can increase impressions tenfold -- influencers featured in a Vine can share the Vine on their own successful platforms. This collaboration between Jerry Purpdrank, Lele Pons, and Curtis Lepore is a great placement for Nerf guns, and surely was more successful due to the influencers involved.
14. Logan Paul
Followers: 8.8 Million
The power of influencer validated products and businesses cannot be understated. Followers feel personally invested in the influencer as they play a large part in their success and fame with likes and follows. In this Vine, Logan Paul touts Dunkin’ Donuts as his favorite restaurant, and simultaneously promotes the company’s new app.
15. Piques
Followers: 2.9 Million
Piques creates a poignant and funny Vine here to promote the Sphero BB8, an app-enabled droid that capitalizes on the new Star Wars movie releasing soon. His hashtag “#Sponsored” lets his followers know that upfront he is being paid for the Vine.
16. David Lopez Followers: 6.1 Million This Vine “#Ad” from David Lopez, even with the hashtag that names it a sponsored post, still has the heft and gets the laughs that brands look for in collaborations.
17. Cody Johns
Followers: 3.6 Million
Cody Johns worked with some heavy hitters in this Vine to promote his day at NASCAR sponsored by Coca-Cola. His cross-platform promotion easily garnered more followers for Coca-Cola on Snapchat, who exclusively promoted the full video of his NASCAR race.
18. Marcus Johns
Followers: 6.5 Million
Marcus Johns is brilliant in this Vine for Google Photos, taking a sponsored post and making it relevant and funny, while showing his followers how fast and easy Google Photos can be.
These are just a few of the sponsored collaborations that have been done, ranging from small and discreet to big, bold, and branded. The social media space for marketing has only just begun to be tapped, and these examples are just the beginning of what can be done in terms of impressions and reach. If these Vines are any indication, marketing creations and influencer collaborations are ripe for the picking.
Murray Newlands would be thrilled if you’d share this story with your networks. You can find him on Twitter (@murraynewlands), Vine (murraynewlands) and learn more about his work at www.murraynewlands.com
