Uncover the success of Influencer Marketing with Clarks

Consumers are turning away from traditional ads such as billboards and direct mail, and in this digital-first world, social media has given rise to a new form of marketing, Influencer Marketing. Albeit it's not exactly new, traction has been gaining within the last decade.

As a Marketing Director, Annabelle Lin spearheads the development of Clarks' marketing strategy in Southeast Asia and ANZ. With more than 17 years of luxury beauty and retail industry experience, she's responsible for delivering the best Clarks consumer experience through all touchpoints; above the line and below the line, in-store and customer relationship management.

In this exclusive Q&A with eTail Asia, we uncover Clarks' secret behind their Influencer marketing strategy. Best known for its highest level of authenticity, find out how Clarks collaborate with influencers on a deeper level that allows them to create based on their personality and style, and tips on the best strategy in identifying the right influencer that is aligned with your brand's objectives.

Beyond traditional product placements, how does Clarks collaborate with influencers to create engaging and authentic content across different platforms (e.g. Instagram Reels, TikTok, YouTube)? What are some key learnings from these campaigns?

On top of working with influencers to create content on different platforms, we believe in collaborating with them on a deeper level. We choose influencers who resonate with our brand and our values and encourage them to curate a collection that represents their personality and style. In Singapore, we worked with a top female influencer who put together a collection of her favourite effortless everyday staples for women on the move and named it “Ease About Her”. We shot the campaign locally and these assets were used across the different platforms. A collaboration of such creates a deeper sense of connection to her followers and to the Clarks brand enabling us to convert likes to sales.

Clarks Singapore - Suntec

With Clarks planning to increase Dedicated Influencer Marketing Budget this year, what are your top priorities?

Yes, we have planned to increase our influencer marketing budget next year as we are celebrating Clarks’ 200th Anniversary. We will likely be working with more influencers compared to previous years. Additional budget will go into Meta and YouTube ads to drive traffic to our brand.com.

How Do You Measure Brand Awareness in Influencer Marketing and not just sales conversion? What tools and methods do you employ for attributing sales to specific influencer partnerships?

Sales conversion is really the cherry on top of the cake! Our local collaborator will post Instagram stories with UTM links to our brand.com and we provide codes to the influencer to give additional perks to their followers. This also helps us to track traffic and sales attributable to our influencer partnerships.

While there are various metrics to measure the success of the influencer campaign, these are the more important ones for us.

Engagement Rate: It measures the level of interaction of the content posted, including likes, comments, shares, and saves. A higher engagement rate tells me that the influencer is resonating with the audience.

Brand Mentions: We will monitor the frequency and context of brand mentions across social media platforms with the special campaign hashtag and the user generated content that comes with the collaboration. More buzz created means more heat was generated for the launch.

Website Traffic: Using Google Analytics, we will track the increase in website visits attributed to the influencer campaign. This indicates the effectiveness of driving audience interest and curiosity about the brand. By considering these metrics alongside sales conversion, we can obtain a comprehensive understanding of brand awareness and the impact of influencer marketing on the brand’s visibility and reputation.

Clarks x Zahirah (Malaysia) Torhill shoes

Can you share a recent influencer marketing campaign that you're particularly proud of and its key results? What made it successful and what learnings can be applied to future campaigns?

We had a campaign with a top celebrity in Malaysia last year where she curated a collection that represented her advocacy for women’s empowerment, resonating with our brand’s vision “For The World Ahead”. The collection expressed her style and desire to embrace casual elegance while empowering women to put their best foot. The campaign message and visuals were strong, hence capturing more attention online and offline.

We overachieved (x2) in terms of reach, impressions, PR value and sales. It was also more successful than previous campaigns as we did not restrict ourselves to digital platforms and utilised print and digital magazines as well. This year, we will apply the learnings to our upcoming collaboration campaign with another top Malaysian celebrity Zahirah Macwilson and her family for the key selling season Ramadhan.

Clarks caters to diverse demographics and styles. How do you align influencer selection with specific sub-segments within your target audience, ensuring a genuine connection and impactful reach?

Demographics is secondary to us. We aim to work with key opinion leaders, who are contemporary and stylish, and who also align with our target audiences. Our influencers are not just conscious of trends, but are also confident enough to adopt what works for them to add a unique spin to the latest looks. This will then translate to a connection with our target customers, who are happy to spend on shoes which give a nod to trends, and are also beautifully crafted and comfortable, which is what a pair of Clarks is made of!

Clarks Malaysia - TRX

You are presenting a case study at this year’s eTail Asia event. Can you share what the audience can expect to hear from you and what excites you about this event? What are you looking forward to and why is eTail a must not miss event?

I will be sharing a case study on how Clarks Singapore and Malaysia leverage on social influencers and platforms as part of our digital strategy to reach new audiences and convert likes to sales. With an impressive roster of speakers and abundance of valuable knowledge and insights to be exchanged at the conference, it is safe to say the event speaks volumes for itself!

Hear from Annabelle Lin at Equarius Hotel, Singapore, on 16th May, 12:40PM: Innovation Spotlight: How can you leverage social influencers and platforms as part of your digital strategy to reach new audiences and convert more likes to sales? Find out more here!