If you know your way around social media, and follow some influential individuals, it’s likely that you’ve been engrossed (on more than one occasion) in watching one of them open up a ‘surprise’ delivery package. If you’ve searched the term unboxing, you would have been one of the 90 000 people that search it on YouTube every single month.
Unboxing in influencer marketing, is a term used to describe when an influencer receives and reacts after having a product drop delivered from a brand. Many influencers get creative when it comes to filming the unboxing of their package, even showing intricate details about the delivery and product. And it’s proved to be a valuable marketing tool for brands worldwide.
It’s so successful, in fact, that many influencers have built an entire career off unboxing alone! That’s right, if you’re searching for product reviews online, you’ve probably stumbled across an unboxing YouTube channel that is dedicated to reviewing hundreds (if not, thousands) of products. Perhaps you too, have fallen victim to watching video after video. Fund fact: Google claims that the amount of time people have spent watching unboxing videos on their phones is equivalent to watching the movie Love Actually more than 20 million times!
Yes, unboxing with product drops is gaining huge amounts of attention, with the Instagram hashtag #unboxing boasting over 1.3 million posts.
At People Have Influence, unboxing with product drops is one of our four service offerings and we love helping brands understand and implement successful product drops, matched with the right influencers. But how exactly do they work and why are they so successful?
We’ll be answering it all. Let’s get to it.
First things first. A product drop is when a brand has a product or service that they would like to ‘drop off’ to influencers in exchange for sharing the brand’s goodies with their social media followers. The product is either delivered to them physically, or sent in the form of a digital voucher or product. Simply put, it’s the classic ‘unboxing’ post where influencers share a beautifully packaged delivery to their engaged community, sharing their thoughts and trying the product out in front of their audience.
But what’s the big fuss all about?
Why do brands do product drops? Well it’s one of the best ways to drive sales and generate authentic conversions. At a high level, it’s a great way to get people talking about your brand and increase brand awareness. And it’s becoming increasingly popular.
A study by Google found that 1 in 5 consumers have watched an unboxing video and at the end of November 2017, there had been more than 20 million search results on YouTube for the term ‘unboxing’. We’re certain that number has tripled now in 2020.
And it makes sense! Who wouldn’t want to watch somebody else receive a product before actually buying it? Consumers would rather watch and experience someone else receiving a product, trying it out and pointing out any possible flaws, before risking purchasing something they’re unsure about.
What it comes down to is this. People want to hear real reviews that are informative and authentic. They want to ‘live through’ another person’s experience and watch how they interact with a product they’re thinking about buying. After doing so, they can then decide whether or not they’d like to purchase it for themselves.
Okay, so product drops work, but where do you start? Without giving away all of our secrets, there are a few dos and don’t when it comes to unboxing. We’ve run product drops for many different industries – from clothing, candles, diffusers and homeware to alcohol brands, fitness and online retail. You name it, we’ve most likely dropped it. And in all of this experience, we’ve found that tangible products work best. This is the best place to start.
Payment for influencers can vary from campaign to campaign as it all depends on the specific metrics of the campaign, like the number of followers the influencer might have, their engagement rate and the cost of the product that is being delivered.
Our general rule of thumb as an agency is to always ensure that the product either equates to the value of their worth and if it doesn’t, they will be paid the remainder of their worth.
Can you imagine holding so much influential power, that others will purchase the products you promote? It’s no accident that influencers hold this power either – they’ve spent a substantial amount of time building their engaged and committed niche audience. Every influencer has their price and we value their worth, and therefore believe they should be paid accordingly, which most brands agree with.
Like many other influencer marketing tactics, product drops can also be tracked and measured. It all depends on the desired outcome of the campaign. Impressions, engagement, conversions, and increase in social media following are all examples of measures that can be tracked. We can even gather brand sentiment from the influencer to learn if the audience enjoyed it or not, and more specifically what in particular they did or didn’t enjoy.
So now that you know unboxing and product drops are a big hit, how do you implement a successful one? Well, first, you want to make sure your brand’s unboxing experience stands out from the crowd. Here are a few tips:
It all starts here. If you choose the wrong influencer, you could miss the ballpark completely. Neil Patel says, “Many people just pick someone in their niche and reach out to them. The influencer you choose has to fit your brand. They have to share your values and believe in your product. You want someone who will act as a brand ambassador, and that means choosing someone who has a good track record and reputation.”
We couldn’t agree more, and that’s why we go through rigorous vetting and profiling steps to ensure that an influencer is correctly matched to the brand, and vice versa.
Once you’ve chosen to align your brand with the right influencer, it’s time to start building the relationship. Get personal with a hand written note that is delivered with the package. This can make the influencer feel special and valued when they receive it. Their audience can also begin to associate your brand as if it were a person, seeing the relationship you hold with the influencer.
Remember, it’s the unboxing that will be revealed, often starting from when the package is delivered. You’re going to want to send a product drop that is thoughtfully made and aesthetically pleasing for both the influencer and their audience. It also needs to be intriguing enough to capture the attention of the influencer’s audience. Good old bubble wrap and plastic just won’t cut it anymore. The attention is in the detail.
It’s simply not enough to just drop off a product and hope for the best. You cannot gift an influencer without discussing the desired outcome, simply hoping they’ll post all about it. No strings can be attached if nothing was agreed upon beforehand and influencers get sent things all the time. It’s completely up to them whether they decide to share it to their audience or not. If you’d like to guarantee deliverables in return for your product drop, it is highly suggested that you go about contacting the potential influencer in the correct way beforehand.
Influencer marketing doesn’t mean sending out a generic message and product to as many influencers as possible. It needs to be strategic and more importantly, it needs to be aligned with who you are as a brand.
As mentioned before, building relationships with influencers starts with the brand. And we know that the best relationships are those that share the same values, are similar in nature and both put in the effort to maintain the relationship. Once you build trust with your aligned influencers, they’ll share the trust with their following, which will likely turn into trust from your new customers.
Our family of influencers are so diverse and unique in nature, we’re bound to find the exact fit your brand needs for your next influencer marketing campaign and product drop. If you’re ready to get eyes on your new product, or tap into an existing niche audience, let us help increase your brand reach and drive engagement in a big way!
Get in touch with us today or head on over to @peoplehaveinfluence_ on Instagram where you’ll find us doing what we do best.
If you know your way around social media, and follow some influential individuals, it’s likely that you’ve been engrossed (on more than one occasion) in watching one of them open up a ‘surprise’ delivery package. If you’ve searched the term unboxing, you would have been one of the 90 000 people that search it on YouTube every single month.
Unboxing in influencer marketing, is a term used to describe when an influencer receives and reacts after having a product drop delivered from a brand. Many influencers get creative when it comes to filming the unboxing of their package, even showing intricate details about the delivery and product. And it’s proved to be a valuable marketing tool for brands worldwide.
It’s so successful, in fact, that many influencers have built an entire career off unboxing alone! That’s right, if you’re searching for product reviews online, you’ve probably stumbled across an unboxing YouTube channel that is dedicated to reviewing hundreds (if not, thousands) of products. Perhaps you too, have fallen victim to watching video after video. Fund fact: Google claims that the amount of time people have spent watching unboxing videos on their phones is equivalent to watching the movie Love Actually more than 20 million times!
Yes, unboxing with product drops is gaining huge amounts of attention, with the Instagram hashtag #unboxing boasting over 1.3 million posts.
At People Have Influence, unboxing with product drops is one of our four service offerings and we love helping brands understand and implement successful product drops, matched with the right influencers. But how exactly do they work and why are they so successful?
We’ll be answering it all. Let’s get to it.
First things first. A product drop is when a brand has a product or service that they would like to ‘drop off’ to influencers in exchange for sharing the brand’s goodies with their social media followers. The product is either delivered to them physically, or sent in the form of a digital voucher or product. Simply put, it’s the classic ‘unboxing’ post where influencers share a beautifully packaged delivery to their engaged community, sharing their thoughts and trying the product out in front of their audience.
But what’s the big fuss all about?
Why do brands do product drops? Well it’s one of the best ways to drive sales and generate authentic conversions. At a high level, it’s a great way to get people talking about your brand and increase brand awareness. And it’s becoming increasingly popular.
A study by Google found that 1 in 5 consumers have watched an unboxing video and at the end of November 2017, there had been more than 20 million search results on YouTube for the term ‘unboxing’. We’re certain that number has tripled now in 2020.
And it makes sense! Who wouldn’t want to watch somebody else receive a product before actually buying it? Consumers would rather watch and experience someone else receiving a product, trying it out and pointing out any possible flaws, before risking purchasing something they’re unsure about.
What it comes down to is this. People want to hear real reviews that are informative and authentic. They want to ‘live through’ another person’s experience and watch how they interact with a product they’re thinking about buying. After doing so, they can then decide whether or not they’d like to purchase it for themselves.
Okay, so product drops work, but where do you start? Without giving away all of our secrets, there are a few dos and don’t when it comes to unboxing. We’ve run product drops for many different industries – from clothing, candles, diffusers and homeware to alcohol brands, fitness and online retail. You name it, we’ve most likely dropped it. And in all of this experience, we’ve found that tangible products work best. This is the best place to start.
Payment for influencers can vary from campaign to campaign as it all depends on the specific metrics of the campaign, like the number of followers the influencer might have, their engagement rate and the cost of the product that is being delivered.
Our general rule of thumb as an agency is to always ensure that the product either equates to the value of their worth and if it doesn’t, they will be paid the remainder of their worth.
Can you imagine holding so much influential power, that others will purchase the products you promote? It’s no accident that influencers hold this power either – they’ve spent a substantial amount of time building their engaged and committed niche audience. Every influencer has their price and we value their worth, and therefore believe they should be paid accordingly, which most brands agree with.
Like many other influencer marketing tactics, product drops can also be tracked and measured. It all depends on the desired outcome of the campaign. Impressions, engagement, conversions, and increase in social media following are all examples of measures that can be tracked. We can even gather brand sentiment from the influencer to learn if the audience enjoyed it or not, and more specifically what in particular they did or didn’t enjoy.
So now that you know unboxing and product drops are a big hit, how do you implement a successful one? Well, first, you want to make sure your brand’s unboxing experience stands out from the crowd. Here are a few tips:
It all starts here. If you choose the wrong influencer, you could miss the ballpark completely. Neil Patel says, “Many people just pick someone in their niche and reach out to them. The influencer you choose has to fit your brand. They have to share your values and believe in your product. You want someone who will act as a brand ambassador, and that means choosing someone who has a good track record and reputation.”
We couldn’t agree more, and that’s why we go through rigorous vetting and profiling steps to ensure that an influencer is correctly matched to the brand, and vice versa.
Once you’ve chosen to align your brand with the right influencer, it’s time to start building the relationship. Get personal with a hand written note that is delivered with the package. This can make the influencer feel special and valued when they receive it. Their audience can also begin to associate your brand as if it were a person, seeing the relationship you hold with the influencer.
Remember, it’s the unboxing that will be revealed, often starting from when the package is delivered. You’re going to want to send a product drop that is thoughtfully made and aesthetically pleasing for both the influencer and their audience. It also needs to be intriguing enough to capture the attention of the influencer’s audience. Good old bubble wrap and plastic just won’t cut it anymore. The attention is in the detail.
It’s simply not enough to just drop off a product and hope for the best. You cannot gift an influencer without discussing the desired outcome, simply hoping they’ll post all about it. No strings can be attached if nothing was agreed upon beforehand and influencers get sent things all the time. It’s completely up to them whether they decide to share it to their audience or not. If you’d like to guarantee deliverables in return for your product drop, it is highly suggested that you go about contacting the potential influencer in the correct way beforehand.
Influencer marketing doesn’t mean sending out a generic message and product to as many influencers as possible. It needs to be strategic and more importantly, it needs to be aligned with who you are as a brand.
As mentioned before, building relationships with influencers starts with the brand. And we know that the best relationships are those that share the same values, are similar in nature and both put in the effort to maintain the relationship. Once you build trust with your aligned influencers, they’ll share the trust with their following, which will likely turn into trust from your new customers.
Our family of influencers are so diverse and unique in nature, we’re bound to find the exact fit your brand needs for your next influencer marketing campaign and product drop. If you’re ready to get eyes on your new product, or tap into an existing niche audience, let us help increase your brand reach and drive engagement in a big way!
Get in touch with us today or head on over to @peoplehaveinfluence_ on Instagram where you’ll find us doing what we do best.
We’d love to hear from you. For any enquiries, questions or conversations, feel free to contact us.
