Co-Creating Products: Brands & Influencers Working Together

As brands compete for customer loyalty in an ever more saturated marketplace, finding sustainable ways to capture audiences’ attention is a marketing priority. It’s no longer good enough to have a unique product or angle — a brand needs to connect with consumers in an emotional, personal way. That’s a role social media influencers, whose success is built around connection and authenticity, are uniquely qualified to fill.

Brand-influencer collaboration has existed since the emergence of social media, but over the last five years, it’s grown by over 50% on Instagram and YouTube, says anakle.com. “Today, influencers have evolved beyond extending brand reach; they are now seen as partners who can significantly enhance sales for your brand.” Co-creation is one form this partnership takes.

What Is Co-Creation?

In the conventional brand-influencer partnership, “the influencer simply promotes your brand’s product or service to their audience,” says anakle.com. The partnership can be limited to social media content, or it can extend into appearances and interaction at experiential marketing events like activations and pop-up shops.

Increasingly, though, brands are maximizing the impact and influence of their partnerships with influencers or celebrities by collaborating on not only content but also products.

Co-creation, sometimes called co-branding, or co-marketing, “Is partnering with another brand or influencers to create a product that incorporates the knowledge and expertise of both parties,” says a blog post on getcarro.com. The post cites the example of a brand partnering with a celebrity to create a clothing line that uses the brand’s fashion expertise with the influencer’s unique style.

The trend has expanded past fashion into other industries such as cosmetics, skincare, and food and beverage.

What Are the Benefits of Co-Creation?

Co-creating products with celebrities or influencers can be a powerful strategy, with tangible and intangible benefits to both sides of the relationship. The ultimate goal, of course, is to boost sales. Here are some ways co-creation lays the groundwork for that.

Increased Brand Awareness

Partnering with an influencer or celebrity increases brand awareness, name recognition, and social media reach by allowing the brand to tap into the influencer or celebrity’s audience. According to getcarro.com, this is the primary goal of brand-influencer partnerships: exposing the brand to new audiences.

One effect of this awareness is higher engagement with both brand and influencer. “Co-creation fosters an increased engagement rate because you and the influencer can involve the target audience in certain decisions, such as new product features or names,” says anakle.com.

For example, in a typical co-creation collaboration, both brand and influencer advertise the partnership across social media and elsewhere, “so that each partner’s audience is learning about the other partner’s social profiles or brands,” says getcarro.com. This can help generate buzz and media attention around the collaboration.

Fresh Ideas and Feedback for Product Development

Influencers know their audiences inside out. They’re influencers for a simple reason: they know how to connect with their followers. An influencer or celebrity collaborating with a brand offers a fresh perspective, informed by an understanding of the audience.

The communication works both ways: followers are quick to tell influencers how they feel about products and brands the influencer endorses, which can yield valuable feedback. This means influencers can bring unique insights and ideas to the product development process, helping to ensure the product aligns with consumer trends and preferences.

Here’s one way that’s played out in real life: To promote its Cafe Collective, a network supporting local, independent cafes, beverage brand Tazo partnered with producer-actor-entrepreneur Issa Rae for a sampling pop-up. Centered around the Tazo Passion Twist, a new drink developed in partnership with Rae, the event invited independent cafe owners to join the Collective. Giveaways like swag bags and recipe cards rounded out the offerings, which served more than 300 local consumers and shop owners.

Increased Authenticity and Credibility

Followers trust and value influencers’ opinions, so when an influencer participates actively in the product development process, their followers perceive the collaboration and the resulting product as trustworthy and genuine, anakle.com explains. “The influencer’s involvement in the product development process gives an aura of authenticity and credibility,” which can foster a sense of community and loyalty among fans.

Because followers trust influencers’ taste and judgment, collaborations can also make the brand seem more relatable and genuine. With celebrities, the partnership can elevate the brand’s perceived value.

One example: In social media and press for the Tazo-Cafe Collective event, Issa Rae spoke about her personal connection and fondness for local, independent cafes. “When I was just getting my start, community cafes were spaces where I found inspiration for some of my favorite stories. Now as a cafe owner, I’m excited to join TAZO to support more of these spaces and the communities they inspire,” said Rae, who is now a co-owner of an LA coffee shop.

How to Collaborate

Here’s how brands can effectively collaborate with influencers on product development:

Find the Right Influencer

What makes an influencer perfect for your brand? Alignment of values. Choose influencers carefully. Start by selecting influencers whose audience shares some demographics and psychographics with your target audience; what you’re looking for are areas of overlap in interests, outlook, and preferences. Do some research with your customers to find out what media they consume, including which influencers or celebrities they follow on social media. The goal is to find influencers whose values and brand image resonate with your customers.

Set up an Agreement

Define clear goals for the collaboration, including the specific product or product line you want to co-create. While you want your influencer or celebrity to play a major role in selecting and developing the final product, it’s a good idea to go into the process with some outline for what you’re hoping to produce — a new flavor or a single design vs a product line or a collection.

Once the goals have been agreed upon, create a partnership agreement that specifies expectations, timeline, budget, promotional efforts, obligations of both parties, the influencer’s compensation, and ownership of the end product. Finally, identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) for the project; establish measurable goals for the collaboration, such as sales, engagement, or brand awareness.

Establish a Collaborative Process

While the specifics will look different from collaboration to collaboration, it’s important to discuss how you will work together. Foster an open and transparent communication channel between the brand and influencer. This might look like assigning one member of your team to handle communications with the influencer, for example, to prevent confusion.

Create a timeline for the project that includes involving the influencer in the product development process, from ideation to design. Trust the influencer’s judgment about what will resonate with your target audience.  Utilize the influencer’s knowledge of their audience to inform product features and benefits as well as shape how and across what media the product is promoted.

Finally, plan on regular check-ins to evaluate engagement, sales, and customer feedback. Only by monitoring the project can you determine whether the co-creation is shaping up to be a success for both of you — and identify opportunities to course-correct if expectations aren’t being met.

Promobile Marketing is a dynamic experiential marketing agency based in New York City. For over a decade, Promobile Marketing has collaborated with a range of brands—from budding startups to major CPG brands—on immersive marketing campaigns. Get in touch to discuss your next project.