To prepare for my upcoming talk at Jewelry Ecomm Live!, I’ll be publishing five posts throughout September about influencer marketing for jewelry brands. In this post, I share my favorite examples of effective influencer marketing campaigns for jewelry brands like Simon G., Tiffany, David Yurman, and others.

In part one of this blog post series, I discussed some ways that brands approach influencer marketing. These approaches include events, long-term partnerships, one-time product placements, and collaborations. For each one of these approaches, there’s a standout example of a jewelry brand that nailed it.

Influencers and Events

Earlier this year, National Jeweler wrote about the bridal jewelry brand Simon G. Jewelry, which is sold by fine jewelry retailers nationwide. In an effort to support their retail partners, Simon G. hosted five key trunk show events across the country, and the brand promoted these events to potential customers by leveraging local influencers.

When choosing the right influencers, Simon G. searched for fashion and lifestyle influencers who embodied luxury and expressed authenticity, “someone who would truly wear the product…not someone who just has a strong audience but is posting about lip gloss and water,” according to Vice President of Marketing and Communications Brooke Brinkman. The right influencers should also have a strong following within the communities where the trunk shows would be held. Ultimately, the partnership included influencers like @oliamajd (430,000 followers), @thegrguide (17,200 followers), and @matalasi_ (13,100 followers).

To add another layer to the influencer marketing, Simon G. also used paid social media advertising. Three weeks before the trunk shows, Simon G. ran general, branded advertisements to target customers in the show cities. Two weeks before the trunk shows, the ads directed customers to stores where they can find Simon G. in their area. Finally, a week before the show, the brand promoted the specific event through the ads.

According to Brinkman, the “influencer campaign helped Simon G. show retailers the new ways consumers want to receive their information that don’t involve traditional shots of jewelry pieces.” Simon G. considered the campaign to be a success.

Another recent example of a jewelry brand that used influencers in conjunction with an event is Pandora, which hosted an exclusive day-long relaunch event in Los Angeles. To see photos from the event, visit this page.

Influencers and Long-Term Partnerships

A long-term partnership is one of the most effective approaches to influencer marketing, since the influencer who agrees to this type of partnership should be a fierce and genuine supporter of the jewelry brand. Furthermore, partnering with an influencer for the long term provides a brand with lots of content to consistently add to its own website and social media feeds.

Over a series of months (or even years), the influencer in a long-term partnership with a brand will feature the brand’s jewelry products, introduce new products and collections, mention seasonal promotions, help the brand gain customer feedback, and more. This influencer may also be referred to as a “brand ambassador”.

An excellent example of a long-term partnership between an influencer and a jewelry brand is the partnership between Blair Eadie from Atlantic-Pacific (my favorite fashion blog) and David Yurman. For years, Blair has incorporated David Yurman jewelry into many of the outfits she shares on her blog. In one example from 2017, Blair shows how to style David Yurman’s cable bracelets, which she paired with pieces from J. Crew, H&M, and Mansur Gavriel. At the end of the post, she discloses “Thank you to David Yurman for partnering on this post.” Over the years, David Yurman was able to repurpose Blair’s beautiful styling perspective and photos on its own feeds.

Another example of a jewelry brand that partnered with an influencer on a long-term basis is Tiffany & Co., which enlisted the influence of Jack Morris (@doyoutravel) to promote some of Tiffany’s more affordable products to millennials. To read a case study about this partnership, click here.

Influencers and One-Time Product Placements

For a one-time product placement, an influencer will showcase a piece of jewelry on his or her blog or social media feeds. These one-time campaigns work best for brands that want an increase in their social media followers, a boost in brand awareness, or the platform to promote the launch of a new product or collection. One-time campaigns can also work well for brands that are new to influencer marketing and want to test the waters.

You don’t have to look too hard to find many examples of jewelry brands using influencers for one-time product placements. In many cases, these influencers also wear and promote other jewelry brands, so exclusivity is not as easy to find. Here’s influencer Violette wearing Mejuri, here’s Jeanette Madsen wearing Aurate, and here’s Samantha Wennerstrom wearing Zoe Chicco.

Influencers and Collaboration

The final approach to influencer marketing that we’d like to discuss is collaboration. In a collaborative partnership, the influencer and brand work together to create something new, whether that be an exclusive, limited-edition product or special collection. Collaborations have become extremely popular for both fashion and jewelry brands; and these days we see more jewelry brands experimenting with them.

One example of an influencer/jewelry brand collaboration is the one between stylist, writer, travel photographer, and brand consultant Lucy Williams and the jewelry brand MISSOMA. Called “1987”, the collection is inspired by 80s and 90s nostalgia and Lucy’s mother’s jewelry box. MISSOMA describes the collection as “the ultimate jewellery mixtape” and uses the Instagram hashtag #LucyWilliamsXMissoma to promote it.

A top benefit of doing a collaboration is that the influencer will also promote the jewelry pieces, so the brand gets double the marketing power. In many of her recent Instagram posts, Lucy is wearing at least once piece from the 1987 collection and showing all the different ways the jewelry can be styled.

Now that you’ve read about some examples of jewelry brands that are using influencer marketing successfully, which approach do you think applies best to your brand? In next week’s blog post, we’ll be writing about the ROI of influencer marketing and explain what you can typically expect when you’re working with influencers, so you can be as prepared as possible and make a smart investment in your marketing. To read Part 1 of this blog post series, click here.