Growing a Social Following 5X Through Celebrity Partnerships

Key Takeaways

Influencer Tactic — Mega Celebrity Partnerships: Uncle Bud’s works with mega celebrities on Instagram to leverage their following base to raise brand awareness. Uncle Bud’s partners up with these celebrity influencers every quarter to announce new products or promotions. They adopted a mass marketing strategy rather than focusing on a specific target market. This is evident by the diverse set of celebrities they partner with such as Toni Braxton (53 year-old American singer), Jane Fonda (83 year-old American actress), Magic Johnson (61 year-old athlete) and Seth Jones (26 year-old professional hockey player). 

Organic Social Tactic — Donations for Each Re-Post: Uncle Bud’s donated an additional bottle of Hemp Hand Sanitizer to an organization called “Safe Place for Youth” for every re-post. This is a great way to support a good cause while also raising brand awareness by partnering up with an NPO. In addition, the product of choice (Hemp Hand Sanitizer) was timely and relevant due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

Organic Social Tactic — Celebrity Quotes: Uncle Bud’s provides social proof through posting testimonials from their celebrity partners on Instagram. The quotes highlight the specific product benefits, and are taken from reliable news outlets such as Forbes. On top of this, having the quote come from a mega celebrity adds another layer of trust for the consumer. 

Organic Social Tactic — Product Demo: Magic Johnson posted a sponsored video that showed a brief product demo where he explained how the topical cream helps with his knees while working out. In the caption, the Instagram post links out to the site where consumers can purchase the product.

Influencer Tactic — Affiliate Code: Uncle Bud’s gave each celebrity an affiliate code for a 30% off discount during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale. Giving a unique affiliate code to each influencer allows Uncle Bud’s to track the performance of each influencer campaign to measure ROI and conversion volume.

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Uncle Bud’s Hemp Instagram following grew almost 5 times (from 138K to 629K) during the year 2020.

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Uncle Bud’s rolled out it’s influencer program, announcing new partnerships every quarter.

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Each celebrity executed the same communication strategy:

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Jane Fonda’s partnership announcement post also brought awareness to a charitable cause. For each re-post, Uncle Bud’s donated a bottle of Hemp Hand Sanitizer to an organization called “Safe Place for Youth.”

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Each celebrity executed the same communication strategy:

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Each celebrity got their own affiliate code, allowing Uncle Bud’s to keep track of the performance from each influencer.

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Each celebrity executed the same communication strategy:

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Magic Johnson posted a sponsored video that showed a brief product demo where he explained how the topical cream helps with his knees while working out.

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Each celebrity executed the same communication strategy:

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Approximately 40% of all Uncle Bud’s Instagram posts are exclusively celebrity editorial photos, videos and quotes.

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While the remaining 60% is devoted to product posts, which highlight product benefits such as fast recovery and pain relief.

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By partnering with such a diverse group of celebrities, Uncle Bud’s managed to create a very balanced customer profile.

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As a result of partnering up with various celebrity influencers, Uncle Bud’s increased their social media site visits from 185 to 30K in 2020.