Case Study: How to Use Influencer Marketing Like The Sick Puppies
Ever heard of the Australian garage band, The Sick Puppies?
They were one of the early bands to use what we now know to be an effective tool in the marketing world - running an influencer campaign. Not sure what that means? It's when you hire social media influencers (content creators who have a high follower count) to market your product through their social media posts.
These young rockers, from Sydney, Australia, had been a band since 1997, but they didn’t really have any major success, until one fateful YouTube video released in 2006.
An Early Successful Influencer Marketing Campaign
After being on that grueling music grind for 9 years and getting nowhere… the Sick Puppies had an idea. They decided to launch a video campaign to bring brand awareness to their new song. Pretty solid idea!
The campaign was simple. They partnered with a cool YouTuber and the deal was that their new song would play in the background. The YouTuber came up with the idea and posted it on his own channel. And that's how this influencer marketing success story came to be.
The FREE HUGS Campaign was launched in 2006 YouTube, featuring the Sick Puppies song “It’s All The Same.” Today that same video is approaching 79 million views!
(Here's the link so you can verify this inspiring story for yourself!)
This early idea of influencer marketing on a social media platform proves that, when this strategy works, you can hit and even surpass your marketing goals.
Building Brand Community with An Online Presence
Early on in the launch, this campaign reached viral status, with millions of people embracing it and sharing it. It's social proof at it's best - people see an idea others are sharing and want to become part of the movement. Why does it work?
People want to connect and build community. So when you market your song and yourself as an artist, think about how you want to bring social media users together and on what social platforms. If you want to build your engagement rate, think about what you can offer that connects people - to you, to each other and to your content. As you build a community around your brand, chances are you'll:
- Start getting traction with social proof from your brand community
- Reach larger audiences with the snowball effect that social proof provides
- Get the attention of influencers
- Plan your approach to influencer marketing
What Influencer Marketing Looks Like Today
YouTube has helped millions of artists catapult their careers in their own creative way since the FREE HUGS Campaign — but this story was back when YouTube was relatively young! What, out of all the social media channels, has that “Young YouTube” right now? Today?
The answer is TikTok! TikTok is the new opportunity for musicians to reap the benefits of influencer marketing. Like a modern-day Sick Puppies “Free Hugs” Campaign, your song can have a chance to be heard by millions, and there’s no telling where things could go from there!
But since the app is still new to many of us, it can be hard to understand exactly how this works. Check out our posts about TikTok Music Promotion and How to Upload Your Music to TikTok to help you understand this form of marketing and how it can build audience engagement with your music.
Social media marketing can be confusing, but ultimately it's about telling your story. You can do that with your own content, and you can team up with power influencers to boost social media engagement surrounding you and your music.
So is this the opportunity your music needs right now? Are you going to take action with TikTok the way that early adopters benefited with influencer marketing success on YouTube back in 2006?
The answer is personal to each artist. It ultimately comes down to how you want to build your brand (your story) and your fanbase.
And if you do feel ready to dive into your TikTok influencer marketing strategy, check out our 100% Organic TikTok Promotion Services!
TikTok Music Promotion
TikTok has exploded into a leading social media platform for influencer campaigns. A single influencer can reach up to 32 million people around the world. Our influencer marketing campaigns are designed to help you expose brand new audiences to your music or other creative work.
