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Perhaps more than any other time of year, the “season of giving” offers brands a unique opportunity to reach beyond their target audiences and expand their marketing efforts through influencer collaborations — an effective (and highly cost-effective) way to take advantage of holiday gift-giving. Below are five easy influencer collaboration ideas for fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands: 

For Men’s Fashion Brands: Target Women’s Fashion Influencers 

With women’s fashion influencers outnumbering their male counterparts at about 9:1, the holidays are an excellent opportunity for men’s fashion brands to expand their reach through influencer collaborations by targeting these top female influencers for collaborations around holiday gifting. 

We recommend selecting a number of influencers in each of your target markets for an Instagram post displaying your brand as a gift for a brother, friend or significant other. Allowing the influencer to “shop” your site and select a personalised gift will ensure a more genuine collaboration and will lead to a better response among viewers. We recommend adding payment to gifting for top influencers. 

For Women’s Fashion & Lifestyle Brands: Target Male Influencers 

Women’s fashion and lifestyle brands can also reach new audiences during the holidays through collaborations with top male influencers as men seek gift ideas for the women in their lives. Males have become a strong audience on top social platforms, now making up 40% of Pinterest users and 42% of Instagram users.   

We recommend collaborating with a few top male influencers on Instagram, like Shaun Birley in Australia or Nicolas Simoes in Europe as well as a couple of top Pinterest influencers to show off gift ideas for the women in their followers’ lives. As above, we recommend allowing male bloggers to browse your site for personalised gift ideas, although holiday collaborations are also a great option for promoting a single item, like a special holiday accessory or piece of jewelry. 

For Children’s Fashion Brands: Target Teen & Millennial Bloggers   

For most of the year, “mommy bloggers” (and a growing number of “dad bloggers”) are your best targets for influencer collaborations. But during the holidays, you can also see great results by broadening your parameters to include fashion and lifestyle influencers seeking gift ideas for their younger family members, perhaps children they care for, and the children of their friends - This latter category is becoming particularly strong as Millennials edge into their 30s.

We recommend targeting at least 2-3 influencers in each of your target markets with a mix of ages and demographics (male and female) to reach the widest audience, and encouraging each to tell a personal story behind gifting your brand. Showing the gift exchange with the recipients reaction through an Instagram post, video story or a blog post can be particularly powerful.  

For Beauty Brands: Target Travel Bloggers 

Many top travel bloggers are already fashion and beauty influencers, and the travel-heavy holiday season is a perfect opportunity for beauty brands to take advantage of gift guides, “stocking stuffer,” roundups and packing essentials lists. We recommend selecting 2-3 top travel and Lifestyle bloggers worldwide, including high-influence bloggers like Paola Alberdi of Blank Itinerary, Pamela Hettinger of The Girl From Panama, or Kurt Ji of Blogger’s Boyfriend, as well as a mix of low and medium influence bloggers for a blog post and Instagram flatlay of your best products for travel. 

We recommend budgeting for a gift-plus-payment collaboration for top influencers, but gifts alone may suffice for many emerging and lower level influence bloggers. Adding commission through SLINKS (Shopping Links Affiliate Links) for a particular product can help you boost immediate sales of that product and add more data to your overall analytics. 

For Wine & Spirit Brands: Target Fashion Influencers 

Wine and spirit brands more accustomed to targeting older audiences, might not immediately think of fashion influencers to promote their products, but given the millions of young consumers looking to these bloggers for holiday gift ideas, influencer collaborations become a fantastic opportunity. 

Not only do influencer collaborations allow you to reach your target market through a new voice, but you also have a chance to introduce your brand to new potential consumers. We recommend selecting 1-2 influencers in each of your top regions for an Instagram post featuring your brand as a go-to holiday party gift. (We therefore recommend launching your collaboration as early as possible to take advantage of Thanksgiving and holiday parties!) Remember to take into consideration the age of the influencer to keep your collaboration legal.

More Opportunities 

The ideas above offer just a few examples of how brands can take advantage of holiday gifting to target new audiences. The same concept applies to hotel brands targeting fashion influencers by gifting holiday stays, men’s fashion brands targeting “mom” bloggers with gifts for dad, or even home decor brands targeting fashion bloggers with home ideas for the holidays. 

Need more holiday collaboration ideas? We’re always happy to give our advice. Get in touch at hello@shoppinglinks.com.