How M&M’S boosted influencer engagement rate by 29% with Aspire’s Agency Services
About
M&M’S and its parent company, Mars, are on a mission to use the power of fun to create a world of inclusion and belonging. With 100+ years of chocolate history, M&M’S has launched countless new products while remaining a family business at heart. Beyond the iconic branding and trend-setting marketing campaigns lies a dedication to community building and providing financial support for the arts and entertainment spaces.
M&M’S sought to boost performance across their influencer campaigns
Kerry Columbro, M&M’S US Digital Director at Mars, found that past influencer marketing campaigns centered around product seeding with macro-influencers didn’t drive consistent results. She sought a new solution for strategic and tactical end-to-end campaign management support to move the needle.
Despite the brand’s legacy in the retail world, they came to Aspire to promote their direct-to-consumer customized M&M’S product and fulfill their brand purpose.
“Our main goal with influencer marketing was to drive awareness and boost sales. Before teaming up with Aspire, our results were unpredictable, and our campaigns weren’t consistently meeting their target KPI’s.”
Aspire’s intent-driven campaigns yielded record-breaking engagement
After identifying Mother’s Day as a target window for their first campaign, Emilee Mast-Monnig and the Aspire’s Agency Services team recognized the immense potential of tapping into the excitement around the holiday since:
- Brands can easily reach consumers who are looking for personalized gifts for loved ones
- Families are eager to share their gifts on social media
From a tactical perspective, Mother’s Day was the best time to promote awareness and traffic to M&M’S website with the goal of driving conversions. Within five weeks, the Agency Services team partnered with a mix of paid and seeded creators, strategized content ideas with them, and turned their organic stories into high-quality and engaging content that drove record-breaking results for the brand.
The M&M’S Mother’s Day campaign was such a success that the team decided to take their learnings and run similar campaigns for Father’s Day and graduation season.
When structuring the M&M’S campaign to drive awareness, the Agency Services team allocated 40% of the brand’s budget to paid creators and 60% to product seeding creators. The goal was to generate organic posts from seeded creators excited to share their personalized M&M’S with their audience while partnering with top-tier influencers through paid collaborations to get the most reach.
“Aspire’s Managed Services team handled all the strategy and logistics for us, driving significant traffic to the site through tentpole events for M&M’S and product seeding campaigns.”
M&M’S executed their most effective Mother’s Day campaign ever – paired with a 29% lift in engagement rate
With support from Aspire and the Agency Services team, M&M’S was able to reach new levels of success with their Mother’s Day campaign:
- 29% increase in engagement rate YoY for influencer program
- Most successful Mother’s Day season Kerry’s team has seen at M&M’S
- Saved 20-25 hours per month, thanks to Aspire handling all logistical details
The M&M’S team is eager to run similar campaigns for holidays like Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and Valentine’s Day and explore partnering with major sporting associations like the MLB for future campaigns. Aspire will continue driving awareness and conversions across different audiences for each new campaign.
“This Mother's Day season was our most successful one yet, with a record engagement rate of 29%.”