With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, love is in the air. And in the influencer community, those who pair off as couple, may just find themselves a top pick for brands. As compatibility, connectivity and creative content become ever more desirable, social media relationships are driving a new wave of Influencer Marketing – influencer couples creating a unified personal brand that maximizes the value of their ‘coupled up’ status.

As of January 2020, there were more than 3.8 billion social media users worldwide, so brands have the potential to reach huge audiences. And the industry is increasingly seeing ‘power pairs’ emerge as brands seek to expand the reach of their product or campaign.

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Social media expert Amelia Neate from agency Influencer Matchmaker said: “We have seen a marked increase in influencer couples who monetize their relationship not only through its relatability to an audience but because they can effectively double their outreach and impact.”

“Audiences love the influencers they follow because their stories and their lives feel more relatable,” said Amelia. “Influencer couples can create an emotional connection to a product or service they promote, as happiness and romance are things most people want to experience.”

But it doesn’t just impact on the brands looking to work with them, says Amelia. “There are many benefits for the couple. Leveraging their double influence, they can back each other’s projects, reach a wider and more varied audience, understand their partner’s industry and share the pressures of the social spotlight.”

One couple that has recently seen the value of building a brand out of their coupled status is the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Already breaking the mold of traditional royalty, Meghan and Harry are charting a new course in brand fame with audiences intrigued by their relationship and their life together.

The pair has a huge social media following, with 12.2M followers on their Instagram page, and they have the potential to monetize this pool of already-engaged followers to earn significant sums from a combination of paid posts, product and service endorsements and brand partnerships. They could even launch their own branded lines.

Amelia assessed one of their options in building their influencer brand. “With millions of people worldwide hoping the veil will lift on their lives as a couple, the pair could identify some niche areas in which to operate – charity or acting, for example. They could then build multiple brands and communities with content for each specific niche.”

Influencers now have so many channels to choose from, when they’re looking to build their brands. YouTube, for example, and streaming services like Netflix or Spotify are diversifying the way consumers access brands and, for some, even theatre is worth exploring.

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This year, Strictly Come Dancing’s star couple Joe Sugg and Dianne Buswell have launched a live tour, ‘The Joe and Dianne Show’. Having already amassed millions of fans from the show and through their individual social channels, the pair haven’t had any issues selling their comedy, music, and dance spectacular.

Watched by a combined following of 6.3M on Instagram alone, their relationship has grown in value, as the pair continue to support each other’s ventures and promote their joint initiatives. Posting genuine and funny content, followers see them as authentic and ordinary couple.

And brands are benefiting from collaborations with duos like this. They gain additional exposure working directly with both influencers and, even if they only work with one of them, the other partner organically adds significant, secondary support by reposting or promoting the content.

For obvious reasons, reality pairings from hit TV show Love Island have potential in this area. Having met on the show, Alex and Olivia Bowen are now married and are still proving a popular combined draw for brands aiming to leverage their romance.

Amelia said: “We can all relate to the mystique of a new relationship and many of us are intrigued to watch one unfold on a reality show. We are swept up in the romance of it all and want to keep up to date once it moves beyond the confines of a TV villa. The love story still has legs.”

Benefitting from the ongoing narrative, over Christmas 2019, VK drinks partnered with Alex and Olivia to promote its Candy Cane mix pack to a young adult demographic. In a cute picture posted on their Instagram channels, the pair posed in VK branded Christmas jumpers and drove engagement with the brand.

Looking at the LGBTQ+ community, Instagram duo Joey Graceffa (5.6M followers) and Daniel Preda (933K followers) are pure ‘couple goals’.

Having founded the jewelry and clothing brand Crystal Wolf together, the twosome travels the world looking for inspiration for their crystals and stones. Finding each of those hidden gems is part of their brand narrative – magical moments they share with their followers.

This kind of continual storytelling – amplified across the combined channels of the couple – builds brand loyalty and advocacy, with Joey and Daniel playing cameo roles in each other’s feeds to showcase their clothing and jewelry.

Another couple that do this brilliantly is Travel Mad Mum and Travel Mad Dad. Parents to Quinn and Esme, the adventurous duo add value to brands looking to tap into their sizeable combined audience of hard-working mums and dads with busy schedules.

In a recent collaboration, the pair took to Instagram to promote Vitabiotics, a vegan vitamin company advocating a healthy and balanced lifestyle to combat fatigue and tiredness.

The couple leads busy lives – home-schooling Esme, renovating their RV, running two blogs and dealing with the everyday pressures of family life, all while trying to sell their home – so they’re a great fit for the brand in question.

Other parents can relate to their lives and understand the challenges they face, so their story has a real sense of truth and authenticity that adds weight to their recommendation of the product.

Amelia said: “Couple-content gets extra engagement for brands not only because each partner expands the total reach of a post but also because followers really connect with the emotions around the relationship.

“So, smart marketers see ‘power pairs’ as a cost-effective way to maximize the impact of their budgets. If you can partner with the right influencer couple, you can diversify your audience and drive greater awareness and engagement with your brand.”

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