5-Hour Energy Shots Influencer Campaign’s Return on AD Spend Is More Than Six Times Higher Than Average Social Media Food Campaigns

IRI, a global leader in innovative solutions and services for consumer, retail and media companies, and Influential, a leading artificial intelligence influencer technology, Social Intelligence firm and IBM Watson developer partner, announced the results of a third-party study by IRI on behalf of Living Essentials LLC, the makers of 5-hour ENERGY^® shots, that proves the power of using social media influencers in consumer packaged goods marketing.

“Innovative campaigns like these allow marketers to go beyond basic measurements like post engagement and impressions and dive into more sophisticated metrics like sales lift, return on ad spend and halo effects — which paint a true picture of just how valuable influencer marketing can be for the CPG industry.”

The campaign, which ran and was analyzed August through October 2018, involved 15 Instagram posts promoting 5-hour ENERGY shots by three influencers who each attended a Dierks Bentley country music concert. Influencers created and posted content before, during and after the show promoting the official 5-hour ENERGY sponsorship of Dierks Bentley and the 2018 Mountain High Tour. Influencers were sourced via Influential’s IBM Watson Technology, which selects the most appropriate influencers via context (keyword usage) and the brand’s chosen Watson Personality Insight Traits (this campaign included Excitement, Activity Level, Friendliness and Cheerfulness).

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The campaign drove a short-term return on ad spend of $6.11, which is more than six times higher than the $0.92 average of all IRI measured social media food campaigns. The campaign succeeded in generating an incremental $1.2 million in sales.

The campaign had 22.9 million impressions, and the response was positive. The sentiment of user-generated comments was 100 percent positive or neutral.

“Foot traffic and sales attribution is the holy grail of influencer marketing, so we are both proud and excited to have teamed up with IRI to help make this possible for our clients,” said Ryan Detert, CEO of Influential. “We appreciate the forward-thinking team at Living Essentials for trusting us to execute this trailblazing new technology with their products and we are happy with the results.”

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“Influencer marketing is an incredibly valuable tool that brings word of mouth to life in today’s digital world,” said Nishat Mehta, president of the IRI Media Center of Excellence. “Innovative campaigns like these allow marketers to go beyond basic measurements like post engagement and impressions and dive into more sophisticated metrics like sales lift, return on ad spend and halo effects — which paint a true picture of just how valuable influencer marketing can be for the CPG industry.”

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