By Noor Abduljabbar and Sheima Benembarek
In a world where the rich and famous are role models, social media followers are valuable potential consumers and aspirational spending is commonplace, brand and celebrity collaborations make absolute business sense. From George Clooney encouraging us to love Nespresso as much as he does, to Keds and Taylor Swift developing special branded sneakers with mini guitar prints to reach loyal Swifties, they’re an effective marketing strategy.
Two brands this summer are taking this tactic a step further. Gatorade and Etsy are using celebrities to make an ROI connection whilst being authentic and contributing to specific marginalized communities.
Canadian athlete Kia Nurse is a WNBA basketball point guard for the Seattle Storm and a TSN NBA and NCAA basketball analyst. The 27-year-old is gearing up for a successful year and also advocating for gender parity in the third most popular sport in the world. Gatorade, which announced a partnership with her, is leaning into sports inclusivity, thereby ensuring their roster of athletes evolves in tandem with the interests of new generations of consumers.
According to Lourdes Seminario, senior director of marketing at parent company PepsiCo Beverages Canada, this relationship aims to promote and celebrate the accomplishments of women in sports. “She aligns with Gatorade’s commitment to fostering inclusivity and diversity within the athletic community. And we want to leverage her expertise to drive positive change.”
Beyond the Hamilton native’s many on-court achievements, Nurse has utilized her platform to establish programs that aid in the development of top-tier girls’ basketball players, offering training opportunities through camps. Seminario adds, “we also recognize the importance of representation with diverse role models in sports and believe in the power of up-and-coming athletes.”
As part of the collaboration, Gatorade will assist with the Kia Nurse Elite program and the Kia Nurse Basketball Academy, enabling young athletes to access valuable resources on the importance of hydration for optimal sports performance.
Collaborating with celebrity influencers responds to certain of Etsy’s brand needs as well. “Our influencer marketing programs give buyers more exciting and inspired ways to shop using curation as a pathway to discovery,” shares Erin Green, Etsy’s head of global influencer marketing. The company’s celebrity partnerships – called Creator Collabs – help share the Etsy seller stories with the influencer’s dedicated followers. “We give celebrities the opportunity to handpick a group of Etsy sellers from around the world to co-design a limited-edition collection of pieces.” And the e-commerce giant’s latest partnership with Grammy-award-wining singer John Legend is meant to expand its consumer base further.
Legend selected a group of 11 women, Black and underrepresented sellers from Poland, Bulgaria, Canada, the U.K., and the U.S. to highlight. Green says, “By partnering with top-tier celebrities, we further elevate our brand, drive discoverability and provide our sellers with valuable exposure at a time when competing for consumers’ share of mind and wallet has never been more difficult.”
Through a variety of executions – including multi-channel, global marketing campaigns, social media and affiliate marketing – Etsy is spreading awareness of the special partnership, the co-designed line and their mission to “keep commerce human.” The program aims to expand Etsy’s brand consideration and relevance by introducing the company to new communities. With Legend, in particular, the aim is to reach his fanbase, many of which are male shoppers. “Not only do our sellers get the opportunity to share the spotlight with our celebrity partners, we’re also able to offer our buyers items that are truly limited-edition.”
And when it comes to evaluating how well the partnership is doing, “we look at a variety of things when measuring success and developing our future roadmaps, including engagement and brand lift studies, earned and social media value, incremental sales impact, as well as the longer-term sales lift in the participating Etsy shops,” Green explains. But hearing from their sellers about how impactful being a part of the global marketing campaign has been for their business is what Etsy finds most valuable.
The power and business impact of influencer marketing isn’t new, in fact, it has only grown more and more important to brands and their ecosystems. But Etsy and Gatorade seem to be doing something different, something a little more purposeful.
