Hi Jenny! Tell us about you…
I’m Jenny! Head of UK Campaigns here at TAKUMI.
I’ve been working within the influencer marketing industry for 3 years and almost 2 of those years have been with TAKUMI.
I’d love to invite you into our world a little more and introduce the team to you. We have a small team here in the UK managing our campaigns. If you’ve worked with us already, these names should be familiar!
We have Flavia and Shannon who have worked with us for 2 years, both starting on the same day! Then Natalie joined us a year and a half ago, all the way from Sweden.
We also have Shipra, who joined the team a year ago — including me, these are your Campaign Managers! They liaise between influencers and brands to make sure the running of campaigns goes as smoothly as possible.
We also have Olly, who joined us full time in January — he’s our Influencer Support Manager, supporting the team to match perfect influencers with brands.
Even though it’s quite an uncertain time right now, you should know we’re working hard behind the scenes to bring all our influencers some really fun, incredible campaigns, from some amazing brands!
To all the influencers out there, I say to you, use this time to freshen up your feed, freshen up your followers and put your best foot forward.
I’ve detailed some tips and tricks below which may give you that edge to stand out to brands.
What should a creator consider before applying to a campaign?
Have you read the brief? We allow all creators the opportunity to read through the brief to ensure you can commit to the content and are happy with the fee.
Can you commit to the timelines? Have you read whether you need to source the product yourself? Have you noted that this requires a story frame and a post? Once you hit interested; that means we can put you in front of the brand.
Are you right for this campaign? Have a read through the brief and think if the content would sit naturally in your feed and your followers will engage with it. Brands give us a list of their targeting, this can be lifestyle, parents, and home/interior accounts as an example, but lifestyle can be quite broad, and not all accounts might be the right fit!
Can you create the content you’re being asked for? The campaign team spend a lot of time working with brands to extract as much information as possible to bring clear and detailed briefs to you. So, ensure you have thoroughly read through it so that when you shoot content you don’t leave anything out! And therefore, are not asked to spend time re-shooting.
Make sure your bios are up to date! Ensure your IG bio is up to date and your bio on TAKUMI. The campaign team go through EVERY single account that shows interest in campaigns and we review everything from the fit of your feed to the campaign, your engagement rate, your followers, but also quite importantly your bio.
Make sure you’re selling yourself in your bio, brands are looking now more than ever for influencers with a narrative, something about them — and this is your opportunity to show the brand. Use the TAKUMI self tags to add additional information, so we can tailor the perfect campaigns for you.
What is the best way to ensure your following is authentic and how can you avoid bots following your account?
The nature of having public profiles on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok means that unfortunately we are all exposed to fake/bot accounts following us – sometimes undetected!
My recommendation would be to set aside time, I know influencers that do this at the end of their day but maybe you could do it weekly, to go through your followers and remove any of these accounts.
They’re usually easy to spot — no profile pictures, odd handles, 0 followers but 100’s that they are following, etc. By having these accounts following you, can damage your engagement rates and lower your chances of collaborating with brands. I massively recommend flushing these out and look to have a very nurtured, authentic following.
By taking part in giveaways and follower loops can also attract these styles of accounts — so if possible we highly recommend not taking part in these. And it goes without saying, please do not buy followers!
What makes a brand remember you and want to work with you again?
A little effort goes a long way. Brands are looking for influencers to bring their creative flair to the brief and the content, something that wows them! It is very noticeable when content has been rushed and brands will remember this.
Now I know we sometimes don’t have lots of time to turn around content, due to the nature of the business, it’s moving a million miles an hour! But when you are producing high quality, thoughtful, creative content — that nails the brief, not missing any points out — then that’s when a brand goes wow!
What is yo
ur favourite part of running a campaign on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube?
Instagram — the content for Instagram is beautiful! It’s high quality, it’s well-curated and can be incredibly effective.
TikTok — it’s fun right! I see this as a platform where we can let loose and get our creative juices flowing. It’s hilarious and begs for us all to participate too. I highly recommend influencers to get on TikTok and start shooting content!
YouTube — long-form content in a social space, that matters — now more than ever! Sharing vlogs, how-to’s, education pieces, and forms of relaxation and exercise. It presents you with a well-connected social community who are sharing their knowledge and expertise.
What has been your favourite TikTok brand campaign and why?
We worked with Fentimans for Mother’s Day on their Mum vs. Mam challenge on TikTok.
We asked influencers to utilise the split-screen and to jump from one side of the screen to the other depending on what choice they resonated from the voiceover.
As an example, do you prefer Chocolate or Flowers? TAKUMI supported the brand by creating the original sound ourselves. We worked with 4 influencers, the videos created encouraged other TikTok users to get involved and we’ve since had a further 176 videos created from people outside of the campaign!
I hope this has provided a little insight into our Campaign world and also some easy tips and tricks to help you put your best foot forward! Hoping to see you on TikTok soon, if not already 🙂
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