Leveraging Influencer Partnerships to Boost Your Food and Beverage Brand's Presence

Companies are now spending approximately 3.5x more on influencer marketing as compared to traditional social advertisement spending, and the global influencer marketing industry rocketed from $1.7 billion in 2016 to $21.2 billion in 2023.

As a digital marketing professional for over 11 years, Arif Ehsan is the Assistant Vice President - Head of Digital Marketing & Loyalty at Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd. As India's largest foodservice company, they've helped major food brands such as Domino's Pizza, Dunkin' (Coffee & Donuts), and Popeyes (Fried Chicken) breakthrough with  internet penetration. 

Is influencer marketing emerging as a dominant force in media marketing? Is the food and beverage industry ready to embrace the latest marketing technique? For those entering for the first time, do you have the right arsenal recreate Jubilant's success stories? Find out all your answers in this exclusive Q&A!

1. Over the 4 years at Jubilant, how have you used various creative ideas resulting in 3x the marketing growth?

The one thing we have clearly realised and valued is how customers are looking for content (such as images) that are “casual” and authentic, unlike the polished shots that are usually taken in studios. In our case, studio shots typically become unreal from the actual pizzas we serve in stores. Since we’re focused on advertising via UGC-led content, authentic content in social world has driven more trust and crave-ability, and we’ve seen great response. Our CTRs have tripled, and our creatives have been one of the major drivers for growth.

The other thing which has worked for us is democratising promotions and offer call outs. It’s not the traditional communication done with one central promotional message that is built up with reach and frequency. As influencers have their individual unique take on our products and promotion, we give them free rein on their unique propositions.

For example, 30% off can be promoted as X pizzas at rs. Y. This unique way of promoting went viral, and millions of views across more than 1000 influencers led to a 30% increase in new customer acquisition, making it the most efficient acquisition channel for us. As influencers continued promoting fresh content with unique offer codes, their performance was completely attributable and trackable.

2. Why is influencer marketing essential for food and beverage brands in this time?

Communicating solely from the brand’s voice can only build so much trust, and efforts tend to be blinded and largely ignored by users amidst a plethora of other brand communications. In the Quick Service Restaurant space, products that are high in demand usually appeals to a large demographic. Influencers give us the opportunity to target more directly at consumers (smaller and niche influencer bring in the highest engagement), driving advocacy for the brand.

Influencers who have a small group of followers (less than 50k) can receive millions of views on their reels. By partnering with influences, the new social commerce channel aids in shaping demand, leading to a significant growth of new customers.

Social commerce via TikTok and Instagram Reels has been blowing up in Southeast Asia, and it’s gaining immense popularity in India. Within a year, we’ve worked with approximately 10,000 influencers, selected based on their category, audience, and content, delivering measurable ROI for us. We’ve successfully adapted some of their content ideas in our own advertisements, creating a content creation cycle and constantly keeping things fresh.

3. In your opinion, what is the extent to which influencer marketing affects traditional promotional tools used in the F&B industry?

While influencer Marketing is largely independent from other tools, the emergence of these new channels are gaining attention and investments, affecting the budget of traditional media channels.

Influencer marketing can also be the start of a marketing campaign. Burger King’s collaboration with Hrithik Roshan, a Bollywood actor, and CRED’s partnership with Rahul Dravid, the former captain of the Indian Cricket Team, are great examples. The single advertisements were made so creatively and authentic that it went viral as both advertisements shook the public, who assumed it was real. They assumed Hrithik Roshan was made use of by Burger King, and that Rahul Dravid had a complete change in character. The “authenticity” and laughter behind the single advertisements ended up turning into full-blown campaigns due to its virality.

4. What are some best practices and influencer marketing strategies working with food influencers?

There’s no winning between influencers with bigger and smaller follower bases. Having a bigger following allows for greater reach, while influencers with a smaller group of following offers better engagement and consideration. Smaller influencers will require more content moderation, but it’s balanced off as the outcome is more contextual and customised according to their audience, gaining a much more favourable response.

Choosing the right influencer with the right category is important, a factor that that can and needs to be improved over multiple campaigns. Just because you’re a restaurant doesn’t mean every single food blogger is qualified or suitable for your business. Sometimes, choosing an influencer from an adjacent category might deliver better performance.

Not all influencers are doing this full-time, so there may be a lack of responsibility and commitment post-campaign. You need to also be focused not just one acquisition, but retention. Incentive programs need to constantly be running for influencer collaboration, especially during high seasons, to keep them engaged.

5. How does Dominos approach influence marketing to create a cohesive and effective campaign that supports broader marketing objectives and maximizes the impact of influencer activities?

We look at influencer Marketing from 2 lenses.

1) Social Commerce: We’re constantly looking at the individual influencer’s attributable revenue that they bring in. Unique codes for customer redemption are giving to every influencer, and their creative freedom coupled with the variety of offers they may wish to promote can be tracked. This is one of our most efficient acquisition methods, and we’re working on making it even bigger.

2) Brand Marketing: The objective is to create buzz and interest surrounding the marketing campaign. For this, we will partner with influencers with a bigger following as they are more likely to bring in higher conversions. There’s a tighter control on creatives, and influencers are chosen based on the campaign’s social idea and their relevance. Success is measured based on reach and engagement generated through Instagram APIS, integrated with the influencer’s handle. Influencer agencies can provide us with demographics data such as gender, city, effective CPM and reach.

6. How likely can the influence of influencers’ reviews, comments, feedback, or ratings on consumer behaviour boost brand awareness in untapped markets?

Influencers drive advocacy. Influencers with smaller followings drive higher advocacy with consumers, evident from our emergence into new markets. With a much smaller presence compared to our existing businesses, local influencers are able to generate a ton of buzz and engagement for our launches. This has now become a part of our “New Store Launches” program.

7. You are speaking at next year’s Digital Food & Beverage event. Can you share what the audience can expect to hear from you and what excites you about this event?

I would like to just share my experiences and learning while working with Domino’s India which is the biggest QSR in the Indian Market and the 3rd biggest FoodTech player. I like to talk about marketing, share with our audience about our journey with influencers, measurement and Incrementality.

Join Arif Ehsan at One Farrer Hotel, Singapore, on 28th February 2024, 2:05PM on "Case Study: How to leverage influencers to amplify the impact of your marketing efforts in the Asian market, leading to increased results and brand engagement". Find out more now!