For eBags, the industry-leading e-tailer and travel gear expert, back-to-school is a vitally important season.
Ebags officials work with popular YouTubers and bloggers to showcase the most popular backpacks for the 2017 back-to-school season. The campaign, which leverages nine different influencers with a collective audience of more than 20 million readers and viewers, harnesses the enormous appeal of student-age YouTubers and mommy bloggers with young consumers and their parents.
Kaylin Meyer, creative coordinator at eBags, talked to Loyalty360 about the factors that prompted this unique campaign.
“When it comes to back to school shopping, the first thing on a student–or parent’s–supply list is typically a new backpack,” Meyer explained. “Finding the perfect color and best design may only take a few minutes, but making sure it is the perfect fit for everything the student needs involves some time and consideration. We wanted to work with student influencer and mommy bloggers on how their Top Back to School Backpack Pick truly changes their life for the better! The main goal is to inspire students (and parents) from all around the globe to get their new favorite back to school backpack at eBags.com.”
According to eMarketer, 80 percent of marketers that executed campaigns collaborating with social media influencers found them to be beneficial for driving both engagement and awareness.
As a result, eBags followed suit with a YouTube influencer campaign that features five vloggers from the U.S., Canada, and Scotland—all real-life high school or college students—who call out their favorite backpacks, including brands such as Fjallraven, Jansport, and The North Face. YouTubers taking part include Kailee Elise, Tasha Farsachi, Alice Elizabeth, Maddy Hayes, Dylan Brotherton, and MyaNicole.
While 65 percent of back-to-school shoppers say their purchases are direct results of their children’s influence, moms do still hold the purse strings in most families—so eBags is working with a variety of mommy bloggers to connect directly with that unique shopper demographic. Bloggers include A Mom’s Take, Parenting in Progress, Peyton’s Momma, and Kelly’s Thoughts on Things.
Today, more than 3.5 million unbiased customers provide shoppers with invaluable insight into their search for the perfect bag. In addition to peer expertise and an unparalleled selection, eBags’ Extreme Deals for back to school offer up to 80 percent off hundreds of styles. Additional perks of shopping with eBags this back-to-school season include their free Rewards Program, which gives shoppers at least 5 percent back on all purchases. Customers also receive free shipping on orders over $49 and easy returns.
Meyer said that 98 percent of millennials are more likely to engage with a friend’s (or a person who could be their friend) post than one from a brand.
“eBags leverages our social media influencer campaigns in a way that helps the everyday person resonate with real life people, who are just like them,” she explained. “Influencer marketing has allowed us to expand and amplify our reach far beyond the scope we could do on our own.”
Ebags conducts similar campaigns routinely.
“We do campaigns like this all the time!” Meyer added. “We work with influencers from all different backgrounds and on all social platforms. We’ve found that our influencer campaigns create four to 10 times more ‘buzz’ in regard to impressions, reach, likes, comments, etc. than our own organic social platforms. We take our customer feedback very seriously, but for this campaign, we wanted to resonate with our back-to-school shoppers. To do that, we sourced for some of the best student vloggers out there.”