Behind the Scenes of Brand and Influencer Collaborations: Insights from Industry Experts

By Saumi Chatterjee

Have you ever wondered how fashion and beauty brands collaborate with influencers to craft that perfect blend of style and strategy to bring their products to you?

On October 29, PRSSA Kent brought an opportunity for students to learn about how brands and influencers work together to create promotional content and all the behind the scenes work that goes into building successful brand alliances.

Panel Introduction: Leaders in Fashion, Marketing and Influential Strategy 
The panel featured Aimon Ali, a fashion entrepreneur, Fashion Runway Show producer and influencer, Lauren Oglesby, an email and mobile digital marketing coordinator at American Eagles Outfitters and Kelly Gentile, vice president at Influential. The panelists provided valuable insights from their personal experiences on the essential elements of building brand partnerships.

Changing Metrics in Brand Partnerships: What New Influencers Need to Know 
Gentile talked about what a brand looks for in influencers. She mentioned a new metric that brands have started to focus on which is the view-through rates. She ensured students that a large following is not required to get brand collaborations and brands have now started to focus on micro-influencers. This means to get brand collaborations, students don’t need tens of thousands of followers.

The Role of Influencers in Fashion and Beauty Today
Ali also mentioned why influencers are important in today’s fashion and beauty landscape. It is because they bridge the gap between audiences and brands and by creating relatable content that resonates with the audiences on a personal level. By understanding this, students can better position themselves for collaborations by focusing on authenticity and audience engagement rather than followers count alone.

Skills for Success in Digital Marketing
Oglesby talked about skills required in email and digital marketing. The skills she mentioned was that it is important to be detail-oriented and aware of what’s going on around the world. The knowledge of these skills are important to students because they help them to form connections with audiences while laying the groundwork of future success in the industry. 

“Tanner, (the VP of professional relations for PRSSA Kent), did such an amazing job putting together this meeting” PRSSA Kent member Chania Crawford said. “The guest speakers were so insightful and gave amazing insights into their respective industries that I know will really help our students break their way into the fashion PR space. Students who couldn’t attend the event could connect with the speakers on LinkedIn to reach out to them for any questions they may have.” 

This event was a huge success and all the attendees were active in asking questions. PRSSA Kent thanks the guest speakers Aimon Ali, Kelly Gentile and Lauren Oglesby for coming and sharing their wisdom.