Advocacy is one of the main use cases of influencer marketing and a key objective many brands are looking to achieve on social media; however few have yet actively engaged in building scalable advocacy programs. ASOS is one of them and with its AccessAllASOS program has been leading the way in demonstrating what successful relationship programs in a B2C environment can look like.
Created in 2000, UK based ASOS posted a £800m turnover ($ 1.3bn) in 2013 and an enviable 40% growth vs the previous year. ASOS defines itself as the "global fashion destination for 20-somethings. Selling over 65,000 products, it’s also a forum where fashion lovers can discover trends, gain inspiration, share ideas, and trade with each other".
Whilst ASOS had already achieved a very strong social media presence— namely, on Facebook, G+, and Twitter through a successful blogger relationship program— a key objective for the brand was to activate advocacy among the most active ASOS fans, and significantly grow positive brand engagement online.
The AccessAllASOS program has been designed specifically to meet this objective, as a high-touch relationship program that would provide access to exclusive content and opportunities to selected members.
The fundamental driver of the program and the key to ASOS ‘s vision has been to build authentic advocacy from fans. This means that members of the program do not make any commitment to the brand and nor do they receive any type of compensation for the content they would share to their audience. The challenge for ASOS was to provide valuable and unique enough content to program members so that they would happily and voluntarily share it on their social channels.
Example of Instagram Content Created by #AccessAllASOS members:
The scope of the initial pilot included the selection of more than 700 individuals among 3000 applications, with a view to build up at scale to around 3 to 5000 members per country. Using the right technology has been fundamental for ASOS to be able to select and manage personalized relationships at scale, measure the impact of the program to justify ROI, and using Traackr was a key success factor of the program.
"Using Traackr meant easy discovery of our biggest fans and influencers, and the information to personalise our conversations with all of them. As a 'customer-obsessed' marketing team, that was hugely valuable to us." Said Hannah Craik, Social Media Head, ASOS.com
With 7,500 pieces of content created over 3 months, increased spontaneous mentions of the ASOS brand by 600% and a target of referral traffic generated exceeded by 26%, the program has been a huge success.
Lessons for brands are clear :
- Move from a short term campaign focus to longer term programmes
- Build personalised relationships with the people who matter most to you
- Create genuine trust and advocacy vs. paid exposure
- Need for strong cross platform, people-centric analytics and management platform
Contact our sales team if you want to understand how to build successful advocacy plans using Traackr