Colby Wood [00:00:00]: Influencers really know their audience best. Gone are the days that you're submitting a brief that is super scripted and telling, or dictating to an influencer what they should be posting about. It should be so much more collaborative.
Paul Archer [00:00:24]: Have you ever wondered why some brands grow exponentially, building legions of passionate fans that live and die by their logos and some, well, don't? I do, all the time, and that's probably because I'm a massive brand nerd. But I believe there's a secret sauce at the core of every remarkable brand. A formula that sparks the growth of passionate communities, of superfans, building a business and a reputation that will last for years to come. In this podcast, we tap into the greatest marketing minds in the world as they share the exact tactics and strategies used to build the world's greatest brands. Dropping actionable insights every brand builder can apply. My name is Paul Archer and I'm a specialist in brand advocacy and word of mouth. Having consulted for hundreds of brands on a topic, co hosting with me is the wonderful Verity herd, expert on the bleeding edge of social media. It's time to learn and build brand advocacy.
Verity Hurd [00:01:19]: Welcome to another episode of building brand advocacy. Today's episode, I am joined by the lovely Colby Wood, who is currently the global social content and community manager at Grown Alchemist. Welcome, Colby.
Colby Wood [00:01:33]: Thank you so much for having me. My title's a bit of a mouthful, isn't it?
Verity Hurd [00:01:37]: It was, yeah. I mean, I've said it about four times prior to coming on air, but, you know, it's still nearly got me. Do you want to just give us a bit of an intro and, like, you know, tell us, like, how you got to being a Grown Alchemist with such a big job title.
Colby Wood [00:01:51]: If I go right back to the very beginning, I went to university in Brighton and studied media studies and I actually had one seminar where somebody came in and did a talk on PR. It was literally an hour slot and I knew immediately after that seminar that that was the industry that I wanted to go into. So, pr, marketing, social media. I then applied to a ton of grad schemes whilst I was at university and ended up landing one at L'Oreal in UK and Ireland, which was super exciting. And the first couple of brands that I worked on within the luxury division at L'Oreal was Longcom Clarisonic on the brand, so they were joined together. I did a year long internship at L'Oreal on Noncom, which was super exciting, especially for so early on in my career. I got to work on Bafta, which was pretty exciting and also just really got a taster for working within a huge global brand. Longcom is also skincare, makeup and fragrance as well.
Colby Wood [00:03:01]: So I got a bit of a taster of lots of different industries within beauty as well, and then moved across from Longcom to a brand called it cosmetics that was very recently acquired by the L'Oreal Group. So it was, the UK was the first market outside of the US that it had ever launched in, and it was also the first market that it launched in post L'Oreal acquisition, which was really interesting because it meant that there was a bit of a scrappy startup element to it. It definitely wasn't a startup by any means. It was like ten years established in the US for cosmetics, but in the UK it was an unknown brand. So we were really kind of starting from scratch. It was, you know, the approach that they took to the business at the time was very fast paced, very agile because they had obviously built this incredible brand within that role. I was digital engagement assistant manager on it cosmetics. I was originally brought on to do the social media and then also support the pr team, but there were only five of us on the entire brand at this point, so it was very small.
Colby Wood [00:04:15]: But obviously you have a lot of the security from the L'Oreal group itself. So there's centralized digital teams, legal teams, scientific teams, etcetera, that obviously provide a lot of support. But what it meant, because we were such a lean team, is actually everybody wore so many different hats and you could get involved in so many different parts of the business. So I actually ended up doing the digital marketing on the brand as well as pr and social. So working with our retailers, designing our online brand presence, creating content that then lived across our D two C and our retailers as well. We replatformed the website, we did the CRM program. So many different things fell within my remit and I did that for about a year and a half of juggling everything. And as the team grew, it was then time for me to sort of find my niche and figure out what I wanted to go into further on into my career.
Colby Wood [00:05:14]: And so this was really when L'Oreal started to introduce more digital marketing specific roles. So prior to that, it was one marketeer per brand or a few marketeers per brand, and they would do everything, so they'd do digital, like online, offline. It was an omnichannel marketing role. And so there was a brand new role introduced to the L'Oreal group called digital activation, and they ended up moving into that role specifically on it. Cosmetics originally, and I did that for about another eight months and really focused on honing my skills across CRM and digital marketing in general, paid media, and then got promoted and actually moved back to Longcom. So kind of went full circle and then was senior digital activation manager on Longcom, where I then got to spearhead beauty tech within the brand, which was really exciting. So we launched diagnostic tools online and in store. We did a lot of sort of analysis into virtual beauty advisors and how that would play a part within the website.
Colby Wood [00:06:25]: And it was peak Covid time, so it was super, super important to have some sort of beauty advisor that we could connect to our customers in our community with. And then I also launched the first Lancome community at Longcom as well. So it was a really exciting time. And I then got to a bit of a pivotal moment where I was planning to move to Paris for the L'Oreal headquarters and then in the meantime, was approached by a previous colleague that I had worked with at L'Oreal. She's an incredible comms director and she had started a brand with an influencer and makeup artist, Jamie Genevieve. And the brand is called Veve. And so that was too good of an opportunity for me to sort of turn down. It was really to work with the team on establishing their social and community strategy.
Colby Wood [00:07:20]: So I then left L'Oreal and moved across to vivre and worked on some really exciting projects with the team there. Was there for just over a year. And then fast forward to where I am now. I'm now at the incredible brand, Grown Alchemists. So something that was super important to me was to have global experience within my career and Grown Alchemists. Our primary audience are us based. We are a global brand. We're available in Asia, UK, Europe, like really properly international.
Colby Wood [00:07:52]: With Grown Alchemists. Yeah, I moved across to now sit within the global social content and community, which is such a mouthful. And I. Every time I say it, I really have to think about what my title is. It's a really exciting brand. For those that don't know, maybe it's a biological beauty brand. So we do skincare, body care and hair care as well, and it's really focused on health, function and beauty. So we really believe that wellness is holistic and we not only look at how our advanced plant ingredients and scientific technology can work together, but also how you can manage your lifestyle more holistically.
Colby Wood [00:08:34]: So we do treatments, we focus on wellness a little bit more generally.
Verity Hurd [00:08:40]: Amazing. That is incredible. I mean, in such a short space of time as well. Like, it's such incredible experience. So. Yeah. And you're obviously beauty girl.
Colby Wood [00:08:49]: I am. I know. I did have a small blip where I. When I was still at university, I did a little fashion internship, but very quickly realized, not for me.
Verity Hurd [00:08:59]: It's so funny that I think either you're the fashion girly or the beauty girly.
Colby Wood [00:09:02]: Yeah, it's so true once you're in.
Verity Hurd [00:09:04]: That industry, but it's great. I mean, obviously you wanted to niche down as well, but now you're in this global role. I wanted to dig into the us focus piece because I know that's a focus area for you guys, isn't it? And last time I saw you, Colby, we chatted about how you guys were going to break into the us market. And you were there last week.
Colby Wood [00:09:23]: I was indeed.
Verity Hurd [00:09:24]: I was following your stories for UK based marketeers, trying to do the same thing. Biggest lessons that you learn or are learning about cultivating this community in the US.
Colby Wood [00:09:37]: One thing that we very quickly established. So to give a bit of context on Grown Alchemists, the headquarters were previously based in New York and we were acquired by the Loxitan Group and then ended up having our headquarters based in the UK. We're now an independent business again with private ownership. And as part of that transition, we realized that we needed a centralized global team that could work across all markets to make sure that we had holistic communications and a really elevated and streamlined approach to all of our business. So if I speak to the event that we did quite recently, the summer skin studio, which was super exciting, a really impactful moment for the brand in the US, and a beautiful New York rooftop, which was amazing, a us perspective. So something that's really important is making sure that you have key contacts in the US that can support you. So we have an incredible pr agency that we work with that's global. So bucks and Buell, we work with them not only in the UK, also in the US, but they help us really streamline across all markets.
Colby Wood [00:10:52]: We have a contact on the ground there that helps us facilitate these type of events, these contacts, making introductions. Networking is so key and I really believe that from across the board. So for me, it was reaching out to previous contacts with L'Oreal. Being a global company, it's always good to pick up the phone with people that you then used to connect with in the US to see what's working for them. Are there any particular learnings that you can take? Also working with talent agents as well? So a big thing that we're trying to establish at the moment is growing our brand awareness and raising our profile within the US. And who better to speak to than the people that are managing all of the talent that we want to connect with. So again, just taking learnings and insights, it's really helpful because it helped me find the lay of the land and figure out what the priorities needed to be in order for us to accelerate. And then I also, I have a team member there, so Marie Louise on my team is our us influencer manager.
Colby Wood [00:12:00]: So I've been with Grown Alchemist for six months. And a couple of months in, we quickly realized that we definitely needed somebody on the ground within the US to support with nurturing those relationships. Once you had initially established them, you can't sort of. It's very challenging to do from the UK. So having her based in the US is really helpful because it means that she can get out and meet people and continually have those conversations in the US as well.
Verity Hurd [00:12:28]: Yeah, I think that's really important to have someone on the ground over there. You need those people there and again, that can go out and build those relationships and do all of that stuff. So maybe more like a personal note, what would be like, one piece of advice to other UK based marketeers trying to do the same thing, I would.
Colby Wood [00:12:47]: Say really maximize your time when you're on these trips. So I did when you're visiting the US. So that number one is first, like, very important, make sure that you actually get out there and go to the market that you're trying to crack into and meet as many people within your community as you possibly can. There's really nothing like meeting those people in real life and hearing that firsthand feedback on, you know, what they're interested in and what they want to do as part of an event, or where are they shopping and where are they living and what's their sort of like, day to day within the particular environment. So that's sort of number one. But then also when you are then in that particular market, really make sure that you're maximizing your time as well. So if I go back to the recent trip that I did, I was there for a week, but actually we did LA and New York, we did a huge influencer networking event in LA with over 300 influencers that was multiple brands. So connecting not only with brands in that particular sphere, but also introducing the brand to all of those influences.
Colby Wood [00:13:58]: We did content production because it's so crucial from a social point of view. We managed the accounts in the UK, but it needs to feel relevant and native to that audience. So then we went out and captured lots of content within LA and in New York as well. And then we also, with the event that we hosted, it was actually a full day of events. And we did, in the morning we had press come in and media come in and we did one to ones that were a little bit more detailed on the brand and the story and really focused on capturing and resulting in coverage for the brand. Then we also, midway through the day, we then had all of our business contacts and our corporate contacts come in. So lots of our kind of hotel partners, retail partners that could also come in and experience the brand when we were sort of activating within the city. And then in the evening, we had all of our influencer community join us as well.
Colby Wood [00:14:57]: So super important to maximize your time, and I think it means that you get a lot more out of it. And then we also shot some more content with a dermatologist in New York as well. So again, just making sure that it's really relevant for the audience you're trying to connect with lovely.
Verity Hurd [00:15:16]: And sort of speaking about events. I mean, obviously at building brand advocacy, we know that brand advocacy, these events are a huge part of it because it gives them a talking point, it gives them something to rave about. I am seeing more and more content around influencer events are out, community events are in. First of all, do you agree with that? And obviously you mentioned sort of like influencer community. What's your view in terms of this whole influencer community event space?
Colby Wood [00:15:46]: Yeah, so I think there's room for both. So it really depends on what the objective is that you're trying to achieve. I think if I speak specifically for Grown Alchemists, we're really trying to raise our brand awareness at the moment. And so for us, having a mix of both influencer events and community events is super important for us because influencers is where we're really going to gain the reach and, you know, the big social following and making sure that we're really connecting with those powerhouse influences to make sure that we're kicking off with some momentum that we can then maintain through our smaller, more intimate community events as well. Community events are definitely so important. And I continually have the conversation with so many people on what does community mean? Because I think it means so many different things to so many different people. It can mean your consumers. It can mean your smaller, more intimate influencer community.
Colby Wood [00:16:49]: It could mean your super engaged followers on social media. It could mean your social media following in general, it can really take on so many different forms. And so I think it's up to each brand to really define what community means for them and for Grown Alchemist, it is definitely a mixture of both. We're sort of in a bit of a pivotal stage at the moment where we're resetting the brand and we're refocusing. You'll see we're having a bit of a rebrand, essentially, and so we're almost redefining who that community is at the same time as well. So speaking to those people is so important, which is why we like to have a mix of both influencers, consumers, and really active and engaged community members attend these type of events. So I definitely think it's important to have a mix. But I would also say, you know, almost the number one most important thing is to make sure that the event that you're hosting is really relevant to that community, whether it's influencers or community.
Colby Wood [00:17:52]: So for us, as a brand, we are really focused on wellness. We offer kind of beauty treatments. We also partner with a brand called Reviv, who do vitamin infusion, so we do iv drips as well. As I saw that, I really want.
Verity Hurd [00:18:08]: Wondered what that was so cool.
Colby Wood [00:18:10]: And it's very interesting because it's all about wellness more holistically and beauty inside out and connected to the health, the function and so on. And so bringing that to life, you really need an event because you can't. To talk about that with an influencer is very different to actually having someone join you and sit down and experience that. So, yeah, I think that. I think they're super important.
Verity Hurd [00:18:35]: Yeah. And I liked what you said around your community. It's not always about the people that are spending the most or the people that have got the most amount of followers on social media. Like, the point there is that it could be the people that are your most engaged. Like, they comment on everything, they like everything. They read all your emails and all of that stuff, because they're still the people that will talk about you, but they may not have bought from you yet, which is, I think, the power of brand marketing in 2024, because there are people out there like that. So I think it's great that you're kind of bringing them all together.
Paul Archer [00:19:12]: Hey, it's me again. This podcast is sponsored by Duel, which is my company, actually. Duel is the leading brand advocacy platform used by the top retail consumer brands, including Unilever, Charlotte Tilbury, Elemis Loop, and about 50 more to manage, measure and scale their advocacy member, affiliate creator and brand ambassador operations. The platform offers unparalleled scale for complex brands. By automating nine out of ten of the standard advocacy management activities and allowing them to focus on arming their advocates. With the right tools to tell the brand story and drive social commerce, they can grow faster for less. We only work with 15% or so of the brands we speak to, but we try and add value in many other ways, this podcast being one of them. So if you are a brand that's interested in this, maybe a large consumer retail brand, ideally you're doing 20 $30 million as a minimum and you're pretty advanced on social and you need to know what the next stage is.
Paul Archer [00:20:05]: Then please get in touch. Email me Paul dot tech that is Paul Dot T, e C, h or Google dual doc tech.
Verity Hurd [00:20:19]: How do you envision sort of like the future of influencer marketing in beauty particularly?
Colby Wood [00:20:25]: Yeah, for sure. So influencer marketing I think has evolved so much like definitely throughout my career. It was really when the first time that influencers were really coming around and there was that shift from traditional press attending all of the events to then influencers, for example. I think now it's definitely a lot more data driven and a lot more integrated into total marketing plans. So really making sure that when you're working with particular influencers, for us at grown Alchemist, it's more about long term partnerships. So really making sure it's authentic and we collaborate on a longer term partnership rather than just a one off campaign that we then don't speak to further down the line. So one of our key KPI's that we look into is retention with our influencers as well. Are they still engaged? If they are no longer engaged, what's the reason? And is there any insights that we could take from that, or learnings for future connections that we want to make with influencers alongside that is really making sure that we're activating the influencer campaign throughout the funnel.
Colby Wood [00:21:36]: So it's not just that initial brand awareness moment of working with the talent to reach their audience, but also making sure that actually if that content has performed well, could we potentially use it within the consideration phase and boosting with paid media spend within a particular market? And can we offer a particular discount code or a bundle that we create exclusively for that influencer that then commercializes and really drives conversion as well? So yeah, I think influencer marketing is a lot more integrated in marketing overall now. And I think if you look at it in silo, that's when the results don't necessarily work. It needs to be. You need to be looking at multiple KPI's, not just earned media value, for example.
Verity Hurd [00:22:22]: Yeah, definitely. It's shifted so significantly, even. I don't know, it kind of. We joked about this a few times, but you sometimes go to the bathroom and something's changed. How do you stay on top of it all?
Colby Wood [00:22:34]: Connecting with other influencer managers and marketeers within the industry is definitely helpful. I think what you are doing with brand building is, you know, advocacy. Brand building is super helpful because it means that there is a chance to connect with other industry experts and learn what's worked well for them, what perhaps hasn't worked so well. And sharing those insights is super important. I also think, again, sound like bit of a broken record, but speaking to the people that you're working with as well, influencers really know their audience best. I think gone are the days that you're submitting a brief that is super scripted and telling or dictating to an influencer what they should be posting about. It should be so much more collaborative and there should be an ideation stage that you're then speaking what's worked for the influencer? What do they know performs well? If it's not a discount code, is it actually making sure that we do a bespoke bundle or whatever it might be? So I think really speaking to the talent that you're working with as well is really important. And then also resources.
Colby Wood [00:23:48]: We work with a lot of different agencies and different platforms on growing alchemist. We're a bit of a lean team, small but mighty team, shall we say. But as a result, we work with some really incredible agency partners and retail partners that we can call upon as well to share insights and take learnings. So I always try to, you know, if I'm on the tube, I try to read a weekly newsletter that is about what's changed in social overnight, because, as you say, it changes literally so quickly. So it's just making sure that you're staying up to date with all of those key changes as well. Particularly because I'm not based in the market that we're really focused on at the moment. It's even more important to be reading up on it to see what we need to be doing to stay ahead of the curve.
Verity Hurd [00:24:36]: Yeah, definitely. The two markets are very different and I suppose even just obviously the start of this year with the talk of TikTok being banned in the US, and I suppose that would have a huge impact. I mean, I'm just going to jump to conversation now. I mentioned TikTok in terms of platforms for Grown Alchemists, which ones are you focusing on? And I know that obviously that might be different when you're thinking about the us market to the UK market.
Colby Wood [00:24:59]: Yeah. So, interestingly, we have a global channel for our social media, so even though we are focused on the us market, we still need to make sure that our social media channels are relevant for all markets globally. So we definitely try to have a presence through our content and the influencers that we work with in all markets. But big focus for us at the moment is definitely TikTok. It's been quite a learning curve, actually. I've worked on TikTok in the UK throughout my career, really, from the start of TikTok in general, and I'm quite familiar with it and how it works and how to kind of accelerate. But actually, the US is very different landscape, so that's been a big learning. Exactly for the reasons that you said earlier.
Colby Wood [00:25:49]: In terms of the legalities that happened earlier this year, that was really tricky to navigate because we were investing in growing TikTok specifically within the US. Like, our TikTok shop, for example, is us based. But then there was all of a sudden this question of, is it the right place that we should be knowing that there were these legal challenges happening? So really, the phase that we're in at the moment is still fact finding, I think, with it being such a different market. And what I found is that the US is slightly behind the UK in terms of where the TikTok team are at and what their focus is on. So in the UK, I was very used to hosting creator challenges with the TikTok team specifically and really activating and engaging with our affiliates on a regular basis, whereas that's not happening much in the US at this stage. So we're really trying to. Yeah, fact find and figure out what the best approach is and what's also right for Grown Alchemist as well. And then, yeah, watch this space.
Colby Wood [00:26:53]: We're really, really laser focused on it. We've actually just hired a new person within my team. She's in her second week. She's going to be social content. Well, she is social and content exec and she'll be really focused on TikTok and content production in terms of the.
Verity Hurd [00:27:09]: US TikTok team and you guys, what is the focus, then? Why is it, what's so different to the UK?
Colby Wood [00:27:16]: Yeah, so the types of creators that are really performing well on TikTok shop. So in the UK, we definitely have some powerhouse influencers that we would usually work with that are very familiar with using TikTok shop, whereas in the US, we find that a lot of those powerhouses don't tend to link specifically within TikTok shop as yet. So that customer journey is not quite as omnichannel as it is in the UK. And then it's also the TikTok head office team in the US as well, are sort of the legal challenges that they had earlier this year. They found it quite challenging to move forward with a lot of the acceleration plans that they had. And so it's just a little bit slower than it is in the UK.
Verity Hurd [00:28:06]: Yeah, it's probably the one thing that we are ahead of. Right, in the UK. What are your thoughts on sort of the whole live community commerce piece? I mean, I know that's. We've seen that significantly in the UK with obviously made by Mitchell P. Louise just doing that record breaking 2 million and people going live for, like, 12 hours. Like, is that something that's on the cards for you guys?
Colby Wood [00:28:29]: We are in the midst of exploring it, actually, at the moment. We definitely have a lot of business as usual to progress with on TikTok first before we need to make sure that our page on TikTok is as good as it possibly can be before we're starting to then add in these additional activations. But we definitely see it as a potential channel for us to accelerate further down the line. I think from experience that I've had of doing TikTok live streaming previously, it's a lot more sales focused than perhaps one might think. I think often a lot of marketers go into it thinking that they need an influencer. And I did exactly the same on previous roles. Someone with really high reach. That's going to be super engaging.
Colby Wood [00:29:18]: But actually, if sales is your objective and your KPI, you need somebody that is mentioning that particular product every 30 seconds, because it's a lot more like social selling or tv selling, like QVC, for example.
Verity Hurd [00:29:34]: It's a completely different skill.
Colby Wood [00:29:35]: Completely different skill. It's definitely on the horizon, but not quite yet.
Verity Hurd [00:29:40]: And then you mentioned you had a lean team.
Colby Wood [00:29:43]: Yes.
Verity Hurd [00:29:43]: Obviously with a focus on TikTok. I know that there's brands out there that have the luxury of being able to have someone in their social team that can really niche down in TikTok and then someone who can do Instagram and Pinterest. How does that look like for you and your team? Like, obviously you've got your new girl focusing on TikTok. What does that then mean for content across the other channels.
Colby Wood [00:30:06]: Up until literally two weeks ago, it was just me doing all of our social channels, plus influencer.
Verity Hurd [00:30:16]: That's hefty.
Colby Wood [00:30:17]: Yeah, it was a very big job and to be honest, bit of a challenge in terms of content production, because producing content takes a lot of time and, you know, editing that together, tied into you've then obviously got your community management and making sure you're responding to every single question, comment DM that comes through so important. Probably the most important thing, if you're posting, you know, a few times a week, make sure that you've got your community management sort of on lockdown.
Verity Hurd [00:30:48]: It really baffles me when brands don't have that. Like, that is such a basic now, and it actually winds me up when I see that they're not replying to people online. Like, it's such a fundamental but basic thing.
Colby Wood [00:31:00]: It really is. It really is. So that was one of the first things that we quickly realized on the brand, was that we needed somebody to come in and help with content production. Video content specifically. We have a fair bit of still content that we push across Instagram, but TikTok is obviously a video, a video platform, and that's the channel that we needed to accelerate. So there's definitely a combination of repurposing content when it feels right. We have really clear objectives between all of our social channels. So at the moment, we're really focused on Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn as well.
Colby Wood [00:31:40]: So making sure that for TikTok, it's entertaining content, so it needs to, but have that fun element to it. And we've got lots of kind of creative ideas that are in the works. Now that we do have Jess, our new social and content exec within the team, and then for Instagram, it's more about the brand aesthetic and making sure that we're connecting with our community and spotlighting those key moments like our recent event trip. And then for LinkedIn, it's more focused on business updates and objectives. And all of the really exciting distribution expansion that we're doing at the moment is also super important. Making sure you have really clear objectives per social channel and then also really don't underestimate the time it takes to produce good content and make sure that it is relevant for your audience as well. So that is why we brought on Jess within the team, and that also spans across outside of social as well. So when we are producing content, we don't just think about it in silo.
Colby Wood [00:32:43]: For social media, it's, can we then use that content on the website. Can we use it in an email? Can we use it in a blog article? Can we potentially offer it exclusively to our retailers as well? So it's then everything we do. We really make sure we're maximizing and amplifying as much as possible.
Verity Hurd [00:33:01]: How would you sort of describe top line your content strategy across all of that?
Colby Wood [00:33:07]: We really focus on product integration, not product focus within our content. So it's a lot more about the lifestyle and who the Grown Alchemist customer is and what they're interested in. Because we're quite fortunate that on the brand, I say quite fortunate, it's a strategic decision, is that the people that are on Grown Alchemist are Grown Alchemist consumers. They are people who we would be targeting when we're going out with that content. So it's making sure that we're all content producers ourselves. So if. If somebody's using Grown Alchemist in their bathroom, it's very authentic. So let's capture it and repurpose that across social media, but also making sure that we're not too product focused.
Colby Wood [00:33:54]: We're product focused in a way that suits lifestyles and is very authentic. So you'll see on our social page, there's a lot of Pilates classes are included. That's an exercise or fitness class that we know that our consumer really loves. Or we just partnered with Equinox as well in the US. So again, it's, yeah, super exciting. But also making sure that, you know, they have a presence across our social media as well that's really relevant to our audience. And then I guess going right back to the beginning when I mentioned making sure that you're capturing content in the markets that you're. You're wanting to accelerate in is also very important.
Verity Hurd [00:34:36]: Amazing. I'm going to end on one last question. We know the beauty space is competitive. What would be your one piece advice for beauty brand marketers looking to really stand out and earn those brand advocates in this space?
Colby Wood [00:34:50]: Something that's really worked well for us is investing in powerhouse influencers to really kind of go out with a bang, so to speak. So in the US, we partnered recently with an amazing influencer called Glamzilla. By collaborating with her and producing the partnership, it worked really well from a brand point of view, and performed well, you know, within so many different KPI's. But also what it did is showed to the industry and other influencers that we were serious about working with influencers and putting them at the forefront of the brand. And so as a result of you know, and that's just one example of quite a few different partnerships we've done. We did one with Hayley Khalil, Hayley Bailey, who's huge on TikTok as well. But by showing up and collaborating with those powerhouse influencers, it really puts you on the map. And what we're now finding is a lot of those influencers are now coming to us, rather than us going to those influencers, which is really a lovely kind of place to be.
Colby Wood [00:35:55]: And we really see the value in these partnerships and know how important they are. So, yeah, that would be my piece of advice is don't underestimate powerhouse influencers.
Verity Hurd [00:36:05]: Yeah, I'm going off piece a little bit. I keep seeing those LinkedIn posts where it's like, I paid this influencer this amount of money, and I'm sure it is a bit clickbaity because there is still a place for everybody, and obviously it's working. And I think it's really important that you just have that full funnel approach.
Colby Wood [00:36:22]:To it and definitely having the mix as well. I think the most important thing there is just really nailing down your KPI's. Like, what are you trying to achieve? Is it brand awareness? And therefore making sure that what that partnership looks like with that influencer is really focused on brand awareness as your primary KPI. And then, of course, you can. If it's a successful campaign and you've got that long term partnership, it's then taking it throughout the funnel and you've now engaged that audience member. How can you continue the rest of the journey with them as well?
Verity Hurd [00:36:57]: Colby, this has been amazing. Thank you so much. I loved getting into the skin of what you guys do at Grown Alchemist. If anyone wanted to find you, where will they get you?
Colby Wood [00:37:07]: Thank you so much. I've really loved being here, so thank you for having me. You could definitely find me on LinkedIn, and then my instagram is just my name, Colbywood. But also, please do reach out to us on Grown Alchemists social channels as well. Again, Grown Alchemists. And yeah, look forward to connecting with everyone. I'm always happy to network and hear about what exciting things other people are working on, too. So we'd love to connect.
Verity Hurd [00:37:33]: That's the secret, I think.
Colby Wood [00:37:34]: Yes, agree. Thanks so much.
Verity Hurd [00:37:36]: Thank you.
Paul Archer [00:37:38]: That was another episode of building brand advocacy, the world's top brand building podcast. To find out more about building brand advocacy and how this podcast is part of a bigger plan for our brand building cookbook, then make sure to search for building brand advocacy in Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or anywhere else that podcasts are fine. And make sure that you click subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. Thanks to dual for sponsoring. To find out more, go to WW dot dual dot tech. That's Dash t Dash and on behalf of the team here at building brand advocacy, thanks for listening.
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