Whink Creative Agency’s 6 C’s of Successful Sponsorships

Whink Creative Agency is a new type of agency, acting as an in-house influencer marketing team for brands. As brands grow they often don’t have a full-time staff, or the knowledge required, to successfully (and cost-effectively) implement influencer marketing. This is where Whink steps in, helping brands from all industries navigate and elevate their influencer marketing strategy.

If you’re a brand or if you’re an influencer, you need to have all of these things in your contract: creative, content, channels, cadence, compensation and consideration. Below Whink’s founder, Whitney Cicero, outlines these 6 C’s to implement to create a successful brand sponsorship.

1 – CREATIVE

The first thing you need to think about is the creative aspect. What is the overall theme that you want spoken? Are you humorous? Are you serious? What is your brand? This will be the very first and most important question as you begin to develop content.

Secondly, you want to think about your messaging. What kind of campaign is this going to be? How will you reach your audience?

And the last thing to consider is your call to action. Will you have one, or is this campaign just to gain exposure and promote brand awareness? Will you ask the audience to follow your website? Or is your aim to instead have customers click on or swipe up on a link to purchase your products or services?

2 – CONTENT  

The second C to consider is the content. What kind of content do you want to develop for your platform and your followers? With a multitude of social platforms out there comes many content formats to choose from. Reels, Instagram posts, carousel stories, Instagram Live, IGTV, Facebook posts or stories, TikToks, YouTube videos, live blogs, newsletters and reviews – all of these things are in your toolbox to pull from.

In terms of best practices, don’t hang on too tightly to your brand identity deck, let the influencer speak in their own language to their followers. When choosing content format, it’s important to understand which one is going to be best to both talk to your follower base and one that your influencer is great at creating. I.e. you wouldn’t choose an influencer known for their reels to create a static Instagram post, just as you wouldn’t rely on a YouTube blogger to create a written blog for you.

3 – CHANNELS

Just as we have a dominant eye or side of our bodies, so too do influencers when it comes to social channels. When you’re trying to pick the channel that is best for your brand, take a look at the age demographics.

Facebook continues to lead, having the widest reach across all demographics. So, if your brand is looking for a really wide reach, Facebook is probably going to be your best bet. Instagram starts to get a little more popular with Gen Z, its visual medium being a nice nexus between older and younger demographics.

Twitter, Snapchat and TikTok are really strong across the Gen Z demographic, and also with Gen X. I highly advise brands to look where the kids are spending their time. I’ve been seeing budgets shift from Instagram to Tik Tok, so I advise brands to start including Tik Tok in their influencer strategy and influencers to start or continue creating Tik Tok content.  

4 – CADENCE

Your cadence refers to the contract requirements. How often will your influencer be required to post as part of their sponsorship deal? What exactly will they be required to post? Many in the marketing industry will know that generally people need to see things three times before they act.

So, if you are doing a campaign with an influencer, my recommendation would be to have at least three posts in your contract. That could be one Instagram post and maybe three stories. Also ask them to spread them out a little bit. You also want to make sure that that relationship doesn’t feel like a one off. The products that perform best are when influencers are truly engaged with what a brand has to offer, you want to try and get influencers that would readily buy your product themselves.

There’s a lot of ways you could go to get an influencer, they are influencer platforms and agencies like Whink, however one of the best is to use those that may have commented on your posts or DM’d you in the past. You can reach out to and find any influencer you want, but you’re going to pay a higher price. But if you have access to influencers that have messaged saying they would love to work with you, that is going to save you a little bit of money, and most likely their following makes up your target audience. 

5 – COMPENSATION

And let’s talk about compensation. The number one question we get is how much should I pay my influencers? Influencer rates are based upon three factors; their follower count, niche, and whether they have broad content or they have original content.

For example, you could find a mommy memes account with 800,000 followers but without any original content. Your reach is going to be great, but your engagement might not be that strong. In comparison, let’s say you have a car product brand. You come across a guy really into cars living in Fresno. He’s going to be your guy because he has expert knowledge and his followers are interested in all things cars too.

So, the more niche your influencer, the higher you should expect to pay. They’re allowed to charge a little bit more because they’ve been totally focused on that one singular type of content. Keep that in mind when pricing.

So how much are you expected to pay? Generally, the rule of thumb is as follows;

0-50,000 followers = $500-2,500.

50,000-500,000 followers = $800-7,000

500,000-2,000,000 followers = $1,500-20,000

Also note if they have an agent, expect that the price will be about 20-25% more.

6 – CONSIDERATION  

Consideration comprises aspects outside of compensation. Are you shipping them products? Are you providing a kickback on an affiliate marketing campaign? Are you asking for exclusivity? These are all the things you want to talk about. If you’re an influencer, you need to consider these things too.

Respond to brand requests quickly, and don’t be afraid to negotiate, but don’t be unreasonable. If a brand is asking for exclusivity you may be able to ask for more payment, but be realistic; a brand is not going to pay $7,000 to someone with 20,000 followers, but they may be willing to pay $200-500 more.

So there you have it, the 6 C’s of Successful Sponsorships. With these as your guide, whether brand or influencer, you will be better prepared to navigate your way to creating successful partnerships. To learn more from Whink, you can visit their website here, or follow their Instagram here.