How River Island cut through the high street noise with an always-on, inclusive influencer marketing campaign

High street fashion retailer River Island is no stranger to influencer marketing. Much like other fashion brands, over the years, the brand has been quick to adopt social media marketing, harnessing the influence of models and those who have garnered significant audiences in the social sphere for campaigns to help amplify its brand message.

“Social media and influencer marketing lends itself so naturally to brands like River Island,” says Katie Calderwood, account manager at ITB Worldwide. “Influencers love to post pictures or videos of their latest outfits, gifts or purchases, so it feels like a true organic journey.”

So, when River Island tasked ITB Worldwide to devise new and innovative pathways to bring River Island to life, while ensuring the brand was an active and relevant part of the fashion conversation, influencer marketing was the obvious choice. But to shift the dial of brand perception and its position in the market, River Island needed to partner with creators who would not just fit the brand values but could bring the craft of storytelling to their work.

Through an always on influencer approach, a core focus for the 2021/22 campaign was to partner with influencers to continuously provide advocacy and showcase its products in the best possible way, while creating excitement and aspiration around the products, driving style credibility and ultimately shifting brand perception.

Making content accessible and inclusive for key audiences

Collaborating closely with River Island, ITB Worldwide crafted a series of bespoke activations to drive customers to specific product ranges on the site (dresses, outwear, RI Studio) around seasons and tentpole moments like Black Friday and New Year.

Content for each of the activations was carefully curated and executed predominately on Instagram which provided the accessibility to River Island’s core target audience (ages 24-44) through a mix of still/carousel posts, Reels and Stories.

Influencers who were at the core of culture and community, as well as more traditional fashion/style focused creators, were selected to support diverse and inclusive profiles.

They produced a series of engaging content that sparked interest from their audiences and highlighted the high quality and variety of products within the different ranges.

“When choosing which influencers and creators to work with, it was very much dependent on the individual brief to determine who we felt could best transform and relay the messaging in their content,” explains ITB’s Calderwood. “We had to bring in people who

could showcase the different product ranges in a unique way, that felt natural to them.

“This was absolutely key to this campaign – to be on the pulse of cultural conversation, to find the people who are different, who have unique stories to tell, that match the brand values and showcase diversity and inclusivity in many different ways.”

An always-on approach to embrace seasonal moments

Across a nine-month period, ITB Worldwide successfully executed 15 campaigns for River Island, working with a total of 46 influencers and generating 230 pieces of content. To date, the campaigns have organically achieved a total cumulative reach of 2M+ and 2.2M+ total impressions.

Crafted in Denim kicked off River Island’s 2022 activity, embracing the notion that there is a style to fit and suit everyone. It championed those pioneering the new; entrepreneurs and those who have turned a hobby into a career. The creative concept focused on working with a blend of style, culture and community creative experts in fields such as interior design, choreography, illustrative design and fashion styling – each covering a different jean type and a narrative aligned with their passion. This included influencers Sherrie Silver, Emily Wells, Whinnie Williams and Yharnna Dior Joseph.

The 2022 breakout campaign encapsulated expression and individuality. The four influencers generated 16 content pieces across Instagram (still/Reels/Stories) with an overall reach of 182K generating 250K impressions and 49K total engagements. Emily Wells alone generated over 50K views on her Reel (28% engagement rate) and unique reach of 54K as well as over 1K clicks to her chosen denim pieces on River Island’s website.

Conversations with Friends celebrated bringing people together through the love of food and reconnecting with old, new and soon-to-be friends. The content series allowed audiences to feel like they were joining the creators at the table. By working with Being Her, the agency was able to successfully include the hearing-impaired community into these conversations around friendship and family, with influencer twins Hermon and Heroda using sign language (with subtitles) conversing with their brother, capturing a beautiful, authentic moment that audiences could be part of.

The reel alone generated 67K impressions, with the whole activation generating 119K+ unique reach, 142K+ impressions and 4.2K engagements.

Looks Are Served focused on summer looks and summer recipes combining new fashion, friends and food. Style conscious food bloggers were tasked with conjuring together a series of mouth-watering, inspiring, colourful and delicious themed recipes for River Island’s social channels and to support their blog posts.

The approach was to showcase the clothes in everyday situations, inspired by summer festivities, giving the influencers the creative freedom to curate recipes that were authentic to them. This activation garnered 62.7K total cumulative reach, 75.9K+ total impressions and a 20.2% engagement rate for the brand.

Through the power of influencers, it was clear to see how high-quality content and carefully curated narratives could bring the brand to life through an always-on campaign that embraced storytelling, diversity and inclusivity. The campaign didn’t just reignite love for both the brand and products, but it allowed River Island to reach a new younger audience base, regain brand trust and reaffirm the high street retailer’s position in the market.

The case study is also available to view here on LBB Online.