Report draws from seven different influencer programs to show insights from across the running and fitness industry
Portland, OR – BibRave, the leading-edge endurance and fitness marketing agency, recently released an Influencer Insights Report to showcase what makes the best influencer and ambassador programs work. Drawing on anonymous polling data from endemic and emerging brand and event influencer programs, the report highlights key drivers of ROI like retention, engagement, demographic breakdown, and passive vs. actively managed influencer programs.
Two key takeaways emerged from the report: first was that ROI and every important metric increased dramatically when an influencer program was actively managed by an experienced, dedicated Community Manager (CM) – even when accounting for the cost of that person or agency’s time and services.
While it might seem obvious that having more resources dedicated to a service improves production, many influencer programs are NOT actively managed. Instead, many function passively and with little accountability, where a brand or a race sends free product or comped entries to individuals and then hopes for the right kind of promotion and impact. Active community management is a huge opportunity to improve ROI on an ambassador or influencer program.
The second key takeaway was that turnover in influencer programs is very high. Much like the racing industry, which regularly faces year-over-year attrition rates of 60%, more than two-thirds of respondents polled only stay in an influencer or ambassador program for one or two years.
That means brand and race ambassador/influencer programs routinely lose institutional and product-level knowledge as members drop off, dramatically reducing the impact a given program can have. Such a retention challenge is yet another reason that active community management – with a CM driving conversation, hype, engagement, excitement, and membership interaction – is so important.
“BibRave occupies an interesting space in the running industry, working deeply with consumers, influencers, races, and endurance-related brands,” said Andy Wallace, Vice President of Programs and Partnerships and White Label Ambassador Community Management lead. “So we were very excited to compile and share data from multiple influencer/ambassador programs that BibRave manages and has seen be successful. Hopefully some of the lessons shared in this report will help uplevel how we all leverage influencer/ambassador programs.
BibRave’s Influencer Insights Report is available for download here.
About BibRave
BibRave is a marketing agency that specializes in fitness and endurance sports. With 8+ years’ experience building and managing ambassador communities for large and small companies, BibRave brings a team of social media, creative, and online community-focussed experts.
The company also develops creative event and in-person activations, managing ideation, project management, procurement, execution, and inter-agency coordination as needed.
Lastly, BibRave has its own large network of social media influencers called the BibRave Ambassadors, which it leverages to drive more race registrations and product sales for the company’s event and brand partners.
BibRave launched in 2013 and is headquartered in Portland, Oregon.
