The Evolution of Influencer Marketing: Performance-Based Approaches Using the Fabletics Use case

In the dynamic world of influencer marketing, marketers and advertisers are constantly faced with new challenges. In order to operate successfully in this environment, it is no longer enough to simply rely on reach and visibility. Instead, the focus is increasingly shifting to measurable results and a performance-oriented strategy. A prime example of this is Fabletics, a leading global innovator in the lifestyle sports segment. At this year's TactixX conference, Petra Semle, VP Client Development at CJ, showed how Fabletics integrates performance-based approaches into their overall strategy. Here is an exclusive recap of the most important insights from her lecture.

The Fabletics Journey
Fabletics was founded in 2013 in El Segundo, California, and expanded to Europe just one year later. Today, the company is active in nine European markets and posted impressive sales of over $700 million in 2023. Fabletics' collections are available online in the United States, Canada, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, and the Netherlands. More than 95 state-of-the-art retail stores worldwide invite you to experience the brand in person. In Germany, Fabletics is also available at leading online shops such as OTTO, Westwing and Goertz.

One of the central growth pillars in Fabletics' marketing mix is influencer marketing. As early as 2015, the company started its first collaborations with influencers, which led to the emergence of the Instagram community under the hashtag #TeamFabletics. With over 35,000 posts, this is an essential part of brand communication.
Since the end of 2023, Fabletics has also been focusing on affiliate marketing, initially focusing on classic publishers and the influencer platform LTK. But what are the current challenges that companies and other brands have to face in influencer marketing?

The challenges of modern influencer marketing
Today's content creator landscape is more fragmented and complex than ever before. It's difficult for marketers to stay on top of things and gain holistic insights into their campaigns. This is mainly due to the fact that different tools and reporting platforms are used and different teams within a company often work in isolation. PR and branding departments are guided by different success metrics than sales-oriented sales, which can lead to internal tensions or conflicting goals. In addition, many companies lack the necessary internal prerequisites to use existing data intelligently and link it to performance marketing.

Comprehensive insights through the connection of affiliate and influencer data
Fabletics has partnered with CJ to bring together all data from affiliate and influencer campaigns into a holistic campaign analysis. Classic affiliate KPIs such as clicks, leads, conversion rate and ROAS are combined with typical influencer data such as views, reach, engagement and brand lift in one platform. In addition, CJ offers other analysis options such as customer journey and competitive benchmarking. This comprehensive view of performance allows the value of individual influencers and campaigns to be better managed and optimised.
Fabletics pays special attention to the use of influencers to increase lower-funnel metrics such as sales. After all, only through insights into the entire funnel can companies remain competitive in the long term. Fabletics sees itself as a pioneer in this area and strives to unite the worlds of branding and performance marketing. According to a study by Matter, 61% of consumers trust an influencer's recommendations, and 40% have already made a purchase based on such a recommendation, according to Social Shepherd. This clearly shows the potential of influencer marketing.

The complexity of the content creator ecosystem
Today's content creator landscape, as mentioned earlier, is very complex. Fabletics has therefore developed different strategies for the different influencer tiers. Nano-influencers are covered exclusively organically, while micro-influencers receive free outfits as compensation from the so-called "Gifting Team". Micro and mid-tier influencers run through the affiliate channel, with the end-to-end solution CJ Influence providing a dedicated team of experts to handle evaluation, integration, and optimisation. Macro and media influencers, on the other hand, are looked after by the PR team, with the focus here on large and expensive campaigns with celebrities.

Best Practices: Khloé Kardashian and LTK
An outstanding example of a successful collaboration with a celebrity influencer is Fabletics' partnership with Khloé Kardashian. With over 308 million followers on Instagram, she has an enormous global reach. Through targeted PR events, such as in New York City, Fabletics achieved a massive media response with over 500 placements and 3.6 billion media impressions. In addition, campaigns were integrated into the reality TV series "Keeping up with the Kardashians", which led to an even greater reach.
Another best practice example from the affiliate channel is the cooperation with the influencer platform LTK. Under the motto "From Pray to Pay", Fabletics is working on the realisation of hybrid models for activating the lower funnel. Influencers are motivated to create additional content beyond the original fixed remuneration, which can lead to further earnings. To mark the launch of this partnership, an LTK gala took place in London, to which over 600 influencers were invited. The result: a 31% increase in organic posts on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok and a 30% increase in click-triggering influencers.

The future of influencer marketing at Fabletics
Fabletics sees the future of influencer marketing clearly in the area of performance. The company plans to offer an additional monetisation option for all content creator tiers and run tests with CPA-based promotions. New regions and markets are to be established risk-free, as influencer campaigns are currently only active in four markets. The hybrid model of fixed and performance is also being tested, creating additional upside opportunities for top publishers. With the support of CJ Influence, Fabletics aims to gradually implement fully managed campaigns with a holistic overview.

4 tips for achieving goals in e-commerce

At the end of her presentation, Petra Semle shared four valuable insider tips on how to best achieve goals in e-commerce with influencer campaigns:

• Implement a test and learn strategy to identify and optimise high-performing partnerships over time.
• Incorporate flexible compensation models into every campaign strategy to increase reach, traffic, and sales performance.
• Tracking the customer journey is a must in influencer marketing. Optimise organic performance with ad formats that convert well in customer journey reporting.
• Use clickless tracking codes and time-limited CTAs to gain comprehensive conversion insights. Create an urgency so that the customer takes action.

The concluding Q&A session focused on the feasibility of hybrid models, as so far only a few influencers are willing to work on a performance basis. However, Petra Semle sees this as a great opportunity, as successful content creators could not only hedge their risk through a hybrid model, but even earn more money.

Stay tuned for more exciting insights from Fabletics and CJ!

"At Fabletics, we see ourselves as pioneers. We see the need to combine influencer marketing with performance marketing and to implement a holistic approach. That's why we decided to work with CJ."  Daniel Klarkowski, New Business Europe, Techstyle Fashion Group