On the second Black Pound Day, Black-owned brands like Vitae London, WMNS WEAR, UOMA Beauty, Nubian Skin, and Kai Collective saw significant engagement growth by collaborating with influencers who embody their values of diversity and inclusion. These successful partnerships highlight the power of authentic influencer marketing in driving brand engagement.
Published On: August 5, 2020
Last week marks the second Black Pound day, an ongoing campaign to support the growth of black-owned brands in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement. Since its inception, Black-owned businesses have seen an uptake in sales but the brands making the biggest waves are those who have actively engaged their online audiences.
We’ve picked 5 black-owned brands who’ve maximised their engagement with winning influencer marketing tactics this summer from May-June and show you how you can achieve similar results!
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Founded in 2015 by fashion designer and influencer William Adaosi (@williamadoasi) Vitae London is a UK based watch brand. They experienced spikes in Engagements at the end of May and June which correlate to their collaboration with local nano-influencers. A post that showed exceptional performance was from nano-lifestyle influencer Seni Saka (@lateefsaka). His post featuring Vitae had a 16% Engagement Rate (ER), that’s nearly 5x higher than the average ER for UK Fashion content on Instagram and 1.2x higher than Saka’s average ER.
Read more: ‘Is this good?’ Your Definitive Guide to Engagement Rates
Launched last year, WMNS WEAR is a UK fashion brand, providing exclusive styles for the modern-day woman. The brand saw a dramatic increase in engagement from May-June.
The tactics? Collaborating with established Black British female influencers like (@wumnibello) and Mariam Musa (@itsmariammusa) to further highlight the way their brand celebrates diversity and inclusion. Musa recently made waves becoming the first Black influencer to collaborate with isawitfirst. The current socio-political climate means that online audiences are currently rallying around influencers who are breaking down barriers. Wearisma’s analytics tool revealed that both Musa and Bello achieved impressive Engagement Rates for WMNS WEAR, 6 and 13% respectively, nearly double both influencer’s averages.
UOMA Beauty saw their Engagement spike in June with the number increasing MoM by 495%. This jump coincides with the #pulluporshutup campaign launched by UOMA CEO Sharon Chuter which called for brands to reveal their diversity statistics to address issues of inequality within the workforce. The campaign resonated with influencers, causing many such as Mi-Anne Chan (@mianne.chan) to create high-performing organic content featuring UOMA Beauty.
USA based influencer Mi-Anne’s content was responsible for the brand’s highest spike in ER. The post which showed a make-up tutorial received a stunning ER of 31%, more than 3x her already impressive average of 9%. Why did it do so well? The make-up tutorial post showed inclusivity and support for black-owned brands by using only products produced by them. Clearly this tapped into her audience who appreciated this act of support.
Founded in 2003, Nubian Skin is a lingerie and hosiery brand. Wearisma’s analytics tool reveals the brand has experienced a significant jump in Engagements from May-June. This increase came from the support of black influencers promoting black-owned brands in their posts which highlights the importance of cultivating a strong online community. Special attention should be paid to Italian fashion influencer Abyssinia’s (@iamabyssinia) supportive contribution. Her post’s ER rate of nearly 32% is more than 6x her average showing that audiences, in general, are enjoying content showing support for Black-owned businesses.
Newly established fashion brand Kai Collective has seen their Engagements leap by 2.3k%. Macro influencer Kiitana (@kiitana) was particularly effective, creating a piece of content that contributed to a spike at the beginning of June. The US influencer drew an ER of over 8% from her 800K followers, 1.3x her average of 6%. This is particularly impressive when we looked at data from our mega or micro-influencers insight which shows it was 3x the 2.4% average for US influencers of her size.
What did these brands have in common that saw their performance skyrocket? They all collaborated with influencers that represent and support their core values of diversity and inclusion.
Keep informed with the latest trends, reports, and case studies from the world of influencer marketing.
Both influencer marketing and traditional advertising can achieve broad reach and foster trust—yet they do so with different strengths and challenges. Influencer marketing builds trust through personal, authentic endorsements that resonate with targeted audiences, often leading to higher engagement and a sense of community. Traditional advertising, on the other hand, leverages the credibility of established platforms and can quickly raise brand awareness across a wide audience.
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WeArisma is a specialist in precision earned media and influencer marketing trusted by leading brands and agencies globally. We leverage cutting-edge AI and unparalleled global data and insights to predict creative strategies that drive brand influence, grow communities, and optimize business results—removing guesswork, reducing risk, and ultimately driving real business growth.
