Decoding Top-performing
Influencer Marketing Strategies
2020 State of Influence:
FASHION

Introduction
Fashion is constantly changing. And
whatever your stance on social media at
large, you have probably taken notice of
the great power that fashion influencers
wield over brands today. Influencers with
followings of all sizes can make or break
a brand’s launch, effectively call brands
out for poor environmental ethics, and
ultimately drive demand for brands —
or at least for those who know how to
effectively choose, activate and engage
with the right ones.
With social media increasingly becoming the modern shopping mall, it’s critical
to understand how your brand performs when it comes to influencer-generated
content. Which brands are pushing the envelope? Which brands are setting the bar?
And which are experimenting with innovative influencer marketing strategies?
In this report, we dive into the luxury, contemporary, fast fashion, and activewear
categories, specifically looking at the performance of established players versus the
newer crop of direct-to-consumer brands, to lift the veil on influencer marketing in
the fashion world.

Contents
3. Methodology
3. Report Parameters
3. Tier Definitions
5. High-level dynamics
5. VIT Impact by Tiers
7. Tier-Graphics Across Fashion Influencer by Market
10. Brand Rankings by VIT
11. Trends by category
11. Activewear Outperforms
13. Contemporary Struggles
15. Sustainable and ethical fashion is here to stay
17. Fast fashion is still a powerhouse
19. Luxury fashion only for the VIPs?
21. Conclusion
22. Glossary

Methodology
This report was created
using Traackr, a technology
platform which enables
a data-driven approach
to influencer marketing,
through deep influencer,
campaign and market-level
insights.
For the purposes of this study, we analyzed the impact
of influencers located in the United States, United
Kingdom and France across 123 fashion brands. Traackr
works with fashion brands around the world, some
of whom are mentioned in this report. Not all brands
referenced are Traackr customers.
Each brand has been ranked by their overall Brand
Vitality Score (VIT), Traackr’s proprietary content-level
metric which measures the Visibility, Impact and Trust
of influencer posts anytime that they include mentions
of the brands included in this study.
What drives a high VIT score for one brand may not
be the same for another, but pulling back the curtain
on these scores to understand which tiers – and which
individual influencers – are driving each brand’s VIT is
a valuable exercise.
Traackr has thus developed VIT as a fully transparent
key performance indicator (KPI) in order to enable
brands to compare their programs through the lens of
one single metric. The major benefit of a transparent
metric lies in the fact that brands are empowered to
deconstruct not only their own scores, but those of
their competitors, to gain meaningful insights into the
areas where thoughtful changes can effect the most
meaningful results for their programs moving forward.
For more information on VIT, read Brand Vitality Score:
The Standard for Measuring Brand Performance
Among Influencer Content.
3

Report Parameters
Timeline January - November 2019
Brands 123
Countries U.S., U.K., France
Influencers 111,100
Posts 2,032,000
Tier Definitions
For the purposes of this study, we defined influencer
tiers based on total audience size across all platforms
as follows.
VIP 5M+
Top 1M+
Macro 500K+
Mid 50K+
Micro 10K+
Nano 1K+
4

High-level Dynamics
Are influencers creating
trends, or just amplifying
them? From the looks of it,
we’d say the power is in their
hands. Traackr found that
the volume of social media
creators posting fashion-
focused content is more than
double the number of those
posting about beauty.
In 2019, there were more than 100,000 fashion influencers
talking about these 123* (appendix) brands across Instagram,
YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and blogging platforms.
Collectively, they published 2 million posts mentioning just
these 123 brands.
Before diving into trends, let’s take a look at the overarching
market dynamics.
VIT Impact
by Tiers
Based on the three different inputs
for the VIT metric - Visibility (which
draws on the number of followers
to the channel where the content
is posted), Impact (which draws on
the engagements received by the
content), and Trust (the number
of brands mentioned within the
content), it is important to look at
brands’ VIT scores on the basis of
the different tiers of influencers
talking about them in order to
understand the kind of impact that
each particular tier is delivering.
In the U.S., VIP-tier influencers
drive a disproportionate volume
of VIT value for brands across
categories such as contemporary
and luxury, contributing over 50%
of these brands’ total VIT. Many
high VIT earners are young female
celebrities such as Ariana Grande,
Zendaya and of course, Kendall and
Kylie Jenner. Meanwhile, the brands
which make up the activewear
category receive only 35% of
their total VIT value from VIP-tier
influencers; mainly from celebrities,
but also from sports stars such as
Steph Curry and Lebron James. If
we remove VIP influencers from the
equation though, mid and macro-
tier influencers are driving the most
VIT value for activewear brands.
Interestingly, in the U.K. and
France, there is a more equal
distribution of VIT across all tiers in
the luxury category. For France’s
luxury brands, the mid-tier to VIP
influencers each represent an even
20-30% of the total VIT distribution.
A similar trend is observed for
VIT
IMPACT
A measure of interests (likes,
comments, shares) generated
by a piece of content; a like on
YouTube weighs more than a
like on Twitter.
TRUST
A measure of trust (or brand affinity);
this is based on the number of brands
mentioned in the same post (i.e. a post
mentioning 10 brands scores lower
than a post dedicated exclusively to
one brand).
VISIBILITY
A measure of the effective reach of
a post, taking into account absolute
video and post views.
5

contemporary brands in the U.K.
In France however, the distribution
skews even more towards a
reliance on the mid-tier and
macroinfluencers when it comes
to their Contemporary brands, for
whom these two tiers of influencers
are the real powerhouses.
The VIT spread for the fast fashion
category within the U.K. also
appears more equally distributed
than what we observe when it
comes to the fast fashion category
in the U.S. In the U.K., 75% of
the VIT for fast fashion brands is
distributed equally among mid-tier,
macro and top-tier influencers. And
it is even more equally distributed
in the U.S., where roughly 20%
comes from mid-tier, macro, top-
tier and VIP influencers.
Generally, the more balanced the
distribution of VIT is across all tiers,
the more stable the program. This
sort of balance illustrates that a
brand isn’t over-reliant on a single
type of influencer, because news
of their brand is being shared by a
diversity of influencers — not just
VIPs, or niche micros. And while
VIP influencers are of course
considered valuable voices, total
reliance on a few VIPs is a risky
strategy that we will delve into
deeper within this report.
VIT DISTRIBUTION BY TIER
U.S.
U.K.
FR
Contem
porary
Activew
ear
Fastfashion
Luxury
VIP
Top
Macro
Mid
Micro
Nano
19%
20%
15%
21%
15%
17%
7%
6%
1%
1% 2% 3% 1%
9%
28%
26%
27%
9%
20%
29%
20%
20%
8%
14%
29%
27%
22%
6%
8%
17%
19%
13%
42%
1% 3% 1%
9% 15%
17%
20%
23%
33%
6%
26%
25%
23%
8%
20%
22%
18%
30%
1% 1% 3%
9%
12%
19%
57%
12%
2%
22%
19%
21%
5%
13%
17%
51%
13%
24%
43%
35%
6

Tier-Graphics Across Fashion Influencers by Market
ACTIVATED INFLUENCERS
The volume of activated influencers per fashion
category indicates not only which brands get attention,
but which brands can expect to get attention… due to
the popularity of their category within a certain market.
In terms of the volume of influencers talking about
each of these four categories, U.S. and U.K.-based
influencers post more about activewear and fast fashion
brands, compared to contemporary and luxury brands.
In France, the volume of brand mentions (by category)
skews towards fast fashion and luxury.
When it comes to all three markets, we see that
there is a large number of rising stars and smaller
scale influencers. In the U.S., the micro and mid-tier
influencers dominate, but in the U.K. and France this
skews towards microinfluencers.
Contem
porary
Activew
ear
Fastfashion
Luxury
U.K.
FR
U.S.
ACTIVATEDINFLUENCERSDISTRIBUTION
VIP
Top
Macro
Mid
Micro
Nano
52,
507 Influencers
12,
640 Influencers
5,3
14
Influencers
35,
391 Influencers
9,2
18
Influencers
4,4
91
Influencers
40,
678 Influencers
12,
287 Influencers
5,8
49
Influencers
37,
413 Influencers
11,
085 Influencers
5,7
52
Influencers
7

ENGAGEMENT RATE
Marketers should focus their energies on developing
relationships with these high-performing nanos and
micros as these are the rising star influencers who will
be tomorrow’s further-reaching influencers. It is best to
nurture these relationships before these influencers are
saturated with outreach from brands.
Interestingly, in both the U.S. and France there is
an increase in ER for top-tier influencers in certain
categories. In the U.S., top-tier influencers talking
about activewear, contemporary and fast fashion
brands earn a higher ER than macroinfluencers. In
France, top-tier influencers posting about these
categories earn an ER on par with nano influencers!
In Traackr, you can sort content by KPIs to see what is
performing best for you and your competition.
ContemporaryActivewear Fast fashion Luxury
4.37%3.86%4.90%
5.03%4.53%5.29%
6.47%5.44%6.39%
3.89%3.84%4.02%
2.91%2.67%4.25%
3.13%3.21%4.06%
3.65%3.44%4.28%
2.93%3.05%3.38%
2.62%2.56%4.04%
2.64%2.89%3.63%
3.04%3.56%3.69%
2.44%2.89%3.10%
1.94%2.71%2.54%
2.41%3.16%3.51%
2.97%3.50%4.15%
2.25%2.71%2.62%
2.00%2.02%4.89%
2.70%2.53%5.65%
3.21%2.77%6.30%
2.09%2.71%4.60%
1.60%1.75%1.59%
1.67%2.14%2.16%
2.46%1.80%2.25%
2.21%1.59%3.66%
As mentioned previously, VIT takes into account reach
but also incorporates engagements and the level of
focus a piece of content about your brand gets in order
to illustrate a clearer picture of value depending on the
quality of an audience’s engagements. This translates
into the engagement rate (ER) you receive.
In the U.S. and U.K., nano influencers earn the highest
engagement rates across the categories. This is not
uncommon and something we also saw across beauty
categories in our State of Influence: Beauty report. All
three markets see the biggest drop in engagement
rate (ER) from nano to microinfluencers, but then it
evens out; with the distribution across the other tiers
within 1% or less of each other.
U.S.
U.K.
FR
VIP Top MidMacro Micro Nano
8

CATEGORY BENCHMARKS
It’s important to leverage industry benchmarks when
selecting influencers for your campaigns. Setting
benchmarks based on large scale trends ensures
your programs are tracking towards success from
the beginning.
Interestingly, in both the U.S. and France, there is
an increase in ER for top-tier influencers in certain
categories. In the U.S., top-tier influencers talking
about activewear, contemporary and fast fashion
brands earn a higher ER than macroinfluencers. In
France, top-tier influencers posting about these
categories earn an ER on par with nano influencers!
In Traackr, you can sort content by KPIs to see what is
performing best for you and your competition. Traackr
allows you to review all of the influencers mentioning
your brand from nano to top-tier, and allows you to
rank them by everything from ER to VIT scores.
AVERAGEVITAVERAGE#OFINFLUENCERS
VIT/MENTIONAVERAGELOYALTY(posts/influencer)
U.S.
170,6075,765
29,5961,406
12,845545
7,777531
3,913250
41,7511,881
23,203989
24,2991,086
10,420557
14
6
4
10
5 5
7
4
6
5
3
5
118,6104,654
167,0593,486
63,2412,237
U.S.
U.S.
U.S.
U.K.
U.K.
U.K.
U.K.
FR
FR
FR
FR
3 3 3 33
4 4 4 4 4 4 4
Activewear Contemporary Fast fashion Luxury
9

U.S. U.K. FR
1. Nike ASOS Nike
2. Adidas Adidas Zara
3. Louis Vuitton Nike H&M
4. Versace Zara ASOS
5. Forever 21 Top Shop Adidas
6. Chanel H&M Saint Laurent
7. Gucci Louis Vuitton Mango
8. Dior Dior Chanel
9. H&M Gucci Bershka
10. Zara Chanel Gucci
11. Saint Laurent Balenciaga Balenciaga
12. Under Armour Saint Laurent Under Armour
13. Prada Stella McCartney Dior
14. Calvin Klein Prada Forever 21
15. Givenchy Versace Louis Vuitton
16. Louboutin & Other Stories Stradivarius
17. Fendi Converse The Kooples
18. ASOS Mango Levi’s
19. Balenciaga Puma Pull & Bear
20. Lululemon Valentino Off White
Brand
Rankings
by VIT
According to Brand
Vitality Score (VIT)
rankings across the 123
brands, the success of a
brand is not determined
by category alone. Nike
and Adidas rise to the
top in all three markets.
Though sustainability is
a hot topic these days,
fast fashion brands
including ASOS and
Zara are successful
players; especially so
in the U.K. and France.
As headlines have
shown, contemporary
brands, those with
clothing priced above
fast fashion but below
luxury, are struggling to
keep up when it comes
to performance within
influencer generated
content. None of the
major contemporary
fashion brands break into
the top 10 in any market.
Let’s dig a little deeper
into 5 trends that piqued
our interest.
Activewear
Contemporary
Fast fashion
Luxury
10

Trends by Category
Activewear Outperforms
Activewear has dominated the last 10 years, but this
category has been a mainstay for decades. Nike and
Adidas are powerhouses, earning more than 300,000
mentions among U.S. influencers, and ranking first and
second, respectively, for VIT in 2019. Historically, as
you would expect, these brands have relied mainly on
their VIP superstars. You could easily argue that Nike’s
collaboration with Michael Jordan is one of the most
successful influencer activations in history. However, in
addition to superstar activations, Nike sets itself apart
by activating influencers across tiers. This is giving Nike
its edge over Adidas. Adidas has a similar distribution
of influencer tiers but relies on VIP influencers for 40%
of its VIT. Over reliance on VIP influencers leaves your
brand susceptible, as attention for your brand hinges
on so few people.
11

Nike and Adidas take the top two spots regardless
of market. They are the leaders from a volume
perspective, outpacing other major brands in terms of
influencer mentions. But volume doesn’t tell the whole
story. For example, Nike and Adidas do the best job
at running an efficient program in the U.S., but are
outperformed by Under Armour in the U.K. and France
when it comes to influencer loyalty (repeat posts) and
content performance (on an individual mention basis).
Under Armour receives more posts per influencer and
generates higher quality content on a per mention
basis. In order to boost loyalty among their influencers
in these markets, Nike and Adidas could re-engage
influencers who have already mentioned their brands
throughout the year.
The rise of digital-savvy and digital-first activewear
brands such as Lululemon and Fabletics can serve as
valuable models for traditional brands such as Nike,
who have traditionally employed a ‘telling’ (via VIP
influencers), vs. an ‘involving’ (via influencers from
across tiers) strategy. In the late 2000s, Lululemon
shook up the activewear world by harnessing the
power of community, instead of focusing solely on
top-tier and VIP influencers. Even though Lululemon
activates a quarter of the volume of influencers than
Nike, mid-tier and macro tier influencers mentioning
Lululemon are driving a higher portion of VIT within
their tiers compared to the respective Nike influencers.
Both brands have a tiering strategy in line with the
category average; however, Lululemon earns almost
70% of its VIT value from the mid-tier and macro tier
influencers. This is likely a result of their longtime
community ambassador program that activates local
fitness instructors, which can perhaps be credited with
introducing a new kind of social media micro celebrity.
Despite strong brand love, it’s clear that no brand is
safe from the constant threat of competition. Fabletics,
the activewear brand founded by actress Kate Hudson
in 2013, ranked highly within its category despite
activating 68% fewer influencers than competitor
brand Lululemon. Interestingly, 4% of Fabletics posts
were published to YouTube, whereas under 1% of
the Lululemon posts were YouTube videos. As a
result, Fabletics earns 20% of its VIT from influencer-
generated content on YouTube.
There are many interesting comparisons across different
types of activewear brands. At the highest level, it’s
enlightening to compare the top five activewear brands
to others to see how they stack up.
VIT DISTRIBUTION BY TIER - U.S.
ADIDAS
Nano
Micro
Mid
Macro
Top
Vip
1%
5%
15%
22%
16%
40%
1%
7%
20%
25%
25%
22%
NIKE
U.S. U.K. FR
Nike 1 2 1
Adidas 2 1 2
Under Armour 3 6 3
Puma 5 4 7
Reebok 7 5 13
...........VITRANK...........
Nike 221,739 44,497 13,069
Adidas 100,227 28,356 7,696
Under Armour 18,608 4,958 1,081
Puma 10,870 3,255 1,059
Reebok 20,460 3,042 595
.........MENTIONS.........
Nike 7 6 5
Adidas 5 5 4
Under Armour 5 7 7
Puma 3 3 3
Reebok 4 3 2
...........LOYALTY...........
(posts/influencer)
Nike 5 3 6
Adidas 6 7 6
Under Armour 16 4 28
Puma 20 10 8
Reebok 7 8 3
CONTENTEFFICIENCY
(VIT/mention)
12

Contemporary Struggles
As previously touched upon, contemporary brands
struggle to perform as well as other fashion categories
in all three markets we reviewed for this report. Mid-
tier influencers, however, are able to generate a lot of
success in the U.K. and France. Contemporary fashion
brands in these markets earn quite a bit of love from
them. One brand performing particularly well in the
U.K. is & Other Stories, a contemporary brand with
an affordable price-point that is consistent in its on-
trend offering. The brand ranks highest in VIT within
the contemporary category, and earns a third of its VIT
from mid-tier influencers, which is 14% higher than the
category average within the U.K..
VIT DISTRIBUTION BY TIER
& Other Stories generates high VIT specifically through
its activation of influencers such as serial outfit-
documenter, Marianne Smyth, with 181K followers and
has the highest engagement rate of the top VIT-earners
of the past year, with an average of 9.26% ER per post.
She began posting about the brand in August 2019,
and the impact is seen throughout the remainder of the
year. Marianne illustrates how a brand’s performance
can be quite heavily impacted when influencers are
activated repeatedly, rather than on a one-off basis.
Of all three markets, France has the greatest amount of
impactful content coming from mid-tier influencers for
contemporary brands. And the brand that rises to the
top, The Kooples, also has just as much coming from
their mid tier selection of influencers.
1%
11%
34%
27%
14%
30%
18%
21%
20%
9%
1% 1%
16%
27%
26%
28%
3%
2%
14%
30%
27%
22%
6%
13%
& Other
Stories
The
Kooples
Contemp.
U.K.
Contemp.
FR
VIP Top MidMacro Micro Nano
13

The Kooples boast an array of loyal influencers. For
instance, Jess (105K followers, average ER of 6%)
mentioned The Kooples in her posts an average of
seven times per month over the course of a year. As a
result, she contributed the most to The Kooples’ VIT
volume of any activated influencer in 2019. Another
mid-tier influencer, Laura Genovino, earned the highest
engagement rate within her tier, with a 35% ER when
mentioning the brand in an exclusive post.
For comparison, in the U.S., VIP influencers produce
the largest volume of VIT for contemporary brands,
with half coming from the VIP tier (the most of the
three countries studied). As previously mentioned,
reliance upon the VIP tier is risky, as it allows much
of a brands’ destiny to lie in the hands of just a few
influencers. A healthy tiering strategy, in which a
diversity of influencers from each tier are actively
% FROM VIP
INFLUENCERS
RANK W/ VIP
INFLUENCERS
RANK W/OUT
VIP INFLUENCERS
Calvin Klein 64% 1 3
Levi's 24% 2 1
Off White 52% 3 4
Tommy Hilfiger 74% 4 7
Madewell 7% 5 2
Alexander Wang 74% 6 14
Coach 69% 7 13
Michael Kors 57% 8 8
Marc Jacobs 59% 9 10
Ralph Lauren 53% 10 9
promoting the brand in different ways, is optimal for
sustained relevance in the marketplace and successful
360-degree campaigns. Of the top 10 ranked
contemporary brands in the U.S., eight of 10 earn over
half of their VIT from these VIP influencers.
When the contributions of this particular tier are
removed from the equation, nearly all of the brands
drop rank, with the exception of Madewell and
Levi’s. This illustrates that most contemporary brands
we reviewed do not have a diversity of influencer
relationships, and would benefit from branching out
to other tiers. VIP influencers are not only expensive,
but they will often maintain brand partnerships
depending on the brand’s continued ability to pay
top dollar. A more balanced activation of both paid
and earned influencer content across tiers allows for
healthier performance.
14

Sustainable and ethical
fashion is here to stay
15

influencer versus three for Reformation. One way
Everlane is achieving these successful relationships
is through their affiliate marketing program. On their
website, they invite bloggers to apply and be a part
of their program and thus create a vibe that the
influencers mentioning them should be a part of
their community.
Reformation seems to achieve success through a larger
scale program compared to Everlane. Reformation
has more influencers talking about the brand, but
Everlane seems to be very focused on the quality of
their influencer relationships. Even though Everlane
has 25% fewer influencers mentioning them compared
to Reformation, the brand achieves higher influencer
loyalty, with an average of six posts per individual
3.70% 58,467
2.26%
38,502
ENGAGEMENT
RATE
VIT
Fashion’s impact on the environment is top of mind for
consumers across the globe. Our fashion choices are
no exception. Mentions of sustainable fashion among
influencers have increased by 55% from 2018 to 2019
along with mentions of secondhand fashion increasing
137%. Consumers are clearly more engaged with the
topics as well. Engagements on sustainable fashion
posts have increased 150% and 106% for secondhand
fashion, in that same time period.
There are two brands at the forefront of the
sustainability conversation in the U.S.: Reformation
and Everlane. They approach the topic somewhat
differently. Reformation’s brand messaging has true
environmental sustainability at the forefront (hence
their tagline “Being naked is the #1 most sustainable
option - we’re #2.) Whereas, Everlane focuses more on
the ethics of sourcing and manufacturing.
But do they approach their influencer marketing
programs differently? Reformation earns 1.5 times
more VIT than Everlane. That higher influencer-
generated content performance is supported by an
engagement rate of 3.7% vs Everlane’s 2.26%.
By honoring these relationships, Everlane also received
about 15% more of their VIT from mid-tier influencers.
For example, Everlane receives consistent mentions
and positive results from mid-tier influencers such as
Jess Carpenter (@jesswithless), who was activated
through their brand ambassador program. She posts
about Everlane nearly 15 times each month and
consistently earns top VIT. Jess generates even more
impact for the brand than bigger name influencers
such as top-tier influencer Blair Edie (@blaireadiebee),
demonstrating that audience size truly doesn’t always
matter. Jess in particular represents a back to basics
type of influencer, a try on influencer. It’s how a lot of
fashion influencers got their start. Trying on various
outfits and discussing the sizing and fit help to make
the online shopping easier for their followers.
ACTIVATED
INFLUENCERS
POSTS LOYALTY
2,262
1,815
8,261
10,922 6.02
3.65
REFORMATIONEVERLANE
Nano
Micro
Mid
Macro
Top
Vip
2%
9%
19%
23%
35%
13%
2%
11%
34%
36%
13%
4%
Reformation Everlane
VIT DISTRIBUTION BY TIER - U.S.
16

Fast fashion is characterized by high volumes of
merchandise, which likely contributes to their vast organic
influencer marketing success. These brands at the top
have the highest volume of influencers mentioning
their brands. ASOS, Zara, H&M and Top Shop activated
roughly 4,300 more influencers last year than the average
contemporary or luxury fashion brand in the U.K..
At first glance it may seem like a numbers game for fast
fashion brands to be successful, but these brands at
the top are no different than other higher end brands.
They need the influencers mentioning them to produce
quality content and they do that quite well. The quality of
content, as measured by VIT, coming out of the top fast
fashion brands at an individual influencer level is not only
higher than the other fast fashion brands ranked lower,
but on par with beloved labels like Nike and Louis Vuitton
(also ranked at the top).
Fast fashion is still a powerhouse
Even with sustainable fashion becoming increasingly
popular, fast fashion brands still top the markets in
most places. Influencers continue to promote fast
fashion brands, despite their known negative impact
on the environment. So why is this happening, despite
the strengthened interest in sustainability? For starters,
their younger audiences can afford the clothes.
Additionally, shopping fast fashion allows influencers to
participate in trends without investing too much.
Amidst controversy and tough conversations, these
brands continue to make their mark on the industry (for
better or for worse.) European fast fashion brands in
particular are thriving. In the U.K., ASOS out performed
brands like Nike and Adidas. Zara and H&M were
also among the top 10 brands last year. Despite store
closings and bankruptcy respectively, Top Shop and
Forever 21 performed well.
Adidas 34
Louis Vuitton 30
ASOS 30
Top Shop 29
Zara 28
Nike 20
H&M 19
CONTENT
PERFORMANCEPER
INFLUENCER-U.K.
(posts/influencer)
ACTIVATED
INFLUENCERS-U.K.
6,695
4,974
4,679
5,308
Asos H&M Top shop Zara
17

ASOS is also doing particularly well among top-
tier influencers in the U.K.. Even though the brand
activates a similar distribution of influencer tiers on
average for the fast fashion category, they garner
roughly 10% more VIT from top-tier influencers than
the average for the U.K. and fast fashion.
High content performers include people who mention
them in outfit posts on a consistent basis, members of
the ASOS family, and haul videos from shopping
at ASOS.
Even though brands such as ASOS and Top Shop
perform well in the U.K., they fail to break through in
the U.S. as other European fast fashion brands such
as H&M and Zara have done. Why is this happening?
Despite activating about the same number of
influencers as the other brands, their rank among all
brands is considerably lower.
Aside from increasing the volume of influencers
speaking about their brands, there are efficiencies
to gain. They can re-engage influencers who they have
worked with in the past year to increase influencer loyalty
to be more competitive with brands such as Zara. This will
go a long way since they are already beating those brands
when it comes to the quality of the content they produce
on an individual mention basis.
20
ACTIVATED
INFLUENCERS-U.S.
INFLUENCERS
LOYALTY-U.S.
(posts/influencer)
VITRANK-U.S.
CONTENT
EFFICIENCY-U.S.
(VIT/mentions)
13,270
7,512
12,787
5,806
9
55
10
4
7
66
42
5
4
Nano 2%
Micro 12%
Mid 23%
Macro 22%
Top 32%
Vip 10% ASOS
VITDISTRIBUTION
BYTIER-U.K.
Asos
H&M
Top Shop
Zara
18

Is luxury fashion only for the VIPs?
1. Louis Vuitton Louis Vuitton Chanel
2. Versace Gucci Saint Laurent
3. Chanel Chanel Gucci
4. Gucci Dior Balenciaga
5. Dior Saint Laurent Louis Vuitton
6. Saint Laurent Prada Dior
7. Prada Versace CELINE
8. Givenchy Balenciaga Hermès
9. Christian Louboutin Christian Louboutin Fendi
10. Fendi Fendi Isabel Marant
TOP 10 WITH VIP
INFLUENCERS -
U.S.
TOP 10 W/O VIP
INFLUENCERS -
U.S.
One of the most interesting distinctions we see
across countries is in the luxury category. All three
countries only activate about 1% of their influencers
in the VIP tier, but in the U.S., 54% of VIT comes from
this tier. This is a trend we’ve seen before, but one
that maybe didn’t make quite as much sense outside
of the luxury fashion category. Here, it is part of the
more aspirational longer term sales cycle of the luxury
category. Kylie Jenner alone is the top performer for
four of the top five brands in luxury. She’s selling the
next it bag or the coolest sunglasses that consumers
aspire to have.
But not all VIP influencers are created equal. For
example, back in August, Kylie Jenner posted herself in
Gucci sunglasses. Even with her 161 million Instagram
followers, she earned less VIT than Billie Eilish who
only has 8 million Instagram followers. Billie was able to
earn a 20% engagement rate on her post versus 4% for
Kylie. Lesson: choose your VIP partnerships wisely.
Outside of the influence of VIPs, which brands rise to
the top in each market? While Versace drops quite a
few spots in VIT rankings and Givenchy is replaced by
Balenciaga, the top 10 list largely stays the same. This
implies that top luxury brands are not solely dependent
on their VIP influencers. The same brands are still able
to hold their place at the top without them.
In France and the U.K., there is a lot more successful
content coming from the lower-tier influencers than
in the U.S.. Particularly in France, we see that 28% of
the highest performing content comes from mid-tier
influencers. The most successful luxury brands in France
among mid-tier influencers are Chanel, Yves Saint
Laurent and Gucci.
The mid-tier influencer has to approach posting about
luxury brands differently than a VIP with a closet full of
Hermès Birkin bags. A mid-tier influencer can gain just
as much VIT for a brand by posting about the same
bag over and over and over again. Audiences like to
see influencers making the most out of the pieces
they chose to invest in! A luxury brand in search of
higher VIT should encourage lower-tier influencers to
post repeatedly about their favorite products. When
it comes down to it, this is a more relatable strategy
when it comes to these high fashion brands.
In the U.K., there is still a third of the VIT coming from
VIP influencers for luxury brands. Beyond that it seems
as though macro and top-tier influencers have an equal
and mighty impact on the category. They both account
for roughly 20% of the VIT for the category and have
the same engagement rate (2.71%).
TOP 10 BRANDS FOR
MID-TIER INFLUENCERS - FR
19

VIT DISTRIBUTION BY TIER - U.K.
But if you remove the VIP influencers, the impact of
these tiers among luxury influencers becomes even
more apparent. Most of the top ranked luxury brands
in the U.K. earn a similar amount of VIT from each tier
compared to the category average, except for Gucci and
Balenciaga, who have more quality content from macro
and top-tiers and rely even less so on VIP influencers.
Balenciaga in particular also has the highest portion
of macroinfluencers mentioning the brand among the
highest ranked luxury brands and almost a third of the
top earners for this tier are male. This is an important
note that in fashion male influencers can have just as
much impact in a program as female influencers.
Luxury W/O VIPSLuxury W/ VIPS
Nano
Micro
Mid
Macro
Top
Vip
1%
10%
24%
30%
35%
—
1%
6%
16%
20%
23%
33%
VIT DISTRIBUTION BY TIER- U.K.
Luis
Vuitton
Dior Gucci Chanel Balenciaga
1%
6%
14%
21%
26%
33% 34%
20%
24%
15%
7% 11%
1%
22%
27%
23%
17%
27%
17%
22%
23%
10%
1% 1%
6%
26%
28%
29%
11%
VIP Top MidMacro Micro Nano
20

Conclusion
Curious about your Brand Vitality Score
(VIT) and how you compare to your top
competitors? Let U.S. show you why
CMOs rely on Traackr’s technology for
insights that drive successful influencer
marketing strategies.
Request a briefing with one of our influencer marketing strategists.
traackr.com/contact
info@traackr.com
21

Glossary Brands
Mentioned
Loyalty
Posts per individual influencer.
Mentions
Number of posts
mentioning the brand.
Potential Reach
Collective audience size for the
platforms on which the mentions
took place.
Total Engagements
Number of likes, shares, comments
the content mentioning the brand
earned across platforms.
Video Views
Number of video views on
content mentioning the brand
across platform.
Activated Influencers
Number of influencers
mentioning the brand.
Brand Vitality Score (VIT)
Measures the visibility, impact and
trust influencer content mentioning
your brand earns.
Content Performance
VIT earned per activated influencer.
Content Efficiency
VIT per individual mention.
Engagement Rate
Defined as the number of
engagements divided by
potential reach.
ACTIVEWEAR Adidas, Asics, Bandier,
Champion, Converse, Fabletics,
Kappa, Lululemon, New, Balance,
Nike, Patagonia, Puma, Reebok,
Sweaty Betty, The North Face,
Timberland, Under Armour, Vans.
CONTEMPORARY & Other Stories,
Acne Studios, Alexander Wang, All
Saints, Banana Republic, Calvin Klein,
Club Monaco, Coach, Comptoir des
Cotonniers, DKNY, Everlane, Fossil,
French Connection, Helmut Lang,
Hugo Boss, IZOD, J Brand, J.Crew,
Kate Spade, Lacoste, Levi’s, Liu Jo,
Madewell, Marc Jacobs, MaxMara,
Michael Kors, Off White, Paige, Pinko,
Polo Ralph Lauren, rag & bone, Ralph
Lauren, Reformation, Reiss, Sandro,
Scotch & Soda, Sinequanone, The
Kooples, Theory, Tommy Hilfiger,
Tory Burch, Zadig & Voltaire FAST
FASHION Abercrombie & Fitch,
Aerie, American Eagle Outfitters,
Asos, Bershka, Brandy Melville,
Carter’s, Etam, Express, Forever21,
Gap, Guess, H&M, Mango, Oak+Fort,
Old Navy, OshKosh B’gosh, Pull &
Bear, Stradivarius, ThirdLove, Top
Shop, True & Co, Uniqlo, United
Colors of Benetton, Urban Outfitters,
Van Heusen, Victoria’s Secret, Zara.
LUXURY Alexander McQueen,
Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Brioni,
Burberry, Cartier, CELINE, Chanel,
Chloé, Christian Louboutin, Dior,
Dunhill, Emilio Pucci, Fendi, Givenchy,
Gucci, Hermès, Isabel Marant, Jimmy
Choo, Kenzo, Lanvin, Loewe, Louis
Vuitton, Maison Alaia, Michele
Watches, Montblanc, Piaget, Prada,
Saint Laurent, Stella McCartney, Stuart
Weitzman, Tiffany & Co, Valentino,
Van Cleef & Arpels, Versace.
22

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