The Souled Store & Their Influencer Marketing Journey
By Rachit Juneja
June 19, 2021
“For us, content is the key. If someone is a very good content creator, we are naturally inclined towards associating with them, regardless of the number of followers they have.” - Hitesh Sharma, Vice President - Marketing, The Souled Store.
Established in 2013, The Souled Store is genZ’s friendly neighborhood store, helping them express themselves with cool, quirky merchandise. They create and curate stunning designs and print them on all sorts of equally stunning products - from t-shirts to phone covers to backpacks to boxers to mugs to socks to badges to pins to hoodies and many more. Their funky products are designed and printed specifically to spread happiness, right down to the bottom of our ‘soul’. They celebrate fandom with all of us, by bringing official merchandise of our favorite Hollywood movies, TV shows, sports teams, comedians, and musicians, with a wide range of kickass graphic designs on all our favorite products.
We got in touch with Mr. Hitesh Sharma, Vice President, Marketing, to find out more about their influencer marketing journey and here’s what we found out:
What makes your brand unique, in terms of your influencer marketing initiatives?
“We are a pop culture fashion merchandising brand, which caters to the new generation of fashion. Our designs are our USP. In terms of influencer marketing, we are taking baby steps into it. We have collaborated with Jim Sarbh, Rohit Saraf, Vir Das and many other influencers alike, including tier 1 and 2 influencers. Additionally, we are also in touch with upcoming micro and nano influencers in order to amplify our message even further. At The Souled Store, we are very particular about content creation - we choose influencers on the basis of their affinity to the brand and its values, in addition to their content creation skills.”
For a particular campaign, how do you decide on influencer marketing for it?
“For us, content is the key. If someone is a very good content creator, we are naturally inclined towards associating with them, regardless of the number of followers they have.
In terms of different categories of influencers, our horizon is open and flexible to various categories. Anybody who is a good fit for making our clothes look a little more stylish, along with being a great content creator, is the perfect fit for us.”
Do you have any long-term associations with influencers? What are the pros/cons of it?
“Yes, we do associate with influencers on a long term basis. We are in the process of signing a few more contracts for such associations.
An advantage of such associations is that after a while, the influencers tend to understand the brand values and guidelines better with time. This makes the association smoother and the friction between the two parties becomes less, making the entire process more comfortable.
Besides influencer marketing, what are the other 3 most rewarding activities in your marketing campaigns?
“At The Souled Store, we have a 360 digital marketing approach. Facebook and Instagram have been the two most rewarding platforms for our brand, in terms of recognition, reach and deliverables.
What is one thing you’ve learned from influencer marketing by other brands?
“Today, Influencer Marketing is a very crowded space. It has also become a no-brainer for every brand, in order to amplify reach on social media. Every brand has a different strategy for this - some go for volume, some go for strategy. At The Souled Store, our strategy is dependent on content. We are very particular about the kind of content we want to serve our consumers. We work very closely with our influencers in order to churn out the best kind of content.”
What is a recent trend in influencer marketing that you think is here to stay?
“Reels are doing very well at the moment. Short format content and video content are definitely here to stay. Anything which is Instagram worthy is good content. Anything that is made with time and effort is appreciated by the people consuming it. As there is a flood of existing and upcoming influencers today, taking content a step ahead with creativity and innovations is what people like to watch. This makes it even more important to work with the right kind of content creators. The future is going to be in the kind of content that is crafted beautifully and how well it connects with audiences.”
If you were to summarize your influencer marketing strategy in 1 word, what would it be?
“Great Content”
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