Some of the most successful influencers in the world are those who make use of social media in their home kitchens. Chef influencers inspire millions with mouth-watering recipes and clever cooking shortcuts. Brands come to chef influencers to generate attention and appetite for food products.
In this article, I would like to share what we’ve learned about successful influencer partnerships to help more brands get the results they are looking for.
First, here are some tips on what not to do: For a chef influencer, their work and their livelihoods revolve around whether or not their content is engaging, interesting and helpful to their audience. If the influencer’s content is centered around recipes that are plant-based and meant for vegan audiences, it would be very harmful to them to promote a knife that was designed to easily cut through chicken or steak.
In this article, I would like to share what we’ve learned about successful influencer partnerships to help more brands get the results they are looking for.
First, here are some tips on what not to do: For a chef influencer, their work and their livelihoods revolve around whether or not their content is engaging, interesting and helpful to their audience. If the influencer’s content is centered around recipes that are plant-based and meant for vegan audiences, it would be very harmful to them to promote a knife that was designed to easily cut through chicken or steak.
Similarly, if the storytelling would simply make the promotion a small, insignificant detail, the influencer doesn’t have much motivation to follow through with a partnership. Brands need to do research about which influencers’ content is the closest to the message they wish to promote, or else they could be forcing their promotions onto an unwilling audience, and that hurts both influencers and brands.
Appreciate your chef influencers.
An all-too-common sight on social media is a post on an influencer’s blog or Twitter promoting a product or tool that a brand sent them for free and asked them to advertise — for free. A picture — maybe a paragraph — about how the new pot, tongs or other tools really helped them to create the perfect dish, and that’s it. No other mention of that product and no integration into any other posts or content. These kinds of interactions are barely beneficial to chef influencers because they don’t bring in too many more viewers than usual, and they don’t take into account the amount of time and effort that chef influencers have to expend in order to make their content.
Many chef influencers consider it highly insulting to receive a message from a brand asking them to promote a product without paying more than, say, a free spatula. Those kinds of interactions are short-lived and almost pointless to influencers. If you are looking to create fruitful partnerships, collaborate with chef influencers to design a package that will work for all parties involved. It shows the influencer that their content and work are respected and that the brand could potentially be interested in a longer-form relationship.
Make sure the influencer cares about the product and the brand.
This is an important part of the research process for brands to perform. A chef influencer is a perfect fit for the brand’s product if they can integrate it with passion into their everyday routine. If the influencer cares about the brand’s work, their promotion of the product will be all the more authentic and far easier to integrate into their content. More viewers will see the promotion, absorb the message easier, and the partnership will improve profits for both the influencer and the brand.
Oftentimes, this kind of dedication to the brand and its message doesn’t appear in simply one post or article but is integrated into their content across weeks to even months. For example, chef influencers could state that they’ve been using a particular pan for a common task such as sauteing vegetables in their recipes, integrating it easily into their content and encouraging their viewers to use the same equipment. Finding influencers who truly care about your products and messages will help brands to build longer-lasting and more profitable relationships between them.
Preparation is key.
There are fewer things more aggravating to influencers than being asked simply to “create content” around a brand’s product with little to no instruction as to how the brand wants their products to look or be integrated into the content — especially if the brand then claims they are unhappy with how the promotion eventually turns out.
As stated earlier, chef influencers spend a lot of time developing and working on their content. To have a brand turn around and say, “This isn’t what we wanted,” is incredibly frustrating. Brands need to be open to answering questions, be clear about the reasons why they want to work with a particular influencer and be specific about what they want the chef influencer to do to promote their message or products. Hashtags, demographics to target or pictures to use are all things that the brand should make clear to the influencer when they begin their work together. Otherwise, both parties may end up being very disappointed.
As stated earlier, chef influencers spend a lot of time developing and working on their content. To have a brand turn around and say, “This isn’t what we wanted,” is incredibly frustrating. Brands need to be open to answering questions, be clear about the reasons why they want to work with a particular influencer and be specific about what they want the chef influencer to do to promote their message or products. Hashtags, demographics to target or pictures to use are all things that the brand should make clear to the influencer when they begin their work together. Otherwise, both parties may end up being very disappointed.
My team tremendously enjoys partnering with chef influencers who bring a fresh perspective on how to integrate products with recipes that not only elevate taste buds but also make a difference by offering “better for you” food ideas that make people feel great. We have created campaigns for social media and traditional channels to drive interest and engagement for the brands we represent. Chefs are the most passionate people you will meet as they work hard in a kitchen to please our senses. Enjoy working with chef influencers, and you might even get some leftovers to enjoy after a day of hard work!
