As we wrap up 2014, we feel incredibly fortunate to have worked with over 300 world-leading brands on successful Klout Perks campaigns. Klout Perks enable brands to easily generate earned media through powerful content creation.   Brands have leveraged Klout to enhance their product launches, special promotions and events to name a few use cases by targeting social influencers who organically become their top brand ambassadors. We identify the influencers that matter, and they create the user generated content that catapults a brand’s marketing efforts even further.   We’re so proud of all the Perk Campaigns in 2014, but here are a few standout campaigns with amazing results. Our Top 5 Klout Perks Campaigns for 2014 are:   1) Red Bull/Destiny: 20 Perks, Reaches Millions To create awareness and buzz around Destiny, a game four years in the making, Activision partnered with Klout on a buzz-generating Perk. To celebrate the launch, 20 lucky influencers were Perked with a copy of Destiny and three cans of Red Bull to help fuel their gameplay, all packaged in a beautiful kit. Although the number of selected influencers was relatively low compared to other Perk campaigns, the highly targeted nature of the audience generated 177 million impressions, a reach of 3 million, and 18,000 pieces of content, of which one Instagram post (featured below) pulled in an amazing 18K+ likes.        2) Moe’s Southwest Grill: Happy Cinco de Moe’s! The Moe’s team needed to build buzz around their new Spicy Guac and drive engagement around their annual Cinco de Moe’s event in an effort to extend reach and create brand ambassadors. They brought Klout on-board to target 100 influencers who engage on social about burritos and spicy food topics. To the influencers’ delight, they received kits filled with branded Cinco de Moe’s t-shirts, sports bottles, headbands, and Moe’s gift cards to share with friends and family. Influencers visited a Moe’s location on Cinco de Moe’s and shared their excitement on social channels, which culminated in over 10,000 pieces of content, 18.5 million impressions, and over 8 million in reach, thereby meeting—and exceeding-- their campaign objectives. This is a great example of extending a holiday celebration on social and finding more brand ambassadors.   “Partnering with Klout is an incredible way for us to build overall engagement, extend customer reach and easily measure results around our social media campaigns. Klout has made it easy for us to directly connect with our socially influential customers.” -Lauren Barash, Sr. Director of Marketing   3) Call of Duty: Advanced Social Power Call of Duty partnered with Klout to drive its campaign goals of creating awareness and buzz around the launch of the latest title in the storied first-person shooter video game series, Advanced Warfare, with the casual gamer segment. This was the most anticipated video game launch of the year, and by partnering with Klout, Call of Duty was able to reach influencers it didn’t normally engage with and offer them an exciting opportunity to be a part of the launch.  By participating in multiple Call of Duty "missions", fans were able to claim various Perks, ranging from branded merchandise, exclusive behind-the-scenes digital albums, to the grand prize of an exclusive visit to the game’s developer in San Francisco. Approximately 2,000 influencers participated, creating over 133 million impressions, with a reach of 33.3 million, and nearly 21,000 pieces of content generated, all contributing to the most talked about video game launch of the year.   4) Fair Trade USA: Celebrating October Fair Trade Month Fair Trade USA, the non-profit that helps farmers in developing countries build sustainable businesses that positively impact their communities, partnered with Klout to raise awareness and celebrate Fair Trade Month in October. 1,000 delighted influencers were Perked with Fair Trade certified items including a prAna tote bag, Celestial Seasonings tea, BarkTHINS, Larabar, DangFoods chocolate-covered coconut chips, Near East quinoa, and Steaz tea. Fair Trade USA’s mission to improve lives and strengthen communities around the world was organically communicated through their influencers’ voices in the social world—through tweets and posts to Facebook and Instagram about Fair Trade Month. This successful Perk generated over 6,603 pieces of content, 43.6 million impressions, and 17.6 million in reach…and counting!   5) Hulu: A Sneak Peek Perk Into East Los High Klout partnered with Hulu to generate conversations leading up to the Season 2 premiere of Hulu’s East Los High, a drama set around an inner city school in East LA described as “not your typical high school”.   Over 800 social influencers received an exclusive sneak preview of Season 2 and tweeted and posted on Facebook and Instagram their excitement through 73,000 pieces of content. The campaign was a resounding success, reaching nearly 17 million and generating great buzz (and 402 million impressions!) through earned media.   Not your typical high school…not your typical Perk!     That’s a wrap for ’14 highlights. We’re working on more awesome Perks for the New Year, and we look forward to partnering with even more brands to reach their campaign goals in '15! Interested in running a Perk campaign? 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As a growing, fast-casual restaurant, Moe’s Southwest Grill was looking to extend their overall reach beyond their current online fan base. They had previously worked with a small team of mommy bloggers, but wanted to broaden and leverage a younger audience on a bigger scale. So how could they quickly extend their reach and target and create brand ambassadors?   They honed in on an opportunity to drive buzz and engagement around their new Spicy Guac and their annual Cinco de Moe’s event. The Moe’s team brought Klout on-board to engage 100 relevant influencers, delight them with Spicy Guac kits filled with branded Cinco de Moe’s swag, and encourage them to visit a Moe’s location on May 5 th and share their positive experiences on social channels. The campaign was a resounding success, generating 10K pieces of content, 8.48M in reach, and 18.5MM impressions. How’s that for spicing up your online fan base?   To learn more about this successful Perk, read the full case study here. ... View more

  Marketer’s today face some unique challenges on social. It’s hard to keep up with the plethora of social networks, let alone create a unique strategy for each that engages people. Even when you do build a customized strategy, it’s still hard to reach the right people, on the right networks. With over 90% of consumers distrusting ads today, how do you get them to engage with your brand?   One solution is Earned Media. The loudest voices on social are no longer brands broadcasting a message, which is why marketers are turning to trusted, organic content creators to help them share their brand message. However, creating a compelling earned media campaign and engaging people on social is often easier said than done.   Klout Perks helps brands find and engage with the most powerful content creators across social to generate scalable, cost-effective earned media. Our team of industry experts partner with you every step of the way to build a unique VIP experience that will wow influencers and get them sharing. We help you connect to people who are proven to be passionate about the same things your brand cares about, and with 10,000 topics assigned to Klout users, it’s easy to drill down to the specific topics that are relevant to them. Making your campaign targeted and highly cost effective.   Download our latest guide to learn how Klout Perks works in 3 easy steps.   Heidi Besik is Director of Marketing, B2B at Klout and Lithium Technologies Heidi is a strategic marketing leader with experience in building successful b2b and b2c brands across start-ups, as well as Fortune 500 technology companies. With over 8 years of experience in marketing, product development and sales, she is currently focused on driving continued growth and awareness of the Perks program at Klout | Lithium. ... View more

With over 20 years of experience as a Marketing Director in the shopping mall industry, Judy Black and her team have executed many integrated and large-scale marketing events and programs. At Metropolis at Metrotown, her programs have been recognized through numerous industry awards and nominations.   Metropolis at Metrotown, located in Burnaby, British Columbia, is the largest shopping center in B.C. attracting more than 27 million shoppers annually. We recently met with Judy Black, Marketing Director at Metropolis at Metrotown, to discuss Metropolis’ partnership with Klout and the recent launch of their Spring Social influencer event. What inspired Metropolis’ partnership with Klout? Our goal is to position Metropolis on the forefront of all things digital and we recognized early on that social media would be critical in achieving that goal. Our partnership with Klout is the first of its kind in Canada and it has not only allowed us to identify our most influential and valuable customers on social media, but also to reach out to them through Klout and reward them with an exclusive experience like the Metropolis x Klout Spring Social.    Have you found engaging with influencers to be more effective than traditional advertising? If so, can you explain why? Word-of-mouth has always been an effective tool because customers trust the opinions of others who have experience the product or service. It is a powerful tool to work with members of the Klout social media network and a great addition to our marketing plan. Can you tell us more about Metropolis x Klout Spring Social event and how you engaged influencers? We wanted influencers and their guests to be treated to an exclusive VIP experience. To do this we partnered with over 40 brands, including Benefit Cosmetics, DAVIDsTEA and L’Occitane to provide a variety of food, beverage and product samples. In addition, attendees were offered a sneak peek of spring retail trends, received a gift card to Metropolis at Metrotown and were entered into a raffle for the chance to win over $3,000 in prizes, including a $500 shopping spree. Partnering with Klout enabled us to quickly and easily identify the top 500 fashion social media influencers within our targeted region. This enabled us to engage a new, highly connected consumer base and give them an experience that they would want to share with their network online.    Metropolis is known for being a technology leader within the shopping center industry. How did you incorporate technology into the event and attract a millennial demographic? We included a variety of digital components including tablet check-in stations and a digital photo booth that encouraged guests to tag themselves on Facebook. Attendees were also encouraged to post about their experience throughout the event using the hashtag: #METROPOLISxKLOUT. Were you happy with the results of the event and your partnership with Klout? Yes, it was highly successful from a word-of-mouth marketing perspective. Over 5,000 pieces of content were generated that reached nearly 5.6 million people. Additionally, incorporating digital components enabled our participating brand sponsors to engage with influencers and their collective networks to drive further brand awareness.   ... View more