How Bosch Worked with 57 Influencers to Promote New Products [Case Study]
Power tools for DIY enthusiasts
Founded in Stuttgart in 1886 by Robert Bosch as the “Workshop for Precision Mechanics and Electrical Engineering”, Bosch is a global engineering and technology company.
With innovation running through the entire company’s veins, the marketing departments of the different business entities are always trying to innovate. To promote new products for Bosch Power Tools DIY, they turned to influencer marketing.
Eva Gevers and Kristel Turksma, both Trade Manager Bosch Power Tools DIY, talked to us about how they use influencer marketing. And Influo of course.
What does the marketing mix of Bosch Power Tools look like?
Kristel: The marketing team of Bosch Power Tools consists of Marketing Managers for every product group, and then we also have Trade Managers and an Online Marketing Manager who take care of more cross-product promotional activities.
The main channels we use are social media, email marketing, our blog, print ads in consumer magazines and trade magazines, and of course influencer marketing. The share of print ads is declining, while the share of influencer marketing is increasing
German headquarters
How did you start with influencer marketing?
Kristel: We came into contact with bloggers a couple of years ago. We set up a couple of projects with them by email, and we liked what we were seeing. But it was hard to ensure that bloggers were reporting us how many views their posts were getting.
So about two years ago, we started looking for a platform that could help us with the reporting part.
In the meanwhile, influencer marketing really started to catch on, and so we started looking at a platform that would not only help us with bloggers, but with influencers in general.
So reporting was a key decision criteria for you when choosing a self-service influencer platform. What else were important factors guiding you in your decision?
Eva: We had three main criteria.
Firstly, the platform had to have a good database to discover influencers that we didn’t know yet and that would fit with our brand. So the database had to be large enough, but also easily searchable.
Secondly, measurability was important. We want to know the reach, engagement and engagement rate for every campaign and every influencer.
Thirdly, we wanted a platform that was easy to use.
As Influo scored well on all three criteria, the decision was very easy.
Kristel: On top of that, we want to add that the success coaching of Influo is outstanding. It wasn’t a decision criterion for us up front, but now that we have experienced how helpful it is to have a pair of fresh eyes look at your campaigns, we couldn’t live without it!
Our point of contact, Klara, is just wonderful. She has really coached us and taught us everything she knows about influencer marketing and how to do campaigns.
What do you use influencer marketing for, and what are your main KPIs?
Kristel: Our German headquarters asks us to report our influencer marketing KPIs every month. These are the four main KPIs they focus on:
- Reach
- Engagement
- Engagement rate
- Cost per engagement
So far, we have focused on influencer campaigns that generate product awareness. We have many great products that make people’s lives easier – such as the Quigo Green cross line laser or the Bosch EasyPrune cordless secateur – but people don’t always know about them.
Eva: On Instagram and through DIY blogs, we reach a different target audience than through our other channels. Our email newsletter, for example, targets a slightly older demographic and is all about the products. Our own Instagram channel and our influencer campaigns, on the other hand, are more inspirational: we want to show people what they can make with our tools. So the focus is on the result, not the product.
We see that, when we look at the ratio of cost versus reach, you can do much more with the same budget with influencer marketing than with ads. On top of that, influencer marketing has a much higher credibility. Ads are often perceived as too commercial, while influencers can spread a more authentic message.
The lady who posts about Bosch all the time
With 10 completed influencer campaigns, you are regular users of the Influo platform and you may call yourselves influencer marketing experts. What have you learned about influencer marketing during this time?
Eva: Even if we’ve done many influencer campaigns, we still learn something new with every campaign. You can only know what works for your brand by testing things and seeing what works. Because the strategies that work for another brand, might not work for yours.
Kristel: We have had some campaigns with extremely good results, and some campaigns that we were less happy about. The campaign to promote the Bosch Zamo laser measure had a very high reach, and we were also really happy about our very first campaign: a DIY workshop to which we invited 14 influencers to make their own floating light shelf.
Eva: We are also evolving from working with a large number of influencers that we reward with a free Bosch Power Tool and a small amount of cash, to working with a smaller amount of influencers that we work with for a longer period of time.
We have a small pool of influencers now that we have been working with for 1 to 2 years. They are specialized in DIY projects, and we know that if we work with them, we will see good results. They post high-quality content and their audience is interested in this type of content.
We are careful, though, to not work too often with the same influencers. We don’t want them to become “the lady who posts about Bosch all the time”. That would not be good for them, and it wouldn’t be good for us.
Do you have advice for other brands?
Kristel: Our main advice is that if you want good results, you need to make sure you reward the influencers you work with accordingly. Depending on the value of the product and the deliverables you ask in return, sometimes giving them a free product is not enough.
Influencer marketing becomes especially powerful and valuable if you can reuse the content of the influencers on your own channels. As with everything in life: quality comes at a cost. If you want high-quality content, you need to reward creators well.
In our industry specifically, influencers need to adhere to strict safety standards when they use our tools. For example, if they are using a power tool and they have long hair, they need to tie their hair. We cannot repost content if influencers are not following all safety standards to the letter. We noticed that by paying a slightly higher cash reward, influencers are more inclined to follow our campaign brief better.
What are your top tips for influencers? What advice would you give influencers?
Kristel: When you write your pitch for a campaign, be specific about what you’re going to use the product for. We like pitches the most that show that the creator has a specific DIY project in mind that they have been wanting to execute for a long time. That passion always shines through in the final content they post, and that’s exactly what we look for.
Eva: I would like influencers to go the extra mile when writing captions. We have products that sometimes need some explaining, so it would be great if influencers could name at least one unique selling proposition (USP) in their caption. When deciding which influencers we will keep working with for the long-term, this is one of the key factors we look at.
Facts about Bosch:
Founded: 1886
Industry: conglomerate
HQ location: Gerlingen, Germany
Number of employees: 409,900
The campaigns:
10 campaigns run on Influo
163 pitches by influencers in total
Deals made with 57 influencers in total
Total fan base reached: 1.26 M
Rewards: Bosch power tools + variable cash rewards
Campaign goals:
Generate awareness for new products such as the Quigo Green Cross Line Laser or the EasyPrune Cordless Secateur.
The talent:
A selection of the 57 influencers Bosch has worked with so far:
Results:
1.44 M impressions on social media
52 K people engaged on social media
10.34% engagement rate on social media
10 K total blog views
| Content type | Amount | Impressions | Engagement | Engagement rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instagram post | 68 | 4.5 M | 49 K | 10.92% |
| Instagram story | 133 | 932 K | ||
| Facebook post | 4 | 13 K | 149 | 1.16% |
| Facebook video | 4 | 11 K | 223 | 2.10% |
| Youtube video | 2 | 2 K | ||
| Blog post | 31 | 10 K | ||
| Content creation | 75 |