Inside Influence with Kirsten Anderton From The Fashion Faddist

Welcome to another instalment of the Inside Influence Blog Series, where we chat with Scrunch Influencers across the globe to bring you their insight into how brands, agencies and entrepreneurs alike can better navigate influencer marketing.

This week we’re chatting to Kirsten Anderton from The Fashion Faddist,

a fashion influencer bringing her audience serious style inspo and fresh new looks daily. Kirsten has worked with the brands such as Mini Cooper, Paramount Pictures, Vogue and Marks & Spencer bringing her unique style to some amazing influencer campaigns.

Scrunch: How do you make decisions about what brands to work with?

Kirsten: I will only collaborate with brands that I truly love and I feel align with my own personal brand and style. If it is a label that I have never heard of before or is a new company I will do research about the company and their product to identify whether I could see myself wearing that brand or using their product.

We know staying authentic to your brand and personal style is an important part of keeping your audience engaged and responsive. Do you ever get brands or agencies pressuring to collaborate in ways that deviate from your brand and how do you feel when this happens?

It doesn’t happen very often, but on the odd occasion yes! I guess the word I would use to describe how I feel when it does happen, is ‘disappointed’. You hope that a brand is contacting you, for the true version of you!

When you’re reviewing brand requests to collaborate, what makes a brand stand out?

I always love when brands are really personal in the reasons that they want to work with you and send a thoughtful email about their decisions to approach you. There’s nothing worse than a generic email (especially one where they haven’t spelt your name correctly) when it’s clear that you are just a number to them.

We agree! Personalization is such an important part of influencer outreach. Could you give us an example of how brands can excel at personalization and communication?

I once received a really lovely and personalized email from a brand that gave direct reference to particular posts from my Instagram account and why they resonated with the post. I think this is a great example of how brands can excel at personalization and communication.

What was the most successful brand collaboration you have been involved in, and why do you think it was so successful?

My favorite collaboration was one I did with Paramount Pictures to promote their new film Allied. I loved that there was a clear direction with a matching brief, but there was also enough creative space to make the content really align with my own style and vision. There was great communication and feedback between the brand, my agent and myself and they were reasonable in the time frame they wanted it completed by.

Why do you think it’s so important that brands move away from micromanaging influencers, and allow the creative space necessary to create great content?

You want an influencer to show the true version of themselves, not just a made up image created to sell a product. Instagram is so competitive these days and the posts that stand out are the ones that are authentic and make sense to the influencer and their personal story.

From the brief to campaign launch, what does your collaboration process usually look like?

Usually, I will be contacted by a brand via email or through my agent. I will liaise with the brand and organize and agree on products to be shot, the amount of content, the time frame for posting and payment etc. Once the product is received I will gather inspiration for the campaign or pull together a look to shoot. Once shooting is completed I will edit the photographs and send these through to the brand for approval if need be. Then if all goes well I will post the agreed photo on my social channels at a specific day/ time.

Do you have any advice for how brands and agencies can make sure they aren’t creating unnecessary pain points and roadblocks during the collaboration process?

Just to always be honest about your expectations of the influencer and to make sure communication is clear and direct. Contracts that are really lengthy are a pain too and can sometimes over complicate things more than is needed.

What makes for a good brand/influencer relationship and what advice do you have for brands who want to maintain positive relationships with influencers?

To never forget to say thank you and to give feedback! It’s small details like that, that always makes a brand stand out to me. I think too often we are worried about getting ‘the shot’ or ‘post’ out at a particular time that it becomes more of a numbers game rather than seeing the influencer and the effort they have put into it. I would also suggest to ask before sending products out too and to be realistic about the time frame for product turnarounds to posting. Myself, like a lot of influencers, work or study full time and sometimes it can be hard to shoot things straight away in a way that is authentic and make sense to our audience. We always loved to give 100% when creating content! The posts that are authentic rather than staged photos are the ones that always receive the most engagement on socials.

This is a great point. We often talk about why allowing influencers like yourself the space to create authentic content that they are excited about is the best way to get a return on investment for the brand or agency (the numbers game). Do you agree and why do you think it is that authentic content receives the most engagement on social?

I think because it is that authentic content that creatively inspires others. It also gives a snapshot into the life of an influencer.

What are the most common reasons you would decline to work with a brand?

If I don’t believe in their product or wouldn’t use it myself.

What advice do you have for brands who want to start collaborating with influencers?

To engage with influencers who you think align well with the brand who will show off the product in a way that is unique, but makes sense to their audience.

What is your audience like and how has it changed since you started your journey?

The majority of my audience is women between the ages of 18-35. Surprisingly it has actually pretty much stayed the same throughout my whole journey on Instagram as I’ve tried to stay true to myself and my own passions. My audience has always been super positive and supportive which is amazing especially when putting yourself there on a public platform such as Instagram. I believe a lot of my audience were from Australia specifically the cities of Melbourne & Sydney, but my third biggest following comes from London.

What are your audience most interested in hearing about?

My audience love to see the things that I purchase and how I would style these for everyday wear. Any posts I do about travel and beauty products also receive such a great response too.

Why do you enjoy working with Scrunch?

Working with Scrunch has allowed me to connect with so many amazing brands that I wouldn’t have otherwise had the opportunity to.

What was your favorite Scrunch campaign and why?

This is a no-brainer, the Mini Cooper Campaign. It was so much fun to test drive a Mini for the weekend. Shooting car related content was definitely out of my comfort zone being a fashion/ beauty blogger, but it was fun to get creative!

Big thanks to Kirsten for giving us such an interesting insight into her experiences as an influencer on Instagram and beyond.

Discover amazing fashion influencers like Kirsten Anderton from The Fashion Faddist on Scrunch