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What interior brands & influencers can learn from Queer Eye’s Bobby Berk

What interior brands & influencers can learn from Queer Eye’s Bobby Berk

Queer Eye recently returned to our screens, and during a global pandemic that has seen a vast majority of us locked down at home - the spaces we inhabit are more important than ever.

Interior design and influence are a wonderful pairing, and brands are starting to take note. Let's peep at a campaign involving one prolific interior designer and a savvy company that was quick to utilise an ambassador program.

Who’s involved?

Interior designer Bobby Berk, best known as the design guru on Netflix’s Queer Eye. His own brand and blog have a fairly similar mission to Havenly - to inject stylish, spirited and youthful design into homes, regardless of lifestyle or budget.

We also have interior design service Havenly - a super-chic e-commerce company that basically turns your favourite Pinterest boards into a true-to-you room in your home. Its mission: to make interior design more affordable, accessible and fun.

Sounds like a match made in heaven, then. Let’s look closer.

Purpose of campaign

Bobby joined Havenly as the brand’s first ambassador in November 2019.

The main purpose of this campaign was to boost sales and awareness of Havenly and push online users to take its design style quiz - a fun tool that works out your interior personality (while collecting your email address).

Co-founder and CEO of the design service Lee Mayer announced her excitement about the partnership in a press release: “with Bobby’s impressive design background, expertise, and mission to make beautiful design accessible to all, working with him is an exciting step for the company.”

Of course, this is all true. Bobby the perfect organic fit for Havenly. And the fact he has 2.6m followers on his Instagram is a juicy little bonus.

Process

To announce Bobby’s new title of Havenly Brand Ambassador, the brand launched its campaign “Design & Chill”. It uploaded a lighthearted advert to its YouTube channel, featuring Bobby and his ‘Bestie’ showing how simple using the design service is.

Bobby tells the story of Havenly in an exciting and playful way. It details all of the services - from the designer-pairing service to the way the results make customers feel (“She’s crying - it’s working). The latter is a little nod to Queer Eye reveals and fans will love the fact they can get their own home makeover with a touch of the Fab Five.

Analysis

It’s pretty clear this influencer partnership is a match made in interior heaven. Both the brand and Bobby have similar values - as well as a style and voice that works perfectly together.

Bobby also talked about his excitement to be the first brand ambassador for Havenly, saying: “I’m on a mission to show the world that quality design can be accessible to everyone so my alignment with Havenly is a natural fit.”

As a leader in online home design, it’s a strong brand for Bobby to represent as it weaves into his own philosophies and the work he does - to make people feel good in their homes through beautiful design.

Outcome

With a fun advert and a compelling call-to-action, the ‘Design & Chill’ campaign is one we can all learn from.

  • The organic fit with Bobby makes the campaign believable and authentic.
  • The way Bobby describes Havenly is the way you’d describe it to a friend, which makes it more powerful.
  • The call-to-action is crystal clear - take the quiz.
  • The quiz has a leg-up on traditional static content. Interactive tools always win the attention of online users - this one especially takes the time to understand what people want and need out of their home.
  • The email capture halfway through the quiz makes it the perfect lead magnet.

By getting fans of Bobby (assumedly, with an interest in interior design) into its marketing funnel, there’s no doubt Havenly will have increased its sales. Well played!


Staff Writer