It’s no secret that Canon and Nikon are competitors. But when it comes to concocting the secret sauce of both brands’ marketing strategies, it appears the photography product manufacturers tap the shoulders of social media influencers. While we don’t examine each brand’s influencer marketing as cohesive campaigns, we can gather insights into individual influencer initiatives to understand how each brand leverages and execute this tactic.
Canon has multiple Instagram accounts representing different countries across the globe, and each handle has worked with different sets of influencers. In one of their largest influencer initiatives in 2016, they launched the #TagYoureIt campaign in partnership with Jamie Chung and 11 other influencers. Since then, they’ve also partnered with Instagrammers, such as actress Zoe Kravitz, to support their #LiveForTheStory campaign, as well as talented photographers, like Chelsea Kauai, for their #ShootForGreatness campaign. Further, they’ve worked with YouTubers, like photographer, Jessica Kobeissi, for professional photoshoots and product reviews.
Nikon has dabbled in the influencer environment as well, partnering with Warner Music Group for the SXSW Music event in the past. This gave Nikon a massive platform to display the camera’s versatile and high-quality features. The brand has also designated some of the world’s top photographers as official brand ambassadors, such as Daniel Kordan, an Instagram travel influencer.
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Connect to a diverse audience to highlight the agility of Canon products and boost brand awareness to encourage other photographers to share their visual stories.
Establish a unique connection between photography and music to showcase the product in action, as well as increase brand awareness by generating buzz on social media among a group of photography enthusiasts.
For the most part, the sponsored influencers could be categorized as experts in photography, but some fell within the ranks of talented social media influencers with an emphasis on imagery. Looking at the content, a couple patterns are clear:
This method of promotion comes across in an authentic manner, adding a personal touch to each message. In this way, fans are inclined to connect and relate to the influencers, while also growing their affinity for the product.
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Social Reach
Engagement
Social Reach
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Canon utilized a combination of hashtags to promote different campaigns, each centering on select influencers to amplify the message. In a sponsored Canon post, Chelsea Yamase, also known as Chelsea Kauai, featured the #ShootForGreatness hashtag as part of Canon’s challenge to capture a “weightless” moment. Her picture is a thrilling yet serene photo shot using the Canon EOS Rebel T7i. With over 625,000 followers seeking awe-inspiring adventures, Chelsea’s long-form photo caption generated over 60,886 likes and over 1,000 highly engaged comments. One fan even commented, “This is an incredible shot Chelsea!! I love Canon cameras!”
On YouTube, Canon partnered with Jessica Kobeissi, a fashion and portrait photographer with over 1 million subscribers. In her video review, she highlights the ability to snap cool confetti shots with an easy-to-use yet professional Canon camera. Framing her photoshoot as a confetti tutorial, she demonstrates the versatility of the camera to an audience that already seeks out her clever photography tutorials. Jessica received 100,641 views and over 1,500 comments from viewers discussing the tips and tricks, and commenting about the features of the camera or the results of their own photoshoots.
In partnership with Warner Music Group for the SXSW Music event, Nikon aimed to reach an audience interested in both music and photography. The event led to greater exposure through Lindsey Byrne’s multiple Instagram posts covering the event, one of which featured a well-known music artist, Paramore. Through her four posts documenting the event and a following of 69,000, Lindsey put Nikon’s camera in focus for a primed audience.
Nikon uses a similar approach on Instagram, identifying top-tier photographers to wear a badge of ambassadorship. Notably, Nikon partnered with photographer, Jerry Ghionis, who features his title as a Nikon Ambassador in his Instagram profile. In one of his sponsored posts, he points out the effortless beauty of a model captured by his Nikon camera. He also includes camera specs within his caption, which spurs his fans to comment with questions or food for thought on which Nikon camera equipment they should use. With just over 60,000 followers, Jerry’s photo earns 2,278 likes and 14 engaged comments.