How NA-KD set the gold standard for fashion influencer marketing
Swedish fashion retailer NA-KD is only three years old and has already skyrocketed to become one of Europe’s 20 fastest growing companies, racking up 1.6M Instagram followers and over $70M in annual sales.
The secret to their success? Influencer marketing.
Well, not just any influencer marketing — carefully planned, aggressively executed, always-on influencer marketing that makes other brands say, “Wow, we didn’t know we could do it that way!”
That’s right. Influencer marketing wasn’t a one-off strategy for NA-KD. Social outreach was baked into their mission from the start and they hit the ground running to become one of the most successful online fashion retailers ever.
Here’s how they did it.
Work with micro-influencers at scale
NA-KD quickly learned an important lesson: It’s better to work with a large group of influencers who have smaller followings than a small group of influencers who have larger followings. They knew right away that micro- to-mid-influencers would be their bread and butter.
“We once collaborated with an influencer from the States with 1.6 million followers — much to our surprise, she didn’t deliver,” said NA-KD co-founder Ivana Vrbenski. “We then connected with a super cute German influencer with a following of around 350,000. Through her channels, she generated a ridiculous amount of sales within the first 24 hours — we were blown away and this ultimately proved that engagement and trust are the key to success for an influencer.”
Once they discovered this strategy, they ran with it, gifting thousands of micro-influencers with free products in exchange for authentic reviews on Instagram. They also gave select influencers unique promo codes to share with their audiences. This allowed them to launch messaging at scale and reach niche markets around the world without breaking the bank.
In the first year alone, the NA-KD generated a whopping 750,000 Instagram followers from 150 countries with this approach.
NA-KD now uses an “always-on” strategy, gifting thousands of influencers each month to keep their products in front of new and loyal audiences. Result: NA-KD is among the most mentioned Fashion brands by social influencers. As shown in Octoly Top 25 Fashion Brands on Instagram and Youtube published in May, NA-KD was ranked number 4 for Europe Top 25 on Instagram:
And this isn’t a one-man operation. To sustain it, NA-KD built an impressive team of 30 people solely dedicated to influencer marketing.
Boost gifting with affiliate marketing and paid collaborations
Gifting isn’t the only way NA-KD partners with influencers. The brand also invites influential bloggers to become brand ambassadors. Once they’re approved, these creators help spread brand awareness by featuring NA-KD banners on links on their sites. In exchange, they receive a commission for the products they sell on their blogs.
NA-KD also complements its gifting strategy by launching paid collaborations with top influencers. When they wanted to break into the US market, for instance, they collaborated with @rocky_barnes or @wendyslookbook. It was a double whammy: The widespread reach of these influencers helped NA-KD quickly build brand awareness while also engaging niche audiences through micro-influencer campaigns.
Nurture long-term relationships with influencers
We haven’t even gotten to the most impressive part yet: NA-KD takes its partnerships to the next level by inviting select influencers to design their own capsule collections. There are currently 10 capsule collections available to buy on the NA-KD website.
This move proves that NA-KD truly cares about its influencer partners. They’re not just mouthpieces; they’re actually creators who can make their voices heard and have a stake in the company’s products. After all, who knows the target audience better than these influencers? They’re on the front lines of fashion conversations and trends, which are constantly evolving on social media.
NA-KD doesn’t stop there, either. They also run competitions, inviting audiences to vote for the influencer they want to design the next collection. Not only does this save the brand time and effort on research, it also creates anticipation for products that haven’t even hit the market yet.
By nurturing influencers, NA-KD is primed to build loyal, long-term relationships that they can drive value from for years to come.
Create a self-sustainable influencer marketing machine
NA-KD has been so successful that they don’t even need to gift products to influencers anymore. Influencers come to them, using the hashtag #nakdfashion to share their posts and get the brand’s attention.
Just look at @matildaasv. With 5K followers, one of her posts was regrammed on NA-KD’s account and received 20K likes. On her own account, the same post only received 300 likes.
In under three years, it’s clear that NA-KD has already built a self-sustainable influencer marketing machine — one that makes competitors turn their heads and re-evaluate the potential of social partnerships.
And the best part is that we get a peek at what’s written in their playbook: Gift micro-influencers at scale, create always-on campaigns, and empower creators to build awareness, drive sales, and reach audiences around the world.
That’s all for NA-KD success story!
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Interested in working with micro-influencers yourself? Get started with our Gifting 101 guide, where you’ll find all our tips and tricks to raise your brand awareness and generate engagement through Instagram and YouTube reviews.
