Flow Communications

Giving brand marketing an emotional edge

We’ve all seen it in action. Word of mouth has time and again proven to be one of the most effective forms of marketing, and that’s why we at Flow are here to help you navigate this effective but challenging aspect of getting your message to the right audience.

We know in our bones that people believe other people before they believe facts and figures because, when you get down to it, we are all emotional beings. It’s how humans have survived for tens of thousands of years – through gathering information from leaders and peers.

That’s why influencer marketing, which is one type of word-of-mouth advertising, can be an effective part of your overall marketing toolkit. Getting influencers involved evokes a gut reaction in an audience that just cannot be replicated by persuasive statistics. Also, it helps you spread your message far and wide.

Influencer Marketing Montage
Flow Communications enlisted the help of several influencers, including influential organisations, to help Dr Judy Mann of the South African Association for Marine Biological Research spread the word about the first-ever Marine Protected Areas Day – 1 August 2021. The campaign was so successful that several other countries have signed up to #MPADay. (Image: Flow Communications)

One survey reported that nearly 60% of marketers said they achieved better performance from influencer marketing than from their own brand content, and it elicited eight times more engagement on social media than their brand content did.

But influencer campaigns are driven by individuals and so they can be scary. Flow knows this. We are here to help you.

We have won awards for our influencer campaigns, and we have built strong relationships with key South African influencers who are brimming with credibility and integrity. Your campaigns are safe with us.

You should consider influencer campaigns if you want to:

  • Broaden and boost brand awareness

  • Spread a particular message beyond the market share you have already captured

  • Establish credibility and trust with a new audience or among new audiences

  • Build and enhance credibility and trust

  • Stand out in a crowded marketplace

Flow can help you find the influencers most appropriate to your particular campaign – this list will be different for each campaign. We can also help you craft the message you would like the chosen influencers to convey, ensuring that your campaign has the best chance of working the way you would like it to. We can also create influencer packs that can be used by your chosen influencers to help to spread your message far and wide.

The Elders Tweet - 11th Annual Peace Lecture
To celebrate Anglican Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu’s 90th birthday on 7 October 2021, Flow Communications worked with influencers across the world to make sure that the international icon was celebrated. The Elders was just one of the influential organisations and individuals that used social media collateral designed by Flow when it wished Tutu happy birthday, and alerted its hundreds of thousands of followers to the 11th Desmond Tutu International Peace Lecture.

We have worked with several clients to produce award-winning influencer campaigns, including:

  • The South African Presidency

  • The Nelson Mandela Foundation

  • Elegant Fuel

  • The European Union

  • The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

  • Sci-Bono Discovery Centre

  • The German Information Centre (German Embassy in South Africa)

  • The Desmond & Leah Tutu Peace Foundation

  • The Table Mountain Aerial Cableway

  • The US State Department

  • The South African Association for Marine Biological Research

  • Constitution Hill

  • Maropeng

  • South African Tourism

  • The World Wildlife Fund

We have won several awards for our influencer campaigns, including:

  • Silver: Legacy award – New Generation Social & Digital Media Awards 2014 for the #MeetSouthAfrica campaign for South African Tourism

  • Silver: Best low-budget campaign – New Generation Social & Digital Media Awards 2014 for WWF-SA for the #iam4rhinos campaign for the World Wildlife Fund

  • Silver: Most viral campaign – New Generation Social & Digital Media Awards 2015 for the Nelson Mandela Foundation for Mandela Day 2015

  • Silver: Best use of social media in a loyalty programme – New Generation Social & Digital Media Awards 2015 for the #MeetSouthAfrica campaign for South African Tourism

  • Silver: Best community engagement – silver (South African Tourism for #MeetSouthAfrica campaign)

  • Best social media reach from an event – silver (Nelson Mandela Foundation’s 2016 Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture)

  • Most innovative use of social media – silver (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation #BestOfAfrica campaign)

  • Best low-budget campaign – bronze (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation #BestOfAfrica campaign)

  • Silver: Best Online PR Campaign 2018: – New Generation Social & Digital Media Awards 2018 Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF) – 16th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture with Barack Obama (silver)

  • Silver: Most Viral Campaign by an Agency: South African National Blood Service (SANBS) – New Generation Social & Digital Media Awards 2018 #NewBlood (silver)

  • Silver: Most Viral Campaign by an Agency – New Generation Social & Digital Media Awards 2021 for the Presidency of South Africa’s 2021 State of the Nation address