Marketing Happy Hour - Influencer Marketing 101: Building and Measuring Campaigns | Geena Massara of Girlfriend Collective

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey there, welcome to the Marketing Happy Hour podcast, where each week we're learning career-defining advice, powerful social media strategies, unique creative tips, groundbreaking influencer marketing tactics, and more from marketing experts that represent some of the world's leading brands. Let's dive in. Grab a drink and join your hosts, Cassie and Erica for this week's episode. For this week's marketing tip, I'm going to share with you guys five things to stop doing on social media. The first thing to stop doing is ignoring social media video content. You guys, you've heard

Starting point is 00:00:44 us talk about this time and time again, but video is absolutely king on social media video content. You guys, you've heard us talk about this time and time again, but video is absolutely king on social media right now. We've seen all of the platforms adopt video, short form, long form even, but if you are ignoring these features right now, guys, you've got to get on this. Number two is not clearly defining your niche. So basically what defining your niche means is defining who you're serving and what type of value you're going to provide for them. So a niche can be very specific, a type of demographic or audience that you're serving with your content and going out there and creating content to provide to them specifically in the

Starting point is 00:01:21 problems that they have. Number three kind of goes hand in hand with that, and it is posting content that doesn't serve your audience. So again, after you define your niche, make sure you're creating content that speaks directly to the problems that they have in the solutions that you're providing for their problems. And number four is not using hooks in your content. Attention spans are super short nowadays, so if we aren't creating copy that engages our audience immediately and captures their attention, guys, no one's gonna look at our content.

Starting point is 00:01:52 So that's a big one for this year. And lastly is ignoring your analytics tab. You guys have to be analyzing your data on a regular basis. Come up with some sort of plan and report to provide to your team or your company or your clients that goes over exactly what happened on social media in the month prior. And that way you can identify trends, things that you need to improve, and basically what your audience is reacting to the most. Hello, Marketing Happy Hour listeners. This is Erika, and I'm so excited to share with you all

Starting point is 00:02:30 about our guest this week. Cassie sits down with Gina Massara, Senior Marketing Manager working on all things affiliate and influencer at Girlfriend Collective, a sustainable and ethical activewear company making seriously cute fits with recycled water bottles. Prior to her time at Girlfriend, she was the senior affiliate manager at BuzzFeed and even worked at FabFitFun before that. In this episode, Gina shares her best tips for how to incorporate affiliate marketing into your strategy, the best KPIs to utilize in order to measure the success of a campaign, and how to decide whether your brand should work with micro or macro influencers. I'm a huge fan of Girlfriend Collective and of Gina, and I'm so excited for you to learn from

Starting point is 00:03:17 her. So let's just make sure your glass is topped off and dive in. Hey Hey Gina, how are you? I'm doing so well. How are you? So good. So I'm so excited to chat with you today, but before we get started, we do have to ask this question to all of our guests because it is marketing happy hour, but what is in your glass tonight? I am drinking an Olipop and a water. I'm always double fisting beverages, but what are you drinking tonight? I love that. I am drinking my signature Trader Joe's margarita. I've made it for years. It is the Trader Joe's margarita mix, which I feel like is so underrated. No one talks about it. I love a spicy margarita. So I muddle some jalapenos in it. I squeeze some fresh lime juice. I do some tequila Blanco, my favorite Espelon.

Starting point is 00:04:08 And then I rim or do the rim with the Trader Joe's chili lime seasoning. And it's just chef's kiss. Oh my goodness. Where did you learn how to make that? Did you just teach yourself? Oh my God. I, I'm a horrible cook, but I fancy myself an amateur bartender. So I love making drinks for my friends.

Starting point is 00:04:27 Like my favorite thing. Oh my goodness. I love that. Um, that is so great. I'm going to go to Trader Joe's. I have one down the street. I'm going to make that because that sounds fabulous. And I too love a spicy margarita.

Starting point is 00:04:38 So I will be trying that. I appreciate that. Um, awesome. So we'd first love to hear a little bit about your current role in the company that you're working for and kind of a little bit of background on what your team is currently focusing on and working on at the moment as well. Yeah. So I am with Girlfriend Collective. Girlfriend Collective is a brand that I was such a huge fan of prior to joining the team about five months ago. And I just have so much adoration for what has been built.

Starting point is 00:05:07 I think in my first interview, I probably gushed to the founder for like 45 minutes. It's a little embarrassing, but it worked out for me. So no complaints. So for anyone who might not know, Girlfriend Collective is a sustainable, ethically made fashion brand. We utilize recycled plastic in our materials. And on top of that, we offer a really wide range of sizes. So we go from double X extra small to 6XL. And we even created our own program, which is

Starting point is 00:05:31 called ReGirlfriend, where we take back your old pieces and we upcycle them into new pieces. So our goal is to create really incredible quality products, reduce waste, and kind of just create a cyclical movement with all of our products and with our audience. So like I said, I was brought on about five months ago to run all marketing and growth partnerships. So that includes influencer, affiliate, and then any supplemental opportunities. So event activations, B2B partnerships, so on and so forth. Currently, we are very much in the heavy trenches of holiday, but trying to kind of peer out and look towards 2022. So as a brand, we're in a very cool evolutionary stage right now, transforming from mainly an activewear brand to now kind of more of a fashion lifestyle brand.

Starting point is 00:06:15 We've recently launched outerwear accessories, a masculine collection, and then even slides. So we're really excited to continue to kind of expand that reach and make an even bigger impact of the company. Oh, I love that. And I'm a huge fan. I know Eric and I both love the brand so much. And so we're so excited to speak with you. And I know you guys do such amazing work marketing wise, and also just the brand in general. You know, we talked to someone last season about empathy and marketing and how empathy can kind of, um, expand through in different areas of the business, you know, empathy for people, but also empathy for the planet. Um, and so what you guys are doing is absolutely incredible and so timely, especially for now. So we love girlfriend collective and, um, you know, I'm excited to dive deeper into what you do for

Starting point is 00:07:01 the brand. So, um, for your role your role specifically, you know, it deals a lot with influencers and affiliate marketing. And I know for people, especially, you know, starting out in the marketing space, the difference between affiliate marketing and influencer marketing, there's a little bit of a blurred line there and the definition of those two. So how would you kind of define those two and the differences between and where you would use one versus the other? Yeah, it's really, really interesting. You know, I think in the past couple of years, especially the lines between the two have really blurred. So if you think about like five years ago, or maybe like the Google answer right now,

Starting point is 00:07:41 it's very much influences are paid to promote a brand to their audience. They're given probably a script, some kind of posting guidelines and are essentially just acting as an ambassador, whereas affiliate marketing is much more performance based. So a blog or publisher will give your brand a shout out or a dedicated article and then get paid for each sale that they drive each conversion, each click, so on and so forth. And many brands actually do still treat influencer and affiliate just like that. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's just kind of the kind of the basis of what that

Starting point is 00:08:08 means. But now those terms are almost interchangeable, right? So an influencer can also be paid on a performance basis. So if you see a discount code or an affiliate link when they're promoting to their audience, conversely, a brand can now pay a publisher to write about their brand. So they can even provide that script or an angle that they want portrayed to then exist in a digital presence. So I would also say that a really big difference that is very, it's very clear when an influencer is being impaid. So in the past couple of years, especially, there's been lots of laws being created where

Starting point is 00:08:40 you have to say hashtag ad in partnership with sponsors. And whereas that same fact is not totally true of affiliates or publishers or blogs, because there's just so many nuances. You know, maybe a publisher isn't being paid a flat fee, but given a commission increase, that's kind of an incentive to write about a brand or product. And all of those pieces align together to create a very skeptical audience, which I think is creating a really interesting kind of shift in marketing and understanding how to create that trust. So, you know, the way that each of those types of partnerships can be treated varies very much

Starting point is 00:09:14 brand to brand. In our case, we definitely see influencers as like a true partner. So I will never give an influencer a script. I won't even send them products that they didn't specifically ask for as a brand that is so focused on sustainability and avoiding overconsumption. We never want to be doing a big giant haul or, you know, the 15 pairs of leggings every month or something like that, because that's just not something that our brand ethos stands for. And so being able to actually partner, have a personal relationship with each of these influencers we work with and say, hey, when you want new product, let us know.

Starting point is 00:09:47 If you see a launch that you really like, let us know. If you have some old product, send them to us to re-girlfriend and we can recycle them for you and make sure that you as an ambassador are actually speaking for our brand and not just speaking to make sales in a sense. And then when it comes to affiliates, that's really our chance to tell a story. So again, we won't give a script per se, but we have so many interesting storytelling pieces, especially as we launch new fabrics or, you know, for example, we just launched a slide that is the first fully recyclable shoe. There's shoes out there that use recycled materials, but the recycled products can't be made into another shoe. Our slide can be fully recycled into another girlfriend's slide. That's a really cool new product that we're really excited to kind of share that story. And those affiliate partners

Starting point is 00:10:33 writing about us can then say, this is the story. This is what's really interesting. Yes, they are, you know, driving sales and yes, they are getting paid commissions on that. But something that is really important to us is that authenticity. I think that at this day and age, people can sniff that out a mile away when it's inauthentic or when it's a paid placement or anything like that. And so even if there is, you know, someone's being paid, say an influencer or it's a sponsor, separate, some partnership, we definitely want that advertisement to come from their voice. We don't want it to be a copy paste and you see 45 other influencers post the same thing. Um, because we trust those audiences, whether it's an affiliate partner or an influencer partner, we are, we are very

Starting point is 00:11:14 selective and we are working with them because we see them as someone whose audience is someone that makes sense for us. And so they've built the trust there already. Why are we going to tamper with that? We're going to leave it to them, trust them to create the content that they've been creating and build our audiences that way. a set budget per category? Are you focusing on one or the other, or is it just kind of whichever opportunities that you all come kind of upon in a given time? Yeah, I really love working at a smaller company or a startup because I think that those are the companies that allow a lot of flexibility. We are not, you know, tethering ourselves to one budget or one goal. We are very flexible. When an opportunity presents itself, we take advantage of it. And that's

Starting point is 00:12:10 something that I think a lot of companies could take kind of a note from that I've noticed. I've been at Girlfriend now close to six months, and I've never faced a roadblock. I've never really heard, no, there's a lot of trust instilled in me um and because of that we aren't following uh you know an abc guidebook we're very much flexing with with the the motions of everything and kind of uh you know if we test something out and it's doing great lean into it throw a bunch of money that direction um if we try something that was a little expensive and it doesn't work out no harm no foul now we know back off of it um and, and I think that that, uh, having that kind of power gives you a lot of accountability and makes you feel very kind of encouraged to take a little bit more of a risk and, and play a little bit more, um, which I really appreciate.

Starting point is 00:12:55 Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a great, and it's funny because I feel like we've seen that flexibility, like you said, kind of more in the smaller companies or the startups, but a lot of larger brands, agencies, you know, really any company can learn to be a little bit more flexible and to trust their team more. It's super important, especially with, you know, things that happen in a timely manner. So breaking news or anything like that, where a brand getting a message out in that given time is so important rather than waiting too long to put your message through numbers of, you know, authority figures to approve that messaging. I saw a lot of brands over the last couple of years actually get in trouble and consumers kind of looked poorly upon them because they weren't talking about something in a timely manner. They

Starting point is 00:13:40 weren't sharing that messaging that day. They shared it, you know, five days later and it just looks a little bit tone deaf. So it's so important, like you said, to be flexible and to kind of trust your team to put out correct messaging and to have that, you know, solid knowledge of your brand to be able to speak on behalf of it. So I love that that's kind of what you guys are currently doing. So within the influencer marketing space, you know, there's been a big debate and it kind of varies depending on the brand and their preferences and what performs best for them. But, you know, there's different

Starting point is 00:14:14 levels of influencers. So we see micro macro, there's even different levels other than that. But do you guys have a certain focus in terms of kind of the size of influencer you're looking to work for? Is that, does it kind of vary across the board or what do you kind of see in that area? Yeah, it definitely varies. I think that when we look at our strategic partnerships and where we really see growth is in those micro influencers, what's really, and I joke all the time that I have the easiest job in the world because Girlfriend is a brand that is so beloved by so many, whether it be celebrities or influencers or athletes or people are wearing it organically already. I remember when I joined the team and I found out there was no influencer strategy before me. And I was so confused because I was like, I have seen everyone and their mother wearing this brand.

Starting point is 00:15:01 How was none of that strategic? Consumers are really, I've said it before, but they're becoming so, so smart. And as a response, we are really seeing a new wave of influencers on the scene. I think that that kind of 2010 OG definition of an influencer is really no longer relevant because the trust has been broken there because that was when we were learning, how do you show a sponsored post? Should we just copy paste? Should we give everyone a discount code? You know, there was a lot of learning to be done. Now, I think people follow influencers very intentionally. There are macro influencers that are living these really aspirational lives. It's really fun to fantasize about

Starting point is 00:15:39 going on vacation every other week and, you know, never outfit repeating and having a fresh wardrobe every other week. That is not actually going to convert an audience because no one's looking to them for genuine recommendations. They're looking to them as entertainment or as an escape. On the flip side, the micro influencers have a very attainable lifestyle. Usually it's someone just talking to their camera in their bedroom. You know, their audiences are looking to them for those genuine recommendations and they actually trust the product that they are endorsing, especially because I think a lot of these smaller creators, I've noticed it, especially on TikTok, you see them blow up very quickly. And so when someone's endorsing something, when they have 500 followers and they continue to endorse

Starting point is 00:16:18 that project product, when they have, you know, a million followers, everyone knows that that's true and that that feels real. And they've, they've built this friendship almost with this person, they know their face, they feel like they're talking to them every day. And it's that level of trust is untouchable, no matter how big they get. Whereas I think those early influencers kind of face this weird disadvantage, where as they blew up, the trust was lost. So it's just, it's not that either is more or less powerful. It's more so just like, what are you looking for? If you want that exposure and you just want people to know your brand name and to see someone incredible wearing it, it's the macro. If you

Starting point is 00:16:54 want to convert, it's the micro for sure. So you talked about TikTok a little bit. In 2022, do you guys kind of have a plan in terms of which platforms where you're finding influencers you'll focus on? Or again, is it kind of the flexible nature of things and kind of seeing what you guys discover? Definitely flexible, but I will say we have seen so much success in video formats. I think that when you look at clothing, we are a brand who's constantly tries to represent as many body types on our website as possible. So anyone can click on a product and see what they may look like in it or what it, how it might fall on them and things like that. And I think that the video format gives that in such a, an instant way and

Starting point is 00:17:35 such an organic discovery way. You know, I think about the first person that comes to mind for me is Remy Bader, who started doing these realistic try on hauls and anyone who had not seen their body type represented before is now seeing this girl who's not only you know so personable and charming and just fun to watch but giving a really honest opinion of you know calling out these brands who have really inconsistent sizing or who claim to be inclusive or anything like that and and making it a little bit funny not making it so serious and just kind of giving them the opportunity to change. And to see that a creator like that has been able to influence brands to literally expand their size ranges or include more diverse models on their site is so incredibly exciting to me. And I think that what's really cool is that influencers and creators are also just as intelligent as that consumer.

Starting point is 00:18:22 And they will seek us out because they see that we're someone that's not doing that in a marketing effort. We're doing it because that's something that's been to our core that we've always done. And so they want to work with us, you know, in a very organic way, whether it is organic or they, you know, are looking to kind of build a little bit of a larger partnership. Leaning into those video formats and, you know, I'm resisting reels as much as possible because I'm a TikTok fan for life. But at the end of the day, that video format is what is driving the power conversation. It's not just about, I think the other thing is you can't trust pictures

Starting point is 00:18:56 anymore. You know, I can pay $3.99 and make myself look like a Kardashian. Like it's so easy to alter what it is that you're selling. And then obviously there's filters on videos too, but the video format has a lot more kind of a relatable energy to it. It reminds me honestly of the like OG YouTube blogs that people used to do that really, really blew up just a daily blog, really raw, hardly edited, just like pretty music in the background. And I love that those are having a resurgence on TikTok. I think they're really, really cool. Yeah. Yeah. TikTok, you know, they kind of pioneered this wave of people being so obsessed with short form video and we're seeing now reels and also Facebook's getting reels and YouTube

Starting point is 00:19:35 shorts, you know, it's definitely a huge trend among consumers and it's a great snappy way to kind of get a message across or share something. And, um, you mentioned, you know, video being kind of a, a great realistic representation of, of a brand. And one thing I hate to say this, but you mentioned Kardashians and I'm thinking of Kylie Jenner swim line blew up on Tik TOK because, you know, people were going on her website and seeing this beautiful, you know, digital photograph of the swimsuit. It looks great. It fit the model really well. And then people were receiving it in person and trying it on, on Tik TOK. And you saw that kind of,

Starting point is 00:20:15 um, actual representation of what that product looked like. And so it was pretty sad for Kylie to see that and to see her brand get bashed so much, but it is important for these brands to realize that, listen, people are going to post this on TikTok. They're going to post it on their stories. They're going to capture it with their iPhone. So making something that's obviously, you know, sustainable, but also something that represents, you know, the brand in a positive way through different types of digital channels like that. So, um, yeah, I, I think that's huge and it's, it's great to be able to have influencers to partner with who can represent your brand in a very realistic way. It's, it's so great, but

Starting point is 00:20:56 what is your, um, do you guys have a specific vetting process for influencers and affiliates? Are there different criteria that you guys kind of analyze and look for when deciding to work with someone? Yeah, for influencers, we focus on just being as diverse, a pool of creators as possible. So I love when I, you know, come across a creator or someone that just looks like no one we've worked with before. That is my ultimate like dream is every time that happens, I'm like, hooray, I cannot wait to work with this person, you know, and that's, you know, I say diversity in terms of like ages, body types, stages of life. Like there's so many different kinds of pieces that I also think get ignored or kind of get shoved aside or even get put into kind of that like

Starting point is 00:21:38 percentage pool of like, okay, let's make sure we have one person this age in our campaign and one person with a disability and one person of color like it's very it's again it's very transparent when it's not authentic and it's just like filling a percentage or filling a box um something that I've always loved that we say at Girlfriend is that diversity inclusion is not something we advertise it's just something we do um and I think it's so important for us to reflect that in our external partnerships, in addition to on our own platforms. You know, we mainly focus our affiliate strategy on content, and that means big digital publishers, but also smaller blogs. So there's been quite a few blogs coming out as of recent that are, you know, sustainability focused or roundups of the best sustainable brands or kind of these shoppable marketplaces of sustainable brands, which I think is so cool

Starting point is 00:22:25 because there's so much greenwashing in the industry and having those kinds of sites that you can actually trust and you don't have to read. As much as I think our About Us page is fascinating and interesting, sometimes people just don't have the time to do that and they want to just be able to trust

Starting point is 00:22:39 that what they're purchasing, again, isn't just marketing, it is actually sustainable. They are actually doing a good thing for the planet and making an impact. So, you know, I'll say it again, but something that's really cool about a company like Girlfriend is there is so much to the story. So whether it's, you know, a fashion trend article or a workout routine or a sustainable educational piece, like we can add impact. Yes, absolutely. And so following a campaign, are there any specific KPIs that you guys are measuring or kind of looking for as well? Yeah, we definitely focus on

Starting point is 00:23:13 engagement and conversions are probably our two big things. And we are very, very attentive to our audience. So whether that is on our own or on like an influencer post, we are very attentive to the, you know, feedback or sometimes criticism that we get. Again, very, very lucky that we have such a, like a tight team that is so communicative and can tell each other, you know, we've seen this complete five times or, you know, I think that I've done like a Kylie, Kylie swim line where it's like the, the panty line was like, not even enough to cover like a finger. And it was like very quickly, if for some reason we launched something that had a fit issue like that that I know for a fact it would be resolved

Starting point is 00:23:48 very quickly and we would be able to relaunch and communicate to our audience hey we saw that people were complaining about this or people didn't love this so we went ahead and altered it um which I really really love and I think is something that I think it's so funny to me the amount of brands who I see so much feedback and then they just like ignore it. And it's like, you're literally just turning down dollars. I'm very confused by this. But, you know, I also think that we are very willing to be flexible with a partner if we believe in it. So if we start working with someone and we think they are making the most beautiful content

Starting point is 00:24:19 we've ever seen and, you know, they're not converting, then we can kind of shift that strategy and say, OK, maybe, you know, you're not converting, then we can kind of shift that strategy and say, okay, maybe, you know, you're not an ambassador with a discount code. Maybe you're someone who we're working with to create ad content or who we're whitelisting with or something like that. So I will also say we definitely vet those partners very strictly. And then if it doesn't work out the way we hoped, we will kind of flex a little bit and try to make it work because we, we know when we believe in someone or a partnership, um, we kind of want to make it work in any way possible. Um, especially because I think with a brand like girlfriend, which is so aesthetic and beautiful. And I think our creative team does such a great job of portraying that that's not, that's not always the stuff that's going to sell

Starting point is 00:24:59 that kind of content. So being able to be, um, flexible in that regard is also really important. Yeah, absolutely. And I know this is another thing that's had a lot of debate around it, but a lot of different businesses have kind of different opinions on paying either one influencer, you know, one time posting about something, getting it out there to their audience or actually building a relationship with that influencer and kind of, you know, saturating their audience over time. Do you have any thoughts or opinions on kind of one strategy versus the other and what you guys kind of look for at Girlfriend? I definitely look towards the long

Starting point is 00:25:36 term. And I think that that is mainly because the customers that we attract and the base that we have built is a lifelong customer. There is someone who loves the product, who cares about sustainability, who's going to come back, who's going to re-girlfriend with us, who's going to build up loyalty points, who's going to come back for our sales. And so it makes the most sense for us to work with influencers in that same way and to have them build that relationship with their audience in like a cyclical motion and be able to speak to the entire customer life cycle. You know, again, just because that is who we are as a brand, we are a brand who wants you to keep coming back and recycling with us and trying out new products

Starting point is 00:26:16 and building up a wardrobe that's really intentional and sustainable, as opposed to just, you know, we've been kind of sidetracking, but we recently started doing something where when we do limited launches, we'll send it out a day or two early and tell our audience, Hey, bookmark what you're interested in. Don't get excited and over-consumed because you know, there's urgency or scarcity. Be really thoughtful about what you're buying because, you know, as much as it's great to continue to grow as a brand and increase our revenue, we really don't want to forget what our bottom line is. Yeah, absolutely. Well, we're going to switch gears a little bit into talking career. So you have worked with some pretty exciting brands like FabFitFun and BuzzFeed.

Starting point is 00:26:54 So do you have any advice for millennials or people within the Gen Z category looking to land positions with aspirational brands similar to the ones you've worked with? Yeah. So I have kind of two pieces of advice that have really stuck with me. So the one piece I can give is to really trust your gut. So when I interviewed with FabFitFun, they were a tiny startup. They shared an office with four other companies. No one had ever heard of them. After my interview, I had a really, really good feeling about, you know, I had spoken to who became my future boss and a couple of the founding team members. And then just, I had a really, really good feeling about, you know, I had spoken to who became my future boss and a couple of the founding team members. And then just I saw a lot of potential in the company. So I was literally days away from graduating college. I received a job offer from FabFitFun. And at the same time, I received another offer from a really established kind of like old school fashion company who I will not name.

Starting point is 00:27:43 The latter was definitely more secure, but I didn't feel super excited about them. They were one of those brands I'd seen in the mall since I was a little kid. And I was like, I don't feel excited about this brand the way that I did about Profit Fund. The way that the team spoke about the products and what they were building just really rang true to me. And so I decided to take a leap of faith very much against the advice of my parents and friends. And I joined the tech startup. I was their 20th employee. And four years later, we were, I think, over 500 employees strong and a household name. So, you know, I think that it's important to note that the aspirational company wasn't born that way. So

Starting point is 00:28:21 if you see a company and you see passion and you see vision, trust that and be excited about it. Even if you are super junior, I was literally entry level when I walked in that door and I could tell that I was going to have an impact. And that was something that was really exciting to me. And then the other piece of advice that I'll share, and I literally hate the word networking, but there is a lot of power in the connections that you're able to make. Especially, I would say when you're really young in your career, people are more willing to help you than you might think. You know, shooting out a LinkedIn DM, take every opportunity. So go to the events and the panels, even if it means like awkwardly sitting at the bar and like sipping a beer and

Starting point is 00:29:00 maybe connecting with one person, but connecting with those peers in your industry is so, so, so helpful. You know, I think about how I've grown in my career. When I got the position at BuzzFeed, it was a friend who recommended me. When I got the position at Girlfriend, one of my old employees had known the founder. And, you know, once they found out that I was interviewing, basically tapped him

Starting point is 00:29:19 and was like, you're crazy not to hire her. I'm sure that had a huge impression on him and was a huge reason why I ended up getting the position. So, you know, whether it's as direct as that, or even a little bit more, you know, of a multi-step process or just grabbing coffee or drinks with someone and kicking their brain a little bit. I was so, so lucky and shocked at how many people really early in my career were so willing to help me out in that way. And I've been so lucky now to be able to pay that forward. As a woman, especially, you know, becoming a leader in any industry is going to be a huge added challenge. So making those connections is really important, not just while

Starting point is 00:29:55 you're looking for new opportunities, but even while you're just like carving out a position that you're already in. Yeah, absolutely. And influencer marketing is, it's not as new anymore, but it is still, you know, a lot of brands have started to add more and more positions within that space. It's kind of becoming a lot more popular among people in marketing. So do you have any advice for people looking to get into that space and how do people stay on top of kind of the trends and what's going on within that industry as well? Yeah. You know, influencer marketing is really such an interesting field. It's one of those really fun jobs to like explain to people who are over the age of 50, you know, like,

Starting point is 00:30:34 and just really try to lay into them what affiliate and influencer means. But I think that it's mainly because successful influencer marketing is not black and white. What is successful to one brand may not be successful for another. And there's so much kind of gray area in terms of performance tracking. So I think that that might scare a lot of people away from it because it's not as easy to just say, yes, I reached this goal or yes, this was a positive ROI. But that being said, I would say my best piece of advice for breaking into the industry is to really view influencers as true partners, as opposed to kind of like transactional. And that's something that I've been able to see, especially just in communicating with the influencers directly. Being able to build that relationship from the ground up is so impactful.

Starting point is 00:31:21 And it makes them more excited to work with us. They, you know, every single influencer that we work with has my email address can reach me and I will get back to them. If they have an issue with their order, if they see a launch that they're excited about, if the product is sold out, what have you, like they know that they can reach me and that I'm not just, you know, sending a nameless invoice or anything like that.

Starting point is 00:31:41 It's very much a partnership in the truest sense of the word. It's a really funny industry too, because it's impossible to be ahead of it. We are at the mercy of what these apps decide to do. So the second that Instagram introduced Reels or TikTok is going to become shoppable soon, we then have to take it upon ourselves to completely shift our entire strategy. So I would say the best way to stay on top of the trends is to just be as flexible as possible and know that any plan that you make can get turned on its head at any given time. But I also think that's what makes the industry really fun and gives a lot of people the opportunity to break into it and be successful in it without having to put in, you know, 15 years of hard work behind them, being able to say, you know what, I get this industry. I'm curious about

Starting point is 00:32:29 doing something creative with it or something a little different or testing into it. And as long as you're kind of committed to that and tracking your results properly, anyone can be really successful very quickly. Yeah, absolutely. And you kind of mentioned that within, you know, the social media influencer world, it's kind of hard to anticipate what those platforms may do. And in terms of trends, you know, we talked a little bit about short space, are there any specific kind of focuses that you'll have or trends that you anticipate happening that you're looking forward to? Yeah. You know, I think, and we've seen it happening slowly, but surely, but I think that bringing influencers onto O and O channels is definitely going to be really big next year and making that partnership a little bit more personable. And as opposed to just saying,

Starting point is 00:33:25 you know, Hey, influencer X, Y, and Z is posting about girlfriend, it's going to be influencer X posted about girlfriend. And next week they did a takeover of the girlfriend Instagram, or they shared their top sustainability tips, or they did a live and, you know, modeled our newest launch for, for everyone and building again, I think that I I'm such a broken record, but like the partnership aspect, I think it's forgotten so often. And it's the people are viewed as a number or a statistic or a transaction. And that is not where the growth is going to be found. So I am I love that I've seen it on YouTube a couple times to with, you know, doing things like interviews with whether it be with a model or an influencer, or, you you know, an athlete maybe that aligns with the launch that we're doing. Um, it's something that we've

Starting point is 00:34:08 leaned into that I really, really like. Awesome. Yeah. And this is a question that we love asking all of our guests here, but is there anything, um, that, you know, now in your career that you wish you knew early on? So many things. I would say the first thing that came to mind, which is a little bit funny, I think, but I wish influencer marketing, you know, the list goes on and on, but none of those career steps or swaps hindered my growth in any way. It wasn't like I had to pick a lane day one and stick with that. And any, anywhere I, I, you know, my eyes turned was going to throw me off course. And I was going to have to start from ground zero again. I think that when you are attentive to an entire industry and you are working with a brand that you feel excited about, that passion translates very easily and you're able to adapt

Starting point is 00:35:11 to any of those fields, you know, even cross industry. You know, I think about, I went from kind of an e-commerce merchandising side to much more marketing focus just in the past couple of years. And that was always that thing that I never thought was possible, unless you started from ground zero, or, you know, moved back a few steps. But that's not true at all. And I think that especially when it comes to creating connections, building authentic relationships with kind of your peers, or maybe, you know, a past boss, or someone who worked on another team at your old company, and making sure that your, you know, abilities are known. All of this stuff is so translatable. And like the only difference between different positions within a company

Starting point is 00:35:51 are, you know, very, very black and white, just kind of like you have to learn the metrics of it. But when you have, when you know what your, your strengths are and your skills and you lean into that, you can go across many different industries. So I know that my strength is in partnerships and building relationships. And so whether that's with a brand, whether that's with an influencer, whether that's with an affiliate, whether that's with an event, that's, it's all the same thing. And I am able to then kind of cross into different industries because of that. I'm someone who honestly just gets bored really easily. So I did to keep on switching things up as my career kind of continued along. So I think that's something that I was always terrified of when I thought about it. But now that I am where I am, I'm like, no, anyone can make a career shift at any time.

Starting point is 00:36:40 If you're interested about something, take it, take a LinkedIn class on it or watch a YouTube tutorial about it. Like everything is so, there's so much accessible information and education right now. You know, I know people who taught themselves how to code on YouTube. Like it's insane. So, you know, never, never allow yourself to kind of hinder your growth because you feel like you have to start over. Yeah, absolutely. I think the excuse of I can't

Starting point is 00:37:06 is no longer relevant, especially with all of the resources like you talked about that are available nowadays. But do you have any specific goals for your, your position now? And also just for your career in general, or are there certain steps that you're taking right now to kind of achieve those goals? Yeah, I would say within my position right now, because I've kind of built the team from a ground up and by a team, I mean myself, you know, my goal is definitely to eventually be able to hire out, build out a really, really incredible team. You know, like I said, paying it forward, I've had such incredible mentors in my life. And so any chance that I get to kind of pass that along, I'm so excited to do. And then I think in terms of just like my high level career, I am so lucky now that I'm at a point where I can choose

Starting point is 00:37:58 to only work for companies that I feel genuinely inspired by. I don't, I don't feel like I have to take a job because I just need a career or need to keep moving forward. I am now in a position where I can be picky, which I'm really, really appreciative of. And I'm so, so lucky that I have been able to reach that at this stage in my life. And so, you know, I, I'm, I'm kind of keeping my eyes and ears open in the industry and seeing progress that's being made. Working for a company like Girlfriend has really opened my eyes into what is possible. I think that there's so many flaws in the fashion industry right now and consumers are being blamed for it. And it is not a consumer issue, it's an industry issue. And so until the industry decides that they are going to intentionally stop overproduction and stop

Starting point is 00:38:45 the unethical production of product and, you know, start offering fair wages and start charging a little bit more for their products because of it and inevitably boost some customers because of it until that happens, like change is not going to come. And so working for a company like Girlfriend who has been so committed to this and from day one and never compromises who they are as a company like Girlfriend who has been so committed to this from day one and never compromises who they are as a company has been really inspiring to me, especially as someone who eventually wants to start my own company, seeing how possible that is and, and knowing that, that authenticity really shines through has been really inspiring to me. That's so awesome. Well, and I have enjoyed hearing about your role about Girlfriend Collective

Starting point is 00:39:25 and cannot wait for everyone else to hear this, but I would love to hear before we close out, where we can follow Girlfriend Collective, but also you across any social media channels that you want to share with everyone. Yes. So we are on everything at Girlfriend. We just got our TikTok. We're very excited about that. Yeah, feel free to give us a follow. We are really expanding a lot of our kind of social goals in terms of not just promoting our own product, but potentially entering some kind of like a newsletter space and kind of spreading the information

Starting point is 00:40:02 and spreading the knowledge. We've built a lot of trust with our audience. And I think we kind of want to pay that forward and give them more opportunities to discover new brands that align with our beliefs. Awesome. And then for you, LinkedIn, Instagram, where can we find you at? Yes. LinkedIn. It's, I don't know what my like URL is, but Gina Mastara, I spell both of my names weird. So G-E-E-N-A and M-A-S-S-A-R-A. And then my Instagram is at jeans, G-E-E-N-Z and two underscores. I'm going to promote my TikTok because I'm obsessed with TikTok. My TikTok name is at hot pink pits. Love it.

Starting point is 00:40:50 There's one piece of advice that I can leave the world with is that you don't have to be like boring and plain to be successful in marketing. I love this industry. I have multiple team members who have like fun hair colors who are so themselves and so personable. And I am so excited to exist in a time where that is possible. I've never worked for a company where I had to, where I couldn't wear like casual clothes to work and I could not imagine a life like that. Um, and yeah, just, I love working in an industry that like individuality

Starting point is 00:41:16 and like encourages it. Yeah, absolutely. Me too. And I cannot wait to continue to follow you across all channels and follow girlfriend. We're so excited about what you guys have coming up, but taking the time to do this interview with us today. And again, we cannot wait to get this out there, but, um, thanks Gina so much. I appreciate it. Thanks so much, Kathy. What an incredible interview i cannot wait to follow up with gina in the coffee shop slack chat where we met about all of her incredible insight if you also enjoyed this episode please

Starting point is 00:41:54 remember to rate and leave a review and as always follow along with us on instagram at marketing happy hour that's at marketing happy hr We have some really exciting things coming up and our Instagram followers will be the first to know. So seriously, don't miss out.

Marketing Happy Hour - Influencer Marketing 101: Building and Measuring Campaigns | Geena Massara of Girlfriend Collective

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