brand case study 2022

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Brand Marketing Case Studies

This collection features brands and content creators that used video and other digital tactics to drive innovation, connect with their consumers, and drive brand and business metrics. Learn about best practices, creative executions, and how brands achieved success through digital.

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Comedy central’s innovative search/youtube strategy sends fans on an internet-wide easter egg hunt, fiat's 500x crossover ad drives audience engagement on youtube, how orkin's youtube content strategy exterminated the 'ew'-factor and boosted brand awareness, gillette wins with a digital-first approach for gillette body, how maybelline new york's eye-catching youtube campaign dared consumers to 'go nude', driving sales for retailers with youtube's trueview for shopping, l'oréal canada finds beauty in programmatic buying, rosetta stone embraces mobile video to generate 10x increase in site traffic, new balance races past pre-order goal with youtube trueview and google lightbox ads, how budweiser won the big game with "puppy love", jcpenney optical boosts in-store traffic and brand exposure with google advertising, how activision reached over 2m subscribers on youtube, aéropostale partners with youtube star bethany mota to drive leads, sales and fans, mondelēz international improves campaign effectiveness with google’s brand lift solution, visit california lifts intent to travel to california with a unique experience on youtube, toyota drives engagement with first +post ads campaign, brand usa boosts travel intent 22% with 'discover america' campaign, kraft serves up a fresh take on food with a side of google, hyatt brings its brand experience to life with google solutions, ehealth boosts brand awareness with google display ads, sunrun uses google's brand lift solution to measure campaign recall, topshop reinvents its london fashion week show on google+ and engagement triples, chevrolet drives brand awareness for its new traverse, unilever's 'project sunlight' shines with 77 million youtube views, mercedes-benz france's immersive youtube experience fuels shift in brand perception, youtube and broadway: a cinderella story, chef jamie oliver's food tube: a recipe for youtube success, the record breaking love affair between evian® and youtube, nextiva attracts new customers with youtube trueview ads, vice's youtube success: growing sustained viewership through breakout videos, land rover finds success with engagement ads.

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How Companies Should Play the Olympics

• John Quelch
• April 21, 2008

What High-Tech Managers Need to Know About Brands

• Larry Light
• Jonathan Goldstine
• From the July–August 1999 Issue

Behold the Extreme Consumers...and Learn to Embrace Them

• Andreas B. Eisingerich
• Gunjan Bhardwaj
• Yoshio Miyamoto
• Jackson Dykman
• From the April 2010 Issue

How Would Walt Disney Market in 2009?

• John Sviokla
• December 30, 2008

To Stay Relevant, Professional Associations Must Rebrand

• Denise Lee Yohn
• January 05, 2016

Beware the Pitfalls of Global Marketing

• Kamran Kashani
• From the September–October 1989 Issue

Customer Strategy Tips from an Indie Rocker

• Scott Kirsner
• April 17, 2009

Research: When Praising the Competition Benefits Your Brand

• Keisha M Cutright
• Katherine M Du
• Lingrui Zhou
• March 23, 2022

Are CEOs to Blame for Short CMO Tenures?

• Ty Montague
• July 24, 2013

Cirque du Soleil’s Daniel Lamarre on How to Put Creativity at the Center of Your Strategy

• May 13, 2022

Think Small in Olympic Sponsorship

• Dae Ryun Chang and John A. Davis
• August 09, 2012

A Rose by Any Other Name

• Daniel B. Stone
• From the March 2003 Issue

Competing on Social Purpose

• Omar Rodriguez Vila
• Sundar Bharadwaj
• From the September–October 2017 Issue

Why You Need a New-Media "Ringmaster"

• Patrick Spenner
• From the December 2010 Issue

Branding in the Age of Social Media

• Douglas Holt
• From the March 2016 Issue

Lessons from the Egg Master

• John Butman
• From the May 2005 Issue

The Illusion of Brand Control

• Andrew McAfee
• November 13, 2009

The Brands That Make Customers Feel Respected

• Charles Trevail
• Manila Austin
• Julie Wittes Schlack
• Katrina Lerman
• November 01, 2016

Case Study: Which Customers Should This Restaurant Listen To?

• Sandeep Puri
• Kirti Khanzode
• Alison Beard
• From the June 2016 Issue

High-Tech Touchpoints Are Changing Customer Experience

• Karen Lellouche Tordjman
• Marco Bertini
• March 20, 2023

Predicting Consumer Tastes with Big Data at Gap

• Ayelet Israeli
• May 30, 2017
• John A. Quelch
• Yoshinori Fujikawa
• September 25, 1996

Managing Marketing Data at Allstate

• John Deighton
• March 11, 2016

Coca-Cola's New Vending Machine (A): Pricing to Capture Value, or Not?

• Charles King
• Das Narayandas
• February 07, 2000

Dettol: Marketing Research for Understanding Consumer Evaluations of Brand Extensions

• Anand Kumar Jaiswal
• Arpita Srivastava
• November 08, 2007

Nestle's Maggi: Pricing and Repositioning a Recalled Product

• Neeraj Pandey
• Gaganpreet Singh
• June 07, 2016

China's Kweichow Moutai: Hangover on the Horizon at the World's Most Valuable Liquor Company? (B)

• Srinivas Reddy
• Lakshmi Appasamy
• Havovi Joshi
• October 28, 2020

Johnson Controls-Hitachi: Aiming to Consolidate a Market Lead

• Shivani Upadhyay
• Shubham Sharma
• June 12, 2017

Kaya Skin Clinic: Creating a Sustainable Competitive Advantage with Customers

• Kareem Abdul Waheed
• April 17, 2017

Steinway & Sons

• David A. Garvin
• September 01, 1981

Brian Gursky: Using Social Media to Build an Athlete Brand in the Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) Era

• Kimberly A Whitler
• Katherine Brown
• July 16, 2023

Levi Strauss & Co.: Global Sourcing (A)

• Lynn Sharp Paine
• Jane Palley Katz
• November 29, 1994

Managing Science Communication at Bayer

• Joshua R. Schwartzstein
• Adi Sunderam
• March 17, 2021

Frito-Lay, Inc.: Grandma's

• Thomas V. Bonoma
• Karen A. Carlson
• Margaret L. Kane
• November 18, 1983

Gong Cha's Return to Singapore: Rebuilding a Popular Bubble Tea Franchise

• Seshan Ramaswami
• Josephine Tan
• July 12, 2023

Staples: Back to the Future

• Kerry Herman
• Carin-Isabel Knoop
• February 17, 2005

Newell Co.: Corporate Strategy

• Cynthia A. Montgomery
• Elizabeth J. Gordon
• March 26, 1999

Du Pont Teflon: China Brand Strategy

• Kent E. Neupert
• March 03, 1999
• Luc Wathieu
• January 22, 2001

LVMH's Bid for Tiffany & Co.

• Guhan Subramanian
• Julian J. Zlatev
• Raseem Farook
• May 21, 2021

The Louvre, Teaching Note

• Rohit Deshpande
• Nathaniel Schwalb
• May 21, 2019

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The Science of Successful Branding: Case Studies and Insights

Successful branding can influence consumer perceptions, build trust, and drive long-term customer loyalty.

Branding is a powerful force in the world of business. It's the art and science of creating a distinctive identity for a product, service, or company. Successful branding can influence consumer perceptions, build trust, and drive long-term customer loyalty. In this article, we will explore the science behind successful branding , exploring key principles and sharing case studies highlighting the strategies and insights that have propelled some of the world's most iconic brands to success.

Branding as an Emotional Connection

At its core, branding is about creating an emotional connection between a brand and its audience. It's not just about logos, colors, or slogans; it's about how a brand makes people feel. Successful brands understand that emotions play a crucial role in consumer decision-making. They tap into these emotions to create a bond that goes beyond the functional benefits of a product or service.

Case Study: Apple Inc.

One of the most iconic examples of emotional branding is Apple Inc. Apple's brand is synonymous with innovation, creativity, and a sense of belonging. They have mastered the art of making their customers feel like part of a community, appealing to their desire for uniqueness and self-expression. Apple's design aesthetic, sleek product packaging, and marketing campaigns all contribute to the emotional connection that has made Apple a global brand leader.

Consistency is Key

Consistency is a fundamental principle in successful branding. A brand should present a unified and coherent image across all touchpoints, from its website to its packaging and advertising. This consistency builds recognition and trust over time.

Case Study: Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola, one of the world's most recognizable brands, has maintained a consistent image for over a century. The red and white color scheme, the classic contour bottle, and the timeless "Enjoy Coca-Cola" slogan have remained largely unchanged, fostering a sense of nostalgia and reliability. This consistency has allowed Coca-Cola to establish a strong emotional connection with its customers, making it a global symbol of happiness and refreshment.

Understanding the Target Audience

A deep understanding of the target audience is essential for successful branding. Brands need to know who their customers are, what they value, and what problems they need to solve. This knowledge informs branding strategies, ensuring that a brand's message resonates with its audience.

Case Study: Nike

Nike's "Just Do It" campaign is a testament to understanding its audience. Nike recognized that its target demographic, athletes and sports enthusiasts, sought motivation and inspiration. The campaign's message, paired with powerful imagery of athletes overcoming challenges, spoke directly to this audience. The result? A brand that not only sells athletic gear but also motivates people to pursue their dreams and passions.

Storytelling: Creating a Brand Narrative

Storytelling is a powerful tool in branding. A compelling brand narrative can engage consumers on a deeper level, allowing them to connect with the brand's values and purpose.

Case Study: Patagonia

Outdoor clothing company Patagonia has embraced a brand narrative that goes beyond selling outdoor gear. They've positioned themselves as a brand that cares about the environment, sustainability, and social responsibility. Their "Worn Wear" campaign, which encourages customers to buy used Patagonia clothing and repair their old items, reinforces their commitment to reducing waste and protecting the planet. By weaving this narrative into their branding, Patagonia has attracted environmentally conscious consumers who resonate with their values.

Adaptation and Innovation

Brands must evolve and adapt to changing market dynamics, consumer preferences, and emerging trends. Stagnation can lead to irrelevance.

Case Study: Amazon

Amazon started as an online bookstore but rapidly evolved into a global e-commerce and tech giant. Their commitment to innovation demonstrated through products like the Kindle e-reader, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Amazon Echo, has allowed them to stay at the forefront of industry trends. Amazon's willingness to adapt and expand has made it a brand synonymous with convenience and innovation in the digital age.

Cultural Relevance

Brands that understand and embrace cultural relevance can connect with their audience on a deeper level. They tap into what's happening in the world and leverage it to create meaningful messages.

Case Study: Dove

Dove's "Real Beauty" campaign challenged traditional beauty standards and focused on promoting self-esteem and body positivity. By addressing a cultural shift towards acceptance and inclusivity, Dove resonated with consumers seeking authenticity and empowerment. This cultural relevance not only boosted brand loyalty but also led to societal change.

Customer Experience and Feedback

Brands must prioritize the customer experience and actively seek feedback. This helps brands improve their products, services, and messaging based on real-world insights.

Case Study: Zappos

Zappos, an online shoe and clothing retailer, places customer experience at the forefront of its branding. Their commitment to delivering exceptional customer service, including a 365-day return policy and 24/7 customer support, has turned customers into brand advocates. By actively seeking and responding to customer feedback, Zappos continuously refines its approach, resulting in a loyal customer base.

Consistency in Branding

Successful branding requires consistency across various touchpoints. This includes the visual elements of branding , such as logos and color schemes, but it also extends to the tone of voice, messaging, and the overall brand experience.

Case Study: Starbucks

Starbucks has mastered the art of consistent branding. Their green mermaid logo, cozy store ambiance, and the promise of a personalized coffee experience have been replicated worldwide. Customers can step into any Starbucks location, whether in Seattle or Shanghai and expect the same comforting atmosphere and quality coffee.

Sustainability and Responsibility

In an increasingly environmentally conscious world, brands that prioritize sustainability and social responsibility have a competitive edge.

Case Study: Unilever

Unilever, the consumer goods giant, has made sustainability a core part of its branding strategy. With brands like Ben & Jerry's and Dove, Unilever focuses on sustainable sourcing, ethical practices, and reducing its environmental impact. Their commitment to positive social and environmental change resonates with consumers who prioritize responsible consumption.

Adaptation to Digital Channels

In the digital age, brands must adapt to new marketing channels, such as social media, online advertising, and influencer partnerships.

Case Study: Airbnb

Airbnb disrupted the traditional hospitality industry by creating a platform that connects travelers with unique accommodations. They've harnessed the power of digital marketing and social media to reach a global audience, while user-generated content and reviews provide social

proof. Airbnb's success demonstrates the importance of adapting to digital channels and embracing the sharing economy.

The Role of Trust

Trust is the cornerstone of successful branding. Brands that consistently deliver on their promises and provide high-quality products and services build trust, which, in turn, leads to brand loyalty.

Case Study: Toyota

Toyota has established trust by consistently delivering reliable and durable vehicles. Over the years, their commitment to quality and innovation has earned the trust of millions of customers worldwide. This trust has not only resulted in brand loyalty but has also positioned Toyota as a leader in the automotive industry.

Authenticity in Branding

Authenticity is an increasingly vital aspect of successful branding. Consumers are drawn to brands that are genuine and transparent in their communication and actions.

Case Study: Pat McGrath Labs

Pat McGrath Labs, a cosmetics brand, stands out for its authenticity. Founder Pat McGrath, a renowned makeup artist, leveraged her personal brand and expertise to create a cosmetics line known for its quality and inclusivity. Her direct involvement and genuine passion for her products have created a cult following among makeup enthusiasts.

Embracing Change and Innovation

The world constantly changes , and brands that embrace change and innovation stay relevant. This includes adopting new technologies, exploring new markets, and seeking out opportunities for growth.

Case Study: Netflix

Netflix began as a DVD rental service but transitioned into a streaming platform, revolutionizing the entertainment industry. Their commitment to creating original content and adapting to consumer preferences has made them a household name, even as the media landscape continually evolves.

The science of successful branding is a dynamic and multifaceted field. It involves understanding the emotions and needs of the target audience, maintaining consistency, telling compelling stories , adapting to change, and prioritizing customer experience. The case studies provided, from Apple and Coca-Cola to Nike and Amazon, demonstrate how these principles have been applied in diverse ways to achieve remarkable success. Successful branding is not just about creating a logo; it's about creating an enduring and emotionally resonant identity that stands the test of time. It's about forging connections that transcend transactions and lead to lasting brand loyalty.

You Should Know

ThoughtLab is a dynamic and innovative full-service creative agency renowned for its exceptional branding prowess and relentless commitment to thinking outside the box. With a team of visionary creatives, strategists, Web3, and marketing experts, plus decades of superior website design, ThoughtLab consistently delivers groundbreaking solutions that redefine the boundaries of branding and design. They understand that breaking away from convention and embracing bold, unique ideas is vital in today's fast-paced and competitive landscape.

ThoughtLab's approach involves immersing themselves in their client's businesses, understanding their values and aspirations, and crafting tailor-made branding experiences that resonate deeply with the target audience. Their track record of success stands as a testament to their ability to push creative boundaries, captivate audiences, and ensure their client's brands stand out amidst the noise. With a focus on innovation and a passion for excellence, ThoughtLab continues to be at the forefront of revolutionizing the world of branding and marketing. Contact ThoughtLab today.

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Brand Equity: Understanding and Enhancing Your Brand’s Value

5 influencers share the case studies of past brand deals they include in their media kits

• Brands are increasingly using data to forecast the performance of influencer marketing campaigns.
• Many brands focus on the performance metrics, such as views and likes, of past campaigns.
• Media kits often include these stats and examples of branded content. Here are 5 examples.

Influencer marketing is becoming an advertising channel like any other, which means brands are taking a data-driven approach to measure the performance of campaigns with creators.

"Brands are increasingly asking to see historic data about how past branded campaigns with influencers performed," Alessandro Bogliari, cofounder and CEO of influencer marketing agency The Influencer Marketing Factory, told Insider. "As agencies, we are constantly trying to obtain this kind of data and forecast campaign outcomes."

Creators are becoming increasingly professional and presenting themselves as businesspeople, with elaborate pitches, proposals, and media kits. A media kit — the equivalent of a resume for a creator — often includes a creator's bio, as well as data about their following, average reach, and audience demographics. And, increasingly, media kits are also including metrics from and examples of past brand campaigns.

Creators know that brands want to see proof of how successful their past collaborations with brands have been. In their media kits, they usually explain their strategy for a branded campaign and provide screenshots of how the posts performed, including data around likes, reach, comments, and saves.

"The media kit should be a reflection of how you would pitch anything in a business context," said Karlie Place, who makes travel content and has almost 1 million TikTok followers. "You want to have proof of concept and be able to say, 'Here is a hard example of the ROI that I have brought to similar collaborations.'"

Many creators take inspiration from sales decks and business pitches.

"I wanted to be looked at as a professional and as a entrepreneur," Florence Williams, a micro-influencer and social media coach, said. "I started researching professional sales decks, and I thought, 'I can totally do this for my industry.'"

Insider spoke with five content creators about which examples of past collaborations they include in their media kits and which information they prioritize.

All of them said they update their media kits multiple times a year — usually once a quarter — with updated statistics. Some of them also have different types of media kits depending on the type and scope of the brand they're pitching.

Here are 5 examples of past brand partnerships creators use in their media kits. The creators are listed in alphabetical order:

Demi Bang, lifestyle blogger (17,500 Instagram followers)

Bang's media kit includes one page with a case study of a past brand collaboration. She changes which example she uses depending on whether the brand she's pitching is local or national.

In this case, she shows a partnership with ultra-low-cost airline Allegiant Airlines. She chose  this example because it was one of her most ambitious projects, she said, with multiple deliverables over the course of three days. This helps her when pitching more expansive deals with new brands.

Bang breaks down the campaign and includes photos she took for it.

The slide reads:

Working with an airline to help raise awareness for their non-credit card rewards program.

Allegiant Airlines approached Demi to raise awareness of their newly launched rewards program: Allways.

To kick-off the campaign and immediately generate interest, Demi segued her personal goal of visiting all 50 states.

Throughout the three-day campaign, Allegiant generated 8.7k+ impressions online, reaching more than 4.1k+ individuals. Demi's blog post was viewed 2.4k+ times by 1.3k+ people.

Please inquire for additional case studies.

Florence Williams, beauty creator (13,500 Instagram followers)

Florence Williams' media kit includes two pages with examples of past partnerships.

Williams provides a summary of what her strategy was for the campaign, along with sample screenshots of posts with data like comments, shares, saves, and reach, and views if the post was a video.

Recent projects

Restorative Elements

Collaboration with Restorative Elements to promote their line of products that help with hyperpigmentation and dark marks in a gentle way. This is a long-term partnership. I raised awareness by creating in-feed posts to share about the brands key ingredients Centella Asiatica, Niacinamide and Licorice Roots. Osea Malibu

Teamed up with Osea Malibu to promote their best-selling Undaria Algae Body Oil via an In-feed Reel + Stories. Highlighted the brand's origins and skincare benefits of algae. Drove traffic to their website via a swipe-up link for 4 weeks via stories.

RITUALS Cosmetics

Partnered with RITUALS Cosmetics to showcase their home fragrance collection. Main objective was to drive brand awareness for this sustainable and selfcare focused brand. I achieved this by creating Instagram content in-feed, stories and cross promotion via Pinterest. CurlFormers By Hair Flair

Worked with Curlformers to promote an Instagram live via an in-feed post and Instagram stories. In my post, I told my audience to join me as I cohost a live on the Hair Flair Instagram page. The live was to promote community in the natural hair space. I spoke about my journey with accepting my hair texture, styles that work for me and techniques that keep my hair healthy.

Karlie Place, travel creator (922,000 TikTok followers)

Karlie Place's media kit includes two examples of past brand partnerships — one for a "physical" brand, the other for an "experiential" brand.

The first slide is a recap of a campaign she did for energy bar brand Clif in 2020. She said she includes this example because it represents the quality of the content she produces and how she tends to "overdeliver" by producing extra content for free.

Clif Bar launched a campaign to showcase their limited edition packaging featuring 6 female athletes instead of the usual rock climbers. The influencer marketing campaign required one Instagram feed post, and 4-8 IG story slides with a tracked, swipeable link. Karlie conceptualized and executed two styled shoots for this campaign. The final images turned out great, generating 1,328 likes and 41 comments on the IG feed. During the creation of the content, Karlie shot behind the scenes footage and produced additional materials for this campaign at no extra cost. Karlie showcased this footage on TikTok and generated 1.4 Million views, 300k likes and 353 comments.

Along with the campaign summary, Place also includes examples of the photos she produced and a screenshot of a video she shared on TikTok — which was not included in the contract with the brand — with views, likes, and comments.

For the case study for an "experiential" brand, Place includes a campaign she did for Acro Suites, a Greek luxury resort she partnered with in 2021. Choosing this campaign to include as an example was easy, Place said, because it was the most successful campaign she ever did in terms of reach.

In 2021, Karlie traveled to Greece to shoot social media content for six different high- end resorts. One of which is Acro Suites, a brand new up and coming luxury resort located in Crete. Karlie provided a gallery of 350 Images, 4 Short Videos, and 3 Feed posts. The content consists of FPV Drone video, professional photos, and lifestyle content. This was an exchange style collaboration. Karlie also provided a one-on-one mastermind session to the Acro Suites social media team where she shared a lesson on short form media best practices and provided them with custom documents that cover the entire lesson for future use.

Along with the campaign description, Place includes screenshots of three TikTok videos and three in-feed Instagram posts she made. The screenshots of videos show views, shares, likes, and comments, while the screenshots of photos include likes.

Lauren SoYung Lim, fashion creator (170,000 TikTok followers)

Lim includes two pages with screenshots of past branded campaigns in her media kit.

The first page of past collaborations is dedicated to Instagram content.

The screenshots of in-feed Instagram posts show likes, comments, shares, and saves, as well as how many profile visits they got and the total reach, while the Stories only show likes.

Lim told Insider that it has long been a habit of hers to include examples of past brand partnerships in her media kit.

She added that while has been trying to pivot to working with more high-end, sustainable fashion and beauty brands, she still includes some of her best-performing campaigns — such as the one with Princess Polly — to show what she's able to achieve.

On the second page of examples, Lim includes five screenshots of branded TikTok videos. The screenshots show the number of views each one got.

Lim includes examples of some of her best-performing branded TikTok videos, along with content she made for her "target" brands — or the brands that she'd like to partner with more often — even if they didn't perform as well as others, she said.

Zara Khan, creator and social media coach (10,500 Instagram followers)

Two pages of Zara Khan's media kit showcase her past experience promoting brands. 

One is for testimonials, or written praise from brand representatives that she's previously worked with. 

Another page, shown here, includes examples of past campaigns she did on Instagram and TikTok — in this case, Amazon Prime Student and ContraHQ — along with snapshots of her backend stats and her views on Instagram Reels and TikTok videos.

Instagram backend stats include likes, comments, sends, saves, accounts reached, interactions, and profile visits from a post. On TikTok, they include video views, profile views, likes, comments, shares, and follows.

Unlike other creators, Khan does not show the insights for her past brand deals. Instead, she focused on unbranded posts because those perform better and give a more accurate idea of the overall performance of a profile, she told Insider.

"When I decide what pieces of content to give as examples of insights, obviously I will pick a post that I think looks good and performed well," she said. "This gives future brands insight into how my posts perform."

• Main content

5 Big Brand Case Studies Every Marketer Should Know

Updated: October 11, 2022

Published: January 21, 2010

Many big businesses have begun to experiment with social media, and have dived head-first into the world of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and beyond. While others still remain traditionally skeptical of the new metrics and pull-instead-of-push approach, companies such as Southwest Airlines and Ford have proven the success of incorporating these new platforms into the company culture.

If you're wondering which big brands do it best, here are 5 big brands case studies that every marketer should know:

Southwest Airlines: Personalize your brand.

Southwest Airlines has effectively used social media to highlight what makes their company unique.  From promoting a viral video of a rapping flight attendant on YouTube to informing customers of flight delays on Twitter to uploading customer photos on their blog, Southwest Airlines has developed their image into a friendly, unique, and personable brand , with which customers can build a long-lasting relationship.

Comcast: Serve your customers.

Having an issue with your television connection? Instead of listening to elevator music while on hold indefinitely, tweet about to @ comcastcares . Comcast has discovered a way to respond quickly and directly to customers, especially unhappy ones. The company uses Twitter to monitor customer feedback , reactions, and complaints, and responds within minutes to not-so-favorable posts.

Ford: Resolve emerging issues.

When Ford made an internal error that involved threatening enthusiast sites with lawsuits about copyright infringement, the enraged public quickly made the situation a big deal. The saving factor emerged when Ford’s community manager clarified the story and immediately informed the public via social media. Furthermore, as the company resolved the situation, the public was informed every step of the way, preventing further confusion and frustration .

Starbucks: Request direct feedback.

“My Starbucks Idea” is the popular coffee brand’s consumer portal where customers can submit ideas and vote/comment on other’s thoughts about improving the product(s). In a company where the “experience” compensates for the high prices, it is in Starbucks’ best interest to receive feedback directly from the customers themselves. The corresponding “ Ideas in Action Blog ” is written by Starbucks employees and discusses ideas that are being implemented while responding to other suggestions.

Sun Microsystems: Increase company transparency.

In a world where trade secrets are protected and gaffes are hidden, Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems, publishes a CEO blog that addresses company issues and discloses business advancements. By encouraging two-way communication between the head management and employees/customers, Sun Microsystems promotes a culture of transparency and honesty , in which everyone can receive visibility into the company’s actions.

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• 7 August 2023

6 Examples of Great Brand Strategy Case Studies

What is Brand Strategy?

The term brand strategy relates to the methods a brand will use to market its products or services to consumers. It focuses on how they present and position themselves in the market. There are several strategies a brand can use and here are some of the biggest.

Company Name

This is where a brand will focus on marketing their company/brand name as a whole. They don’t focus on any specific element of their brand, services or products. Their goal is to improve brand awareness through marketing their name alone.

Individual Branding

This is where a brand will focus on a specific element of their brand. This could range from an individual product to a service, or even a person. This form of branding moves away from overall brand marketing and narrows its focus towards a specific element.

Attitude Branding

This is where the brand markets the idea or emotion behind their brand rather than the name or product. A brand will align itself with this idea, emotion or feeling and market their association with this factor.

Brand Extension

Brand extension is when a brand markets a sub-brand rather than the overall parent brand. Many big brands are owned by even bigger brands, but they don’t market the larger parent brand.

Private Label

Not all brands or companies create their own products. The term private label refers to products that are produced for multiple brands from one creator. Private labels offer an in-house version of commonly produced products, and a brand can market this as a lower price alternative, for example.

Brand Strategy Case Studies

There are many successful branding case studies we could use to explain each element of a brand strategy. However, we believe these 7 examples help explain the power and benefits of brand strategy well.

Red Bull – Company Brand Name

Red Bull is somewhat of a powerhouse in the world of brand marketing. Their company-based brand marketing strategy is one of the most complete but does require a lot of budget. Running F1 teams and sponsoring extreme sports athletes doesn’t come cheap but it can lead to virality.

What Has Red Bull Done?

Red Bull has always known their target market and have found a way to communicate with them. Their initial brand marketing involved finding out where their target market would hang out and hand out free products: increasing brand awareness and word-of-mouth exposure.

Now, with a much larger budget, they still perform the same style of marketing. They know where their target market will be online or what sports they enjoy and position themselves there. Be it an F1 race or an 18 year old university student looking at skydiving content on YouTube.

What Can We Learn From Red Bull?

Understanding your target market will help you position your brand correctly. Their brand is so well known most will associate it name with their favourite sport before a canned energy drink.

Apple – Individual

Apple has always pushed their products before their brand name. Hosting large expos to launch a new product and advertising their latest phone before looking to raise brand awareness. The ‘Shot on Iphone’ ad campaigns are a great example of their marketing efforts pushing the quality and ability of their products.

What Have Apple Done?

Apple focuses on the consumer within its marketing efforts and aligns this with their product. Their push towards innovation is clear from their slogan ‘Think Different’. They look to expose their product strengths and do this through TV advertising and tech influencers.

What Can We Learn From Apple?

If we’re looking to market an individual part of our brand, like a product, it’s important that we first understand the benefits. By understanding the benefits we can market these and draw attention to the selling factors. Ensuring the individual element embodies the overall brand message.

Air Jordan – Brand Extension

One of the most recognisable brand extensions is Air Jordan. A sub-brand of Nike, Air Jordans have become some of the most successful and sought after shoes in the market. They currently sell somewhere around $5 billion worth of shoes each year.

What Have Air Jordan Done?

Nike aligned their product with an up and coming basketball superstar. They also moved away from the Nike brand name as, at the time, it wasn’t ‘cool’ within the basketball scene. By focusing on the brand extension, Air Jordan, they were able to market it alongside the athlete.

What Can We Learn From Air Jordan?

Brand extensions don’t need to follow the same brand message as the parent brand. They can be unique and move away from what would be expected of the parent brand, giving them freedom to push in other directions to reach a wider potential customer base.

Aldi – Private Label

Aldi is a European supermarket that has found great success with their private label range. In fact, 90% of Aldi’s products are private label and, as the majority of their products are in-house, they’re able to control price and availability. This flexibility gives them an edge over their larger supermarket competitors.

What Have Aldi Done?

Aldi have run a number of brand marketing campaigns, however, their focus on the quality of their private label stands out. The ‘I also like this one’ campaign is a great example of how they compare themselves to others in the industry. Backing it up with consumer data, they are able to stand out as just as good but less expensive.

What Can We Learn From Aldi?

If you’re a private label brand, it’s important to know your strengths and weaknesses. Perform market research to gather relevant data and market using this information. Part of the 4 Ps of marketing is ‘price’, so it’s important to consumers that the price is competitive.

Jeep – Attitude Branding

Jeep brand themselves alongside the idea of adventure. Jeep’s marketing campaigns are all focused around the idea of the car being a tool to achieve adventures. This is a great example of how a brand can align themselves with an idea and brand the idea with the product.

What Have Jeep Done Well?

Jeep have understood their target market and have in some ways built their target market around their products. They have positioned themselves through advertisement and product placements to be recognised alongside an attitude.

What Can We Learn From Jeep?

Marketing and branding doesn’t always have to be about yourself. Branding can be an idea that you and your products envelop. Marketing this idea can associate you with that idea. You are therefore no longer just Jeep, you are the adventure car.

Enhancing a Brand Strategy

Not every brand is the same and not every strategy works for every brand. It’s important to understand who you and who your customers are before you develop a brand strategy. Knowing this will give you the best chance of success when launching a new campaign.

For more help and support in creating a brand strategy for your business or company get in contact with Fellow. You can also view our brand strategy page here.

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2022 Year In Review: Specific examples of how marketers and entrepreneurs put lessons they learned into action (plus unsung marketing heroes)

This article was published in the MarketingSherpa email newsletter .

In the year 2022, the team at MarketingSherpa and MECLABS Institute (MarketingSherpa’s parent organization) brought you:

• A free digital marketing course – “Become a Marketer-Philosopher: Create and optimize high-converting webpages” is now complete, and there are 26 on-demand FastClasses available to take at your own pace.
• A new marketing podcast focused on lesson-filled stories – We’ve already released 42 episodes (wow, time flies) of How I Made It In Marketing. No thought leaders with vague ideas here. Marketing leaders from Saatva, Mint Mobile, Cuisinart, Batteries Plus, NYU, Merrell, Capgemini Invent, Dashlane, Nationwide, RingCentral, and many more organizations share the hard-won lessons from their career and take you into the room where it happened to hear the stories and people behind those lessons.
• A new way to optimize your marketing with your peers – The MECLABS SuperFunnel Research Cohort is a 40-day journey to optimize your marketing funnel, led by MECLABS patented methodology and supported by fellow marketers and entrepreneurs. A new cohort will begin in January 2023, and you can learn about it in this six-minute video .

OK, this is the problem with me writing the year-end marketing wrap-up article – it has already become sickeningly braggadocious. Yuck!

So I thought it would be more helpful to turn to your peers, and ask them what lessons they gained from our content this year and how they put those lessons into action…hoping to inspire your next great idea with at least one of these lessons.

200% app download increase by using QR codes in content marketing

Simon Bacher, CEO and Co-founder, Simya Solutions, creators of the Ling App :

I came across one of your case studies, Content Marketing: Strategies of businesses that improved (and replaced) digital content marketing . I was impressed how Accrue Real Estate’s team uses QR codes to track ads and create customized mobile-optimized landing pages.

Because of this great content-generation strategy, I started searching how to use QR code to help our app users learn basic foreign words and pronunciation and attain my content marketing goals. I also use it for social media marketing on Twitter and Facebook. I’m thankful to MarketingSherpa because my app’s download rate increased 200% since I implemented this content development and marketing strategy using QR codes.

Creative Sample #1: QR code use by language learning app on Twitter content

Creative Sample #2: QR code use by language learning app on Facebook content

Freelance copywriter doubles conversion rate for DTC brand by mastering the delicate balance of “authenticity” and “professionalism”

Jeff Poppe, CEO & Founder, Jeffcopywriter LLC :

After reading your article on “Authenticity” vs. “Professionalism,” I quickly discovered some giant flaws in my copy. I realized that my content was either taking a strictly “professional” tone or a more “casual” voice. Only after discovering how to strategically combine the two, was I able to dramatically increase engagement and conversions in my copy.

The invaluable secrets I was able to learn in the case study were able to propel me to new levels in terms of the overall strength of my writing. You see, readers were looking over my articles and seeing statistics, yet I was never able to truly resonate with them on a deeper and more personal level. Slowly, I started adding more “authenticity” in the form of real-life events and common pain points that my target avatar deals with on a daily basis.

This served to create a MUCH deeper bond between me and the reader than I ever thought possible. When I began to master the combination of a genuine authentic voice and the social proof and authority that comes from a professional tone, my copy quickly became much more powerful – and it showed in the data, too.

A great example of this is when I wrote a sales email for a DTC brand in the alternative health niche. My main objective was to increase conversion rate, and I thought the correct way to do that was to “load up the copy” with as much professional, authoritative language as possible.

After seeing a poor conversion rate, I knew I needed to find a new strategy. It was then that I came across the one article that taught me how to integrate an authentic “one-on-one” feeling inside of the reader. Discovering this, I was able to DOUBLE my conversion rate in the rest of my sales emails for that client.

Food blogger increases email signups 44% by focusing on the customer’s interest instead of her own

Shrey Sinha, Founder, Countertop Pizza Oven :

I downloaded your Landing Page Blueprint and the Landing Page Checklist , and I have implemented a few strategies on my website, and they have worked very well.

After implementing what is being taught in the Landing Page Blueprint, I have seen massive results; I got almost 50 percent increase in my sign-ups (with the same traffic).

This was a game-changer for my blog, and I'm looking forward to growing my list with the techniques taught in the blueprint. I'm soon releasing a cookbook on my website, and I would also use the techniques for marketing it.

Focusing on the consumer’s interest and the “talk” style on my landing page was key to my improvement. I could focus on the reader’s interest and make changes accordingly without focusing on how “I” want things to be.

Before I just had a pop-up to collect emails. Once I thought of the user's interest when they land on my page, I offered them a recipe eBook since they are landing on a recipe-related page – “how to cook a pizza on a griddle.”

In June, I only had an email sign-up and got 68 subscribers.

But in July, after working on a free eBook with recipes, I got 98 subscribers.

That is a 44 percent increase in my email sign-ups.

Financial content website removes the element of pressure in CTAs, doubles conversion rate

Adam Garcia, CEO and owner, The Stock Dork :

With your episode, Growth Marketing: Give a choice of "yes" or "yes" (podcast episode #37) , we realized that properly placing CTAs would significantly improve our marketing growth. This is especially true when customers give our services a shot out of willingness and not because they are pressured to do so.

We had this belief that a compelling call to action (CTA) should automatically entice people into subscribing to our services. Some highly effective CTA phrases we included were "Get Started," "Buy Now," and "Sign Up" – and these were all aggressive ways to convince customers to do the action instead of giving them the option to familiarize our offers first.

However, this specific episode has helped us ensure we grab the attention of our target audience by removing the element of pressure in our CTAs. Instead, we allow them to learn more about the offer once they click the initial CTA button before making a final decision on the subsequent landing page. This has doubled our conversion score for November, and we expect a steady increase even for the next few months with consistency in mind.

Marketing agency attacks the big problem with urgency, gets more consistent workflow and more satisfied clients

Scott Ingram, Director, Helium Marketing Agency :

While many of Marketing Sherpa’s podcast episodes have struck a chord with me, none more so than Episode 34 with Edithann Ramey on throwing out the business model.

Ramey shared her experience of navigating through the Covid-19 period in the hospitality space. Although our digital marketing agency did very well during this period, our business alternates between times of feast or famine from one-off project work. Sometimes this creates too much work and other times we don’t have enough, putting a lot of stress and pressure on myself and the rest of the team at our agency.

This episode highlighted to me that we needed to “attack the big problem” with urgency and it was time to throw the traditional agency business model out the window and instead rebuild the business around what accommodates a better lifestyle for our team.

So we shifted our business to a monthly retainer-only model and developed a brand new “marketing essentials” cost-leading service for small business owners where the arrangement isn’t based on worked hours, but rather outcomes and service.

This has been a big shift for us (and we’re still shifting!), but the initial results have been positive so far: less sales stress, more consistent workflow, increased job security for staff and more satisfied clients. I’m so glad this episode gave us the courage to make the change, it’s definitely been worth it!

While it may seem like a trivial change to some, it has required a lot of flexibility of our staff due to the volume of changes to our day-to-day operations – which have been really tiring for us all! At the end of the podcast Ramey talks about “building up the team,” and although I think it was a side point, I believe this tip has also helped us navigate the change by emotionally investing in our people (to offset the emotional cost of change).

Not only do we go out of our way to praise, encourage and motivate our staff more so than ever, we take note of the advice in another MarketingSherpa article to avoid behaviors that kill creativity and motivation (too many meetings, mass emails with too many CC’d, etc.).

Thanks again MarketingSherpa, looking forward to yet another year of inspiring content!

Mattress store confronts professional services vendor, ends unsatisfactory relationship

Jonathan Prichard, Founder & CEO, Mattress Insider :

The content from MarketingSherpa in 2022 that had the most significant impact on me was Podcast Episode 25 – Marketing Strategy: Data tells stories at Nationwide, fast mistakes, and the triage method .

Specifically, Tiffany Grinstead discussed the concept of making mistakes and learning from them as fast as you can. I've owned my company for many years, and as a leader, it's easy to keep pushing forward when something isn't working. It often takes more time and energy (and even more money) to admit to mistakes and pivot quickly, but Tiffany's experience at Nationwide reminded me how important it is to fail fast and pivot faster.

I took what she said to heart, and it motivated me to look closely at a relationship I had with a professional services vendor I contracted with a few months earlier. I wasn't entirely happy with the relationship or results it was delivering, and Tiffany's reminder made me sit down and really think about the large amount of money I had already invested, what it would take to fix the problem, and what would ultimately be best for my company. In the end, the decision was clear, and I terminated the relationship.

Had it not been for the podcast conversation, it may have taken more weeks or months of being dissatisfied until I made a change. Sometimes entrepreneurs – even those who've built one or more successful companies and have years of experience under their belts – need reminders.

Job-matching website confronts freelancers, gets improved production from them

Milo Cruz, CMO, Freelance Writing Jobs :

One lesson that stands out to me about this podcast episode – Advertising and Brands: Details matter, know when to quit, …be nice (podcast episode #27) – is never to hold back from telling people about the quality of their performance. We realized that honest feedback is essential to help our interns and employees grow in their careers and deliver exceptional client service.

The podcast episode guided me on how I handled the two freelance writers we hired a couple of months ago for our marketing team. One of them could produce detail-oriented and high-quality marketing content, but the problem was always with the deadline. He was a buzzer-beater, and I lost track of how often he jeopardized our clients' business because of this behavior. The other writer was consistent with submitting her work way before the deadline, but the quality could have been better.

I applied the lessons from the podcast and talked to these freelancers to point out room for improvement. Of course, I also acknowledged their positive traits and did my best to help them overcome their shortcomings.

Lo and behold! The next thing I knew, they were rocking and excelling in their tasks. Even though one of them is no longer with us, he once reached out to me to share how life-changing it was when I helped him conquer his issue with completing tasks on time.

Explainer video company gets the confidence to trust instincts (in addition to data), breaks out of the pack to create unique content

Andre Oentoro, Founder, Breadnbeyond :

As a company that provides a creative service, we rely heavily on content marketing to reach out to more potential clients. And when I looked for resources for my daily dose of content marketing insights, I stumbled upon this podcast episode – Content and Communications: Tenacity, keep it simple, authenticity works .

I was fascinated by the breakdown of “trust your instincts.”

My team and I have been brainstorming ideas and making decisions based on our audience's research, data, and statistics – because we thought that was what they expect from a brand like ours. The data on the target audience is the same everywhere, so we ended up producing quite similar content from our competitors.

The podcast episode helps me understand that data versus intuition is a false choice. We actually need both to complement each other.

We started to use our gut feeling while creating content. We know our service and audience so well, and now we get the confidence to also rely on our tried-and-trusted instinct – in addition to looking clearly at the data.

Now, our content campaigns seem more personal, unique, and diverse. This helps us hone our brand tone and distinguish us from our competitors.

Photo app tries new email test, gets more responses

Natalia Brzezinska, Marketing and Outreach Manager, PhotoAiD :

The “Authenticity vs. Professionalism” article was a huge inspiration for me. I carry out many email campaigns, including contacting journalists or editors, and it’s very tough to catch their interest. Thus, A/B testing is my thing, and ever since I remember, I have tested different types of headlines or CTAs – but I’ve never thought about changing the tone of my emails, I just tried to make my text as easy to read as possible.

Now, I don’t have the opportunity to wear a hat on the profile picture for half of my emails (although that might be an interesting idea, too), but the Business vs. Cowboy test inspired me to create two different types of emails for my email campaign – formal and informal.

While the open rate was similar, the number of responses surprised me. Recipients that got the formal email were more eager to reply to me and asked for more details, so ever since the discovery, I try to make my emails sound more professional than before, which is great for my results.

Before we say goodbye to 2022 – a thank you to the unsung heroes in marketing

You might see my name on the byline for much of our content this year, and Flint McGlaughlin in the FastClasses teaching you marketing concepts. But none of this content would be possible without a few folks who deserve a boatload of credit as well.

So I wanted to say a quick thank you to Steve Beger (for taking the lead on all things tech), Cliff Rainer (for producing the FastClass videos), Jane Rainer (for transcribing the podcast episodes) and Gary Spurgeon (for editing the podcast episodes).

And after reading the final submission in this article (below), I would be remiss to not thank Flint as well. As that writer says, good leadership can be an unsung hero behind the scenes as well. The How I Made It In Marketing podcast, mentioned at the opening of this article, would not exist without Flint’s encouragement.

I also asked other marketers for info on the unsung heroes in their organization. Here are a few of my favorite responses…

Polly takes it upon herself to block out quiet time for every team member.

Dawn Ringel, SVP, Public Relations, Incenter Marketing :

When our boutique national marcomm agency (which serves external clients and the 11 companies in the Incenter family) was founded two years ago, Polly Clapp, Senior Vice President, Marketing Operations, developed our much-needed operational infrastructure…and so much more.

She is the traffic cop who ensures that every advertising, public relations, digital marketing, social media, and video campaign is on track and on time.

Is there too much bustle behind the scenes? Polly takes it upon herself to block out quiet time for every team member. With the privilege of working virtually, do we need a fun field trip? Polly initiates it and comes with surprise company swag. Are there unexpected gaps – like shipping “no shows?” Polly quietly finds another solution.

Being both an internal and external agency is challenging; it’s important to provide 100% service to everyone, whether they’re literally your team members, or you feel like part of their extended team. Polly handles the choreography with grace, humor, sensitivity, and calm. It’s a pleasure to call her out for all of this.

A web developer dedicated exclusively to making my wishes come true

Angela Zade, Account Manager, SEO Dogs :

I've been in search engine optimization for many years. Entering the field with a traditional marketing background, my weakness has always been that fuzzy line between SEO and web development.

For the first time in my decade-long career, I have a web developer – Ben White – dedicated exclusively to making my wishes come true.

While I am responsible for the strategy and vision, Ben executes my strategies effortlessly. He is the means through which my unorthodox ideas find a home online thanks to his hard work and dedication.

Oftentimes, web developers scoff at the idea of partnering with an SEO. They'd rather stay in their lanes and prefer me to stay in mine. With Ben, he's willing to cross that divide and make great things happen.

A simple example might be the failing core web vitals scores across clients' sites. When challenged with the task to improve them, Ben took the time to investigate how, and actually impart the types of changes that delivered noteworthy improvements in page speed scores.

His versatility and commitment to excellence is worthy of being recognized.

Leadership is not exactly overlooked – but GOOD leadership...that's something to be thankful for.

Lochy Cupit, Content Writer, First Aid Pro :

Perhaps it seems odd to name the head of a department in a discussion of unsung people who do the work behind the scenes. But the question here is HOW someone goes about leading a marketing team and how they're putting their team to work.

The Marketing Department at First Aid Pro is a rich mix of technical marketing personnel and focused content writers, with a few people with a foot in each camp. We have everything from highly technical IT specialists through to ex-publishing professionals with little or no technical expertise.

In the current climate, it's increasingly the case that marketers and content creators are being called to become a jack-of-all-trades. We're called upon to understand the technical complexities of SEO and ranking for keywords, the everyday practicalities of using and creating content with an ever-evolving set of software tools and be able to turn the written word with such subtlety that users won't be able to click off the page. Job and Person specs for marketing personnel call for fluency with all types of social media (from creating Tik-Tok clips to running Facebook marketing), along with excellent people skills and flawless attention to detail.

And, of course, the industry is swiftly evolving – every year, social media engines rise and fall, and Google constantly adapts and grows smarter. So every year, our jobs evolve.

The reality is that real teams have a massive range of backgrounds, skills and areas of expertise. One marketer may be an expert with WordPress and site optimization but understand little of crafting an engaging message for the user. Another may be a master of the written word, but the details of the Google helpful content update and its impact on site content are beyond their technical understanding.

In the season of thanksgiving, we're grateful for Head of Marketing Arpan Singh, a manager who understands both how the industry is changing and evolving, and where their team is at. And works to bridge the gap. Who uses his team as a team – capitalizing on the skills he has available, and helping different specialists work together effectively. And who also understands where change is needed to keep up.

Our manager is a passionate student of the evolving face of Marketing and SEO. He's subscribed to all the podcasts, follows all the channels, and knows how the science (or art, rather) of marketing and SEO is evolving. And he's committed to using his team to best effect. Whether it's training days for marketing staff (to understand the big picture of how marketing and content are evolving), careful division of tasks (to use both technical and creative skills to best effect), or getting alongside staff where they're at, we're grateful for leadership that blends big picture strategy with practical teamwork.

We're also grateful for leadership that leads strategically, not just falling into management habit. Who says things like "If semantic SEO is about quality, not just volume, how do I help that happen? How do I give my content team the space and the resources to create outstanding content, rather than just paying by the word and hoping for the best?" That can look at the website and marketing resources we have currently, sees where things need to change and how to move towards that. But also who has the practical skills to say "right... this is what we're each doing TODAY!", to get started.

Leadership is not exactly overlooked in the world of business and marketing – there are plenty of managers out there. But GOOD leadership, that understands the goal, but also knows how to use and work with their team to get there...that's something to be thankful for.

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11 Influencer Marketing Case Studies with Unbelievable Results

Reading Time: 22 Minutes

GRIN also recommends this free guide:

Influencer Marketing Best Practices

Influencer marketing has grown exponentially over the past several years. What started as a novelty tactic for a select few digitally native brands has now become a multi-billion dollar industry and a mainstay for ecommerce startups and retail stalwarts alike.

In this blog, we’ll introduce you to some of those brands in several influencer marketing case studies and look inside the strategies that have helped them become household names in their respective fields. But first, let’s get familiar with some recent trends. 

Influencer marketing stats and trends you should know 

Influencer marketing is now nearly a $5 billion industry in the u.s..

Many brands increased their influencer marketing efforts this year as a cost-efficient way of driving sales and improving brand awareness amid a looming recession. In the U.S., influencer marketing spending reached $4.99 billion in 2022 . By 2024, that number is expected to grow to $7.14 billion. 

As of July 2022 , the most popular influencer marketing platforms by spending were as follows:

• Instagram : $2.23 billion
• YouTube : $950 million
• TikTok : $770 million
• Facebook : $740 million

Influencer rates are on the rise. 

According to a recent survey , nearly 300 veteran influencer marketers said that rising influencer rates was one of the most common trends in 2022. As a result, many have begun prioritizing nano and micro influencers over their macro and celebrity counterparts. 

Smaller creators’ generally lower rates and a higher likelihood of accepting free products in exchange for products make them ideal partners for beginner and enterprise brands alike. However, bootstrapped brands interested in partnering with all creator sizes have found success in an affiliate model—a commission structure that only requires brands to pay influencers who get results. 

See Also: Advanced Strategies for Supercharging an Affiliate Program

11 influencer marketing examples to inspire your next campaign

1. ichigo inc. .

ICHIGO Inc. is a startup from Tokyo, Japan. It provides consumers with a subscription box service meant to celebrate Japanese culture through candy, snacks, and kawaii merchandise. 

In early 2022, ICHIGO Inc. built out an affiliate marketing program to generate buzz for its TokyoTreat and Sakuraco boxes. By zeroing in on high-performing creators who genuinely love the Japanese culture represented in ICHIGO Inc.’s products, the company planned to nurture a strong community of influential fans who share their brand affinity with engaged audiences.  

Execution 

ICHIGO Inc. works with creators of all sizes and pays them a flat rate or commission based on the number of conversions pulled in for the brand’s Tokyo Treat and Sakuraco boxes. The program deploys creators on multiple social media platforms but focuses primarily on YouTube creators who can reach an audience in the 18- to 50-year-old age range. As an extra incentive for their audience, ICHIGO Inc. gives each creator an affiliate link to offer their followers $5 off a subscription box. 

With the help of GRIN’s intuitive affiliate marketing features, ICHIGO Inc. could execute multiple campaigns from start to finish and report on the success of each. As the brand continues to grow, ICHIGO Inc. relies on GRIN to nurture authentic relationships with niche creators and keep the brand love flowing. 

Within one year, ICHIGO Inc. was able to:  

• Increase its creator roster by 30x. 
• Recruit and retain creators with a deep appreciation for Japanese culture and the ICHIGO Inc. brand. 
• Execute multiple creator campaigns each month.

Check out the full case study .

2. Branch Basics

Branch Basics provides direct-to-consumer, non-toxic cleaning products. Each one comes with a concentrate that users mix with water in refillable bottles that are lighter on the wallet and the environment.

Branch Basics hoped to scale its influencer program to have an army of brand champions providing authentic product endorsements for its non-toxic cleaning products. In addition to having its creators post about the brand on their personal social media accounts, Branch Basics wanted to repurpose the highest-performing creator content across its entire marketing mix to get the most out of its partnerships.

@julesacree Use ‘JULES’ for 15% off @Branch Basics starter kits #ad #cleaningtiktok #cleaninghacks #minimalist ♬ autumn – Study Beats

Branch Basics executed its influencer marketing program in two tiers—affiliate and paid. Its affiliates work on a commission basis and receive links to share with their followers. When an affiliate performs particularly well, the company offers them a paid partnership. 

But before Branch Basics partners with a creator, it always sends the prospect a free product to ensure they genuinely like them and can learn how to use them properly. This leads to more authentic content that helps move the needle for their followers.  

Branch Basics counts on GRIN to help scale its influencer program while saving the team time it can use to build long-term relationships with creators. Branch Basics now maintains a large creator roster that genuinely loves the brand while still managing to reach out to roughly 300 new creators monthly.

With GRIN’s all-in-one Creator Management platform, Branch Basics effectively manages: 

• 100-150 affiliates per month. 
• 25 paid partners per month.

Inkbox is a Toronto-based semi-permanent tattoo and accessories company founded in 2015. With its Freehand Tattoo Marker, custom design platform, and more than 10,000 artist-created designs, millions of people in over 190 countries have used the company’s products to express themselves with their plant-based, cruelty-free technology called For Now Ink™ that lasts 1-2 weeks.

In October 2022, Inkbox ran a gifting campaign to drive awareness and build positive sentiment for the launch of the brand’s extended Freehand Tattoo Marker collection. The team sent products to 200 creators, emphasizing those who had used Inkbox before and enjoyed the experience, hoping they would fall in love with the new suite of Freehand Tattoo Markers and post about it organically and in a way that feels most authentic to them.  

@joels.tattoodesigns tatted up thanks to @inkbox, so sick 😎 #inkbox , #tattooideas , #tattoomarker , #ad ♬ Hell N Back – Bakar

Because Inkbox sent products to so many different creators, the brand needed a way to track which ones posted about them organically. The brand also needed a way to perform outreach at scale, easily generate affiliate links, organize content, and secure necessary content rights.

With GRIN’s help, Inkbox has built a community of high-performing creators who love the brand—many of whom have transitioned into long-term partnerships as brand ambassadors. And with a growing content library generated from its recent gifting campaign, the rest of the Inkbox team has plenty of amazing content it can repurpose across the entire marketing mix. 

From October 18, 2022, to December 9, 2022, Inkbox accumulated:

• 70+ creators in the Freehand Tattoo Marker activation. 
• 800k+ reach from creator content. 
• 40% unprompted creator posting rate. 
• 2x content received from typical evergreen campaigns.

Check out the full case study . 

4. Cuts Clothing

Cuts is a premium clothing brand specializing in T-shirts, sweatshirts, bottoms, and hats. The company’s goal is to provide clothing that is professional enough for work and stylish enough for a night out without sacrificing comfort.

Cuts recently executed a product seeding campaign with nano and micro influencers with the goals of growing the creators’ social presence and increasing Cuts’ brand awareness on TikTok. Success for the campaign meant establishing a sustainable “content farm” of high-performing creators to collectively produce 20-30 pieces of content with a 10%+ engagement rate and <$120 cost per acquisition (CPA).

@cylussandoval #ad New Fall collection out now, link in bio to check out the rest of the collection. Use code CYSANDOVAL to save. #cutsclothing ♬ original sound – Marcos

The campaign assigned its creators 1-2 TikTok videos per month, each with a specific theme centered around a new product, collection, holiday, etc. New creators started on a one-month trial run, with the top performers invited for extended partnerships where they could become brand ambassadors and work more closely with the brand. 

While leveraging the GRIN platform, Cuts created a team of 15 micro influencers who produced professional-grade content with little to no lift from the brand’s end. 

The campaign generated:

• 30+ original TikTok videos.
• 10%+ post engagement rate. 
• <$120 CPA. 

5. Blue Wheel Media

Blue Wheel Media is an omnichannel marketing agency, helping beauty and wellness industry clients scale their ecommerce businesses by providing advanced digital marketing, content production, and marketplace advertising solutions. 

For a recent partnership, Blue Wheel helped a haircare industry client drive sales by leveraging a paid influencer program with more than 100 nano, micro, and macro creators on TikTok and Instagram. After contributing to the paid campaign, each high-performing creator had the option to stay on long-term and earn commission through an affiliate program. 

Blue Wheel needed the most efficient workflow possible to juggle the goals of its haircare partner, along with other clients relying on the agency to scale their influencer marketing programs. Blue Wheel also needed a way to provide a detailed overview of campaign success to prove their efforts were working. 

To keep everything running smoothly, Blue Wheel needed streamlined solutions for:

• Influencer payments.
• Communication.
• Link generation.  
• Content management. 
• Reporting success. 

GRIN’s leading Creator Management platform has all the tools required to help Blue Wheel’s haircare client reach their revenue goals and then some. 

With GRIN, Blue Wheel has access to:

• Personalized Email Sequences . One-off emails are a thing of the past. With GRIN, Blue Wheel can communicate with all its prospects and partners at scale and generate automated follow-ups. Organized Content Library . Blue Wheel has all of its creator content under one roof. 
• Ecommerce integration . GRIN integrates seamlessly with the ecommerce stores of Blue Wheel’s clients, making creating and assigning Affiliate Links a breeze. 
• Activations Dashboard . Blue Wheel can easily track deliverables, analyze content, and see which creators need to be paid, all from a single dashboard. 
• Reporting Dashboard. All the data Blue Wheel needs to report campaign success to its clients are automatically uploaded to GRIN’s intuitive Reporting Dashboard.

Nutpods is the #1 non-dairy substitute creamer brand on Amazon. The vegan, kosher, non-GMO, gluten-free, and Whole30® approved brand is constantly tweaking and expanding its popular flavors to meet the trends and demands of its customers. 

It didn’t take long for nutpods to grow a dedicated fanbase eager to work with the brand. With a solid core of about 50 brand advocates working with nutpods from its early days, the influencer marketing team’s main goal was to build out an army of equally passionate advocates willing to share the love for their favorite non-dairy creamer company.  

@nicole_thenomad #ad The BEST matcha, hands down 🙌🏽🍵 the @nutpods make all the difference! #nutpodspartner #matcha ♬ original sound – Nicole Renard

Nutpods decided to step up its game with an affiliate program in addition to its ambassador program. Nutpods gave its ambassadors free products in exchange for content, while its affiliates could earn cash in a traditional commission model. Either way, the brand targeted high-quality creators ready to share their love for all things nutpods.  

Nutpods relies on GRIN to run its product seeding and affiliate programs from end to end. Shortly after signing on with the world’s first Creator Management platform, nutpods grew its influencer roster to more than 250 creators and saw:

• 1,000+ link code conversions.
• 600+ orders fulfilled.
• 3,000+ pieces of new influencer-generated content. 

7. Organifi

Organifi is a superfoods supplement company. Its products are meant to power the mind and body with blends made with whole food, organic ingredients, and less than three grams of sugar. 

Organifi’s mission is to bring the benefits of superfoods into every North American household through its line of drink powder products. But Organifi wants to be known as more than just drink powders—the brand prides itself on connecting with its customer community and following their health transformations. Organifi works hard to foster a community among its fans and uses an influencer marketing program to help with that goal.

@kelseylynnjones it’s good to eat green! 🥬🥑🌱🥝🥦 #plantbasedtiktok #wieiad #healthtok #fyp @organifi #ad ♬ Summer Background Jazz – Relaxing Jazz Nights

Organifi hones in narrowly on creators who most closely resemble their ideal customers. Using carefully crafted buyer personas, the team also pinpoints those directly aligned with the brand’s mission and values. The execution required a ton of creator outreach, but in the end, Organifi had a team of ambassadors who could truly represent the brand and what it stands for. 

Organifi leveraged GRIN to perform seamless creator outreach at scale and manage its entire influencer marketing program without a hitch. 

In just a short period of time, the brand managed to:

• Send 25k+ outreach emails.
• Build a roster of more than 250 creators.
• Generate 10k+ conversions. 

8. Mari + Gold

Mari + Gold is a full-service creative marketing agency specializing in the hospitality, tourism, and lifestyle industries. The agency helps its clients build their brands with tailored strategies involving everything from influencer marketing and organic social media management to public relations, website development , and more. 

Mari + Gold mostly partners with event-focused micro influencers who are most active on Instagram. Ideally, the partnerships last at least one year, so the creators have enough time to build brand affinity and generate the best possible results. 

A manual approach to influencer marketing isn’t feasible if Mari + Gold expects to dedicate ample time to each of its clients. The team needs a way to communicate with each creator at scale, fulfill product orders quickly, streamline attribution, and analyze and report on the success of each campaign. 

Results 

Mari + Gold’s team has all the capacity it needs to treat every client like its only client. 

From 2021-2022, GRIN helped Mari + Gold generate roughly:

• 4.5x increase in engagements
• 480+ new creator partnerships (27% long-term)
• 2,000% increase in link clicks
• An average of 88% of campaign emails opened + clicked

Tentree is an eco-friendly apparel and lifestyle brand with a mission of planting 10 trees for every item of clothing sold and eventually reaching 1 billion. So far, they’ve planted more than 42 million trees all over the world in places like Madagascar, Nepal, Haiti, the U.S., Canada, and more. 

At first, tentree invested in traditional sponsored posts using professionally crafted content. But with a growing community of passionate fans, the brand began reaching out to environmentally friendly nano and micro influencers to produce more realistic and relatable user-generated content that could help tentree reach its ultimate goal. 

@annevasea #ad @tentree 🌲 #seattlelife #seattlewashington #tentree #seattlethingstodo #seattlecheck ♬ Young – Vacations

Tentree reached out to numerous brand-aligned content creators who couldn’t wait to help the company fulfill its goal of planting 1 billion trees worldwide. Through the use of discount codes and affiliate links, tentree could track which creators drove the most sales for the brand and move its mission in the right direction. 

With GRIN’s robust Creator Management platform at its disposal, tentree quickly generated:

• 13x creator ROI.
• 1,000+ conversions. 
• 800+ pieces of influencer-generated content. 

10. MVMT Watches

MVMT is a Los Angeles-based retail brand selling high-quality, affordable watches, jewelry and accessories for men and women.

Well before Instagram dominated the social media landscape, MVMT’s team instinctively knew its goal should be to work with talented IG photographers and content creators as a content-sourcing strategy. Years before influencer marketing became an everyday buzz phrase, the brand’s young, hip identity made working with influencers a natural fit.

@lucabish Cook with us and then use code LUCA for 30% off @mvmt ♬ Aesthetic – Tollan Kim

MVMT began sourcing its iconic social media imagery by reaching out to Instagram creators with 30,000 to 500,000 followers willing to produce content in exchange for free products. As the content gained traction online, MVMT realized leveraging creator partnerships was ideal not only for content, but as a cost-effective solution for driving sales. 

Finding GRIN enabled MVMT to keep up with the rapid growth of its influencer program and become an indispensable tool in its workflow. 

With GRIN, MVMT has seen:

• 7x influencer growth. 
• 39k+ pieces of influencer content generated. 
• 100k+ affiliate and discount code conversions. 

11. Trifecta

Trifecta Nutrition provides athletes and health-conscious people with fresh and organic meals delivered right to their door. As one of the country’s largest organic meal delivery services. Trifecta feeds tens of thousands of people throughout the United States each day.

Because Trifecta’s product is perfect for elite athletes, the brand’s immediate goal for its influencer marketing program was to build relationships with pro athletes like UFC fighters, bodybuilders, and Crossfitters. Trifecta correctly assumed that the partnerships formed would provide invaluable social proof for the brand and help drive sales. 

@jeanlucdecoster Teaming up with @Trifecta to give you guys a discount on some SOLID meal prep 😮‍💨 use the code START40 tobsave 40% when trying it oht for the first time… link in bio! #trifecta #trifectapartner #mealprep #foodie #workouttips #fyp ♬ She Share Story (for Vlog) – 山口夕依

In addition to building relationships with professional athletes, Trifecta expanded its creator program to everyday health-conscious individuals who could generate relatable content and establish a community feel for the brand. Before long, Trifecta accumulated a vast library of quality creator content it could use across its marketing mix, getting the most mileage possible out of each post. 

Shortly after coming on board with GRIN, Trifecta managed to:

• Add more than 170 creators to its roster.
• Compose 1,500+ threads of organized email communication. 
• Produce 2,000+ pieces of influencer-generated content. 

Key takeaway: No matter your goals, influencer marketing can help take your brand to the next level. 

From increasing brand awareness to driving conversions and sales, partnering with authentic content creators has been the answer for thousands of brands looking for a cost-effective approach to marketing. The industry has grown exponentially and shows no signs of slowing down, making now the perfect time to implement or expand your influencer marketing program.

Learn more about influencer marketing: Influencer Marketing 101

Updated: June 2023

Frequently asked questions.

All types of brands have had success leveraging influencer marketing as a strategy. However, the most popular industries include:

• Beauty/skincare
• Sports/fitness

The U.S. influencer marketing industry reached $4.99 billion in 2022. By 2024, that number is expected to grow to more than $7 billion. 

Influencer marketing’s effectiveness relies on a brand’s ability to leverage authentic content creators to provide honest product endorsements. By identifying creators who share a brand’s mission and values, marketers access to an engaged audience that is willing to listen when their favorite creator recommends a product or service. 

Hand-Picked Content

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Keep It Local: Influencer Marketing for Small Businesses 

When you think of influencer marketing, you may think of celebrities endorsing products and brands …

Social Proof: What It Is and How to Leverage It for Your Influencer Marketing Campaign

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Understanding the Creator Economy

Just how big is the world of social media and social commerce? …

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Written by Quinn Schwartz

Quinn studied journalism at the University of Kentucky and now lives in Portland, Oregon. He’s particularly interested in storytelling in digital marketing and cost-effective creator strategies for smaller brands. When he’s not writing, you can find him at a concert, dog park, or debating whether or not to go on a run.

All-in-one creator management platform helping ecommerce companies build more valuable brands through the power of creator partnerships.

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Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies of 2021

Two cases about Hertz claimed top spots in 2021's Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies

Two cases on the uses of debt and equity at Hertz claimed top spots in the CRDT’s (Case Research and Development Team) 2021 top 40 review of cases.

Hertz (A) took the top spot. The case details the financial structure of the rental car company through the end of 2019. Hertz (B), which ranked third in CRDT’s list, describes the company’s struggles during the early part of the COVID pandemic and its eventual need to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 

The success of the Hertz cases was unprecedented for the top 40 list. Usually, cases take a number of years to gain popularity, but the Hertz cases claimed top spots in their first year of release. Hertz (A) also became the first ‘cooked’ case to top the annual review, as all of the other winners had been web-based ‘raw’ cases.

Besides introducing students to the complicated financing required to maintain an enormous fleet of cars, the Hertz cases also expanded the diversity of case protagonists. Kathyrn Marinello was the CEO of Hertz during this period and the CFO, Jamere Jackson is black.

Sandwiched between the two Hertz cases, Coffee 2016, a perennial best seller, finished second. “Glory, Glory, Man United!” a case about an English football team’s IPO made a surprise move to number four.  Cases on search fund boards, the future of malls,  Norway’s Sovereign Wealth fund, Prodigy Finance, the Mayo Clinic, and Cadbury rounded out the top ten.

Other year-end data for 2021 showed:

• Online “raw” case usage remained steady as compared to 2020 with over 35K users from 170 countries and all 50 U.S. states interacting with 196 cases.
• Fifty four percent of raw case users came from outside the U.S..
• The Yale School of Management (SOM) case study directory pages received over 160K page views from 177 countries with approximately a third originating in India followed by the U.S. and the Philippines.
• Twenty-six of the cases in the list are raw cases.
• A third of the cases feature a woman protagonist.
• Orders for Yale SOM case studies increased by almost 50% compared to 2020.
• The top 40 cases were supervised by 19 different Yale SOM faculty members, several supervising multiple cases.

CRDT compiled the Top 40 list by combining data from its case store, Google Analytics, and other measures of interest and adoption.

All of this year’s Top 40 cases are available for purchase from the Yale Management Media store .

And the Top 40 cases studies of 2021 are:

1.   Hertz Global Holdings (A): Uses of Debt and Equity

2.   Coffee 2016

3.   Hertz Global Holdings (B): Uses of Debt and Equity 2020

4.   Glory, Glory Man United!

5.   Search Fund Company Boards: How CEOs Can Build Boards to Help Them Thrive

6.   The Future of Malls: Was Decline Inevitable?

7.   Strategy for Norway's Pension Fund Global

8.   Prodigy Finance

9.   Design at Mayo

10. Cadbury

11. City Hospital Emergency Room

13. Volkswagen

14. Marina Bay Sands

15. Shake Shack IPO

16. Mastercard

17. Netflix

18. Ant Financial

19. AXA: Creating the New CR Metrics

20. IBM Corporate Service Corps

21. Business Leadership in South Africa's 1994 Reforms

22. Alternative Meat Industry

23. Children's Premier

24. Khalil Tawil and Umi (A)

25. Palm Oil 2016

26. Teach For All: Designing a Global Network

27. What's Next? Search Fund Entrepreneurs Reflect on Life After Exit

28. Searching for a Search Fund Structure: A Student Takes a Tour of Various Options

30. Project Sammaan

31. Commonfund ESG

32. Polaroid

33. Connecticut Green Bank 2018: After the Raid

34. FieldFresh Foods

35. The Alibaba Group

36. 360 State Street: Real Options

37. Herman Miller

38. AgBiome

39. Nathan Cummings Foundation

40. Toyota 2010

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• Customer Stories

[Updated] 8 Best marketing case study examples

Social listening and consumer intelligence will knock your marketing campaigns out of the park. No question.

Don’t believe me?

The following types of case studies speak for themselves about why you should… listen. Show me the success stories!

Table of content

• Grubhub | Consumer insights feed the soul
• UNICEF | Fighting misleading information with conversational insights
• University of Sydney | Proves the value of social media
• Bella&Brava | Image recognition sees all 
• HelloFresh | Social listening is the secret ingredient 
• Hong Kong Airlines | How to turn a crisis into a soaring success
• Bonduelle | Breaking down data silos to make critical business decisions
• Lion & Lion and Rimmel | Changing the face of Malaysian makeup

Grubhub marketing case study | Consumer insights feed the soul

When the world went into lockdown, food delivery services became an essential part of all our lives. But how to do it safely?

Based in the US, Grubhub is a food ordering and delivery platform that connects consumers with local restaurants and takeaways. To understand what people wanted and meet their new demands, the brand turned to consumer insights.

COVID-19 brought the world to its knees. People feared for their health and for their income. The challenge for Grubhub was how to address consumer concerns with regard to a restricted household budget, disinfection protocols, the mechanics of safe food delivery, and more.

Using our consumer intelligence platform, the Grubhub team monitored for diners' negative experiences, and countered with positive experiences.

When Grubhub's Belly Dance ad first aired on TV, it fell below expectations, receiving low engagement. Suddenly, in January 2021, the commercial became a viral meme, receiving over 40K mentions on social media in one month.

Working with Talkwalker, the brand created a strategy as to how to join this growing conversation .

Think you can make a commercial better than us? Prove it. Add your own music to it or suggest a song, then tweet it with #DeliverTheRemix . You could have your song featured in our commercial and win a YEAR of free food. Ends 1/19. No purch nec. 50 US/DC, 18+. Rules in bio. pic.twitter.com/cRxIFKAji9 — Grubhub (@Grubhub) January 16, 2021

As the campaign became more successful, the team launched the #DeliverTheRemix contest, asking followers to help choose the next song in the “Belly Dance” ad. Consumers loved it, creating a ton of fun and creative pieces of content.

To understand how Grubhub was able to turn negative community sentiment and drive a brand-amplifying strategy , read the Grubhub marketing case study.

Download the Grubhub marketing case study

UNICEF marketing case study | Fighting misleading information with conversational insights

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we've been bombarded with misinformation about the virus and the various vaccines. As this case study shows, we look at how UNICEF MENARO developed a communication strategy to battle the fake news that threatened to undermine the vaccine program in the Middle East and North Africa.

The pandemic caught us by surprise, and we lacked a reliable source of truth. This issue was exacerbated with the release of the vaccine, when we suffered a further deluge of fake news that fed the rising anti-vaccine mood.

It became critical for organizations promoting the vaccine to understand the concerns of the public , enabling them to put peoples' fears to rest. And build trust in vaccines.

For UNICEF MENARO this meant using Talkwalker's consumer intelligence platform to track misinformation keywords , along with mentions of COVID-19 in online conversations in the MENA region to see just how serious the situation was.

Sentiment analysis was used to find the overall sentiment around vaccines, with results showing that net sentiment was low, proving vaccine hesitancy.

The net sentiment around vaccines from December 2020 - April 2021 demonstrated the overall negative view of vaccines.

To shift the sentiment, UNICEF in MENA activated the voices of community members to engage with people and allay their vaccine fears.

UNICEF'S communication strategy delivered a data-driven narrative using strategic partnerships, influencer marketing, and real-life testimonies. Short-form videos that were a strong part of the strategy, with the video for the #MaskUp campaign receiving over 136K mentions between April 2020 and May 2021.

Number of mentions of #MaskUp in the MENA region during the past 13 months.

UNICEF continues to play a key role in monitoring conversation around the pandemic, whether it's positive or negative. 

To understand more about how UNICEF used consumer intelligence to battle fake news , and the successful campaigns it launched, check out our UNICEF marketing case study.

Download the UNICEF marketing case study

University of Sydney marketing case study | Proves the value of social media

The secret to a successful social media strategy is ensuring it's aligned with your business goals.

This marketing case study explores how the University of Sydney used a combination of Hootsuite and Talkwalker and increased sentiment, engagement, and video views.

The university was looking to boost its reputation for research, entice a more diverse range of top-level students, and build a brand that would stand out in a crowd. A forward thinking university, social media would inevitably play a big part, so much so, it already had a Social Squad using Hootsuite, Talkwalker, and Adobe.

What did the squad do? Bringing the various faculty teams together, it created a social media strategy that aligned content, goals, and reporting across it's 36 official social channels.

Sentiment analysis and social media listening enabled the university to measure and manage its brand reputation . Collecting insights that informed the campaign strategy and boosted sentiment through social media communication.

When sentiment turned negative during the COVID-19 lockdown, the Stay Strong India campaign brought about a 30% increase in net sentiment score.

“The insights that Talkwalker provides us have been incredible and have really informed our campaign strategy. Providing these insights to our stakeholders demonstrates what social media can do for our brand and helps us secure investment to increase our budgets and grow our team.” Liz Grey | Social Media | University of Sydney

In the past, when content was shared across multiple channels without a plan, reporting results was hard. The introduction of Hootsuite Impact meant that the team could efficiently report on engagement, campaign performance, and ROI.

A year into its successful social media strategy, the university continues to collect student insights, and is looking to recruit influencers to meet new goals.

For more details on how the university used social media to improve its reputation, download our University of Sydney marketing case study.

Download the University of Sydney marketing case study

Bella&Brava marketing case study | Image recognition sees all

I love pizza, you love pizza. 

With a whopping 106.2K mentions on July 9th, 2019 on Twitter alone, it’s clear that everyone loves posting about pizza.

Data found using Talkwalker’s QuickSearch .

The most popular emojis used when it comes to discussing pizza.

When Venice-based pizzeria Bella&Brava wanted to open restaurants in new locations, it partnered with digital consultancy company OpenKnowledge to harness the power of social media.

Using Talkwalker’s proprietary image recognition technology , OpenKnowledge analyzed data from user-generated content - UGC - created by the consumers Bella&Brava were looking to feed. Their hip, young target audience.

Using image recognition, photos of pizzas posted on social media platforms - Instagram, Facebook, Twitter - were identified, along with background scenes and objects. 

The consumer insights collected from social networks helped Bella&Brava make critical business decisions . Which cities to open in? Which brand partnerships to explore? How will cultural differences influence the design of each new menu?

Read Bella&Brava’s marketing case study to see how social listening and consumer insights will put your brand ahead of your competitors, purely by listening to consumers and meeting their demands .

Download the Bella&Brava marketing case study

“In the digital age, there are two types of organisations: those that collect data and those that transform it into opportunities” Ilaria Baietti, Director - Brand Interaction, OpenKnowledge

Speed up the growth of your business by closing the gap between your brand and consumers. Boom!

HelloFresh marketing case study | When social listening is the secret ingredient 

When HelloFresh, the world’s leading meal kit company, was struggling with social media data, it was time to call Talkwalker. .

Previously, the brand had been manually collecting social media data. This was not only  time consuming, but vital information was being missed .

Humans are great, but when you consider the amount of social data out there…

It was time to freshen up HelloFresh’s marketing strategy with social listening.

“At HelloFresh, data is at the center of everything we do. It was only natural for us to turn to social listening to improve the performance and efficiency of our marketing and communications teams. Talkwalker has allowed us to unlock access to a much larger conversation around our brand than ever before.” Jordan Schultz, Social Media Manager, HelloFresh

Talkwalker’s consumer intelligence platform was able to identify consumer insights , then translate into meaningful data. Moving forward, HelloFresh identified more than 400% more mentions per month.

With all these new insights to hand, HelloFresh began to develop a crisis management plan.

Take a look at our HelloFresh marketing case study, for more details

Download the HelloFresh marketing case study

Hong Kong Airlines marketing case study | How to turn a crisis into a soaring success

This is a case study from a few years back, so pre pandemic. But it remains a landing page that converts, bigly.

What’s every traveler’s dream and every airline’s nightmare?

When a Hong Kong Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai was mispriced at $561, consumers rushed to make the most of this mistake, with the Hong Kong Airline marketing team scrabbling for their oxygen masks.

The buzz from the mispriced tickets caused a huge increase in mentions, engagement and reach.

What were their options in the face of this PR crisis ? Search for the nearest exit? Or, buckle up and go along for what was sure to be a bumpy ride? 

Hong Kong Airlines decided to take another route. They chose to breeze right through it.

Luckily, they were prepared because of social listening and consumer intelligence. By using the insights from Talkwalker’s social media data and sentiment analysis , they were able to plan accordingly and protect their brand reputation .

“When we see what is happening in “real time” on social media we are better prepared to make timely and informed decisions and communicate those decisions well. Social listening and analytics tools are critical to success. In this case, we managed to turn what could have been a damaging issue, into a fantastic PR opportunity. With 4,900% more engagements created in a one week period.” Dennis Owen, General Manager of Branding and Social Media, Hong Kong Airlines

Read the Hong Kong Airlines case study to learn how they used social media data from competitors, and sentiment analysis to inform their strategic decisions. All while keeping long term customers and potential customers happy.

Download the Hong Kong Airlines marketing case study

Bonduelle marketing case study | Breaking down data silos to make critical business decisions

Bonduelle, a major French brand in the FMCG/CPG industry, was in the grips of optimizing its online brand strategy. The company that specializes in providing frozen and canned vegetables daily to over 100 countries, wanted to ensure that all its consumer data was readily available across its entire company.

The problem?

Data silos in Bonduelle.

Each department was collecting its own data and interpreting it, without a platform from which to share the information with other teams. This is a common issue. The State of Social Intelligence Report points out that 31% of organizations offer their teams limited access to social data.

The crucial information was hidden away in the dark depths of the team’s computer folder – unable to be used across departments to identify added benefits.

Social listening held the key to knocking down these data walls. It brought together information from online, social media, and traditional press all on one platform . Allowing Bonduelle to find the topics that were being discussed alongside their products or services, images associated with the brand, their high-performing influencers, and how to protect their brand reputation from negative comments.

Talkwalker offered the perfect solution, giving the brand the opportunity to build their own dashboard and choose who would have access to the data.

Read Bonduelle’s marketing case study to learn more about how it...

• Determined positioning based on data maturity scale in report
• Identified its progress in terms of data maturity
• Created necessary systems and teams for scalable processing of data
• Introduced the chief data officer role to maximize the value of data as it progresses

Download the Bonduelle marketing case study

Lion & Lion and Rimmel marketing case study ­| Changing the face of Malaysian makeup

When faced with the relaunch of the British cosmetics brand Rimmel in Malaysia, the brand’s digital marketing agency, Lion & Lion, turned to social media.

With the increasing demand for authenticity and inclusivity, the beauty industry has been opting for social media and specifically, influencer marketing instead of traditional advertising methods. 

Makes sense!

It’s a trend that resonates with Gen Z . Econsultancy states that 65% of this group rely on social media to find and choose beauty products. 

Rather than listening to marketers telling you what to buy, social media, blog posts and influencers become the cool friend with the inside scoop on the latest makeup trend. So, it’s no surprise that cosmetics brands are turning to social media marketing and social listening for consumer insights into what people really want.

In a country where the k-beauty brands dominate the shelves, the first step was to make Rimmel stand out in the crowd. 

The data showed that consumers trust that beauty is more than skin deep. It’s all about being confident. It’s all about being confident. They want bold, experimental makeup to create distinctive looks.

Rimmel then launched the #MakeUpYourOwnRules marketing campaign which championed self-expression and all-inclusive beauty that radiates confidence.

“As a result, we saw an increase in branded search and share-of-voice, and gained around 3x of our initial market share target within the first year of launch” Cheska Teresa, Managing Director, Lion & Lion in Malaysia  

For more details on how Lion & Lion took full advantage of social listening and consumer intelligence for Rimmel, read Lion & Lion’s marketing case study.

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Fecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT) as an Adjunctive Therapy for Depression—Case Report

Jessica p. k. doll.

1 Department of Psychiatry (UPK), University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Jorge F. Vázquez-Castellanos

2 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Rega Institute for Medical Research, KU Leuven-University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Anna-Chiara Schaub

Nina schweinfurth, cedric kettelhack, else schneider, gulnara yamanbaeva, laura mählmann, serge brand.

3 Center for Affective, Stress- and Sleep Disorders (ZASS), Psychiatric Clinics (UPK), University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

4 Sleep Disorders Research Center, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran

5 Substance Abuse Prevention Research Center, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran

6 Division of Sport Science and Psychosocial Health, Department of Sport, Exercise, and Health, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

7 Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Christoph Beglinger

8 Department of Research, St. Clara Hospital, Basel, Switzerland

Stefan Borgwardt

9 Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany

Jeroen Raes

André schmidt, undine e. lang, associated data.

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Depression is a debilitating disorder, and at least one third of patients do not respond to therapy. Associations between gut microbiota and depression have been observed in recent years, opening novel treatment avenues. Here, we present the first two patients with major depressive disorder ever treated with fecal microbiota transplantation as add-on therapy. Both improved their depressive symptoms 4 weeks after the transplantation. Effects lasted up to 8 weeks in one patient. Gastrointestinal symptoms, constipation in particular, were reflected in microbiome changes and improved in one patient. This report suggests further FMT studies in depression could be worth pursuing and adds to awareness as well as safety assurance, both crucial in determining the potential of FMT in depression treatment.

Introduction

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is an illness affecting more than 264 million people worldwide ( 1 ) and influencing functioning and quality of life (QoL) ( 2 ). Despite advancements in the development of therapeutics, current treatments have not reached optimal efficacy and approximately one third of patients do not respond to treatment after two or more trials of antidepressant medication ( 3 , 4 ). Therefore, the identification of new treatment options is crucial.

Recently, interest has been drawn toward the importance of the biochemical signaling between the gastrointestinal (GI) and the central nervous system, also known as the microbiome-gut-brain axis (MGBA) ( 5 – 9 ). Several studies have linked the gut microbiome to depression ( 6 , 8 – 11 ). The gut microbiota composition appears to be altered in depressed people ( 12 – 15 ), presenting predominance of potentially harmful bacterial groups and/or reduction in beneficial bacterial groups ( 12 ). Such dysbiosis could be related to depressive symptoms ( 16 , 17 ), as the MGBA is a bi-directional pathway, which involves multiple communication modalities, including metabolites, the immune system or the vagus nerve ( 8 , 10 , 18 , 19 ). Together, these studies feed the hypothesis that modification of the gut microbiome could decrease MDD symptoms. There are various ways to manipulate the gut microbiome, such as administration of prebiotics ( 20 – 22 ), probiotics ( 21 , 22 ), postbiotics ( 22 ), or fecal microbiome transplantation (FMT) ( 23 ). Preclinical evidence showed that adult germ-free rodents receiving fecal samples from MDD-patients showed increased depressive-like behavior compared to controls ( 17 , 23 ). Therefore, transplanting healthy fecal microbiome to MDD-patients could potentially ameliorate depressive symptoms. The intention of FMT is to introduce a beneficial microbial gut community by transferring intestinal microbiota from a healthy donor to a patient.

FMT has proven to be an effective treatment for recurrent Clostridium difficile infection ( rCDI ) ( 24 , 25 ). To our best knowledge, in MDD only one case treated with FMT has been reported so far ( 26 ).

Therefore, we initiated a randomized controlled trial (RCT), testing the efficacy of oral frozen FMT-capsules as adjuvant therapy in patients with moderate/severe MDD at the University Psychiatric Clinics Basel (UPK). While our RCT was running, the Food and Drug Administration released a safety alert regarding FMT (see Supplementary Methods for details) and we decided to cease the study for safety reasons after including a total of four patients. In the present article, we report clinical and safety results from two cases that had already received the active product.

Case Descriptions

Both patients were women and between 50 and 60 years old ( Table 1 ). Before starting the intervention, both received treatment as usual (TAU), which included pharmacological treatment, psychotherapy and additional medical-therapeutical treatments ( Figure 1 and Supplementary Tables 1, 2 . Changes in their treatment took place based on medical indication and patients' preferences.

Sociodemographic information.

Timeline with relevant timepoints from the episode of study and care.

Patient 1 had a diagnosis of MDD and chronic constipation. According to the patient, her first depressive episode started in adolescence, with a suicide attempt later in life. She was diagnosed with MDD in 2006 and had been hospitalized twice in her life. Depression is common in her family, with two male second-degree relatives having suffered from it, one deceased by suicide. At the time of baseline assessment, the patient had been in therapy as an inpatient for almost 3 months and treated for depression and constipation with persevering symptoms (see Supplementary Table 1 ).

Patient 2 had a diagnosis of MDD. She was diagnosed with depression in 1980 and has been hospitalized twice since then. A family history of depression is unknown. After more than 2 months of inpatient treatment, the patient's symptoms persevered. She was medicated with antidepressants and benzodiazepines ( Supplementary Table 2 ). At time of FMT intervention, the patient was suffering from negative emotions and GI symptoms, such as flatulence and constipation. For a more detailed description of the patients (see Supplementary Case Description ).

Diagnostic Assessment and Study Design

The RCT was approved by the local ethics committee (Ethikkommission Nordwest- und Zentralschweiz) and was conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and the International Conference on Harmonization Tripartite Guideline on Good Clinical Practice. Eligible patients were informed about the study and provided written informed consent. The study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov prior to study start (NCT03281004). MDD-patients were recruited from the UPK (Switzerland). At baseline, we assessed depressive symptoms [Hamilton Depression Rating Scale; HAMD ( 27 ) and Beck Depression Inventory-II; BDI II ( 28 )], GI-symptoms [Gastrointestinal Rating Scale; GSRS ( 29 )] and collected anthropometric and demographic data. Then the intake of oral frozen FMT-capsules followed. After the treatment, participants were observed and assessed on a weekly basis over a period of 4 weeks. After 4 weeks, post-intervention measurements were conducted. Additionally, an 8-week follow-up was performed. Stool samples were collected at baseline and 4 weeks after the intervention. For one of the patients, stool samples were available 8 weeks after the intervention ( Supplementary Material ).

Intervention

Patients were administered 30 oral frozen FMT-capsules within 90 min under the observation of a physician. Each active 30-capsule-dose consisted of 8.25 g donor stool, originating from a single donor, which was a different donor for each patient. For a detailed description of the methods (see Supplementary Methods ).

Both patients adhered to the intervention. They tolerated the oral frozen FMT-capsules well and did not report any serious adverse events (SAEs).

Depressive Symptoms

For patient 1, symptoms of depression improved, indicated by a decreased HAMD-score from 21 points at baseline to nine points 4 weeks post-intervention. At 8-week follow-up, the HAMD-score increased to 19 points ( Figure 2A ). For patient 2, the HAMD-score decreased from 31 to 10 points after 4 weeks and increased by two points after 8 weeks ( Figure 2A ). Thus, the FMT intervention resulted in a 4-week change score of 12 and 21 HAMD-points for patient 1 and 2, respectively, and an 8-week change score of 2 and 19 points, respectively ( Figure 2B ). As the present results come from two cases and do not allow for statistical comparison, we mapped our HAMD change scores together with meta-analysis results from Kirsch et al. ( 30 ) ( Supplementary Figures 1 , 2 ); methods and results can be found in the Supplementary Material . Additionally, we explored the depressive symptoms from two patients, who had received placebo. Both placebo-patients tolerated the placebo-capsules well. HAMD-scores from both placebo-patients only improved within the first 2 weeks after placebo-intake and increased back to baseline scores, which is visible in Supplementary Figures 3A,B (placebo 1: baseline 16, post-intervention 16, follow-up 9; placebo 2: baseline 22, post-intervention 22, follow-up not available).

(A) HAMD-scores for patient 1 and 2 over time, including cut-offs for depressive symptom severity. (B) Change scores of HAMD rating for both patients at 4-weeks compared to baseline and 8-weeks compared to baseline. A higher (and positive) change score indicates improvement of depressive symptoms as the change score was calculated by subtracting the score at post-intervention from the score at baseline (e.g., baseline score: 21, post-intervention score: 9, equals 21–9 = 12). (C) GSRS-scores for both patients over time; without cut-off for GI-symptom severity as different clusters of symptoms are defined by the GSRS (e.g., constipation) and classification of severity would be only possible for each symptom, not for the overall score. (D) GSRS change scores for both patients at 4-weeks compared to baseline and 8-weeks compared to baseline. (E) BDI-II-scores for both patients over time. (F) BDI-II change scores for both patients at 4-weeks compared to baseline and 8-weeks compared to baseline.

The BDI-II-scores dropped for both FMT-patients 4 weeks after FMT; from 50 to 31 points for patient 1 and from 24 to 12 points for patient 2, which results in change scores of 19 and 12, respectively. At 8-week follow-up, patient 1 reported a BDI-II-score of 34 and patient 2 a score of 9, resulting in change scores from baseline to follow-up of 16 and 15, respectively ( Figures 2E,F ).

Gastrointestinal Symptoms

Gastrointestinal symptoms improved in both patients ( Figure 2C ). Patient 1 benefitted by 56 points after 4 weeks, which worsened by only three points after 8 weeks. At baseline, she suffered from stomach pains, sickness, bloating, burping, and constipation. All symptoms improved over time. Patient 2 reported only a slight improvement of three points 4-week post-FMT and continued reporting constipation and bloating. The patient slightly improved by three more points at 8-week follow-up ( Figures 2C,D ).

Microbiome Composition and Diversity

In both patients, moisture decreased over time [ Supplementary Figure 6A ; Mixed-effects model (MEM) ANOVA p adjusted < 0.05]. Our patients showed lower moisture levels than the ones reported in a healthy population ( 31 ) (Wilcoxon test: W = 50, p = 0.025, Supplementary Figure 7 ). The bacterial load reflected in the cell counts was constant among the three time points for both patients (MEM ANOVA p adjuste d = 1). Diversity analysis was done to measure the taxonomic evenness (Pielou index), the richness (the number of observed species) and the diversity (inversed Simpson and Shannon indices) after FMT. Both patients showed an increase in the Pielou index after FMT, suggesting an evolution toward a more even distribution of species ( Figure 3A ). The species richness was generally reduced upon intervention ( Figure 3B ) and sustained until week eight in patient 1 ( Figure 3B ). We found that patient 1 showed increased inversed Simpson and Shannon diversity ( Figures 3C,D ), whereas patient 2 showed decreased diversity ( Figures 3C,D ).

Patients' microbiome diversity. Mixed-effects models (MEM) of the genus level (A) Pielou evenness, (B) observed species, (C) inverse simpson, and (D) Shannon index, the alpha diversity estimators were modeled into a discrete manner and represent its results as boxplot and into a continuous way, representing the MEM slope into line-plots. The gray area into the continuous MEM represents the 95% confidence level. Patient 1 is displayed in purple, patient 2 in orange. (E) Mixed-effects models (MEM) of the ASV after the FMT intervention. The columns remarked in blue indicates the increase in the abundance of the ASV of patient 1, patient 2, and when the increase is congruent between both. Similarly, the columns remarked in blue indicates the decrease of the ASV in time. The blue scale represents the MEM positive coefficient; in red, the negative. The ASV was set as a putative biomarker if both the continuous and discrete mixed-effect-model time coefficients were significant (ANOVA < 0.05).

The FMT intervention revealed a different effect on the bacterial composition of the two patients. Patient 1 maintained the Ruminococcus enterotype over all time points; while patient 2 switched from the Ruminococcus to the Bacteroides-2-enterotype 4 weeks post-intervention ( Supplementary Figure 8 ), indicating a dysbiotic microbial composition previously linked to fast transit and inflammation ( 31 , 32 ). The switch in the bacterial composition was also associated with an increase of the fecal calprotectin levels, which was higher than the ones reported in healthy subjects ( Supplementary Figure 9A ) ( 31 ). However, the bacterial load increased in patient 2 4 weeks post-intervention; the cell counts increased to a level between the 75 and 95 quantile ( Supplementary Figure 9B ) ( 31 ).

The FMT intervention displayed different effects on the taxa abundance between the patients ( Figure 3E ). Patient 1 showed an increase of 13 amplicon sequence variants (ASV) of the genera Alistipes, Oscillibacter, Coprococcus, Clostridium IV , and the families Ruminococcaceae and Lachnospiraceae, the order Clostridiales, and the Firmicutes phylum ( Figure 3E ). Contrary, nine ASV from the genera Victivallis, Alistipes, Roseburia, Prevotella, Ruminococcus, Blautia , and Faecalibacterium and two ASV of the family Lachnospiraceae decreased after FMT ( Figure 3E ). Patient 2 showed an increase of ASV of the Ruminococcaceae family, including Ruminococcus E , and one ASV of the species Flavonifractor plautii ( Figure 3E ), which has been reported to be increased in MDD-patients ( 16 ). Patient 2 showed a decrease of five ASV of the genera Ruminococcus, Alistipes, Bifidobacterium, Oscillibacter , and the family Lachnospiraceae ( Figure 3E ). Further results are documented in the Supplementary Results .

Four weeks after the intake of oral frozen FMT-capsules, depressive symptoms improved in both patients, objectively graded from severe/moderate to mild depression ( 33 ); this is in line with previous results implicating that FMT reduced depressive symptoms in patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) 4 weeks after treatment ( 34 ). Intriguingly, in the study by Kurokawa et al. ( 34 ), the clinical improvement after FMT was accompanied by increased gut bacteria diversity and decreased GI-symptoms. The relationship between IBS and depression seems to be bi-directional ( 34 , 35 ). Both of our patients were not formally diagnosed with IBS, but experienced GI-symptoms at baseline. While patient 1 was able to defecate regularly even 8 weeks after FMT, patient 2 was initially relieved, but after 4 weeks, again afflicted by constipation.

At baseline, both subjects showed a Ruminoccus enterotype bacterial composition and low fecal moisture, a proxy of slow transit time, and congruent with the prevalence of constipation in mood disorders ( 36 – 38 ). Patient 1 increased in diversity and maintained the Ruminococcus enterotype, indicating a better microbial response to FMT. However, the improvement of constipation in patient 1 is not reflected by the enterotype, since Ruminococcus is associated with slow transit time ( 36 , 37 ).

Compared to patient 2, patient 1 showed a higher abundance of short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) producers such as Butyrivibrio and Faecalibacterium that, along with Dialister , seem to be depleted in depressed people ( 16 ). Additionally, patient 1 showed an increase of species related to other healthy commensal species from the genera Methanobrevibacter and Sporobacter . Such species are related to low transit time and a healthy microbial establishment indicating the good recovery of the microbial community after oral frozen FMT-capsules. Moreover, patient 1 showed an increase and decrease of different ASV of the Alistipes genera after FMT. It is reasonable to assume that different Alistipes species may have different roles in host health; it has been reported that the decrease in Alistipes exerts an immunoregulatory effect and contributes to the decrease in SCFA which are suggested to have anti-depressant effects ( 39 , 40 ). Simultaneously, Alistipes are increased in depressed subjects ( 41 ).

Patient 2 still experienced constipation after the oral frozen FMT-capsules. It has been reported that prolonged constipation leads to a dysbiotic microbial configuration ( 42 , 43 ); indeed, patient 2 showed increased fecal calprotectin and switched to the Bacteroides-2-enterotype. Although until now this enterotype has mostly been linked to fast transit, constipated Bacteroides-2-individuals do exist (Raes, unpublished results). This patient's bacterial community showed an increase of species of the Flavonifractor genus, which is related to depression ( 16 , 31 , 44 ), and an increase of species of the Streptococcus genus, which is associated with high calprotectin and pro-inflammatory conditions ( 31 ). We assume that prolonged constipation in depressed people may have compromised the effectiveness of the oral frozen FMT-capsules by preventing the engraftment of the healthy microbial commensal species. A previous case report of FMT, as mono-treatment for depression and introduced via colonoscopy, reported a MDD-patient who also suffered from constipation ( 26 ). Interestingly, 4 days after FMT, the patient's GI- and depressive symptoms improved and persevered until 6 months after FMT ( 26 ).

The positive depression outcome did not persevere for both of our patients. Objective rating of the first patient's depressive condition, who improved GI conditions, indicated moderate depression at 8-week follow-up. Contrary, patient 2, who did not improve greatly on GI conditions, remained within the range of mild depression with a tendency to increase depressive symptoms. A study recently reported significant improvement of QoL and fatigue in IBS-patients 3 months after receiving FMT ( 45 ), which implicates a long-lasting positive effect of FMT compared to our results. They also found dose-dependent effects and that improvement in QoL and fatigue was not entirely in line with improvement of GI symptoms. FMT results on depressive and GI symptoms are conflicting, and RCTs investigating FMT in depressed patients are lacking. While some studies found improvement in depressive symptoms and QoL after FMT ( 34 , 45 ), there is also evidence of QoL and depressive symptoms not being affected by FMT ( 46 ).

One important factor for such mixed results is the general heterogeneity of illness presentation in MDD and IBS populations. As FMT success might depend on the recipient's microbial composition before FMT or on the microbial resemblance of the donor and the recipient, identifying subgroups of depressed patients might be crucial ( 47 ). Another reason could be the differing methodology between studies, such as choosing one (super)donor ( 45 ) or several donors ( 46 ), the FMT administration (e.g., oral capsule or colonoscopy) ( 48 , 49 ), or the formulation (e.g., frozen or fresh) ( 24 , 50 ). Other arising questions regard the optimal dose and durability of FMT ( 45 ). Barbara and Ianiro ( 50 ) discuss such issues of FMT methodology.

Notably, although the small participant number precludes statistical group comparison, the HAMD-scores of the two FMT and the two placebo-patients present interesting descriptive results. We would expect an improvement in depressive symptoms over time as the patients received TAU. Nonetheless, the two placebo participants presented only a 2-week improvement after placebo-capsule intake, which then relapsed to baseline scores. This might be attributed to the placebo effect, especially as one of the placebo participants thought she had received the active product. The other placebo patient reported increased depressive symptoms, which even restrained her from coming to the post-intervention assessment. Combined with the results from the FMT-patients, these results indicate that frozen oral FMT-capsules as add-on therapy might have the potential to improve depressive symptoms.

Critically, the report of cases suffering from SAEs after FMT raises the importance of extensive donor screening and cautious selection of FMT-patients ( 50 ). To overcome these issues, more large-scale controlled clinical studies are needed, investigating gut microbiota modulation in depression, gaining knowledge of its underlying mechanisms, neuroactive potential and beneficial, and harmful microbes and eventually, reconstituting microbes in the laboratory. This would make safety control, retraceability, and substantial FMT production possible ( 50 ). The resulting clinical trials could greatly improve our knowledge and eventually lead to the translation of controlled and specific FMT to clinical practice, and finally, improve depressed people's wellbeing.

Limitations

The current study reports some limitations, starting with the limited sample size. Second, both patients also had comorbidities, such as obesity and constipation, which both might be confounding factors as overweight and constipation seem to be associated with altered gut microbiota composition ( 51 , 52 ). They received FMT additionally to TAU which makes attribution of effects solely to FMT impossible; the outcome could be influenced by other pathologies or be the result of FMT and antidepressants working in synergy as antidepressants may influence the gut microbiota ( 53 ). Additionally, our patients were constipated at baseline, which might be due to medication as some of the medication might modify the transit time ( Supplementary Table 4 ). Third, we did not include any information about the patients' diets. However, diet has been found to be associated with depression ( 54 ) and is one of the most significant modulators of gut microbial community ( 55 ). A fourth limitation is the comparably low amount of donor stool (8.25 g). As the dose may play a crucial role in the effects, future research should also include dose-finding strategies. Further, although a previous study revealed that oral FMT-capsules are non-inferior to colonoscopy in efficacy in CDI -patients ( 25 ), the most efficient delivery mode in patients with depression needs to be established.

Lastly, the microbial resemblance of the donor and recipient may play an important role. As we do not have information on the donors' microbial composition, such comparison was impossible in this report. Future studies should include information on the donors' microbiome and compare it to the recipients' microbiome to identify subgroups for better treatment options.

Patients' Perspectives

Both patients were positive toward the intervention and had a feeling that they had received the active product. They felt better regarding their depressive symptoms, which is visible by the subjective measurement with the BDI-II ( Figures 2E,F ). In 2021 we contacted the patients via telephone, which was ~2.5 and 1.5 years after the intervention for patient 1 and 2, respectively. At that time, both were going on in their daily lives. One participant emphasized that one of her major treatment milestones was FMT.

Data Availability Statement

Ethics statement.

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Ethikkommission Nordwest- und Zentralschweiz. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study. Written informed consent was obtained from the individual(s) for the publication of any potentially identifiable images or data included in this article.

Author Contributions

AS: had full access to all the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis and study supervision. LM, CB, SBo, AS, and UL: study concept and design. JD, JV-C, ACS, NS, CK, ES, GY, JR, and AS: acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data. JD, JV-C, and AS: drafting the manuscript. All authors: critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content. JD and JV-C: statistical analysis. SBo, AS, and UL: obtained funding. LM, SBr, SBo, JR, AS, and UL: administrative, technical, or material support. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

This work was supported by the Gertrud Thalmann-Fonds (SBo, UL), Seerave Foundation (UL), Kämpf-Bötschi Stiftung (UL), and Research Fund Junior Researchers of the University of Basel (Appln 3MS1041, AS). JV-C was supported by the postdoctoral fellowships fromthe Research Fund–Flanders (FWO 1236321N). The Raes lab was supported by VIB, KU Leuven, and the Rega Foundation.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Acknowledgments

We thank Jan Klaproth for information gathering and support in preparing the present case report.

Supplementary Material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.815422/full#supplementary-material