Crafting Campaign Experiences to Drive Conversations
Kofluence Tech Pvt Ltd.
2019 - 2022
Influencer creating content for their client
ABOUT KOFLUENCE
Kofluence is an innovative, data-driven, product-based solution that has transformed the influencer marketing industry in India. With a cumulative reach of over 6 Billion, the company has an expansive user base of 600,000 creators and over 100 Brands onboard. We aim to connect brands and their audiences through a data-driven and optimised influencer marketing platform. Our approach differs from the traditional agency-driven model, relying on user-centric and data-driven metrics for precision and effectiveness.
MY ROLE
As the first product designer on the team, I played a pivotal role in establishing the brand identity. We meticulously crafted a robust design system and formulated ambitious five-year product and design goals. My focus areas included Design Strategy, Product Research, Testing and Product Management.
WORKING WITH THE TEAM
Working with Kofluence was a unique experience as we fostered collaboration across various teams, including BD, tech, and Ops. This allowed me to gain different viewpoints on creating a product and business.
HUMANISING INFLUENCER MARKETING
Embracing a Human-Centric Design (HCD) methodology has been the guiding ethos of Kofluence. By acknowledging the importance of placing human needs at the forefront of our product development, our SaaS product has consistently adopted an HCD lens.
This approach has been tempered by the pragmatic considerations of business viability and technical feasibility, which serve as discerning filters in formulating our feature pipeline.
DESIRABILITY /
UNDERSTANDING STAKEHOLDERS
ECOSYSTEM
LOOPS
In 2019, Influencer Marketing was nascent in India. Most brands predominantly relied on conventional marketing practices handled by their in-house teams. Even though social media influencers were not unheard of, many were celebrities. This gave birth to nano, micro and other categories of influencers. However, a noticeable gap existed between traditional marketing practices and influencer ecosystems.
Therefore, there was a need to understand both conventional and influencer marketing ecosystems and find ways to bridge the gap and establish a more integrated approach.
Ecosystem loops of both the entities in the current scenario.
PERSONA
ARCHETYPES
During this process, interviews were conducted with influencers from various categories and genres and agents handling multiple celebrities. The objective was to gain a deeper understanding of the problems faced by the stakeholders involved.
The list of problems was then grouped based on the follower range, and the four main categories of users were identified as Nano, Micro, Macro and Celeb Influencers.
✨
The product team utilised the list of influencers that the BD and Ops team collated to create a database for stakeholder research. The database was then updated daily by the tech team using data scraping, who added more influencers from Instagram (IG), Facebook (FB) and YouTube (YT).
Persona Archetypes of the different types of Influencers
Bubbles & Swiss Knife 🚨
In the start-up world, it's always essential to understand the market to analyse our risks and corner cases. In the case of our Influencer Marketing start-up, we knew there were many other companies with the same business model. Therefore, we needed to stay ahead of the game by understanding the key players in the industry – the influencers themselves – and their unique challenges and motivations.
The key players of the product team were involved in conducting research with the influencers through "A Day in the Life Of" workshop. During this immersive exercise, the team explored the daily routines, activities, and experiences of various influencer personas. They aimed to gain insights into the different types of influencers, their distinct archetypes, and the problems they commonly face.
Research with the Product Team
PERSONAL
INTERVIEWS
To understand the IM landscape comprehensively, we interviewed several prominent brands, including Sugar Cosmetics, Kaleyra Gaming, and Domino's Pizza. These interviews provided valuable insights into the brands' perspectives on leveraging influencer marketing to promote their products and services.
We collaborated closely with the BD team to engage in insightful discussions with these brands, aiming to understand their expectations from influencer marketing. We explored vital areas such as the effectiveness of influencer marketing, the criteria for successful collaborations, and the unique insights they sought from campaign results.
We needed to unravel the intricacies of the ROI metrics that these brands employ to gauge the success of their campaigns. This gave us a data-driven lens to measure and optimise our collaborative efforts and their pain points with the existing Influencer Marketing agencies.
VIABILITY /
UNDERSTANDING THE MARKET
Key Player
Analysis
In mid-2019, several agencies such as Pulpkey, Tribe, Social Beat, and Scrunch were the prominent influencers in building an Influencer Marketing business in India. We needed to analyse the products and stay ahead of our game.
Conducting market research helped us understand the workflow, campaign briefing, ROI analysis, social media insights, and prediction, along with other essential aspects of Influencer Marketing. We then determined the following steps to improve these features for a better experience.
Analysis of the key players in IM market
Working with the
Ecosystem
During market research, we recognised it was imperative to experience the existing IM landscape to identify the diverse scenarios and use cases while mapping users' emotional journeys throughout their engagement.
The resulting ecosystem map became a powerful tool, not only for understanding the intricacies of the IM process but also for guiding the development of Kofluence. By identifying pain points, opportunities, and emotional touchpoints, we aspired to make Kofluence a more user-friendly platform, delivering an experience beyond utility to connect with users on a deeper, emotional level.
IM Workflow with Agency Intervention
BREAKDOWN OF THE PROBLEMS /
INFLUENCERS
Insufficient Campaign Opportunities
Many influencers, especially nano-influencers, often need help to secure brand collaborations due to their relative inexperience in the industry.
Inconsistent Campaign Brief
Brands often change campaign briefs and deliverables, requiring creators to redo their work to cater to the latest requirements.
Optimising Personalised Campaigns
Organisations offer generic collaboration opportunities to all influencers, making it challenging to receive customised collaborations.
Irregular Campaign Payments
Both Brands and Agencies cause delays in making payments to the creators upon collaboration completion.
Lack of Creative Freedom
Creators lack creative freedom to ideate content according to their niche, personal brand and values due to the constant involvement of the Brands.
BREAKDOWN OF THE PROBLEMS /
BRANDS
Irrelevant Influencers
Influencers chosen by agencies for collaborations do not always align with brand values, resulting in brands reaching the wrong audience.
Lack of extensive ROI reports
Brands don't receive comprehensive ROI reports detailing social media audience engagement with the brand.
Lack of Involvement
Agencies often involve brands only at the end for payments, excluding them from the campaign process and leaving them unaware of its progress.
Price Blackbox
The agency pricing fluctuates throughout the campaign due to various factors despite setting a budget.
CRAFTING CAMPAIGN EXPERIENCES
How might we enhance Kofluence to better empower influencers and brands in cultivating authentic, high-impact collaborations, whilst ensuring a seamless and user-friendly experience throughout the influencer marketing journey?
BREAKDOWN OF THE PROBLEM
01. Absence of an intuitive interface for brand-centric CLCM
The current agencies lack an interface for the brands to seamlessly create, test pilot, and actively participate in the campaign lifecycle. Brands face challenges in efficiently managing and monitoring campaigns.
03. Insufficient creative freedom for the Creators in the content
Creators face limitations in expressing their creativity, resulting in a lack of autonomy during campaign execution. The restrictive environment inhibits their ability to produce authentic and engaging content aligned with their unique style and voice
02. Inconsistent Deliverables during the CLCM
The current process faces a significant challenge with inconsistent deliverables as campaigns progress. Influencers experience changes in campaign requirements, affecting the original scope.
04. Inadequate Campaign ROI Analytics for Brands
The existing platform lacks comprehensive and insightful post-campaign ROI analytics for brands. After a campaign concludes, brands face challenges in obtaining detailed and actionable data to assess the success, and impact of their initiatives.
SOLUTION SPACE
ENHANCED
WORKFLOW
After conducting interviews with the stakeholders and research, we identified the above problems in the current workflow of the industry. So, we enhanced this workflow to improve the IM experience for both influencers/creators and brands.
We created interventions for the industry wherever necessary to systematically improve the process, experience, bridge the gaps and process the influencers to seamlessly help the CLCM process. Below is the workflow that we followed to improve the experiences.
IM Workflow with Kofluence
In the research phase, we identified challenges, leveraging a strategic approach to optimise UX across interfaces. Our solution involved refining the flow by segmenting it into three distinct interfaces:
1. Brands Interface: Empower brands to intuitively create, manage campaigns, and process payments.
2. Ops Interface: A back-end system for our in-house ops team, ensuring a smoother workflow through seamless interventions.
3. Influencers' App: Tailored for influencers, enabling easy campaign participation and sign-ups. Our key focus was to elevate UX by continually engaging end-users throughout the process.
✨
We empowered brands to autonomously craft, oversee, and assess marketing campaigns through our Brand's interface. Offering a seamless and intuitive interface, coupled with dedicated support for query resolution and algorithm-driven predictive data, we facilitated informed decision-making at every turn.
Campaign creation and review process in the Kofluence ecosystem
During the research phase, the persistent issue of changes in deliverables after the campaign commencement was identified. In response, we designed a transparent and proactive communication approach through our dedicated task page. This comprehensive tool ensures clarity by presenting all campaign details before, during, and after commencement.
Moreover, we implemented Role Management across both the Brands and Ops interfaces to fortify fairness in the campaign process. This strategic addition serves as a safeguard, mitigating the risk of human errors and fostering a more equitable and streamlined influencer marketing experience.
Influencers' App screens showcasing Apply and Task Upload Modules
Users without permission to modify campaign details are seamlessly restricted from doing so, avoiding human error during the campaign.
HARNESSING PREDICTIVE INSIGHTS
How might we enhance the system to predict, provide transparent insights and deliver accurate predictions for both individual influencers' social profiles and overall campaign ROI for brands?
BREAKDOWN OF PROBLEM STATEMENT
01. Lack of Transparency in Influencer Pricing
The absence of transparent pricing insights based on influencer social profiles and interactions, hinders the influencers from strategically positioning themselves for optimal collaboration and value.
02. Manual Search for Relevant Influencers by Ops and Brands
Reliance on Manual Search for Relevant Influencers by Ops and Brands. A system-driven approach could significantly enhance efficiency and ease in campaign planning.
03. Insufficient Insights and Inaccurate ROI Predictions
The current system faces challenges in delivering comprehensive insights, leaving brands with a lack of crucial information. Additionally, inaccurate predictions of ROI hinder effective decision-making, impacting the overall success and strategic planning of the marketing campaigns.
UNDERSTANDING THE DATA
Sprinkles of Fairy Dust ✨
It was crucial to understand the stakeholders involved in the problem area. Fortunately, the business development (BD) and operations (Ops) team had already obtained a list of influencers and brands to collaborate with. This allowed them to set up the business and gain a head start before the product went live.
As part of our research, we involved key players from BD, Ops, Marketing, Tech, Product & Design teams to conduct background research, interviews, and many brainstorming workshops to better understand data the are prevailently used in the field. After a detailed understanding of the influencer engagement data obtained from various social media, we were able to build an algorithm that would allow the Kofluence system to predict the data before, during and after the campaign completion for both Brands and Influencers.
Detailed data research with Arnav, Marketing Head
SOLUTION SPACE
Keyword Search
The tool allows tailored searches based on keywords and audience customisation. This strategic approach enables brands to comprehensively evaluate potential influencers, ensuring a thorough understanding of relevant metrics before campaign initiation
Estimated ROI metrics based on Keywords
Overall Campaign ROI
The platform delivers insightful metrics aligned with the provided campaign details. This proactive approach equips brands with a comprehensive overview of potential ROI, enabling the brands to optimise campaigns strategically and make informed decisions for enhanced performance.
ROI Metrics provided in the Brands interface during campaign creation
Proposed Influencers
Facilitating precision in influencer selection, our platform employs a sophisticated algorithm to curate an optimised list based on entered campaign details. This meticulous process ensures a seamless addition of selected influencers to a collection, streamlining campaign invitations and enhancing the efficiency of influencer collaboration.
Proposed influencers' list provided during campaign creation
Predictive Suggestions
Our platform dynamically suggests campaign parameters aligned with brand relevance on different social media platforms at every stage. This iterative guidance empowers brands to customise their campaigns with precision, ensuring optimal alignment with their unique objectives and maximising impact in the ever-evolving landscape of social media marketing.
Predictive suggestions for campaign creation on Brand's WebApp
Campaign Insights
D3, D5, D7, and beyond, the dynamic analytical dashboard offers a comprehensive overview to assess the performance of campaigns and individual posts. Leveraging our algorithm's hashtag search, this sophisticated tool provides in-depth insights, ensuring a data-driven approach to campaign optimisation and influencer collaboration.
Analytical Insights Dashboard on the Influencers' App
Let the Testing Fiesta Begin! 🧪🚀
The Influencers' app is ready for its grand debut. But before the MVP release, we took centre stage with a riveting QA testing tale. We invited our valued stakeholders to join us on an online journey, walking the Brands through every nook and cranny of the interface. A sneak peek, a backstage pass into the Influencers' app, handed over to the influencers themselves, their discerning eyes uncovering the nuances of the user experience.
It wasn't just testing; it was a collaborative adventure, a quest for perfection, ensuring our app resonates seamlessly with both the Brands and the heartbeat of our influencer community.
Online Testing of the Influencers' App with the Stakeholders
IMPACT MATRICS
600,000+
Creator Acquisition 😀
100,000 +
Payments Made 💷
100,000 +
App Downloads ✅
60%
Efficiency Improvement ⏳
LEARNINGS FROM THE PROJECT
1. Unlocking Success Through Collaboration
We gained invaluable insights and perspectives, fostering more efficient problem-solving approaches by engaging with end-users and various departments.
2. Embracing the Art of Inquiry
Through our User Analysis phase, we recognised the critical importance of formulating precise and incisive questions. We discovered that the richness of data obtained hinges greatly upon the quality of questions.
3. User-Centric Design
Users stand as the pivotal stakeholders in any business endeavour. Attending to their needs and resolving their challenges are fundamental to cultivating optimal user experiences.
EXCITING NEWS COVERAGE
Kofluence recently made headlines in prominent news outlets, highlighting our innovative solutions and impactful contributions to the industry. These news features underscored our commitment to excellence and recognised our achievements in pushing the boundaries of innovation.
