Today, brands are com­ing up with cre­ative ways to engage key influ­encers with­in com­mu­ni­ties to help them mar­ket their brand, their prod­ucts and ser­vices. Let’s look at three influ­encer mar­ket­ing cam­paigns to remem­ber.

Influ­encer mar­ket­ing – the type of mar­ket­ing that has brands part­ner­ing with indi­vid­u­als who have the pow­er to get the word out, and rouse action from the tar­get con­sumer – is grow­ing.

Over the past few years, big brands have cre­ative­ly col­lab­o­rat­ed with key peo­ple who have influ­ence over their com­mu­ni­ties. In this Forbes arti­cle, author Kyle Wong dis­cuss­es the explo­sion of this new type of mar­ket­ing, and what brands can do to pre­pare.

Let’s review three bril­liant influ­encer mar­ket­ing cam­paigns to date.

1. 7 Influential Bloggers Effectively Launch a Theme Park

This clas­sic exam­ple of influ­encer mar­ket­ing dates back all the way to 2007, when the VP of pub­lic rela­tions and new media at Uni­ver­sal Orlan­do Resort decid­ed to engage com­mu­ni­ty influ­encers to get the word out about “The Wiz­ard­ing World of Har­ry Pot­ter” – a new theme at the park.

Sev­en influ­en­tial blog­gers from Har­ry Pot­ter fan sites were invit­ed to be the first to know about the planned Har­ry Pot­ter attrac­tions, and from that, 350 mil­lion peo­ple heard the news.

Cyn­thia Gor­don, the woman behind this influ­encer mar­ket­ing cam­paign (today vice pres­i­dent of cor­po­rate affairs at Nin­ten­do of Amer­i­ca), had this to say about influ­encer mar­ket­ing in David Meer­man Scott’s pub­li­ca­tion, “The New Rules of Viral Mar­ket­ing”:

“When you have a pas­sion­ate fan base for your brand, the Inter­net is espe­cial­ly vital for going viral. Com­mu­ni­cat­ing to a small but pow­er­ful group of fans first online to enlist their sup­port is a smart way to ensure pos­i­tive cov­er­age in the main­stream press. The pow­er of the Inter­net makes it eas­i­er for peo­ple to fall in love with you faster.”

2. MasterCard Uses Celebrities to Drive Engagement, Touch Lives

Hav­ing celebri­ties as the face of a brand is noth­ing new, but what is new is the way in which these cam­paigns are impact­ing the con­sumer and dri­ving engage­ment.

As part of its “Price­less Sur­pris­es” pro­gram, Mas­ter­Card kicked off a social cam­paign with the hash­tag #Price­less­Sur­pris­es in Jan­u­ary 2014 for Twit­ter and Insta­gram, which sur­pris­es con­sumers with gifts to remem­ber, like a vis­it from Justin Tim­ber­lake. In a press release, MasterCard’s CMO, Raja Raja­man­nar, said of the pro­gram:

”The suc­cess of Price­less is dri­ven by the campaign’s abil­i­ty to cre­ate emo­tion, influ­ence behav­ior, unite peo­ple and touch upon con­sumer pas­sions. Price­less Sur­pris­es is an evo­lu­tion from cel­e­brat­ing price­less moments and enabling price­less expe­ri­ences to inspir­ing Price­less in new and unex­pect­ed ways.”

Price­less Sur­pris­es is an expan­sion of and new twist on its long-run­ning “Price­less” cam­paign, and accord­ing to this report, has been wild­ly suc­cess­ful for Mas­ter­Card thus far.

3. L’Oreal and YouTube Star Michelle Phan Influence Makeup Together

Last sum­mer, L’Oreal announced it would part­ner up with a new type of “celebri­ty” – one forged from the com­mu­ni­ty whose rise to fame came on YouTube: Michelle Phan.

Phan, who has more than 7 mil­lion sub­scribers on YouTube, was among the first beau­ty “vlog­gers” that rose to pop­u­lar­i­ty. Her make­up line “em michelle phan” for L’Oreal launched in August 2013.

In a press release, L’Oreal’s Car­ol Hamil­ton dis­cussed the deci­sion:

“Beau­ty lovers are increas­ing­ly con­sum­ing and shar­ing infor­ma­tion dig­i­tal­ly, through online com­mu­ni­ties. We saw the pow­er of these com­mu­ni­ties and want­ed to meet them where they live – online. Michelle Phan’s exper­tise in make­up, plus her pas­sion for teach­ing and empow­er­ing women has made her a dig­i­tal phe­nom­e­non. She rep­re­sents exact­ly what this line is all about – com­mu­ni­ty, empow­er­ment, artistry.”

But L’Oreal isn’t the only com­pa­ny that’s approached Phan for deals – Lancôme and Glam­house are a cou­ple to note, and accord­ing to this video clip from The Insid­er, Phan is worth more tha $1 mil­lion now.

Do you have a favorite influ­encer mar­ket­ing cam­paign? Tell us about it in the com­ments.