Aussie link-in-bio platform Linktree has kicked off the new year with its first-ever OOH campaign, putting emerging creators (those who aren’t yet household names with millions of followers) front and centre and giving them an old-fashioned viral moment.
The “All Together on Linktree” campaign is set to run until March and will see the online platform showcase rising creators (including Paige Gallagher, Challan Trishann, Connor Wood, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Kurtis Conner, and Abbie Herbert) in a much more traditional advertising campaign… a spot on a Times Square billboard!
These creators represent the ethos of the Linktree brand: they have a strong voice, engage their community, and are unapologetically themselves online — putting them at the centre of influence.
The concept behind the campaign is to showcase this emerging class of creators, calling on brands to pay attention to all that they are capable of. Rising creators are making a massive impact on the marketing world, with 75 per cent of all Amazon traffic from Linktree being referred by Linktree profiles with fewer than 1,000-lifetime views.
Lara Cohen, VP of partnerships at Linktree, said that the aim for the first leg of the out-of-home campaign was to choose creators who don’t necessarily have millions of followers but who have a really passionate community around them. “We’ve seen a dramatic shift from the biggest A-list stars being the only people who could sell products and influence people,” Cohen said. “The metric to follow is engagement rather than follower number”.
It is these rising creators who build a back-and-forth report with their audiences, allowing for open dialogue between creators and their followers. “There’s an authenticity to them; they’re really in touch with who they’re speaking to. I think that authenticity really can be benefit can benefit the brands they work with,” Cohen said.
Community platforms and features that unlock direct interactions with fans have grown rapidly since early 2022. Linktree has seen massive growth in monthly clicks to these non-social platforms/projects across their 45 million creators. The way we shop has changed, with not just Gen Z’ers but most users being influenced by what they see their favourite creators doing and selling. “I think that creators are really like the storefronts of the future in a lot of ways,” said Cohen.
“I don’t think the creators are going to necessarily replace storefronts immediately, but I think we’re going to see a really more pronounced shift to them being a driver of true commerce. A big push on our side is really hoping to help creators get their fair share and be treated like the small businesses that they are rather than being seen as a frivolous fun side hustle”.
Linktree will continue to focus on putting creators at the forefront of future campaigns, Cohen said, teasing an upcoming billboard campaign featuring Grammy nominees including Ice Spice, Coco Jones, Jon Batiste and Chris Stapleton. “We have a bunch of linkers that were nominated for Grammys, and musicians are such like a natural fit for Linktree because they have an album to promote, and they want to also drive to ticket sales and merch and tour. They’re the definition of a creator cohort that has multiple audiences that they’re trying to serve, and they need a hub and link tree”.
