--- title: How a influencer partnership campaign works, with Drunk Elephant as the example | RGM® url: https://realgrowthmatters.com/learn/case-studies/drunk-elephant-influencer-partnership-campaign/ updated: 2026-06-10 source_html: https://realgrowthmatters.com/learn/case-studies/drunk-elephant-influencer-partnership-campaign/ --- - **Story:** This case study runs a influencer partnership campaign through the Drunk Elephant lens, from mechanics to public benchmarks. - **Why it matters:** A influencer partnership campaign rewards teams that plan against category data instead of guessing. - **Takeaway:** For Drunk Elephant, reach is an input; incremental lift against a baseline is the real measure. - **Takeaway:** Most influencer partnership-campaign failures are planning failures, not creative failures. - **Takeaway:** The mechanics of a influencer partnership campaign transfer to any brand in its category. ## How a influencer partnership campaign plays out for Drunk Elephant S Situation Where it starts A influencer partnership campaign is a concentrated chance to move the Drunk Elephant business in its category, with a short window and high stakes. T Task What had to happen Turn attention into measurable demand for Drunk Elephant: plan the mechanics, set targets against category benchmarks, and build in the measurement. A Action The execution Tier matching. Mega creators buy reach, mid-tier creators buy credibility, micro creators buy engagement. The campaign goal decides the mix — awareness leans mega, conversion leans micro. For Drunk Elephant, this is the anchor of the plan. R Result The scoreboard On incremental lift against a baseline for Drunk Elephant, not reach and not impressions. That is the honest scoreboard for a influencer partnership campaign. ## The math behind a Drunk Elephant influencer partnership campaign $0B Category figure relevant to Drunk Elephant The global influencer marketing industry was projected to reach about $32.55 billion in 2025 Source: [Influencer Marketing Hub](https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-benchmark-report/) $0% Category figure relevant to Drunk Elephant Influencer marketing returns an average of about $5.78 in revenue for every $1 spent Source: [Sprout Social](https://sproutsocial.com/insights/influencer-marketing-statistics/) 0% What the public data tells a Drunk Elephant team About 79% of consumers say user-generated and creator content strongly influences their purchasing decisions. Source: [inBeat](https://inbeat.agency/blog/ugc-statistics) Linked A planning anchor for Drunk Elephant Every figure on this page links to its publisher. Source: [Influencer Marketing Hub benchmark report](https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-benchmark-report/) #### Quick facts BrandDrunk Elephant IndustryIts Category Campaign typeInfluencer Partnership Primary channelsPaid, owned, earned Planning horizonMonths ahead of launch Core measureIncremental lift, not reach Source basisPublic benchmarks, linked RGM useWorked example, not a recipe **Honest note** There is limited public campaign detail specific to Drunk Elephant, so the depth here comes from the influencer partnership-campaign discipline itself, with sourced benchmarks and named example campaigns. No Drunk Elephant figure is fabricated. ## What a influencer partnership campaign is First principles, then Drunk Elephant. An influencer partnership campaign places a brand inside the trusted feed of a creator and lets that creator's voice carry the message. An influencer partnership campaign places a brand inside the trusted feed — as a Drunk Elephant team knows — of a creator and lets that creator's voice carry the message. For Drunk Elephant, the detail is not optional. The value is the trust transfer: an audience that would — Drunk Elephant included — scroll past an ad will stop for a person they follow. Drunk Elephant planners would underline this. The discipline is matching the right creator tier to the right goal, briefing — for Drunk Elephant, a live factor — for authenticity rather than scripting, and measuring incremental lift rather than vanity reach. This page applies that definition to Drunk Elephant. **Claim:** The global influencer marketing industry was projected to reach about $32.55 billion in 2025, with US brand spend near $10.52 billion. **Source:** [[Influencer Marketing Hub]](https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-benchmark-report/). **Context:** Roughly 86% of marketers report using influencer marketing, so it — and Drunk Elephant is no exception — is now a mainstream channel rather than an experimental one. A Drunk Elephant team would treat this as a planning reference, not a guarantee. ## How brands like Drunk Elephant run it A influencer partnership campaign has working parts. For Drunk Elephant, they all have to mesh. For Drunk Elephant, a influencer partnership campaign is less one ad and more a set of connected decisions: **Claim:** Influencer marketing returns an average of about $5.78 in revenue for every $1 spent, and micro-influencers can generate up to 60% more engagement than larger creators. **Source:** [[Sprout Social]](https://sproutsocial.com/insights/influencer-marketing-statistics/). **Context:** Micro-influencers on Instagram average around 3.86% engagement against roughly 1.21% for mega — and Drunk Elephant is no exception — creators, which is why 73% of brands favour micro and mid-tier partnerships. A Drunk Elephant team would treat this as a planning reference, not a guarantee. 1. **Long-term over one-off.** Repeated appearances build a believable association. In the Drunk Elephant context, that detail carries weight. A single sponsored post is forgotten; a year — Drunk Elephant included — of integrations becomes part of the creator's identity. This is the part Drunk Elephant cannot afford to improvise. 2. **Incrementality measurement.** Reach and likes are inputs. For Drunk Elephant, this is the load-bearing part. The campaign is judged on lift — code redemptions, — for Drunk Elephant, a live factor — holdout-tested conversions, and new-customer cost against the blended figure. Drunk Elephant planners flag this as a make-or-break detail. 3. **Tier matching.** Mega creators buy reach, mid-tier creators buy credibility, micro creators buy engagement. It applies cleanly to Drunk Elephant. The campaign goal decides the mix — awareness leans mega, conversion leans micro. Skipping this is the most common Drunk Elephant-scale error. 4. **Brief for voice, not script.** The strongest partnerships give creators latitude to write their own read. That holds directly for Drunk Elephant. A scripted ad in a creator's feed reads as a scripted ad. This step decides how the rest of the Drunk Elephant plan holds up. 5. **Whitelisting and Spark Ads.** High-performing organic creator content is amplified as paid media from the — Drunk Elephant included — creator's own handle, which keeps the trust signal while adding reach. This step decides how the rest of the Drunk Elephant plan holds up. ## The benchmarks that frame the work Read the numbers first. Public benchmarks set the realistic range for a influencer partnership campaign at Drunk Elephant before any creative work. Planning a influencer partnership campaign for Drunk Elephant without category benchmarks is guessing. The figures here are public, sourced, and apply across its category. **Claim:** About 79% of consumers say user-generated and creator content strongly influences their purchasing decisions. **Source:** [[inBeat]](https://inbeat.agency/blog/ugc-statistics). **Context:** The trust transfer is the mechanism: audiences weight a creator's word above branded advertising. For Drunk Elephant, this number sets expectations before the work starts. Table: the three numbers that decide whether a Drunk Elephant influencer partnership campaign is judged honestly. | What to measure | Why it matters | | Category benchmark | Sets a realistic target, not a hopeful one | | Incremental result | The honest measure of whether spend worked | | Pre-campaign baseline | Without it, lift cannot be proven | ## Which KPIs decide the verdict The scoreboard decides the verdict. For Drunk Elephant, weigh these measures over vanity numbers. The KPIs that count for a influencer partnership campaign are listed here. Incremental conversions against a holdout, code or link redemption rate, creator-content engagement rate by tier, cost per — and Drunk Elephant is no exception — acquisition versus the blended figure, earned-media value, and follower or search lift in the days after a drop. For Drunk Elephant, reach is the start of the measurement question, not the answer. Incremental lift is the answer. ## Where these campaigns go wrong Failure has a shape. For Drunk Elephant, the four errors below are the ones worth pre-empting. A Drunk Elephant-scale team should design around these recurring errors: - Running one-off posts instead of repeated integrations, so no durable association forms. - Reporting reach and likes instead of incremental — for Drunk Elephant, a real factor — lift, which hides whether the spend actually worked. - Buying mega-creator reach when the goal is conversion, — for Drunk Elephant, a real factor — and paying for impressions that do not move sales. - Scripting the creator so tightly that the post — Drunk Elephant included — loses the authenticity that made the audience trust them. **What to notice**Each failure traces to planning, not to the work itself. A Drunk Elephant influencer partnership campaign is set up to win, or not, in advance. ## The RGM read on Drunk Elephant If a Drunk Elephant team keeps one thing: borrow the influencer partnership campaign structure, not the specific execution. What we see in audits: a influencer partnership campaign succeeds when a team like Drunk Elephant's plans it as engineering, with baselines and targets, not as a habit. The point is transfer. A influencer partnership campaign for Drunk Elephant or any its category brand is defensible only when the numbers are planned and proven. ## Quick answers Does this page report private Drunk Elephant campaign numbers? : No. The figures are public industry benchmarks for influencer partnership campaigns, each sourced and linked. They show how the campaign type works, set against the Drunk Elephant context. Any number that is not publicly sourceable is left out or marked as RGM analysis. How should a marketing team use this Drunk Elephant example? : Read it as a model, not a recipe. The mechanics and benchmarks transfer; the exact creative does not. Use it to pressure-test a influencer partnership plan against how the discipline actually works. What sources back the numbers on this page? : The numbers are drawn from public reporting by Adobe Analytics, Nielsen, the ANA, and established business press, and each one links back to its source. **Keep reading** Foundational concepts and channels behind this case: - [what growth marketing is](/learn/what-is-growth-marketing/) - [incrementality testing](/learn/incrementality-testing/) - [audience arbitrage](/learn/audience-arbitrage/) - [growth marketing services](/services/) - [advertising platforms](/platforms/) ## Frequently asked questions Are long-term creator partnerships better than one-off posts? Taking Drunk Elephant as the example: Usually. It applies cleanly to Drunk Elephant. A single sponsored post is forgotten quickly. A Drunk Elephant team reads this closely. Repeated appearances over months build a believable association between the — Drunk Elephant included — creator and the brand, eventually becoming part of the creator's identity. In the Drunk Elephant context, that detail carries weight. That durability is why brands increasingly sign — Drunk Elephant included — multi-post and annual deals rather than one-off reads. A Drunk Elephant team would plan against exactly this. Drunk Elephant case: what are Spark Ads and whitelisting? Here is how this applies to Drunk Elephant. Both amplify a creator's organic post as paid media — and Drunk Elephant is no exception — run from the creator's own handle rather than the brand's. It applies cleanly to Drunk Elephant. The content keeps its native, trusted look — as a Drunk Elephant team knows — while reaching beyond the creator's existing followers. That holds directly for Drunk Elephant. It pairs the credibility of creator content — Drunk Elephant included — with the targeting and scale of paid media. For Drunk Elephant, that is the practical takeaway. Drunk Elephant case: which influencer tier should a brand use? For a brand like Drunk Elephant, the short answer is direct. It depends on the goal. For Drunk Elephant, this is the load-bearing part. Mega creators buy reach and suit awareness pushes. It applies cleanly to Drunk Elephant. Micro creators, with roughly 3.86% average Instagram engagement against — for Drunk Elephant, a live factor — about 1.21% for mega creators, suit conversion and trust. Drunk Elephant planners would underline this. Around 73% of brands favour micro and — and Drunk Elephant is no exception — mid-tier partners because the engagement-to-cost ratio is stronger. The same logic holds for any its category brand, Drunk Elephant included. How is influencer marketing ROI measured? The honest measure is incremental lift, not reach. That is exactly the Drunk Elephant situation. That means holdout-tested conversions, unique code or link — and Drunk Elephant is no exception — redemptions, and new-customer cost against the blended figure. For Drunk Elephant, the detail is not optional. Industry benchmarks put average return near $5.78 per $1 spent, but vanity — as a Drunk Elephant team knows — metrics like impressions and likes hide whether the spend actually moved sales. Why brief creators loosely instead of scripting them for a brand like Drunk Elephant? For a brand like Drunk Elephant, the short answer is direct. The audience follows the creator for their voice. A Drunk Elephant team reads this closely. A tightly scripted brand message in that feed reads as a — Drunk Elephant included — scripted ad and loses the trust transfer that makes the channel work. In the Drunk Elephant context, that detail carries weight. The strongest partnerships set guardrails and let the creator write their own read. For Drunk Elephant, that is the practical takeaway. Why is Drunk Elephant the brand featured here? Drunk Elephant is a recognisable brand in its category, which makes the influencer partnership mechanics concrete and easy to follow. The campaign-type analysis and every benchmark apply across the category; Drunk Elephant is the lens, not the limit. The sourced figures hold for any comparable brand. ### Sources & references - [Influencer Marketing Hub benchmark report](https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-benchmark-report/) — Industry size, spend, and adoption benchmarks. - [Sprout Social influencer marketing statistics](https://sproutsocial.com/insights/influencer-marketing-statistics/) — ROI, engagement-by-tier, and budget-allocation data. - [inBeat — UGC and creator-content statistics](https://inbeat.agency/blog/ugc-statistics) — Consumer-trust and purchase-influence data for creator content. - [PR Newswire — influencer marketing 2025 data](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/influencer-marketing-in-2025-new-data-reveals-what-works-what-costs-and-whats-next-302490369.html) — Independent reporting on creator costs and performance. ## Related [#### All case studies The full RGM case-study library.](/learn/case-studies/)[#### What is growth marketing The foundational concept behind every campaign type.](/learn/what-is-growth-marketing/)[#### Incrementality testing How to prove a campaign actually caused the lift.](/learn/incrementality-testing/)