Optimize influencer campaigns: Alessia Coletta, Trainline

Alessia Coletta, global brand manager at Trainline, recently joined Carlota Pico to discuss her extensive international experience in marketing and communications. After working at Ogilvy Italia in Milan, Alessia traveled to the UK to enhance her international marketing expertise. In her current role, she launched digital Trainline campaigns in France and Italy. In this interview Alessia compares company and agency approaches to influencer campaigns, emphasizing the importance of creative freedom and audience engagement for success.

You can watch the full conversation in the video above or on YouTube, listen to the podcast on Apple and Spotify, and read our recap below.

Key takeaways

Working at a company, rather than an agency, requires greater consideration of long-term marketing strategies and a strong relationship with the stakeholder. You have to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed approach in order to get all the resources you need to successfully implement your plans.

A successful influencer agent focuses on more than just the number of followers. The quality of an influencer’s content and their relationship with the audience is imperative to develop an effective campaign.

Balancing creative freedom can be challenging when working with influencers. They should be able to execute their own ideas, but they must be aligned with the brand’s identity and values and create content that resonates with the target audience.

To measure success, consider the specific objectives of influencer campaigns. Measurement tools such as Talkwalker, Facebook Business Manager, Socialbakers, Hootsuite and Nielsen are useful, but you must decide if your aim is gaining brand awareness through views or achieving concrete sales.

Big brands should always work with influencer agencies. Smaller brands should use trends or discovery features on social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram to find effective micro-influencers.

The most important part is the audience. If you’re talking to a specific audience, you need to choose the right influencer—and you also need to be sure that the sentiment or the perception around that person is good enough for you.

Rapid-fire recs

What’s an app or tool that you can’t work without?

I love using Amazon Prime for deliveries. I also find Monzo really useful; it’s a UK-based digital bank and it’s super quick and easy to use.

A marketing influencer who you follow?

I don’t have famous people that I admire, or influencers or celebrities. I prefer to look at my closest group of friends and colleagues. In every role, there’s always someone who I really look up to—everyone has something to share with you.

A valuable resource, event or group?

I recently read “How Brands Grow” by Bryon Sharp. I grew up in a social, digital environment, and I found it quite interesting to go back to the basics. I think you need to have a bit of theory about how, in general, marketing works for doing your job so that you can improve.

Connect with Alessia and Carlota on LinkedIn.

This post was edited by Jessica Farmer, a freelance content creator based in Madrid.