Laptop plays video of two women seated onstage talking before a New York Times "GET WITH THE TIMES" backdrop
Submitted by InfluenceHer Collective

New York Times Get With The Times Campus Watch Parties

Influencer Marketing

InfluenceHer Collective enlisted 15 college influencers on Instagram to promote The New York Times Get With The Times campus event series, reporting an 8.91% average engagement rate.

8.91%Avg Engagement Rate

Case in 60 seconds

The New York Times had launched the Get With The Times event series across US college campuses, so the brand needed avenues to promote it, encourage livestream watch parties and raise attendance and views.

The page frames campus influencers as the route to college students, because joining a watch party is a social decision that an invitation from a peer carries further than an announcement from the brand itself.

InfluenceHer Collective built the promotion around student influencers covering the event series before, during and after the live event, so the series reached their followers as a sequence of posts rather than a single announcement.

15 influencers across US college campuses received NYT product and published Instagram posts before the live event, encouraging followers to tune in and join the watch parties. They shared Instagram Stories during the event and a blog post afterwards recapping their experience watching or attending.

The agency reports an 8.91% average engagement rate for the campaign, while the page publishes no attendance, livestream view or watch party figures against the goals the brand set for the series.

Strategy Breakdown

College students across US college campuses, reached through the followers of influencers based on those campuses.
The New York Times acted as host of a campus event series, so the influencers promoted an experience students could attend or watch together rather than the publication on its own.
The page treats watch parties as the way to lift livestream views, because students who gather to watch an event bring others with them rather than tuning in one at a time.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • Instagram

Partners

  • InfluenceHer Collective

Participation mechanic

  • Followers were encouraged to tune in to the live event series and take part in livestream watch parties, prompted by influencer Instagram posts published before the event.

Results & Evidence

MetricValue
Avg Engagement Rate8.91%

Why InfluenceHer Collective's strategy worked

  1. 1

    A before, during and after posting sequence gives a live event a reason to appear in a feed three times, so the early post drives tune-in while the recap extends the event once it has ended.

  2. 2

    Promoting watch parties through campus influencers turns a livestream into a group activity, which gives students a reason to gather around the event rather than watch it alone or skip it.

  3. 3

    Sending product to influencers before they post gives them something of the brand to show rather than only an event to announce, which grounds the promotion in their own use of it.

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