Influencer Advisory™
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BB is for Boxes · PR boxes

Creators notice your box out of the 50-plus they get each week, and post about you because they want to

We send standout, personalized gifts to the right creators, built around what each one cares about, with no ask attached, then follow up with the ones who post.

Apply for your free audit

Why most boxes get ignored

The problem

Creators get 50-plus packages a week, and most are just product.

Most brands just send a cardboard box. An influencer is receiving a lot of PR boxes, so you end up just like every other brand.

Yours has to stand out immensely before they open it.

What changes it

When creators get a box made for them, they remember your brand when it arrives, every time they use the product, and every time they see the box.

Instead of the brand constantly chasing influencers, influencers start wanting to become part of the brand.

Once other creators see the unboxings, they want one too.

Three brands, up close

What each brand had before, what it sent, and what came back.

Creators asked to get in

SugarBearHair

Creators outside the group asked to be let in
A creator’s SugarBearHair hair and sleep unboxing video, with purple socks and an eye mask
A teal SugarBearHair gift box with three bottles of hair vitamins
A SugarBearHair gift box.

Before

Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian and Khloé Kardashian were already posting its blue hair vitamin gummies on Instagram in 2016.

What they did

  1. Sent the nicest box in the pile.
  2. Made the group something you had to earn, so being in it felt special.
  3. Paid in access instead of cash, like trips to Coachella to hang out with the Kardashians.
  4. Gave every photo one pose, the bottle held at chest height with the label to the camera and a gummy at the teeth.
  5. Reposted creators on its own account, with the disclosure written in.

What happened

James Charles, who was not in the program, asked a creator who was to get him in. He asked for Coachella passes, not product or money, and the brand said yes.

“he made the influencers almost jealous of each other because he would send the nicest box to them. And if you were part of the Sugar Bear Hair group, you felt really really special”Kent Yoshimura, co-founder of NeuroGum, on Open Residency

Tagged posts

HexClad

1.5 billionimpressions on posts that tagged HexClad in one year, up 230%
A creator holding a HexClad pan over its open shipping box

Before

HexClad paid flat fees for creator posts, and judged them on last-click sales.

What they did

  1. Signed fewer flat-fee deals and seeded more, then scaled the seeding.
  2. Ran every creator through one intake, from applying and screening to shipping and tracking.
  3. For a big launch, seeded 100 creators it had never seeded before, and gave the next product to past posters first.
  4. Built a kit worth filming, with a screen inside that plays a video of Gordon Ramsay when you open it.
  5. Watched what came back, and moved the creator with the best video into a paid ad deal.
“the hit rate on us seeding and seeing content from those people would be much much much lower if we didn’t have Gordon”HexClad’s team, on Marketing Operators

Views on one hashtag

Olipop

Close to 1 billionTikTok views on its one hashtag, in just over a year
Olipop’s summer PR box laid out on a beach scene, with a tote, three cans and a speaker
Olipop’s drop page offering 5,000 PR boxes to fans
The drop that sold 5,000 PR boxes to fans.

Before

Discount codes did not work on TikTok, where the algorithm punishes a code in the caption.

What they did

  1. Built its own TikTok first, which took about six months of trial and error.
  2. Sent product to creators, and asked only to be part of their normal content.
  3. With no code to track, read the comments, and moved a creator to a longer paid deal once fans responded.
  4. Kept a PR list of anyone already posting about it, and sent them product.
  5. When gifting drew fire, sold 5,000 PR boxes to fans on Amazon for 5 cents each.
“we were just sending product to creators and saying can you just include us in your normal content and we’ll see if people respond or not”Steven Vigilante of Olipop, on partnrUP

How we do it

We coordinate the whole process: finding the influencer, finding their interest, getting the information, crafting the box, and sending it.

  1. 1
    Out of 100 gifted products

    2 creators are worth investing in, so who gets a box matters

    Pick who gets a box

    We set the bar before anything ships, and pick on shared values, not size, starting with people who already buy from you or follow you.

    Nutrafol sent cases of free product to doctors and to influencer hairstylists in New York and Los Angeles.

  2. 2
    A creator holding Chipotle’s handwritten National Fork Day card over a case of forks

    Chipotle sent a creator who borrows its forks a case of them, with a handwritten card.

    Find what each creator cares about

    We watch their videos and write one line on what each creator cares about, so the gift ties to something they said.

    Qalo got its product onto famous athletes by laser engraving their kids’ initials into it.

  3. 3
    Two hands opening a Magic Mind box, with the mailer, two cartons and a founder’s story card

    Magic Mind’s box: the mailer, the product and the founder’s story card.

    Build a box worth filming

    Three things, the product, really good packaging and a founder’s note, in a box someone would film opening.

    Anastasia Beverly Hills sent early creators ring lights and cameras, so their videos came out better.

  4. 4

    Send it with no ask attached

    We say it comes at no cost and they don’t have to post about it, with no hats, banners or posting rules.

    Our OGIO round got an over 30% reply rate with that message.

  5. 5
    A creator’s first impressions video of the FOREO BEAR from our own FOREO round

    From our own FOREO round: the post you follow up on.

    Follow up with the ones who post

    Anyone good who shares you goes on the PR list and gets the next product first, and a creator who posts one story and goes quiet gets sorted, not dropped.

    Bobbie sent formula to Molly Baz, and a couple of weeks later her manager wrote back that she loves it.

What you get

  • You stand out in the pileYou stand out in the 50-plus packages a creator gets every week.
  • Posts they want to makeCreators post about you because they want to, not because they were paid to.
  • A box instead of a feePosts for the price of a box, instead of a creator’s full fee.
  • More repliesReply rates up 100% to 500%, because creators feel connected to it.
  • Creators come to youInstead of you chasing them, they want to become part of the brand.
  • A shortlist for the communityA shortlist of creators who already like you, ready for step C.

What goes in a box that gets filmed

The product, really good packaging and a founder’s note, then an opening they do on camera and something that stays in the room. Four boxes that got filmed.

  • A smashed chocolate heart in its box, the perfume carton in the pieces, a mallet in hand
    KKW FragranceYou had to smash a chocolate heart with a mallet to reach the perfume, and the collection sold out within days.
  • Two creators’ Gisou mini fridges stocked with lip and hair oils
    GisouA mini fridge stocked with the launch, and #GisouMiniFridge passed 53 million TikTok views.
  • A creator unboxing the Rhode lip case phone case
    RhodeA phone case that holds the lip tint, so the product shows up in every mirror selfie.
  • Laneige’s pink cooler and a watermelon in a net bag
    LaneigeA watermelon lip mask in a box painted like a watermelon, with a cooler used all summer.

Who it’s for

A fit if

  • You sell a subscription, consumable or renewable product.
  • You just landed a major retailer.
  • You want PR, earned media and a household brand.
  • You already have an influencer program and a team running it.

Not a fit if

  • This is your first influencer campaign.
  • You use ROAS as your main KPI.
  • Every dollar must show up as an immediate click.
  • You need every creator to post on demand.

Questions brands ask

What does a box cost?

A really nice box costs $500 to $1,000. A note written by a robot pen adds about three dollars.

How many boxes should we send?

Seed heavily before you start talking about flat fees. The brands that do it well send hundreds of samples per product.

What share of creators will post?

Fewer than you think. Out of 100 gifted products, maybe only 2 creators are worth investing in, and brands that seed well see 25 to 30% post at all.

Can we ask them to post?

No. Say it comes at no cost and they don’t have to post about it. If you put pressure on them, they might feel like they’re selling out. If they do post, they should say it was a gift.

How fast does it work?

Measure it in weeks, not days, and plan on a few months of building relationships. HexClad still sees posts from creators it seeded at the start of 2023.

How do we know it worked?

We run your gifting as a measured funnel, so you know your conversion rate from free product to paid roster.

See how far you already go on Boxes

The free audit maps each of the four steps for your brand, and which one to start with.

Apply for your free audit

Now you have a shortlist of people who like you for free, and nowhere to put them yet. That is the community.