Influencer Campaigns for Event Marketing: What Works (and What Doesn't)

Live events are so essential for industry awareness about your brand. It’s a way to celebrate your brand, and to get some great content of that celebration made by people on the scene with solid influence in the area the event is taking place. More importantly though, are pre-event promos. Want to really increase ticket sales and event attendance? Start at #1 of this article.

Here’s what we’ve learned works — and what to avoid — when using influencer campaigns for event marketing.

‍

✅ What Works

‍

1. Involving Creators Early in the Process

Creators aren’t just content machines, they’re collaborators, and the more they know, the better. The most successful campaigns start with early buy-in from influencers. Invite them into the brand story, share your event goals, and give them creative space to make the content their own. 

Why it matters: Creators who feel invested create more authentic, engaging content that performs better and feels less like an ad.

‍

2. Clear Briefs with Built-In Flexibility

You can’t afford vague briefs in a fast-paced event setting. The best briefs are clear about deliverables and timelines but leave room for the creator’s voice. And furthermore, being too heavy-handed with brand guidelines can annoy and discourage your creators (See #6).

Pro tip: Use an AI-powered briefing tool like CreatorCatalyst AI to generate personalized creator briefs in minutes. These are structured enough for consistency, flexible enough for creativity.

‍

3. Highlighting Real Moments

Overly staged content tends to flop during live events. The content that works? Candid behind-the-scenes moments, honest reactions, and creator POVs that showcase the energy of the experience.

Winning formats:

• Reels showing their “day in the life” at the event
• Pre-event content such as “pick an outfit with me to go to [Event]!”
  
• Highlighting a special skill or unique page theme, Such as this one from jello shot queen Joscakes_ for our client Discotech.
  
• UGC-style content
  
  

4. Amplifying Creator Content Post-Event

Repurpose influencer posts across your brand’s channels, retarget with paid ads, and use top-performing UGC in email or future promotions.

What we do at CreatorCatalyst: We help brands track usage rights and organize creator content in one place, so you can keep campaigns working long after the event ends.

‍

❌ What Doesn’t Work

‍

5. Last-Minute Outreach

Creators need time to plan, build anticipation with their audience, and coordinate deliverables. Rushing a creator campaign only ends up in a headache for everyone – most of all, you. This is due to the fact that not every Offer/Ask is going to get picked up by creators, so if you notice you aren’t getting many bites, you still have time to pivot before the event.

Fix: Build your influencer pipeline early (we help brands automate discovery and vetting weeks before launch).

‍

6. Too Many Rules, Not Enough Personality

If your event campaign turns creators into brand mouthpieces, you’ll miss out on their most valuable asset: trust with their audience. People HATE ads. No, seriously. The average Internet-savvy mind can tell in a split second whether the video they’re watching is sponsored. Your goal is to sneak past that scroll-happy thumb and show viewers what your brand can do, with relative subtlety. It’s a hard balance to strike!

Watch out for: Over-scripted captions, long shot lists, or deliverables that don’t match the creator’s usual content.

‍

7. Measuring Only Impressions

It’s easy to default to surface-level metrics after a busy event. But reach without relevance is an empty stat. What you should measure instead:

• Engagement rate
  
  
• Brand mentions and sentiment
  
  
• Content saves, shares, and repurposing potential
  
  

Bonus: At CreatorCatalyst AI, we generate smart performance summaries that highlight impact and insight, vs just vanity metrics.

‍

TL;DR: Nail the Collaboration, Not Just the #Collab

Event marketing and influencer campaigns are a natural fit, but only when done with intention. The key is aligning the right creators with the right campaign goals and giving them the tools to succeed.

At CreatorCatalyst AI, we help brands and event marketers manage it all: from intelligent creator discovery to streamlined brief generation, performance tracking, and full-service campaign execution.

‍

📅 Planning an event?

 Let’s talk about how to turn your next activation into an influencer-powered success story. Book a demo with our team today.

‍