The fashion sector is currently the most frequently and most eagerly promoted industry in Poland – both in social media, press, television, and online advertisements and outdoor campaigns. However, for several years now there has been a trend that has come to Poland from the West. Instead of models or top models, influencers are increasingly finding their way into promotion for clothes, shoes or jewellery.
Yes – influencer marketing is the most important tool for endorsing a fashion brand in Poland. How do you go about it as a foreign brand? Who are the most important Polish fashion influencers, how do you reach them, how do you verify them and what in Polish fashion influencer marketing works for customers?
Table of contents:
- Statistics
- The most important fashion influencers in Poland
- Micro-influencers as an opportunity for small brands
- How to search and verify fashion influencers in Poland?
- How to cooperate with Polish fashion influencers?
Fashion influencer marketing statistics in Poland
In 2019, the size of the global fashion marketing market was valued at US$1.5 billion. By 2027, the sector is estimated to reach 17.12 billion. Admittedly, these are global figures, but they perfectly demonstrate an unchanging trend. The apparel market is growing rapidly and it is hard not to see the potential in this dynamic. Among marketing expenditure, social media and the most powerful social media ‘tool’, influencers, rank high. Today, influencer marketing is predicted to be the main driver of market expansion. Lower internet fees and the growing importance of influencers in Poland (especially among the youngest audiences) are encouraging marketers to immerse themselves in the world of social media. And this is a big opportunity for fashion brands.
According to the most recent data, over 68% of Poles use social media. The most influencer-friendly application, Instagram, is used by almost 9.2 million Poles, 59% of whom are women. One in five Instagram users in Poland is a woman between the ages of 18 and 24. These figures are impressive – all the more so as they primarily concern millennials, the main target group for most fashion brands. It would be a shame not to use this channel to promote your label.
Who are the most important fashion influencers in Poland?
The Polish fashion influencer market can be divided into two parts. The first is strictly fashion influencers – these are usually people who started with their own fashion blogs. They set up channels on Instagram around 2012 and are still closely connected to the industry. Such influencers include Maffashion, Jessica Mercedes, Raadzka, Make Life Easier, Macademian Girl, Deynn, Fashionelka, Cheers my heels, Cajmel, Ola Żuraw or Pani Ekscelencja. Among male influencers, Exclusive Menel, Jakub Roskosz, Mr Vintage, Stasiu Świerk, Dandycore and Czas Gentlemanów are quite popular on Instagram. Most of them can be counted among the leading Polish creators who share not only inspiration but also fashion knowledge with their followers.
The second group of large Polish influencers, often invited to campaigns by large fashion brands, are lifestyle influencers with the largest reach and usually with above 1 million followers. This category includes, for example, Wersow, Ola Nowak, Littlemooonster96, Natsu, Veronica Bielik, Julia Wieniawa, Marcysia Ryskala, Sylwia Przybysz or Julia Kostera. Among male influencers, the highest reach is achieved by Friz, Tromba, and Jan Dabrowski.
Polish influencer Tromba in Adidas campaign
Microinfluencers as an opportunity for smaller brands
The market for Polish influencers does not end with huge numbers, of course. Thanks to the flexibility of working with micro-influencers and nano-influencers, this segment has gained a significant share in the marketing spend of fashion brands in Poland for 2019. If you are a small or just a start-up company with a small budget, go for small influencers. A huge advantage of cooperating with nano- and micro-influencers will be the possibility to reach a precisely defined target group (e.g. those interested in a specific style of dressing and not oriented towards the so-called “mass”). What is more, those with a smaller reach are now more credible to Polish audiences. Collaboration with them can be on a barter basis – the influencer picks out free clothes from the shop in exchange for recommending the brand on their social media.
How do you search and vet fashion influencers in Poland?
Unless you are reaching for the top of lists like the “top 100 Polish influencers”, you are faced with a daunting task. Selecting and then vetting the right influencers for a fashion brand campaign requires the right knowledge and skills. This is why we, as a Polish PR agency, deal with this professionally. Only someone who is involved in the subject daily will be able to quickly and effectively assess who is worth collaborating with and who is not. However, according to data from last year’s Influencer Marketing report by Abanana, around 9 out of 10 brands choose influencers to work with themselves.
What are the most effective ways to look for influencers from the perspective of a Polish PR agency?
1. social media – keep an eye on industry-related hashtags.
2. social media monitoring tools – such as Brand24 or SentiOne. They allow you to monitor mentions of your company written by Polish influencers (if someone already knows and loves you, the collaboration has a greater chance of success).
2. competition – desktop analysis of campaigns of competing brands.
3. reports and rankings – helpful for companies with larger budgets
4. collaboration platforms – e.g. Reachablogger or Whitepress.
The next step is to verify the influencers found. How do you do this? Here are some methods we recommend:
1. Influencer authenticity analysis – there are several tools that examine actual reach, and engagement and show the percentage of real followers. These include, for example, IQhashtags, Social Blade, Fake Check, or Influtool.
2. qualitative analysis – involves manually reviewing the profiles of Polish fashion influencers: comments under posts, quality of content, engagement with observers, reactions to criticism, etc.
3. analysis of mentions – before establishing cooperation, it is worth tracing mentions and information about the influencer beforehand. Perhaps he or she has recently caused a controversy?
If you need more information on vetting Polish influencers, take a look at our blog post entirely dedicated to this topic.
How to collaborate with Polish fashion influencers?
There are many opportunities to collaborate with Polish fashion influencers. The most popular is wearing brand-sponsored clothes and tagging the brand in posts on Instagram. Sponsored InstaStories – showcasing styling, shopping hauls, or telling a story about the brand – are most common now.
Influencers can also engage audiences with polls, comments, and direct messages. A very popular way to encourage Polish audiences to shop is to give an influencer a discount code to the brand’s online shop. From our own experience, we can reveal that temporary codes (e.g. a few days) for around 30-50% off work best.
It is worth bearing in mind that younger Poles as customers are very sensitive to non-authentic promotional activities. The influencer marketing market will continue to grow, but trust in influencers (especially the big ones) will gradually start to decline. Ensure that your briefs request the most natural ways of promoting your brand. Otherwise, instead of encouraging Poles to buy, you will act quite the opposite.
Polish influencer Ola Nowak in collaboration with born2be
With bigger budgets, it is worth considering brand ambassadors. Here, we suggest targeting the really big names with big numbers behind them. A professional, creative photo shoot with an influencer popular in your target group can pay for itself in a very short time. Such campaigns go far beyond classic influencer marketing. The results of the session can be presented not only in social media but also in print and outdoor advertising. So, as always – your budget is the limit.
Are you looking for a professional Polish influencer marketing agency that has experience working with fashion influencers in Poland? Our specialists have been helping foreign fashion brands to enter and conquer the Polish fashion market many times. Write to us and tell us about your objectives.