To many, influencer marketing is simply brands partnering with influencers to sell something.

This is especially the case in the Ghanaian business marketplace. Besides large campaigns, for instance, like those run during COVID times, very rarely would you see an influencer marketing campaign championing a cause.

So when I came across the poster promoting the 10th annual Ghana Garden and Flower Show, I wondered how influencers could add their voices to amplify the messages the movement seeks to promote, while sharing its messages with newer audiences.

To assess the impact of any project, I have found it helpful to filter it through the sustainable development goals. As far as I can see, this project's vision supports five out of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals; Zero poverty, zero hunger, climate action, sustainable cities/communities, and good health and wellbeing.

So, assuming the project leaders wanted to launch a full-on influencer marketing campaign to push this cause, they may research influencers operating in the home gardening, sustainability, family, and lifestyle spaces. Influencers creating content in these spaces have similar values that align with what the campaign seeks to achieve.

The main challenge here is that the idea of niche influencer marketing has not fully transcended the Ghanaian marketplace. The entertainment niche is saturated, and of course, because that is the content consumed by the majority.

Nonetheless, influencers can still narrow down their content to fit a certain demographic while maintaining the entertaining aspect of content creation. For an influencer to live up to the title, remain relevant, and create impact, the goal must be to seek to be an agent of change in the community they find themselves in. This is achievable if the influencer aligns themselves with a cause in the initial stage of content strategy development.

So, let’s assume we are playing by the theme of this year’s show “Growth unleashed.” The home and gardening influencer group would consist of influencers who grow their food. This partnership would work well to highlight the stories of people who have been impacted by the Ghana Garden and Flower Movement, over the years. It would further build on and add to the credibility the brand has earned itself over the years, while also pushing the Movement’s goal to get more young people into horticulture and floriculture. They would share stories of how they grow their food and start challenges within their communities to get their followers to experiment with gardening.

Health and wellbeing influencers would also be relevant here because the majority of their content focuses on teaching their community how to maintain a healthy lifestyle. They can use their platform to inform their followers about activities during the show that focus on health and wellbeing.

The family influencer group will create content on how they try and encourage the children to participate in gardening activities, and the benefits this brings to the family. Another section will create content around the event itself and the different activities available for both children and adults to enjoy.

The lifestyle influencer group will create content to show that anyone can get involved in Gardening no matter their lifestyle. Others would create content to promote activities during the show. Influencers to be engaged would include; minimalists, urban and lifestyle influencers. It was impressive to see the organisers had onboarded lifestyle influencer Tatas Caritas to host one of this year’s activities, “Karaoke with Tatas”.

This partnership is mutually beneficial because it increases exposure for both parties, the Movement and the influencer, by bringing together their audiences. It further projects the influencer, as one who is passionate about causes that have humanity at heart and positions her to be spotted by brands with similar audiences to the movement, who may be prospecting cause-led campaigns.

To create some more buzz and excitement around the Movement, in future, the organisers may consider onboarding a celebrity influencer. However, this tactic works better with long-term campaigns. Audiences are perceptive and can spot an AD a mile away, especially if it just pops out of nowhere. Alternatively, for an entire year, the organisers may decide to work with influencers of different sizes, across several campaigns and then decide to onboard a celebrity influencer for its flagship annual event.

This creates a fireworks effect and would seem more natural to their audiences because they have become accustomed to seeing the movement and its efforts over sometime thus, creating little need for convincing to support the movement. A long-term campaign with influencers between a year to 6 months, running up to subsequent shows would benefit the movement by growing a community that will stand behind the cause.

So, yes! Influencers and cause-led brands can work together to impact change. For a flagship show like this, an influencer marketing strategy is very effective because it has the potential to tap into other audience groups because of the influencers’ reach and strengthen community development. For instance, gardening enthusiasts living in the US may plan to attend next year’s show because they have seen the impact and vibe of the Movement from an influencer’s page. This may not have been easy to achieve using traditional media alone.

To conclude, take a minute to imagine how much Ghanaian tourism stands to make if September carried the same energy that December does just because a well-designed influencer marketing strategy for GGFS was designed & executed.