Case Studies.
London City Airport
Thompson Spencer was tasked with repositioning the perception of London’s #1 airport through a strategic influencer marketing campaign.
The objective: showcase the airport’s speed and efficiency, while spotlighting its range of summer destinations.
To bring this to life, we partnered with a diverse mix of lifestyle influencers - highlighting London City Airport as the go-to hub for both business and leisure travellers.
Our campaign successfully validated three key hypotheses:
Blended creative outperforms brand-only assets
Campaigns using a mix of influencer and brand content delivered significantly lower CPMs than those using brand creative alone.
Influencer content drives stronger traffic
Influencer-led creative generated higher click-through rates and more site visits compared to brand content.
Higher engagement with combined creative
The combination of brand and influencer content achieved an impressive 9% engagement rate, outperforming brand-only content by a wide margin.
Wild Ferns
The Brief
New Zealand company Parrs Products LTD had a new skincare brand to launch: Wild Ferns Essentials.
Formulated with Aotearoa’s special ingredient, Manuka Honey, Thompson Spencer knew this beautiful brand deserved a special stage to stand on, and got right to work assembling a team to launch the brand and grow a community. The immediate task at hand was to launch and raise awareness of the Wild Ferns Essentials brand. It was truly awesome to see the Thompson Spencer specialists come together to bring a meticulous strategy to life!
The Work
Our Thompson Spencer specialists came together, firstly with Socialites developing an overall strategy and concept that then got our production arm, Magnesium busy bringing the idea to life via a high energy shoot. With all elements produced and edited, stunning content rolled out across social, digital, and out-of-home channels…which had all been planned and booked by Thompson Spencer Media. An influencer-led component was an integral step in reaching the target audience, which is where our influencer arm, The Social Club, took centre-stage, hand-picking the best influencers from their thousands of social media contacts across the country. The collective efforts of Thompson Spencer specialists came together to create a teaser that got people wondering, a launch that created excitement, and now ongoing content and conversation that keeps Wild Ferns Essentials top of mind. All in all, it came together with a bang, or should we say with a buzz 😉
Giesen 0%
The Brief
Dry January can be an enjoyable and exciting month for some, and a daunting month for others. We needed to shift the focus from what one may miss out on, to the benefits that come with enjoying Giesen 0%.
THE WORK
The primary aim of our campaign was to break down the perceived barrier of ‘taste’’ by educating consumers on the benefits of 0% products. There needed to be a particular focus on Giesen 0% in order to hold tight to Giesen’s leadership position in the hotly contested 0% wine category.
Sitting alongside the strategically placed paid and organic social campaign, we collaborated with influencers and content creators to reach a wider, invested audience.
The OUTCOME
The influencer-led component helped to amplify our message and inspire their followers to incorporate 0% beverages into their friend gatherings and dinner parties. Instagram competitions further engaged our audience and encouraged two-way conversation.
Smith & Caughey’s
Objective: Clear all in-store stock from Smith & Caughey’s ahead of permanent closure - with no online sales and just six days’ notice. The goal: drive immediate foot traffic to the Auckland store.
We partnered with 17 content creators within 24 hours, offering early access and a small voucher (no paid fees). Content was organic, authentic, and fuelled by existing relationships.
Creator Network:
Combined Reach: 630,000+
Key Creators: Erin Simpson (107K), Sharyn Casey (89K), Matiu Walters (70K), Clinton Randall (54K), Antonia Prebble (40K), Anna Reeve, Mandy Duncan, and more.
Content Performance:
35+ organic posts
200K–300K+ impressions in under 48 hours
Viral UGC TikTok drove a second wave of foot traffic
Queue lines before 10AM on opening day
Widespread re-shares and FOMO across social
Why it Worked:
The campaign tapped into the cultural significance of Smith & Caugheys' closure, combined with a strong sense of real-time urgency.
The entire campaign was executed in under 24 hours, leveraging pre-existing relationships with creators.
By avoiding over-briefing and trusting creators to capture the energy authentically, the content resonated genuinely with audiences.
The clearance sale was positioned as a significant event that people didn't want to miss, creating a "fear of missing out" (FOMO) effect.
The campaign successfully drove massive in-store foot traffic, enabling the rapid clearance of stock during the Smith & Caugheys permanent closure.
5GUM
The Brief
Iconic gum brand, 5Gum, engaged Thompson Spencer to re-launch their product to the NZ market. Ideating a campaign around the idea that ‘Life Happens in 5’, we wanted to get New Zealanders popping 5Gum and diving into things that challenged them.
The Work
With maximum reach needed amongst the under 30s, TikTok and Instagram were our go-to social platforms.
We knew the best way to drive buzz would be by engaging influencers. However, it wouldn’t be just any influencer who could rock this campaign - we needed adventure bunnies who had a knack for producing creative content. We tasked them with showcasing wild and entertaining moments experienced while chewing 5 Gum.
The OUTCOME
We did what we do best, hunting out creators that would fit the campaign perfectly. With 38 pieces of content produced by our 16 influencers, we reached 1.4M people across Instagram and TikTok. This was an impressive result, well and truly ticking the campaign objective of driving awareness in the NZ market.
The results of this campaign reflect the high quality of the content, with the TikTok campaign trumping the 4.1% industry average with an unbelievable 24.15% engagement rate, and the Instagram campaign more than tripling the industry average engagement rate.
