HexClad's Sizzling Hot Influencer Marketing Strategy

In the past, billboards were a popular way to advertise. They were a quick way to get people's attention and hopefully make them buy a product. Some brands are still stuck in this outdated mindset, treating influencers like modern-day billboards. They pay influencers to post once and expect magic to happen. That rarely works to truly connect with audiences.

One brand that keeps long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships at the focus for their influencer marketing efforts is HexClad, a premium cookware company.

From sending free products that create organic brand awareness to its aspirational Gordon Ramsay collaboration, to activating a 2,000+ influencer network for sales campaigns - HexClad's  strategies are a masterclass for any DTC brand looking to partner with influencers.

Let’s dive into the tactics that make HexClad's strategy effective. You'll learn tangible tips and see real examples to apply to your own influencer marketing efforts.

Sending free products to creators

HexClad's influencer gifting strategy is a masterclass in building organic brand awareness. They've adopted a long-term approach that subtly integrates their products into the cooking and content creator ecosystem.

Here's another example:

It starts with curating the right mix of influencers.

What does that mean? Think - celebrity chefs, restaurant owners, home cooks, etc. They send free products without asking or requiring the recipients to post about them. This allows for organic, authentic endorsements as influencers genuinely appreciate and use the high-quality products.

The cookware arrives neatly packaged in branded boxes and chic dust bags.

There's also a note from none other than Gordon Ramsay himself. As an investor and brand ambassador, Ramsay's involvement adds aspirational value and credibility that resonates with cooking enthusiasts.

When influencers do create and share content using HexClad products, the distinctive hexagon pattern on the pans makes the brand easily recognizable. Even if the influencer doesn't specifically mention HexClad, their pans are evident in the photos and videos because of the unique design. This features HexClad within the influencer's content without them having to directly promote the brand.

💡 Takeaways:

Curate a diverse mix of influencers aligned with your brand, and send free products without always explicitly asking. Create a 'wow-worthy' unboxing experience to give influencers a reason to share about your products with their audience.

Dedicated landing page for Affiliate program

While the brand gifts products freely to big and small influencers, they also have a landing page for interested creators to apply to join their affiliate ranks.

Instead of their team spending countless hours scouring the internet to identify and individually vet potential affiliates, negotiate terms, and manage outreach - the landing page serves as a self-service portal. Interested influencers can discover the program, read all the details, and apply seamlessly if they meet the criteria.

This inbound process saves HexClad's team time and effort that would otherwise be spent manually finding, vetting, and negotiating with affiliates one-by-one.

However, it's not an open-ended free-for-all. HexClad maintains control over who gets admitted into their affiliate program. The page lays out the qualification criteria - content creators, bloggers, and publishers within the culinary space can apply. Still, their sites/channels undergo a vetting process before being approved.

While the gifting strategy casts a wide net, the affiliate program allows them to double down on the most promising influencer partners through a more formalized relationship.

Brands like Olipop and Athletic Greens also use this strategy to generate inbound interest from their ideal influencers.

Influencer-Brand fit

Ramsay is renowned for his exacting kitchen standards, commitment to high-quality ingredients and tools, and no-nonsense approach. These attributes align perfectly with HexClad's premium, professional-grade cookware brand positioning.

By partnering with Ramsay, HexClad gains instant credibility and trust with home cooks and culinary enthusiasts who aspire to cook like a Michelin-starred chef.

The impact of perfect influencer-brand fit is evident in HexClad's sales projections. The company was able to reach $125 million in [sales in 2022], a substantial increase from the $80 million achieved in the previous year. Ramsay's global popularity has also opened up new international market opportunities for HexClad, with plans to expand to Australia, India, and Brazil towards the end of the year. We don't have the latest numbers but HexClad was on track to exceed $350 million in revenue in 2023.

💡 The key takeaway is:

Be selective and strategic about the influencers you partner with. Prioritize fit above mere follower count or surface-level popularity. An authentic, well-aligned match will pay off in audience trust, engagement, and conversions.

You can quickly find the right influencers for your brand using tools like SARAL.

There is no need to spend hours copy-pasting data into spreadsheets or combing through social media accounts that are irrelevant to you. SARAL can replace expensive or inefficient databases because it's a search engine that allows you to find any influencer on social media.

Maximizing influencer-brand partnership

The partnership between HexClad and Gordon Ramsay is a textbook example of an influencer-brand collaboration firing on all cylinders. Let's break down how HexClad has fully maximized the potential of this celebrity chef relationship.

Dedicated landing page

HexClad created a custom landing page for traffic coming from Ramsay's promotions. This page welcomes visitors with Ramsay's face and quotes, instantly reinforcing the connection. It also allows HexClad to tailor the messaging, offers, and content to this audience for higher conversion rates.

Testimonials across touchpoints

Rather than confining Ramsay's endorsement to a single ad or post, HexClad has woven his quotes and photos throughout its website and marketing materials. Ramsay is positioned as a true brand ambassador, not just a one-time influencer.

Ramsay-focused ad creative

While people understand that Ramsay's endorsement is likely part of a paid partnership, the strong brand-influencer fit lends credibility to the collaboration. Ramsay is known for his high standards and wouldn't associate with a subpar product. So his endorsement, even in an ad, carries weight.

Here's an example of a Twitter ad showing Ramsay with Hexclad pans:

Extensive content creation

HexClad went beyond just ads and created a wealth of video content with Ramsay across platforms. They produced YouTube videos, shorts, and Instagram reels featuring Ramsay using and promoting HexClad products.

Here's a TikTok with Ramsay:

And here's an example of a YouTube video of Ramsay cooking with Hexclad pots, and pans:

These moves show HexClad working the Ramsay partnership across the entire customer journey.

Leveraging influencers for BFCM

Instead of going all-in on paid ads during the fiercely competitive BFCM shopping period, HexClad worked with an influencer marketing agency that was run by Josh Durham. The agency had previously signed over 2,000 creators to work with HexClad so they could tap into this existing community.

For BFCM, they activated 66 of these creators to drive sales, not just brand awareness.

That's why the deliverables were very specific —

Notice how the influencers were required to post two dedicated Instagram Stories - one in the week leading up to Black Friday (Nov 14) and another between Nov 24-27, which are peak shopping days. The staggered posting timelines primed the audience ahead of Black Friday and struck when purchase intent was hottest.

This level of specificity in influencer briefs is often lacking, with brands settling for simple product features or mentions. However, HexClad's approach shows they viewed influencers as a critical sales channel during BFCM, not just for awareness plays. The structured deliverables are optimized for conversion.

The brief specifically mentioned posting stories. That's because when someone sees an influencer's story, they are likelier to click through the swipe-up or bio link. With regular feed posts, people may visit the brand's page to scroll through without necessarily converting.

An influencer's story highlighting Hexclad:

HexClad's successful influencer campaign during Black Friday/Cyber Monday was made possible because they had nurtured a long-term relationships with creators.

Instead of having to find and negotiate with influencers from scratch during the busy BFCM period, HexClad could tap into their already established network of over 2,000 creators they had signed up previously.

This existing creator community allowed them to move quickly. They simply reached out to creators already familiar with HexClad, shared creative guidelines for the BFCM promotions, and negotiated rates efficiently since relationships were already in place.

💡Takeaway:

Cultivate long-term influencer partnerships ahead of key sales periods like BFCM. Provide specific, conversion-focused deliverables in your briefs, and leverage Instagram Stories for higher click-through rates to your site.

Influencer-generated content in meta ads

Effective influencers know how to create engaging content that resonates with their audience. Hexclad leverages this by using content produced by influencers for their ads.

For example, in the ad below they used content produced by a creator named Alessandra (handle - flavorsbyale)

By repurposing top-performing influencer posts and videos in their Meta ads, brands can:

• Piggyback on the influencer's credibility with their followers
• Feature more authentic, relatable creative vs. highly produced brand content
• Develop a library of authentic ad creative without the higher costs and longer timelines of full-scale productions.

It takes more work than importing an influencer's post directly into an ad. Brands need to:

• Select influencer content that aligns with campaign goals and brand messaging
• Negotiate clear usage rights from the influencers.
• Adapt content to follow ad specs and creative best practices
• Add appropriate calls-to-action and other brand elements

💡Takeaway:

Repurpose top-performing influencer content in your ads to leverage their credibility, authenticity, and creativity while saving on production costs. Ensure the content aligns with your brand and adapt it for ad best practices.

Tracking performance

Many brands get hung up on measuring the exact ROI, precise revenue numbers, or specific sales figures driven by their influencer marketing efforts. They want hard data to justify the investment and prove the channel's worth. This narrow focus on immediate results can miss the bigger picture of how influencer partnerships drive value.

As Connor Rolain, HexClad's Head of Growth points out in this interview, holding influencer marketing to the same attribution standards as a Meta ad or other conversion-focused tactics is misguided.

Influencer marketing, particularly for high-consideration products like cookware, often plays a more upper-funnel role in the customer journey. It's less about driving instant purchases and more about building brand awareness, establishing credibility, and fostering long-term affinity. These impacts are harder to track and attribute than a straightforward click-to-purchase ad.

Instead of fixating on perfect attribution, HexClad aims to get their brand in front of as many target customers as possible at the lowest feasible cost. This top-of-funnel impact is their primary goal and KPI for influencer campaigns.

That's not to say attribution is completely irrelevant. HexClad still employs tactics like unique discount codes and UTM tracking to connect influencer content to revenue where possible.

When you use an all-in-one influencer marketing tool like SARAL, you'll get a performance dashboard designed to give you a bird's-eye view of how your influencer marketing efforts are doing.

💡 Takeaway:

Brands should not judge influencer marketing solely on direct sales or perfect attribution. Embrace a more holistic view of how the channel drives long-term value through awareness, credibility, and audience growth.

Feeling inspired to cook up some influencer magic for your brand?

After reading about Hexclad's influencer marketing, you might have some creative ideas that you would want to execute for your brand. But operational chaos can quickly burn those grand plans once you start implementing. Many brands fail at this crucial stage - losing momentum to disjointed workflows, endless spreadsheets, and missed deadlines.

That's where SARAL comes in. This powerful platform streamlines your entire influencer marketing operation from start to finish.

With SARAL, you can find the right influencers, track your campaign’s success, and do everything we've outlined above – all without breaking a sweat or your bank — so you can focus on building relationships with influencers and making strategic decisions.

👉 You don't have to jump to buying a subscription today. Dip your toes in with a free trial of SARAL here. Try all the features, and our support, and even run a campaign. Cancel it anytime if the results aren't making you do a happy dance.