Caroline is PR and Influencer Lead for Buffalo Wild Wings. Before joining Inspire Brands in 2020, she spent 10+ years in professional sports with various teams in the NBA and MLB. Some career moments at BWW she is most proud of include: an Overtime merch collaboration, a Ryan Reynolds Twitter exchange, and a Jack Harlow sauce partnership. Recently, she led the first Inspire culinary mashup menu across all 6 iconic brands at Variety’s Power of Comedy event at South by Southwest.
Key Takeaways:
- Caroline believes that she is at this place in her career because of her agency experience. Her sports background played a large part in getting to Buffalo Wild Wings, but agency experience is something she considers a necessary stepping stone in her career.
- In influencer marketing, they consider “influencers” anyone under the sun who has high engagement.
- PR and influencers have extreme power together. When done right, engagement with influencers can have a huge impact that shouldn’t be overlooked.
- Currently, BWW is trying to combat the narrative that they are expensive. Influencers have been key to changing that narrative for the brand.
- Working with influencers who authentically love the brand is what drives the most successful engagement.
- When working with influencers, you are attaching your brand to that person for better or worse.
Maxwell Burton is a sophomore studying journalism – strategic communications and pursuing a minor in marketing at Ohio University. He serves as the Vice President of Public Relations for Scripps PRSSA. Connect with him on LinkedIn here.