Musio Breaks Into New Markets with Influencer Marketing
Introduction
Cinesamples is an industry leader in virtual instruments and sample libraries. Their VST plugin Musio offers over 1800 of their high-quality orchestral instruments for only $9.99/mo.
To break Musio into new target markets, they needed to gain social credibility from leading creatives outside of their core audience of film composers. For their first influencer marketing campaign, Find Your Friends devised a comprehensive strategy with a conservative budget to prove it was a profitable marketing lever they can pull.
The Story of Cinesamples
Cinesamples has been making virtual instruments for over 16 years. After composer and founder Mike Patti saw a gap in the market, he started recording a variety of instruments & selling them for his peers to use in their demos. Cinesamples quickly became the go-to resource in North America for film composers, finding differentiation from competitors like the UK’s Spitfire Audio and Germany’s Orchestral Tools by offering complex tones and numerous mic positions.
While Cinesamples sample libraries are now the gold standard for film composers, it costs thousands of dollars to have a complete, professional-sounding library. Cinesamples set out to make a more affordable option: Musio, a cloud-connected library housing their existing catalog and the ability for new sounds to be added.
Musio
The Problem (and Opportunity) Cinesamples Had Before The Campaign Started
Before working with Find Your Friends, Cinesamples and Musio were almost exclusively known in the composition world. They saw an opportunity for producers of all genres to take advantage of these high quality sounds. At $9.99, Musio was comparable to the other plug-ins producers often pay for.
The problem? Outside of a few film composers on YouTube, they had virtually no video testimonials of their product from leaders in the production space. If they wanted to break out of their niche, they needed creators to champion their brand.
Why Cinesamples Chose Find Your Friends
Cinesamples found Find Your Friends through word of mouth. After seeing a lackluster return on paid advertising and in need of a big win for Q1, a seasonally slow period, influencer marketing started to look enticing.
Our strategy recommendations during the initial consultation and extensive network of music creators provided Cinesamples’ leadership team the peace of mind they needed to move forward with our proposal.
“Musio is a great product that so many different music creators can get a ton of value from, but coming from the small world of film composers, our reach was limited. Find Your Friends was able to help us expand to a much larger audience through influencer relationships, connecting us to creators who immediately saw the value of the plugin and were excited to share that value with their audiences.
Find Your Friends has the influencer space down pat, with an extensive list of influencer relationships, a meticulously organized and highly professional approach, and a keen eye for collaborative opportunities that fit your brand’s goals, budget, and vision.”
Our Influencer Marketing Strategy for Cinesamples
Cinesamples came to us with two goals: generate brand awareness and drive free trial sign ups, where they see a 30% conversion to a paid subscription.
By focusing on YouTube and long-form evergreen content, we tapped into creators’ trusted audiences with honest reviews and real-life use cases to demonstrate the value producers of all kinds could get from Musio.
After giving Cinesamples a sample list of creators to approve, we were off to the races. Find Your Friends handled everything: influencer search, outreach, contract negotiation + licensing, creative direction and final reporting.
The Results
At the end of the first month of the campaign, we generated:
8 long-form YouTube videos
Average engagement rate of 7%
64,000 views
2000 clicks to Musio’s website
253 trial sign ups, 41 conversions - a 16% conversion rate!
3x projected ROI
The 4th biggest month since Musio’s launch in 2021
With this early success, Cinesamples has the validation it needs to continue prioritizing influencer partnerships in their marketing.
As their campaign renews and we add multiple touch points with these influencers, ROI will continue to increase. Influencer marketing is a long-term marketing initiative that can take 3 to 6 months to fully scale.
Call-to-Action
Influencer marketing is an investment into your brand – by creating long-standing partnerships, we’re able to help cultivate your brand identity, build community and generate conversions. We were able to take the guesswork out of influencer marketing for Cinesamples, and encourage you to reach out if you’re feeling overwhelmed on how to get started!
Get in touch for your free consultation.