When it comes to promoting food and beverages, many companies turn to bloggers. This is not just a trend — it is a reflection of the modern consumer culture, where trust is more important than banners, and personal experience affects more strongly than an ad. However, cooperation with bloggers does not always bring the expected effect. Some campaigns are inspiring, while others are perplexing. In this article, we'll look at how brands from product segment build collaborations with by bloggers, что у них получается, а где они оступаются. Всё это — через призму запроса “Работа с блогерами: кейсы и ошибки продуктового сегмента”.
How brands choose bloggers
Product managers, marketers, and agencies study the blogger's target audience: their communication style, reach, engagement, and content topics. In the food segment, special attention is paid to how the blogger talks about food, everyday habits, and everyday life.
Один из популярных подходов — фокус на “домашности” и “настоящести”. Зрителю важно видеть, что блогер сам пользуется продуктом. Однако иногда бренды забывают, что аудитория чувствует фальшь. Важно, чтобы коллаборация выглядела органично: чтобы реклама не «выпадала» из привычного контекста блогера.
Case study: successful collaboration with a food blogger
One Russian breakfast cereal brand has found a mom blogger who runs a cozy family blog about life with two children. In the video, she not only showed the packaging, but also made breakfast with the children, shared the recipe and told why it is convenient for her to use this product in the morning.
The content didn't look like advertising in the literal sense, but it did evoke a warm response from the audience. Viewers willingly left comments, shared videos, and even tagged the brand in their stories. This worked because the format was an organic extension of the blogger's content, rather than a separate insert.
Case study: Critical collaboration
Известный производитель сладких газировок решил выйти на новую аудиторию — поклонников ЗОЖ-контента. Был приглашён популярный фитнес-блогер, продвигающий принципы правильного питания. В ролике он бодро открывал банку газировки и заявлял, что “иногда можно позволить себе маленькую радость”.
The audience didn't appreciate it: a flurry of criticism began in the comments. Subscribers reminded the blogger of his old videos, in which he sharply condemned sugar and artificial additives. The author had to justify himself, and the brand itself did not achieve the desired effect. The collaboration looked far-fetched and contradictory.
Why do errors occur?
Many brands make the same mistake-they ignore the blogger's personal style. The desire to quickly launch an advertising campaign leads to a simplified approach: they take popular authors without analyzing their image, values, or audience reactions.
In the food niche, this is especially critical: food is not just a product, it is emotions, memories, and associations. And if the blogger talks about chips with the same expression with which he talked about yoga and spiritual practices — the viewer will feel the discrepancy.
Bloggers themselves often make mistakes: for the sake of a contract, they agree to advertise what they don't use themselves. Reputational consequences are not long in coming.
Formats that work best
Brands from the product segment are increasingly abandoning direct reviews and trying storytelling. Stories about family traditions, grandma's recipes, and Sunday dinners all help create emotional connection.
Joint challenges, recipes of the week, and serving or tasting tips work well. If a blogger enthusiastically talks about experimenting with a product, the viewer does not feel pressured. He gets involved because he sees emotions, not boilerplate integration.
Mistakes to avoid
- Choosing bloggers who don't fit the product values
- Overload the video with advertising theses instead of the real story
- Lack of reaction to comments and criticism from subscribers
- Ignoring the specific features of the target audience
- Obsession: frequent publications with no semantic load