How Balance Festival Is Working With Influencers Like Zanna van Dijk To Reach A Wider Audience

This May Balance Festival returns to London for its third consecutive year. The three-day wellness festival, which boasts a huge raft of workouts, talks, workshops and brands, is on a mission to make wellness more accessible and approachable to a wider audience — and it’s not pursuing its goal alone.

Since its inception, the festival has chosen to work with a cohort of passionate influencers, to act as engaged and collaborative advocates — a strategy we cover in our 2019 Business Of Wellness Trends Report, and one that’s becoming increasingly commonplace within the industry.

By collaborating with credible and engaged ambassadors to create content and inform business decisions, the brand hopes to establish deeper connections with a wider demographic — and solidify its leading position in the marketplace.

“At Balance Festival, we believe in the power of people to make fitness and wellness approachable to everyone. Our ambassadors are a key part of this, each being chosen for their dedication to and expertise in one of four key pillars of the festival – fitness, food, wellness and travel. Having proved themselves the best-in-class in their respective speciality area,” the festival’s Founder Ludovic Rossignol-Isanovic told Welltodo.

“We feel confident that they will be able to make festival-goers feel motivated and empowered, whether they’re listening to a talk, working up a sweat or attending a live cooking show. Among this year’s ambassadors are personal trainers and fitness influencers Zanna Van Dijk, Alice Liveing and Kelsey Wells, as well as leading yoga teachers such as Michael James Wong, Annie Clarke and Chris Magee,” he added.

To dig a little deeper into the strategy, we sat down with one of the festival’s longest standing ambassadors, lifestyle and fitness blogger Zanna van Dijk, to discuss how their partnership works, the evolution of influencer marketing and why she’s so invested in the brand……..

On first connecting with Balance Festival…….

I’ve been working with Balance since the very beginning. I originally talked to the brand about being a speaker or trainer at the festival but I found the concept so exciting that I asked to be involved in more depth.

I then had meetings with the team and we discussed the talks, the workouts, the brands and the speakers the festival would work with. It felt so exciting to be a part of such a huge game-changing project in the London fitness scene. I have headlined at Balance every year since its formulation and I couldn’t be more proud to continue my relationship with the team.

On what it means to be an ambassador for the brand………

I’m not just a speaker, trainer and host at the event but also an active part of the team and the festival’s community. I am genuinely the brand’s biggest fan so I love spreading the word about the festival and working with the team on producing content, pulling together talks and hosting workouts.

On being a part of the brand’s growth……..

Balance has gone from dipping its toe into the wellness market to dominating it, and everyone who goes to the festival can see why — it’s epic.

The line up is continuously evolving to include even more big names, experts in their fields and diverse topics of conversation.

In the beginning, I contributed much more in regards to discussions of the festival layout, the stands, the sections, the lineup and so much more. In the run-up to the first ever festival I was definitely more hands-on, but as it has grown I have been able to step back and now act more as a contributor to the festival and of course an ambassador.

On the evolution of influencer marketing…….

Even 5 years ago I didn’t think you could make a living being an influencer, the word influencer didn’t even exist. Now the industry is booming and more brands than ever are keen to team up with bloggers. The relationships have evolved from single Instagram posts to long term collaborations, which I much prefer.

On future projects…….

Aside from my work with Balance, I am planning to share more elements of sustainability, especially related to plant-based eating and fighting plastic.

The new generation is #woke — they care about where their products come from, who their purchases support, transparency in business and being more conscious. Plastic isn’t so fantastic and plants are becoming pretty cool. If there is one trend I hope is here to stay, it is sustainability, so fingers crossed more brands also jump on the planet-friendly bandwagon.