Ayaan Sadiq.
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Influencer Strategy · 2026

Influencer Strategy Portfolio, Sephora · Ontario Food Festival · 2026 Trends

Three influencer projects bundled into one strategic portfolio: a Sephora Squad Canada campaign analysis, an Ontario Food Festival influencer database, and a 2026 influencer marketing trends report.

Client

Sephora Canada · Ontario Food Festival · Industry Research

Industry

Influencer Marketing · Retail · Events

Role

Influencer Strategist & Researcher

Year

2026

Creator studio setup with ring light, smartphone tripod and handwritten campaign notebook.

Case Study · 20

"Authenticity is the through-line. Sephora wins by curating relatable creators over celebrities. Ontario Food Festival wins by mixing micro (engagement) + macro (reach) + media accounts (awareness). And the 2026 trends all point the same direction: smaller, more personal, more transparent, more multi-platform."

Objective

Build influencer fluency across three angles, analyze a live national campaign (Sephora Squad Canada 2025), build a usable creator database for a specific event (Ontario Food Festival), and synthesize the 2026 trend landscape (nano/micro, AI-generated, multi-platform, long-term partnerships).

Result

Three deliverables: a Sephora Squad analysis evaluating three macro creators (Nilani D, Smrithi Dhanasekar, Karina Waldron) against persuasion principles and the TA-RES ethics framework; a Toronto/Ontario food + culture creator database with research methodology; a 2026 trends report with four shifts and two real-world examples (Gillette Venus × body-positive creators, Lilmiquela × Liquidiv).

Deliverables

  • ·Sephora Squad Canada campaign analysis (3 creators × persuasion + TA-RES)
  • ·Ontario Food Festival influencer database
  • ·Research methodology, hashtag scouting, platform search, Google advanced search
  • ·Influencer mix strategy (micro + macro + media)
  • ·2026 trends report, 4 trends, 4 challenges, 2 case examples
  • ·Ethical analysis framework (TA-RES: Transparency, Authenticity, Respect, Empathy, Social Responsibility)

Skills applied

Influencer strategyCreator analysisDatabase researchTrend analysisPersuasion theoryMarketing ethics

01

Challenge

Influencer marketing is moving fast, nano/micro creators, AI-generated personalities, stricter transparency rules, rising costs and brand-safety risk. A single project can't cover all of it, so the answer was a portfolio: one live campaign, one database, one trends synthesis.

02

Insight

Authenticity is the through-line. Sephora wins by curating relatable creators over celebrities. Ontario Food Festival wins by mixing micro (engagement) + macro (reach) + media accounts (awareness). And the 2026 trends all point the same direction: smaller, more personal, more transparent, more multi-platform.

03

Strategy

  • ●For Sephora, analyze each creator against a persuasion principle (Social Proof / Liking / Authority) and run them through the TA-RES ethics check to validate brand fit.
  • ●For the Ontario Food Festival, combine hashtag scouting, platform Explore search and Google advanced search to triangulate location, niche and engagement quality.
  • ●For trends, frame the year around four shifts (micro growth, long-term partnerships, AI creators, multi-platform/shoppable) and back each with a real campaign example.

04

Execution

  • ●Wrote the Sephora analysis with creator profiles (Nilani D ~128K, Smrithi ~155K, Karina ~146K) and persuasion + TA-RES breakdowns each.
  • ●Built the Ontario Food Festival database with creator tiers and brand-alignment notes.
  • ●Drafted the 2026 trends report with four challenges (scalability, measurement, consistency, brand safety, cost) and two industry examples.

05

Outcome

  • ●A reusable analysis template (persuasion principle + TA-RES + creator profile) for future influencer briefs.
  • ●A live, taggable creator database for a specific event use case.
  • ●A trends synthesis any brand could use as the front page of a 2026 influencer planning deck.

06

Key Learnings

  • ●Smaller influencers drive stronger interactions, the engagement-to-follower ratio matters more than absolute reach.
  • ●Ethics frameworks (TA-RES) protect campaigns from the brand-safety risks the trends report flagged.
  • ●AI-generated creators expand creative control but raise authenticity questions, useful tool, not a default.

07

What I Would Do Next

  • ●Apply the TA-RES framework to the Vessi 'Walk Through Anything' creator list before contracts go out.
  • ●Extend the Ontario database with a Quebec city-by-city expansion for the next event cycle.

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