Influencer Session with Charlie and Lauren

Socially Powerful interviewed Charlie and Lauren, the duo behind Wanderers & Warriors,  who transitioned from running a clothing brand to becoming full-time influencers sharing their travel adventures. Their journey began with a shared passion for travel that evolved from a clothing business into a content driven platform showcasing their experiences as a couple. They have worked with brands like Daniel Wellington, Cluse, and local companies by focusing on authentic partnerships. They see influencer marketing as a powerful tool for brands to reach audiences authentically. They remain committed to producing honest, engaging content for their growing audience with ambitions to keep traveling and creating content.

Charlie and Lauren

Today, we caught up with Charlie and Lauren, originally from the UK, but now living life on the road, sharing their adventures with their ever growing and evolving audience. We discuss important topics within influencer marketing and where they want to take their career! Check out the blog below!

Could you tell us a little bit about your background and how you started to build a following?

What a lot of people don’t know, is that Wanderers & Warriors actually began as a clothing brand…

After arriving home from our separate travels, we found ourselves brainstorming ideas of how we could create something of our own. Something that we’d be both proud of and passionate about…oh, and of course it had to be travel related. So after a lot of late nights and screwed up pieces of paper, Wanderers & Warriors clothing was born.

Our platform grew and our sales increased and before we knew it, it was time for us to pack back up and head out again. As much as it was exciting to be getting back on the road, it was a bittersweet feeling knowing we’d have to close the store temporarily.

So on 1st June 2017 we switched the store to our own personal adventures and the rest is history…

Is this something you do full-time?

 Yes, we know work online full time through our blog and social media platforms.

What sort of content do you create and what content works best with your audience?

Our content is based on us travelling as a couple, so whether its tours, destinations or cute photos that is what we aim for.

What would you define Influencer Marketing as?

For us, influencer marketing is using our knowledge of what people will like and advertising to them in an honest and trustworthy way.

What brands have you worked with so far? How was it?

We’ve worked with the big brands such as Daniel Wellington and Cluse to smaller companies such as Cordalife and local t-shirt brands. We love building up a relationship with a company that believes in us and that we’re passionate about! For us, our main importance is to stay true and only market products that we would use ourselves.

How do you think Influencer Marketing will evolve over the next 12 months?

Who knows. This social media run world is changing every day but what’s interesting is seeing careers appear that weren’t known of years ago. Now the big companies are employing talents through social media and recognising them for their hard work and skills which is good to see.

How has the Influencer world evolved since you began?

For us, even just in the last year, we’ve seen so many people classing themselves as ‘influencers’ and trying to build a career from it for the wrong reasons. Becoming an influencer should come as a by-product of doing something you love and are passionate about.

How do you feel brands are working with Influencers?

 A lot of brands do a great job or working with influencers and making it a mutually beneficial experience. It seems to be getting a lot more recognised as a legit way of advertising!

Have you seen any brands that you feel are doing great work with Influencers?

A lot of the female fashion brands seem to be doing the best jobs of using larger influencers to their benefits. Companies such as Spell Byron Bay and Faithfull The Brand are forever popping up in our feeds being represented by travel influencers which makes sense.

Do you use any software to help create content?

We live on Lightroom. Lauren spends hours editing photos to get the best colours, lighting and to make sure our photos inspire and impact our followers.

How do you balance your online life with offline?

 We’ve managed to schedule work time and play time pretty well now. For us going out and shooting content is the fun part then we edit the same day and plan our posts ahead so we don’t have to work constantly.

Which influencers inspire you and look up to?

 Of course in the travel industry Jack Morris (@doyoutravel) and Lauren Bullen (@gypsea_lust) are the top guys that I’m sure every travel influencer looks up to. They paved the way for influencers like ourselves to realise what’s possible.

If you could work with any brand, who would that be?

For Lauren, it would have to be Peppermayo or Asos and for Charlie probably like a Topman or Urban Outfitters.

Tell us something about you that people might not know?

Haha ok, so Lauren only has one Kidney! And Charlie was born on narrowboat! How’s that?

What’s your favourite social platform and why?

It has to be Instagram. Instagram is our baby and the platform that’s given us the opportunities plus it just seems so sleek and easy to use. Everyone we see in public is always scrolling Insta.

Where do you want to take your career as an Influencer?

For us, of course, we have huge ambitions to take over the world but realistically as long as we can continue to travel the world together, that’s all we really want from life.