There is a healthy skepticism among brand and shopper marketers on the effectiveness of social media campaigns. Marketers ask, rightly, is budget spent on blogger campaigns well placed? Will the campaigns generate meaningful results? Are the “impressions” which are self-reported by the social media companies real? Am I paying too much?

Having been deeply engaged in the blogger campaign world for several years now, I have seen consistently good, even great content generated by bloggers. The creativity of the content, fresh ideas, stunning photography, and engaging stories set this format apart from any other advertising; indeed, these campaigns stimulate conversation and engagement around fresh and actionable ideas.

But is it worth the spend? Do these campaigns move the needle on sales?

At last, proof positive. A client recently ran an account specific campaign, in a very challenging category, which generated the “hat trick” of results, results which are demonstrably immediate, significant and sustainable.

First, a little about the campaign. The campaign was around a new mass market cigarillo brand launched at Walmart. There was absolutely nothing else going on from a marketing perspective with the brand, either at the account or nationally. The content generated by the bloggers was mind-blowingly positive, creative, and engaging. There was nothing in the blogs that even hinted at bringing new users into an admittedly controversial category, but focused on creative ideas targeted to current smokers. As for results, the campaign generated 16 million impressions, and at a cost of less than $30,000!

But that’s not the big news. The big news is the around the irrefutable sales results at the retailer, results which were immediate, significant and sustained.

The sales impact was immediate, as the brand began to see sales lifts the very week the campaign broke, with around 30 bloggers generating stories. These results we also significant, as an immediate 15% sales increase was clearly significant to the brand. Finally, the results are sustaining. As of this writing, five months post-campaign, the content is still generating views, and brand sales are on a continuing upward trend.

For my business at least, the issue of “do social media blogging campaigns work?” is settled. What I have suspected all along: fresh content that drives conversations with the consumer generate results that are more impactful than simply “telling” the consumer through traditional advertising, is proven true. And by choosing carefully which service provider is deployed, the medium can be exceedingly cost effective.