The lack of consensus on the definition of innovation could lead to different interpretations affecting the understanding and relevance of innovation in business. Business strategy needs innovation because innovation is a key element that that clearly improves performance when applied. Up to three-quarters of productivity development in European industry can be attributed to innovation, and companies that apply innovation in their strategies show better performance. Innovation is a fundamental pillar of business strategy; it is not just a technological project, it is a culture, a mindset, a tool that provides competitive value to the company and added value to customers.

Business innovation needs its own strategy in order to be ready for firm sustainability and competitiveness. Innovation strategy is a set of actions that drive all procedures and guidelines in an organization to generate and manage innovations toward achieving the business objectives. It involves planning, prioritizing, and developing the right types of innovation (technological or not) ensuring the appropriate resources, knowledge, capabilities, and organizational structure, among others. It is important not to manage an innovation strategy in isolation or independently of the rest of the company’s functions. Innovation strategy should be based on corporate strategy and understood as an integral component of long-term strategic business management. With innovation strategy, a company can control and manage the generation of innovation, even though few companies have a clear innovation strategy.

It is positive to incorporate innovation strategy into business strategy to be better placed to compete in terms of differentiation, productivity and economic growth, and to achieve better financial results. This Final Work for the Master in Innovation and Digital Transformation, analyses different innovation strategies and their possible influential factors.

The loss of influence of conventional media, due to the emergence of the Internet, has increased the concerns of brands in terms of ascertaining how to influence different segments that exist in Spain. However, there is a factor that continues to influence people: the opinions of third parties (formerly offline and now also online). Therefore, it is interesting for brands to analyse new opinions transmitted online by third parties, that may also be influencers and who are the focus of this study.

With this in mind, this research focuses on the perception of women between 25 and 45 years old, (a segment of Spanish society – the target group) of the Sense Girls (as key influencers in the fashion, beauty and Fitness/Life & Style sectors, important for the target group) on YouTube and Instagram, focusing on how they communicate and how they could be taken into account in the field of marketing/communication.

Since this information could not be obtained from secondary sources, an ad hoc quantitative (questionnaire) and qualitative (focus group, in-depth interviews, channel analysis) investigation has been carried out.

As a result of this research, it can be concluded that the Sense Girls should be used in the marketing strategies of brands, differentiating communication types for each of the clusters into which women between 25 and 45 are divided.

The emergence of social media has led many companies to adopt them as marketing channels. Yet these media are novel enough to still leave many marketers unsure as to how to plan an effective social media marketing strategy, actually oriented towards engaging prospects. In this article, we discuss how to shape a social media strategy. To do so, we show the key concepts and steps involved in the planning process of this type of digital marketing strategy, and how to measure their impact immediately.