Case Study: Hailey Hinkley (@HinkleyHailey)
Inside Our Partnership with Hailey Hinkley
The Situation
Editorial Access began working with Hailey Hinkley in September 2025. At the time, Hailey had already built a strong following on TikTok — but her Instagram presence hadn't caught up, leaving real growth potential untapped on a second platform.
There was an added layer of complexity: Hailey splits her time between the U.S. and Japan, supporting her husband's professional basketball career overseas. In the early months of the partnership, that made brand partnerships harder to secure — brands were hesitant once they understood her split-location schedule, even with strong engagement numbers behind her.
The Approach
Within the first 30 days, we put a dedicated growth strategy in place for Instagram specifically, while continuing to support her existing TikTok presence. As Hailey's time in the U.S. increased, we shifted focus toward actively securing partnerships that fit her audience and her schedule.
Growth doesn't mean molding a creator into someone else's format. As trends shifted, we adjusted the strategy around Hailey — not the other way around. She kept full creative control of her content; we took on the back-end work: tracking what was resonating, staying ahead of platform changes, and managing the logistics of every partnership so her energy stayed where it belonged — in the work itself.
The Results
Instagram grew 609% — over 7x — from October 2025 to today. TikTok grew a further 33% over the same period, on top of an already strong base.
Beyond the numbers:
14 brand partnerships secured during Hailey's time stateside
A photoshoot booked with one of her favorite brands
Multiple brand activations and events attended
Why It Worked
The early resistance from brands wasn't really about Hailey's content or audience — it was about logistics and uncertainty. Once she relocated stateside and the Instagram growth strategy took hold, both problems solved each other: a platform that was underbuilt caught up fast, and a schedule that once made brands hesitant became a non-issue.
This is what we mean by growth with direction — not chasing every platform at once, but building the right one at the right time.
