Top takeaways for influencer advice that actually works not generic B.S fluff -100+ tips Parts 2, 3 and 4
Founder · August 27, 2026 · 54 min read
How to engage your customers as influencers
Source: Julian Hearn (Founder) & James McMaster (CEO) of Huel · Piper PE · 04 Jul 2024
What they used instead:
- free t-shirts in the box
- hand signed notes,
- staff as micro influencers
Also had a manager doing witty replies bought with engagement
Who they pick
1. Huel had no proactive influencer team until very recently: Steve Bartley, now on their board after running a social media agency, said he was amazed they got this far without one. 44:43
interestingly we haven't really we very very recently just started we never really had a um a proactive influencer team Steve Bartley is now on our board his background was running a social media agency and working with influencers a lot so he's amazed that we've got to where we are today without using influen because he said they do work
2. The reason they finally moved is that a board member with an agency background pushed them, and they have now hired four people to do nothing but influencer. 45:02
So I think it's partly his influence has made us look again at it and go, okay, this clearly does work for some brands. Some brands have just nearly do all influencer work. So we've looked at it, we said, right, okay, we're going to go for this. So we've hired four people now, they're the influencer team, and they're going to try and make it work over the coming months.
Community and advocates
3. Their substitute for paid influencers is customers with the product on their desk telling colleagues about it, which Julian calls daily micro influencers. 45:18
“In terms of who are you influenced by, actually we do really well with people having Huel in an office and telling their friends about it, and they're all sort of M daily micro influencers. Then we talked about the t-shirts people walk around, sort of subliminal messages to others to say w Huel is something to be proud of, and people want to be associated with something that's healthy fast food that's good for the world. So arguably that has been our version of influencers to date.”
How to use UGC ads, which are twice as likely to scale
Source: The 3 Things Brands Must Get Right to Win in 2026 · Common Thread Collective · 06 Jan 2026
The brief and the content
4. Brands should create an equal amount of branded iterative ads and low-fi UGC video, as well as some low-fi UGC static. 18:35
We're just going to go, we're - for every branded iterative ad [clears throat] that we make, we should make the same amount of UGC, lowfi UGC video, and do some low loi UGC static as well in there. May as well have it in the mix.
How they measure it
5. A UGC ad is nearly two times more likely to become a high spend winner than a standard ad. 17:25
And then connected to that is that the UGC, an individual UGC ad is nearly two times more likely to become a high spend winner than a standard ad.
6. A UGC ad is two times more likely to reach a level of scale based on spend threshold. 17:46
So this is like what we define as an ad that reaches a level of scale based on the spend threshold necessary for that specific that specific brand. So a UG UC is two times more likely to be able to get to to be able to get to that level and and get to that output.
How to back one or two talents a year for four years
Source: A&R Worldwide Podcast 5 Featuring: Kenny Salcido, Sr. VP/Head of A&R, Red Bull Records · MUSEXPOOfficial · 16 Jan 2025
Read it only for the ten minutes about how Red Bull actually runs its label: one or two signings a year, a four year horizon on each, three free studios, equipment instead of an advance, and a managing director whose real job is justifying the whole thing to the parent brand. The other eighty percent is a music A&R career story with nothing about beverage marketing in it.
Who they pick
7. The signing criterion is cultural impact, set by managing director Greg, not sales potential. 25:59
Who said, let's service the artists, we're in the servicing business. That was my quote. But then Greg said we need to sign culturally impactful artists, artists make a cultural impact. And I looked at him and I said, what do you mean by cultural impact? He's like, we want to have our own Kendricks, our own artists, and together with our
8. The brand backs one or two acts a year on purpose, which is the opposite of a volume influencer programme. 24:24
We sign one to two artists a year, so I'm sitting there going, why one to two artists? And he said, we're about patience and development.
What they pay and the terms
9. The time horizon they work to for a new talent partnership is four years. 34:49
We know as managers and anrs, if you sign a brand new artist from the ground up it takes four years to truly break and get them across the line, people, but you're given one single. That's what happened to Wiz. They didn't give us enough time. But even is even better what you said the other night, two nights ago, it
10. The brand supplies studios in three cities free of charge, to signed artists and to what he calls friends of Red Bull. 32:02
Company, there's three studios around the world, London, I'm sorry, Paris, Berlin, LA. We don't charge our artist for that studio. That studio is for our artists and Friends of Red Bull to use. We did, we had the same thing exactly. I know you did. You need - it's part of our job. We have the resources to provide the artists the tools
11. Where a talent does not want cash, they pay in equipment instead and leave the contract alone. 32:23
We sometimes, if an artist doesn't want an advance, we'll give them an advance in plugins and audio and stuff like that.
12. When the contract came up for renewal, the artist's team at Eagle, Carl and Vic, chose to stay, which he treats as the measure of whether the partnership worked. 6:05
And when it came time for his deal to be up and we had to resign him again, the artist and his team Eagle, who are an incredible team - shout out to Carl and Vic - they both were like, if it ain't broke, why fix it.
Meta reads creator content as one ad unless the videos are really different from each other, so before a whitelisting push we can put together a shortlist of creators whose videos look nothing alike.
How to run whitelisted creator ads, his best ad type
Source: E006: David Herrmann: Paid Media, Creative Diversity and the Channels You Should Be Testing · Marketing Operators · 07 May 2024
A brand marketer gets an agency buyer's actual account structure, his testing budget split by channel, and his flat statement that whitelisted creator ads are his best performing format across every client he runs.
Seeding and gifting
13. His advice for brands hurt by the Meta slump is to increase product seeding, on the understanding it pays back slowly. 21:16
The other thing that I am telling people is find a channel that is working, if there is any. For example, product seeding: increase product seeding if we have to. Yes, it's a longer Le game, but it's an opportunity for us in this slow season to kind of build our own other pockets of channels.
Paid amplification
14. Whitelisting creator accounts is the single best performing ad type across Herrmann's whole client portfolio. 50:16
Additionally, right now across my entire portfolio, whitelisting ads have just been the best performers, no question.
15. Whitelisted creator ads sit in their own campaign with a twenty percent audience cap and act as both middle of funnel and prospecting. 50:46
And we set the audience cap at 20% and try to treat it somewhat as a middle of funnel but also as prospecting. That also has absolutely been working, and it's actually been the best performer to date.
16. Creator whitelisted ads can now be run through Meta shops in sub accounts, an unannounced change that used to be blocked by Commerce Manager. 50:57
So basically, you can run those to Meta shops in sub accounts. You can now do it, which has been kind of cool. Meta did not tell us that. Used to, you normally couldn't do that because it had to be connected to Commerce Manager.
How they measure it
17. The hardest thing he says about creator content is that twenty five different creators reads as one single ad to Meta. 69:17
If you look at your account, you have 25 UGC or creators talking about your product know, okay, that's one example, that is treating it as one, right? So marketing creative diversity is more than UGC, it's a mix of stuff.
Who runs it
18. The creative analytics snapshot lets a brand report performance back to a creator without giving them ad account access. 2:09
So instead of needing to give somebody access to your H ad account, you can just say, hey, this editor or this agency or this creator, I just want to show you what your ads did and how they performed.
How to run a code read the host tells through his own clients
Source: Dr. Chad Walding: Native Path Supplements, Training, Optimizing Health · Co-Movement Gym · Dr. Chad Walding · 19 Mar 2024
Useful to anyone selling to a supplement brand: it shows a company that built a two million person audience with free content for years before it had a product, and it is itself a live example of a small gym podcast running a coded affiliate read that the host writes from his own clients.
Codes and affiliates
19. The deal carries a tracked discount code read into the episode, at fifteen percent off every order.
Only the highest quality, properly combined nutrients, all while being offered at competitive prices. Use code ko5, that's C5, at checkout and receive 15% off each order. Lombardi Chiropractic has been Co-Movement's trusted chiropractor for the last 14 years. They have worked with hundreds of our clients, and I can confidently say they have the most knowledgeable and
20. The host encourages repeat and shared use of the code rather than a one-time redemption, which widens the attribution well beyond a single sale.
Use it, enjoy it. You can use it more than once, share it with family and friends, and you start feeling better tomorrow.
Podcast reads
21. The interview itself is a sponsorship activation: NativePath sponsors this gym's podcast and has done since the first episode.
NativePath has been a podcast sponsor of ours since day one, and it's because our clients feel amazing using their supplements.
22. The host tells a story from Wednesday night about a client who said he was peeing less, absorbing the water and felt fuller with more energy, proof a brand cannot write for itself.
It's hysterical. Like, Wednesday night we had a client here, same thing. It's the same story over and over. He's like, oh, I'm peeing way less, I'm absorbing the water, I feel fuller, I've got more energy.
How to handle comments on whitelisted ads Meta will not let you moderate
Source: AI & the Future of CX: Lean Teams, Better Workflows & New Revenue Levers - with Richpanel’s Amit RG · Marketing Operators · Amit RG · 11 Nov 2025
Read it for the two creator points, which are unusual: Meta's API stops brands moderating comments on whitelisted partnership ads at exactly the moment those ads are reaching new audiences, and Ridge is testing replies from the founder's own page. Otherwise it is the best account here of turning support headcount into a revenue line and of why attributed support revenue is not to be trusted.
Paid amplification
23. Hexclad cannot moderate comments on partnership ads the way it can on ads from its own brand page. 58:38
The software we use, you can't comment on partnership ads the same way that you can comment on an ad from the Hexclad branded page.
24. Amit says the limitation is Meta's, because whitelisted ads do not expose comment inputs through the API. 59:32
That's a limitation by Meta where the API limits you. If you do whitelisted ads, you don't get API inputs. That's why your software >> is not able to do it.
Who runs it
25. Their workaround is a manual workflow linking out to every partnership ad, running in parallel to the brand ads that pull straight into Amplify. 58:46
So, we're trying to figure out more of a manual workflow where we're linking out to every single partnership ad that we make, and that's in parallel to just the from brand stuff that pulls right into Amplify.
How to make a host read land as personal use, not an ad
Source: Peter Gillooly: TWC Invents The First Ever Cancer Prevention Supplement to Boost Immune System · John Fredericks Media · Peter Gillooly · 16 Feb 2026
Short and heavily promotional, so read it as a worked example rather than as advice: it is a complete host-read endorsement with the vanity URL, promo code, discount, on-air price maths and a live conversion, plus a CEO answering a direct evidence question with no study on the product he is selling.
Codes and affiliates
26. The host does the price maths on air: $69, 10% off with Godzilla brings it to about $60, a month supply, so about $2 a day.
And it's affordable. It's like $69. 10% off with Godzilla. It's like 60 bucks. Lasts you for a month. So it's like $2 a day or something like that.
What the ads may claim
27. The host takes two tablets a day and says it took six to eight weeks to feel it, a harder sell than a claim and probably more persuasive.
These are my testosterone tablets. I take two a day with a full glass of water when I get up. And energy is back. Takes about six, seven weeks. This is not like one day, right? Takes about six, seven, eight weeks, but I'm feeling better.
Podcast reads
28. This is a host-read endorsement running on a personalised vanity URL and a named promo code, which is the whole media model on display.
And then you don't have it. And then you say, "Well, I need it, but it's too late." No. Get it now. Just go to twwc.health/godzilla promo code Godzilla. You're going to get 10% off and you're good to go. Joining me now, CEO of the wellness company, Peter Galuli.
29. The host is a Mars subscriber on auto-refill and shows two jars on camera during the read, which makes it land as personal use rather than an ad.
In fact, I just got today in the mail my two jars of Mars right here, baby. Right. I got them right here. I was running out, but no, I get an automatic refill.
30. A second product is sold through a bus tour story: he popped it out and got Zpac and antibiotics, so the read carries a use case rather than a claim.
Medical emergency wellness kit. Had it on the bus. Popped it out. Got Zpac, ivermectin, hydroxychloricquin, antibiotics. Everything is here. There's a guide book. This is like the greatest invention ever made. Every single family should have one.
31. The host converts live on air, which is the strongest form of the endorsement and is explicitly staged as a decision made during the interview.
Well, I'm going to start taking it. I'm going to order it today when I get off the air because I need to have it. I want to get for an as well. So you kind of sold me on it here because
How to recruit affiliates at scale, 100 new creators a week
Source: We get 34.2M Views a Month. Here's how (just copy me) · Alex Hormozi · 10 Sep 2025
Who they pick
32. With a $150,000 monthly marketing budget, a director wants 100 new creators a week. 158:36
Micah, I have $150,000 marketing budget a month. Okay. 30% budget is what works. 20% iteration. Cool. Love that. Okay. My director said 100 new creators a week. Love it.
33. For a new beauty brand in North America, it is suggested to focus on B2C through micro sellers and affiliates. 167:25
Starting a beauty brand. I someone in North America, do you suggest I focus on BOC through micro sellers and affiliates or focus on B2B?
Codes and affiliates
34. The speaker suggests paying aggressive affiliate commissions to TikTokers for jewelry, as jewelry likely has good margins. 61:38
Number two, I'll bet you with jewelry probably have very good margins with it. Um, and you could probably pay really aggressive uh, affiliate commissions to any other Tik Tockers who will repost your stuff.
35. An affiliate partner might be willing to put money behind an influencer's ads if the influencer consistently generates significant sales, such as $50,000 a month. 82:27
They don't have to do it for everybody. They can say that it's something that they unlock after you do. Hey, if you make us $50,000 a month and you have a larger gaining following, we'll put money behind ads.
How they measure it
36. The speaker advises an influencer to ask their affiliate partners if they will install the influencer's pixel on their page to improve ad attribution. 80:30
I would just ask. I'd be like, "Hey, I want to spend money to advertise your product. Can you install my pixel on your page?"
37. An influencer can suggest that their affiliate partner clone the product page and install only the influencer's pixel on that cloned page to avoid data sharing concerns. 80:50
You can have them clone the page, right? So that's not like you're not getting their data or anything like that. So just clone the page and make it Karen's page, right? So GLP1/carin or whatever. And that page is only for you. And then you install only your pixel on that page. That way it's not like you're using their data or anything like that. So they'll probably be far more likely to do that with you.
How to plan creator partnerships into a product launch
Source: E060: Go-To-Market Strategy: How 9-Figure Brands Plan, Execute, and Post-Mortem Product Launches · Marketing Operators · 28 May 2025
Anyone selling a service into a nine figure DTC brand should read this for the calendar, it names how many weeks before launch a brief lands, who owns it, and exactly where influencer, affiliate and partnership ad reads sit inside a tier one campaign.
Who they pick
38. Ridge timed two creator partnerships, Steven Shapiro and MKBHD, to the launch date of the power bank, and the partnership strategy is its own section on the board. 51:35
We have videos linked in here. So we'll watch some of those. We had a partnership strategy. So that's linked here. Steven Shapiro, MKBHD were timed with the launch of the product. And then paid search, just talking through the strategy. And we're going through this on a call, channel by channel, saying whether there's an opportunity to launch this in search, shopping, display, YouTube campaigns, things like that.
Paid amplification
39. Ridge does partnership ad reads for tier one launches and there is a standing partner ad read doc for it. 22:36
If we're partnering with everyday.com, we're typically doing partnership ad reads for tier one. So we get the partner ad read dock.
The brief and the content
40. Jones Road tiers a launch separately per channel, so the same product can be an A for paid social and a B for influencer. 57:28
So we even have a slide where we tier it by channel, because for some launches maybe it's an A for paid social, but for influencer it's a B.
How they measure it
41. The Hexclad marketing summary gives affiliates and influencer their own rows alongside email, SMS and paid social, and the head of growth comments on every row. 32:34
It's like email SMS is its own row, paid socials its own row, affiliates its own row, influencer. So I'm basically making comments across every single channel.
42. Hexclad's planned funnel board puts influencer posts and affiliate content at the top of the funnel alongside ads and publisher articles. 65:40
So, visually speaking at the top, you have your ads, you have your influencer post, you have your affiliate content, publisher articles that a little bit lower, you have your emails
How to buy ad reads at scale, 4,000 creators since 2020
Source: Sean Frank, CEO of Ridge: From One Wallet to a Product Empire · LegendsNLeaders · Shawn · 04 Apr 2026
Who they pick
43. The company has sponsored 4,000 individual creators since 2020. 16:13
So, we actually invested heavier in Meta throughout 2020, throughout 2021, 2022, 2023. But now we're back to just diversification. So we're trying to spend money on every single ad platform. We have a big influencer marketing budget, we have a partnership with and we know all since 2020 we've sponsored 4,000 individual creators. So,
How they measure it
44. Successful ad reads typically achieve 5 seconds of watch time, while most ads are skipped within 3 seconds. 19:31
We spend millions of dollars to get our message and a successful ad read is when people watch 5 seconds of it. That'd be good. Most people do not watch 5 seconds of an ad, right? They're 3 seconds, maybe a thumb stop, and they skip right over it.
Celebrities and athletes
45. The partnership with Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) was initiated by a tweet and aims to learn how to create more compelling content. 18:48
Yeah, I tweeted at him is how it got done. The power of the internet, man. Look, creator economy is such a buzzword from last year or two years ago. But this ties into the whole creating content piece. ... So we did that to learn how to make creative and make content better that people actually want to enjoy.
That skip point after three seconds is why we watch the opening of a creator's read before it goes live rather than after the spend already told us it failed, because a script that loses people that fast needs a rewrite, not a debrief.
How to set targets and reporting for the influencer channel
Source: E052: How We Set KPIs, Structure Reporting and Run Meetings to Drive Results · Marketing Operators · Conor McDonald · 25 Mar 2025
Anyone selling a channel into a DTC brand should read this to learn how a channel lead's number is actually set, what gets reported weekly, and why an affiliate or influencer lead is graded on comps rather than a dollar target.
Who runs it
46. A UGC style ad takes the same time to make whichever category it is for, so a small category eats creative capacity that a big one would put ten times the spend behind. 44:41
And a user generated content style ad for an apron is probably going to take just as much time to make as the same style of ad for cookware, but we might put 10x the spend behind it.
47. Influencer is named as a channel that does not need a daily pacing target, unlike total revenue, and can just be split evenly across the period. 73:28
Like for influencer, you don't need to do that. So it depends how you want to go to have pacing. You could just split it in four.
48. HexClad's affiliate lead currently never hears the paid media or retention reporting, and closing that gap is the big change he says they need to make. 77:46
But I don't think we're doing a good enough job of bringing all the marketing channel leads together and having that happen with the affiliate hearing the paid media leading the retention. That's the big pivot I think we need to make is because I think it's really important for everyone to know that.
How to grow an athlete ambassador into his own product
Source: #22 A Splash of Genius: Retail-Expansion Masterclass with Waterdrop's Kevin Breese (Global Retail... · Retail Reality Show · 13 Mar 2025
Useful for anyone pitching a European beverage or wellness brand: it lays out their channel order, why stores exist, how the community is used to pick products, and exactly what they got from a Djokovic ambassador deal.
Celebrities and athletes
49. Novak Djokovic became a brand ambassador just over a year before this recording, brought in on a shared anti-plastic mission in tennis rather than as a pure endorsement. 16:15
Very big community. Quite interestingly, a lot of people love our brand, and actually no more so than Novak doovic, who we brought on board just over a year ago now. Tennis, as we've all seen, is incredibly driven by plastic bottles across many of the tournaments. And Novak, as an incredibly important sportsman in all of our worlds
50. The ambassador roster is athletes rather than social creators, and includes an international ski champion alongside Djokovic. 16:50
He became our ambassador, together with another number of sporting people, including Pusher, the international ski champion.
51. The flagship ambassador activation was a physical stunt: they built a tennis court in Times Square and had Djokovic play children on it, and Kevin says people still talk to them because of it. 17:44
Coming to see norvak, something like when you just have a bit of a head wobble. We built a tennis court in Time Square, one of the busiest places in the world, and so we've done it. Wow, great marketing St. Yeah, and it's been, and lots of people talk to us because of it, and we love what we do, we would love working with our
52. The Djokovic relationship went past ambassadorship into a co-created product, an electrolyte performance drop under his own name, sold on pre-order ahead of launch. 18:54
CA by no jovic is in product that Noak has introduced, which we have worked with him on to bring out his own micrite performance drop.
How to use creators and a celebrity to power a giveaway
Source: E017: The Sweepstakes Tactics To Create Tentpole Moments · Marketing Operators · 23 Jul 2024
The only detailed account anywhere of how a nine figure DTC brand runs a giveaway as a real revenue period: the entry mechanics, the site modules, the lead quality trade, the legal administration and what four years of winners actually did.
Who they pick
53. HexClad plans to use the restaurants owned by the influencers it works with as the prize itself. 14:29
We have a bunch of influencers that we work with that have restaurants out there, so we're going to take them to all these dinners at these wonderful restaurants.
How they measure it
54. Influencer giveaway email and SMS captures get piped into their CDP so a revenue number can be attached to them. 34:55
Sometimes we're doing more influencer giveaways and email captures, event email and SMS capture. We'll pump that into Daasity so we can actually assign a revenue number.
Celebrities and athletes
55. A Gordon Ramsay hero video explaining the mechanics is the planned centrepiece of the whole landing page. 42:13
We're going to try to shoot this awesome hero video of Gordon explaining it. We'll see if we can make that happen.
56. Star power like Gordon Ramsay is the substitute for social proof when a brand has no previous winners to show. 58:42
If it's high production, if the experience is good, if it's been thoughtful, that's where, if you throw Gordon in it, I think that's all you need. Nobody will ever need to have won before.
57. Ridge merchandises bonus entries against its Marques Brownlee co-branded products. 24:58
we'll also have additional entries available on our our Marquez brownley products so all of a sudden we can like offer these exclusive limited edition products where you're earning bonus entries
An association nobody bought
58. The gold plated Cybertruck prize came from YouTuber Jerry Rig Everything publicly asking on Twitter if anyone in Salt Lake City had one, not from an outbound partnership pitch. 12:11
A very popular YouTuber named Jerry Rig Everything tweeted, and he said, hey, does anybody in Salt Lake City have a cyber truck that I could do a project with?
How to get people talking before launch with heavy gifting
Source: E031: One month countdown to BFCM: What We're Working On Right Now To Maximise Success · Marketing Operators · 29 Oct 2024
It is a three host e-commerce roundtable on Black Friday planning, not a founder interview, and it touches creators only in passing, so it is worth skimming only for the Q4 offer and inventory playbook.
Who they pick
59. Their advice to a service business is to hire a college creator to be the face of the brand's Instagram. 68:39
Yeah, go hire a college Creator to kind of be the face of your Instagram page or something like that. Yeah, could be cool.
Seeding and gifting
60. They credit David protein's launch to heavy gifting and seeding, which put a lot of people talking about it before it shipped. 10:44
They gifted to a lot of people, so a lot of seeding, a lot of people talking about it on the timeline. And then I'm even seeing them all over TikTok Shop already, so they hit it pretty hard at the gate, it seems like. I think it was a really good launch.
Celebrities and athletes
61. Erewhon is described as running a lot of influencer collaborations, with named collab smoothies including a Hailey Bieber one and a Vacation one. 6:08
So yeah, they're known for these collab smoothies, which are awesome. Wait, like vacation, the sun brand? Yeah, they do a lot of collabs, a lot of influencer collabs.
How to get value from a celebrity investor who never posts
Source: Building a Beverage Brand with Yanni Hufnagel, Founder of Lemon Perfect · Strong New York · 25 Jun 2025
Useful for anyone pitching a beverage founder: it is a rare blow by blow of a real product recall and packaging pivot, plus a candid account of how a celebrity investment from Beyonce actually played out versus how it looked from outside.
Celebrities and athletes
62. Yanni Hufnagel said Beyonce first showed up connected to Lemon Perfect when a bottle appeared behind her in an Instagram carousel from her limo at a pre-Oscars party, without her holding it up herself. 40:51
Beyonce invested in Lemon Perfect, and that was an incredible moment for us... There was an Instagram carousel where there was a bottle of Lemon Perfect in her limo behind her. It wasn't like she held up the bottle, but there was a dragon fruit mango Lemon Perfect in the cup holder of the limousine that she was getting out of.
63. Yanni Hufnagel said the Beyonce investment deal had no requirement for her to post about it on her own channels, since the announcement came from Lemon Perfect itself, which limited the reach of the news. 43:30
Part of it was the way that the deal was structured. There was no requirement for her to post on her own channels, right? It was our announcement. So the reach of that was somewhat limited.
64. Yanni Hufnagel said that today the first thing that comes up when you Google Lemon Perfect is that Beyonce is an investor, which he said adds credibility to the brand's story. 44:06
You Google Lemon Perfect today and the first thing that comes up is that Beyonce's an investor. So it just adds credibility to the story. She's a friend of Lemon Perfect and we're thrilled that she's a part of it.
65. Yanni Hufnagel pointed to the protein brand Slate, whose founder Manny credits Dana White as one of its biggest strategic partners and investors, as an example of a strategic partner doing wonders for a brand. 42:33
We had the guys from Slate on. Yeah, I think they're good... Manny's an incredible guy. And I think he always says, I think one of the biggest strategic partners and investors they've had has been Dana White. Yeah. He's done wonders for that brand.
66. Yanni Hufnagel cited a friend's Philadelphia based t-shirt lifestyle brand that fitness influencer and health coach Bedros Keuilian helped move the needle for, as another example of a strategic influencer partner. 43:01
A friend of mine's got an incredible brand in um Philly. It's more of a t-shirt kind of lifestyle brand, but Bedros Koulian, you know him? Yeah. So, he's a big uh um kind of influencer uh health coach type guy... he's he's helped them really move the needle as well with like their brand.
How to launch through creator friends, with no posting rules
Source: I Asked GHOST's Co-Founder How He Built A Billion Dollar Brand In Secret For 8 Years | Ryan Hughes · Josiah Novak · 05 Mar 2026
The best single account here of a supplement brand's influencer programme said out loud by the person who ran it: who they launched with, that they underpaid them, that contracts today carry no posting requirement, and why he thinks the code and the timed post stopped working.
Who they pick
67. Ghost's launch was an influencer launch, five or six of them, and every one was already a friend from the founders' previous careers. 5:29
But when we started, I mean, the five or six influencers that we launched kind of the brand with were friends, right?
What they pay and the terms
68. Ghost paid below both market rate and competitor rates at launch and the creators took the deal anyway, on belief rather than money. 6:10
They jumped in for a lot less cash and with a lot less certainty on what tomorrow looks like, and they believed in the vision.
69. Their current contracts have no posting requirements written into them at all, which is unusual for a brand this size. 7:21
And for us, in a lot of our influencer agreement contracts and stuff, we don't even have posting commitments and [ __ ] like that.
Seeding and gifting
70. Ghost seeded a podcaster's live events with shakers and samples for years with no measurable return, on the basis that upside cannot be predicted. 1:08
I mean, upside's an interesting thing. There's never upside till there's upside. So, for us it's been less about the upside and more about, you know, great dude. Always enjoy talking.
Codes and affiliates
71. He calls out the timed post with a code as the format people no longer want, and says it worked for a long time and does not any more. 7:47
They don't want to be told, hey, you got to have this product at this time. Use my code. [laughter] I mean, that existed for a long time, right?
The brief and the content
72. The brief to a creator is to take the product and share it however it fits their own community, and Ghost accepts whatever that turns out to be. 7:25
It's always been, if you love the brand, if you take the product, just share it in any way that makes sense for you that's digestible to your community. And we're good with that.
How to build an ambassador program from micro creators and codes
Source: Bucked Up Founder Reveals $300M/yr Secret · Finally Ready To Grow · 29 Jul 2025
Read this for the ambassador model: ninety thousand ambassadors built out of an affiliate network, deliberately starting with micro creators and small athletes rather than one big name, paid on coupon codes. His line that heavy influencer spend belonged to the top line era and that buyers now price on EBITDA is the single most useful sentence for anyone selling creator programmes to a supplement brand today.
Who they pick
73. They now gate the programme on follower count and a posting commitment, which they did not do at the start. 18:07
Now, we do have requirements where they have to have a certain amount of followers. They're willing to post a certain amount of times, things like that.
74. They started with micro influencers and small athletes, and only moved up to names like Bryce Hall, Alex Eubank, Conor McGregor and Bryson Dambo once the business was large. 18:52
We decided not to do it that way. We decided, hey, let's start out with the micro influencers, the small athletes, and then evolve to this point. Now, we're going out and getting to people like Bryce Hall and Alex Eubanks and Conor McGregor and Bryson Dambo. We're doing bigger bigger things now.
75. He thinks a creator brand in energy drinks needs Logan Paul scale reach to start there at all. 21:32
So, you with Logan Paul and Prime, right? You think you have to be like that level to launch a brand that has an energy drink before you could be successful? Well, if you're just going to start off with launching an energy drink, I think so.
76. He names Alex Eubank and Bryce Hall as the kind of promoter the brand uses now, in the host's framing of the strategy. 18:35
and they don't grow as fast, whereas you decide, I'm going to have Alex Eubank and have Bryce Hall promote our product on our behalf, and we're just going to focus on
Codes and affiliates
77. The ambassador programme was built directly out of their affiliate network experience, and it now has over ninety thousand people in it. 17:47
Well, okay. So, I mean, we used the experience that we had with our affiliate network and we applied that to ambassadors that we have today. We have over 90,000 ambassadors today. At the very first we let anybody become an ambassador.
78. They built the ambassador programme without knowing anyone else ran one, and the mechanic was simply coupon codes. 19:31
No, we just developed our own and we didn't even know that there were other people who had one. We just said, "Hey, let's start an ambassador program. Let's get people who have some influence and start utilizing them by giving them coupon codes and things like that to make it work."
How to hire for creators and affiliates first when you sell in stores
Source: 3-Part Offer Framework Every DTC Brand Should Know With Andrew Faris · Marketing Operators · Andrew Faris · 07 May 2026
Read it for the offer framework, the subscription CAC trap, and the two clearest creator points: that a retail-heavy brand's first growth hire should be an affiliate and creator activator working for retail halo, and that Jones Road put a million dollars a year into physical sampling against its own measurement instinct.
Seeding and gifting
79. Cody committed roughly a million dollars a year to physical sampling as a seeding play, against his own instinct to measure everything. 49:28
We should spend a million this year on samples and getting samples in people's hands. And don't even, obviously we'll try to measure it, but I'm like, the opportunity of what we're missing out on is so big. But that wasn't my instinct. I'm normally like, hey, every dollar, I need to know where it's going.
Codes and affiliates
80. Connor's instinct was somebody who can build a system activating a thousand affiliates at scale. 27:25
Then the last one is content development, which is where my mind initially went, where it's like, "If I need to hire my first person, I'm going to figure out who can build a system where I'm activating a thousand affiliates at scale or whatever."
What the ads may claim
81. The GLP-1 company is reportedly spinning up 80 whitelisted doctor pages, some with no real doctor, an FTC violation waiting to happen. 6:15
But they're spinning up like 80 different white-listed pages of doctors and running out some of them and from not no doctors. So it's an FTC violation waiting to happen.
Who runs it
82. Faris agrees that for a brand selling mostly through convenience stores the right hire is a creator, influencer or affiliate activator. 28:23
maybe it's something like a bunch of, yeah, it's like creator influencer activator type, like you said, affiliate type or whatever. However you structure that, there's a few ways you could do that.
How to pay influencers a fee plus affiliate, then whitelist them
Source: From Frustration to a PR Empire: Lauren Kleinman, Founder of Dreamday · Behind Her Empire with Yasmin Nouri · Lauren Kleinman · 31 Aug 2026
Codes and affiliates
83. Working with influencers in an affiliate capacity or a blended upfront fee plus affiliate capacity is common.
This also happens on platforms like ShopMy or like to know it, or when you're working with influencers in an affiliate capacity, or even a blended upfront fee plus affiliate capacity.
Paid amplification
84. The founder did a lot of whitelisting with BuzzFeed and other top-tier publishers.
commerce and affiliate revenue. And so that led to coining performance PR in 2019 with Dream Day. The other kind of aha moment and insight was we did a lot of whitelisting with BuzzFeed and other top tier publishers.
85. Whitelisting is when a brand uses its media spend behind a third-party handle, such as a creator or influencer.
So, it's when a brand is using their media spend, meaning their advertising dollars that they're putting on Meta or Tik Tok behind a third party handle, whether that's a creator or an influencer or a publication.
How to give each creator a message for their own audience
Source: Creative Strategy and How AI Is Changing the Game for Growth Teams - with Reza Khadjavi, Motion CEO · Marketing Operators · Reza Khadjavi · 21 Oct 2025
Worth reading for the eight category creative taxonomy, the specific finding that brands under-index on messaging angle while over-rotating on visual format, and the worked examples of building a different message per creator's own audience rather than repeating the brand story.
Who they pick
86. An ad with an old influencer of theirs, Marcella, whose last name he fumbles as Vala or Valad, was built on the parent angle because she is a mother. 62:58
So we did this, we did an ad with this woman named Marcella. She's an old influencer of ours, but Marcella, I'm going to butcher her last name, like Vala Valad or something like that. And she's a mom, and we think that our products, like the parent angle, it can work for us really well.
The brief and the content
87. Hexclad's head of content is personally refining partnership concepts before pitching a partner, rather than handing it to a creative partner. 41:22
We're working with a partner, but he's spending a lot of time with this guy refining the concepts before going and pitching it to this partner.
88. Hexclad now begins creative planning by asking what comes from the brand versus from a creator or influencer. 54:22
What are the from the brand stuff versus from the creator, from an influencer or a creator that's not from the brand? We're starting there versus starting with this number, this arbitrary number we're trying to hit.
89. Hexclad respins its core message per creator and per persona rather than using one narrative. 62:48
But we're starting to, as we dig into different personas and different creators, we'll basically respin that, right?
90. Another creator led with non-stick because omelettes are what her audience already watches her make. 63:40
Same thing with some of the other creators we're working with. She cooked an omelette and that's what her audience sees a lot. So she led with nonstick and, wow, look at the, look how good that omelette looks, and look how easily it slid right off the pan.
91. Hexclad has got much better at positioning value props to a creator's own audience rather than telling the general brand story. 64:41
We've gotten a lot better in the last couple years of getting away from that general hybrid story, which we still lean on a lot, and just creating more persona, like positioning our value props to speak to a certain persona or a certain creator's audience.
How to reuse creator content for holiday pages and hooks
Source: E022: Q4 Planning - How we're strategizing for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the Holidays · Marketing Operators · Cody · 27 Aug 2024
Read it if you are pitching a brand anywhere near their holiday planning: it gives you the exact calendar, when the inventory buy is locked, when the offer is locked, and when the marketing lead stops thinking about anything else. The creator material is small but specific, an influencer dinner turned into a landing page, an ambassador recommendation page, and celebrity intro hooks reused rather than reshot.
The brief and the content
92. HexClad held an influencer holiday dinner and turned it into a recipe led landing page. 28:54
So we had one Lander. We held this influencer holiday dinner, and that Lander was just very aesthetically driven. It had recipes on it. It was just kind of like a fun, engaging page.
93. A second holiday landing page was built entirely on what their brand ambassadors recommend, with a photo and a line of copy each. 29:08
We had a second Lander that was through the angle of here's what our brand ambassadors recommend. So we basically had an image and a line of copy. It's like, so and so likes to do this, this and that, and these are the products they do for it.
94. For holiday creative they cut new intro hooks with their celebrity partner and other influencers rather than shooting whole new ads. 44:24
Last year we did some new intro hooks with Gordon and some other influencers, so it's certainly a combination of things.
How to grow on gifting alone for the first three years
Source: #1 Baby Skincare Brand on Amazon: Andrea Faulkner Williams, Co-Founder of Tubby Todd · Behind Her Empire with Yasmin Nouri · Andrea · 19 Jan 2026
Seeding and gifting
95. They purchased 750 bottles of product and shipped it to their garage, then sent it to bloggers (referred to as 'mommy bloggers' at the time) who had started Instagram accounts, asking them to try the product. 17:05
So we purchased 750 bottles of product, shipped it out to our garage, and like I said, I had worked in social media, so I knew a lot of bloggers. They weren't really called influencers at the time. They were more like mommy bloggers is what you had called them, who had just started an Instagram account. And we shipped product to anyone we knew who had any sort of influence online and asked them to try the product.
96. They sent 700 bottles from their garage to mommy bloggers, now called influencers, to generate word-of-mouth organic growth. 28:33
Starting out, you guys bought like 700 bottles from your garage. You're sending them to mommy bloggers, now called influencers. It's getting word of mouth organic growth.
97. The brand invested all of its marketing budget in influencer gifting for the first three years. 35:14
We didn't run a paid ad for like three plus years. So any paid ads, and then for years, three more years, I would say our ad budget was tight just because we invested all of our marketing in influencer gifting. A lot of that had to do with the fact that I don't like sitting in the ad dashboard.
98. The brand's marketing strategy for the first three years was influencer gifting. 35:05
We didn't run a paid ad for like three plus years. So any paid ads, and then for years, three more years, I would say our ad budget was tight just because we invested all of our marketing in influencer gifting.
Paid amplification
99. The brand's hero product, Allover Ointment, was boosted by TikTokers and reviews. 34:47
So it has been a gift to us in so many um and the verality of it really was a turning point. I think it would be naive to say it wasn't for our brand because it really um made us what we call ourselves the internet's favorite skin care. So um you know like the Tik Tockers and the you know the um the reviews just really took it to the next level. So
Community and advocates
100. Nearly 100% of the people they sent product to loved the experience and wanted to talk about it, which built their marketing agenda, strategy, and the Tubby Todd Mama community. 17:27
We knew we couldn't pay them, so we weren't sure if they would talk about it. But what we found was that almost 100% of the people we shipped it to loved the experience of using it so much that they wanted to talk about it on their blog or in a social post. And that really built our entire marketing agenda and also our strategy and the Tubby Todd Mama community.
How to staff influencer and partnerships inside your team
Source: E044: Hiring: How To Build and Structure Your Team For Success · Marketing Operators · 28 Jan 2025
The most concrete public account of how nine figure DTC marketing teams are actually staffed: real headcounts by function, where influencer and partnerships sit, when a function gets a person versus a dashboard, and how they screen for candidates who care.
How they measure it
101. Their attribution tool measures YouTube partnership clicks the same way it measures Meta, Snap and TikTok. 12:52
That user is measured in the exact same way between Meta and Snap and TikTok and YouTube Partnerships, if we're clicking through from there.
Who runs it
102. HexClad's growth team owns influencer and affiliate alongside paid, retention, CRO, SEO and community. 14:10
At like 15, we're in between 15 and 18 right now on the growth team, and that's across paid, retention, CRO, influencer, affiliate, SEO, community. I think that's everything on growth teams. Yeah, so we're about 15 to 18, which is up from zero starting at the last day of 2022. What are your guys' headcounts right now?
103. At Jones Road influencer sits under brand rather than growth, with social, copy and project management. 17:23
Kind of all stacked laterally, so we have brand and growth. So technically our brand is like influencer, social, copy, project manag, that's all under one person who's Brand. And so all the brand rolls up into them, all the growth rolls up and reports to me. So that's growth, creative strategy, e-com and retention, all report to
104. Ridge has dedicated partnership managers as a named function in the marketing directors layer. 18:07
We have partnership managers currently, and then we have our creative director who sits on top of designers, our photographer, copywriting, etc., etc.
105. Ridge restructured the partnership team last year and is holding it deliberately lean until the VP arrives. 47:50
this senior director underneath me like yeah I need I need managers um so like right now we had to restructure our partnership team last year and right now it just lean as it's ever been and I'm very deliberately want to bring in the VP of marketing before making other Personnel decisions on the partnership team trying to avoid that exact
How to let athletes come to you with a VIP program
Source: From 0 to $1B in Revenue | Aly Orady, Founder of Tonal · Omar Waseem · 19 Aug 2026
Celebrities and athletes
106. Tonal was contacted by athletes or their managers and agents requesting to be moved to the front of the line for product delivery. 5:41
We were suddenly being flooded by calls by athletes or their managers or their agents saying, "Hey, can you cut us to the front of the line?"
107. Tonal established a VIP program for athletes. 5:50
And at the same time that consumers were flooding us, and delivery times were like 14 16 18 weeks to get a Tonal delivered to someone's home, we were suddenly being flooded by calls by athletes or their managers or their agents saying, "Hey, can you cut us to the front of the line?" And we actually had to set up a VIP program just for athletes
An association nobody bought
108. The relationship with LeBron James progressed organically, starting with his trainer, then Maverick Carter, and eventually leading to an investment. 8:09
The product was in the hands of his trainer, right? And then that turned into a relationship with his trainer, and then with Maverick Carter, and then that turned into an investment. And so it wasn't this thing that it was like, where it was like one day we called them up or called up an agent and said, hey can we, it was a buildup towards it
How to seed creators on a tiny budget, where ugly content wins
Source: 5 Emerging Brands, 1 Playbook: Inside Grüns’ Marketing Pod System · Marketing Operators · 11 Aug 2026
Read it if you sell to supplement and wellness brands: it is the clearest account anywhere of how a nine-figure gummy brand structures a five-brand portfolio, and it says plainly that influencer sits shared across brands on tiny budgets, that seeded creator content that looks awful outperforms in the ad account, that the seeding trick has stopped working for the flagship, and that the new pre-workout brand is expected to be the influencer-led one.
What they pay and the terms
109. Influencer budgets on the emerging brands are deliberately tiny: they are not trying to get into CTV, and what little budget exists goes to core seeding rather than paid partnerships. 61:53
We're not trying to get into CTV. Influencer, we have super small budgets and we're not really prioritizing those as much as we are just core influencer seeding and creative.
Seeding and gifting
110. The influencer seeding machine at Gruns was built by her as Chief of Staff out of Zapier and a stack of duct-taped tools, and it is still running. 30:25
I put that as one of the funny, a thing that I owned in the chief of staff days that I still get pinged about today, because every once in a while the Zap will fail, or something will. I don't even want to know how many Zaps we have running in the background right now.
111. That ugly-seeded-content effect has stopped working for the main Gruns brand but they deliberately keep the process alive for the early stage brands. 60:48
So it's just like that but that type of stuff like generally isn't working anymore for Groom's but we need to you know keep that process alive for these early stage brands.
Paid amplification
112. The seeded creator content that looked worst to the internal team was the top performer once it went into the ad account. 60:40
Like we learned that early on with Groom's like we had some of the seeding content that would come through that like we'd look at and we're like this is the worst content we've ever seen. We put it in the ad account it's the top performer.
How they measure it
113. Tracking the influencer program better was a concrete example of a data request, and the fix she reached for first was a post-purchase survey. 12:50
So one day it might be like, we really want to be able to track our influencer program better. And so how do we actually, what data points do we need? Do we need a integrate it, actually build out a post-purchase survey.
How to buy a whole podcast episode and track it by landing page
Source: Fixing America’s Health Crisis with Dr. Chad Walding of NativePath · P.A.S. Report | American Politics · Dr. Chad Walding · 15 Oct 2025
Read it as a worked example of a supplement brand buying a whole podcast episode rather than a spot: the founder answers health questions for thirty minutes and never pitches, while two scripted host reads carry the offer. Also a clean set of objection handling lines on collagen type, sourcing and third party testing.
How they measure it
114. The offer is a show specific landing page rather than a discount code, repeated twice per break, so attribution is by URL.
With over 4 million jars sold, 1 million happy customers, 8,000 five-star reviews, and a 365-day no-risk guarantee, NativePath is a brand you could trust. They offer an 800 number for any questions you may have, and then you'll speak to a real person who's there to help. Visit getnatath.com/pas and start your transformation today. That's getnatath.com/pas. Welcome back to the P.A.S. Report podcast.
Podcast reads
115. This whole interview is a sponsorship: the host introduces Dr Walding, co-founder of NativePath, declares it an advertiser, then frames the episode around fixing America's healthcare.
I have Dr. Chad Walding. He is the co-founder of NativePath. If you don't know, NativePath is an advertiser on the show. But more importantly, we have to figure out what is wrong with America's healthcare.
116. The format is the interview as the ad: two identical scripted ad breaks read by the host tout NativePath's type one and three collagen, 90% of the body's total.
Discover NativePath collagen, made with only type one and three collagen fibers. These are the two most important types that make up 90% of the collagen found in your cartilage, bone, skin, hair, nails, and gut.
117. NativePath's price positioning in the read is bundle deals at a fraction of the price of other brands, so the discount is built into the pack size rather than into a creator code.
It doesn't clump. It absorbs fast thanks to its peptide formula. And the best part, NativePath offers amazing bundle deals at a fraction of the price of other brands. With over 4 million jars sold, 1 million happy customers, 8,000 five-star reviews, and a 365-day no-risk guarantee, NativePath is a brand you could trust.
How to seed influencers with gear that makes their content better
Source: How Anastasia Soare Built a Beauty Empire (Founder of Anastasia Beverly Hills) · Nancy Twine · 12 Feb 2025
Seeding and gifting
118. The brand sent ring lights to influencers to help them create better content. 16:57
And later on you would send the ring lights to the influencers so they could create better content. Yes, because the light was very important.
119. The brand bought and sent Sony cameras with Wi-Fi to influencers to improve their content quality. 17:25
Then my daughter found Sony camera that had a Wi-Fi, so the quality of the picture was amazing and they could download on iPhone, so we used to buy them and send them the camera.
The founder was the creator
120. The brand started sending products to people who posted makeup content in their closets, marking the beginning of the influencer era. 16:24
We start sending them products. We used to kind of get those the beginning of the influencer era, and we used to send them products and never asked them to do anything. Whatever they could talk about, whatever they want, what they like
How to let creators opt in to the brands they carry
Source: BEAM's CEO and Co-founder answers to a series of insightful and probing questions · Blame John · Angelo · 15 Sep 2024
This is the wrong Beam. It is a gaming multistreaming platform, not the sleep supplement brand, so nothing here is about supplements or beverages. The one part a sponsorship seller could use is the opt-in sponsor model where Logitech and a beverage brand pay creators' subscriptions, and his account of how slow sponsor deals are to close.
Who they pick
121. He was unsure whether the beverage sponsor's product is even available in the market where his own streamers are, and refused to guess. 30:50
Well, they're global, okay, but yeah, they're global, but I don't know if they particularly have product available in Europe. I would have to ask them. I don't want to answer that without knowing.
122. The leaderboards exist to surface small streamers who put in the hours and are unknown elsewhere, split by category so gaming and lifestyle do not compete. 11:37
There are some sections that it's gaming lifestyle radio, so it's not the same for everybody. There are other hours for the streamers that are gaming, other hours for the live streamers, in real life streamers and others.
What they pay and the terms
123. Creators on Twitch keep about 30 percent at best and he has been told European streamers see far less. 35:19
If you're lucky, you'll get 30%. Yes, some people that are on Twitch have told me that Europeans get more in the neighborhood of 11%. MH, just so I could clarify that.
Codes and affiliates
124. Brands sponsor the platform by subsidising the streamer's 3.95 monthly fee, and he names a beverage brand and Logitech as the two doing it. 29:25
In the process, to make it easier, we partnered with companies like Locked In beverages or Logitech. In this case Logitech, and they are subsidizing the 395, so what really are you complaining about?
125. The sponsorship is opt-in from the creator's side, which he claims nobody else has done, so the streamer chooses the brand they carry. 32:22
And John is an opt-in. No one's ever done this before. You opt, you as a streamer, this is the brand I want to be associated with.
How to run a podcast placement where the host shows she takes it
Source: Supplements Demystified: What Works, What’s Hype, and More with Cymbiotika Founder, Chervin Jafarieh · Molly Sims · 06 May 2025
A clean worked example of a supplement founder doing a podcast placement: what the product story sounds like out loud, which competitor formats he attacks by name, and how the host builds the code read at the end.
Podcast reads
126. The episode itself is a paid style placement: the host closes with Symbiotica.com/lipstick, 20% off and free shipping. 41:56
I got your back. This is family. Okay, so here's what Sharine is doing for us. Cymbiotika.com/lipstick. You guys are getting 20% off your order plus free shipping. I'm going to say it again. C Y M B I O T I K A.com/lipstick. He's giving you 20% off your order.
127. The host also spells out his personal handle, CHERVIN333, so the founder's own account is part of the placement. 42:17
C Y N B I O T I K A. And make sure and follow you. You're amazing. Sherine. C H Share. C H E R V I N 333. C H E R V I N 333. You're a wealth of knowledge and information, and I just love that you haven't over complicated it, because sometimes it becomes overwhelming.
128. She names specific products she personally takes, which is the strongest part of the endorsement. 6:14
People are telling other people because what I love, and I want you to walk us through all the supplements. I love how easy it is. I love the vitamin C liposome. It's the only one I can swallow. Honestly, it's the only one. I do the vitamin C, it has a little bit of a vanilla, and I know that sounds weird.
129. She admits on air that she took a sachet that morning and another one just before recording, which is the demonstration. 6:28
Honestly, it's the only one. I do the vitamin C, it has a little bit of a vanilla, and I know that sounds weird. I'm not great with texture, but I love how the packets, which I already took one, so I can't take another one. I guess I could take another one.
130. She frames the discount as costly, from the position of someone who also owns a brand, which raises its perceived value. 45:04
Cymbiotika.com lipstick 20% off. You guys are going to get it. I'm so excited. Thank you for doing that. And our listeners, I really appreciate it. And owning a company ourselves and giving these big discounts. They're big
131. He uses the interview to break unreleased product news, which gives the host an exclusive and gives the launch a hook. 22:15
So, glycine is attached to glycine and glycine is an amino acid, and glycine is very sedative and very calming. It's part of our skin. It's part of certain tripeptides. I'll just leak it out here. We have a new magnesium coming. It's got three forms in it. Is that coming out?
How to whitelist creators, since a brand praising itself gets discounted
Source: E024: Resident's EVP Jared Brody on Attribution Tooling, Analytics Teams & Data-Driven Marketing · Marketing Operators · Jared Brody · 10 Sep 2024
The clearest statement in this library of a big brand treating influencer as unmeasurable-but-worth-doing, plus the mechanics: one person sourcing creators and writing briefs, whitelisting as standard, product sent to creators, and the argument that a brand praising itself is discounted.
Seeding and gifting
132. They send mattresses and bed frames to creators as part of that process. 65:04
So that's why there's also white-listing. It's part of the process as well, when we deliver mattresses, bed frames to creators.
Paid amplification
133. Whitelisting is a standing part of the process, running the ads through the creator's own handle. 64:50
You get white-listed with whoever that creator is, or whoever gave us the content itself, and everything has a mix.
134. His reason for whitelisting: an ad saying Nectar is the greatest mattress gets discounted, because of course Nectar would say that. 64:56
I don't want to show someone an ad that says Nectar is the greatest mattress. Yay. If it's from Nectar, everyone's going to say, "Of course Nectar's going to say that."
Who runs it
135. One person on his own team sources the creators, writes the briefs and produces the shot list. 64:37
We have someone who goes out and finds influencers themselves and writes their own briefs and gets the shot list, and then we get that creative in the house and turn it into what we want.
136. Their creative studio does not handle those revisions because it is loaded with packaging, website and retailer work. 69:27
And it's usually more efficient because our studio is tasked with doing a lot of stuff. It's not just ads. It shoots for the website. It's packaging.
How to build a sales moment around an influencer product drop
Source: How to Balance What Brands Want vs. What’s Likely · Common Thread Collective · 07 May 2025
Who they pick
137. A US fragrance brand partnered with an influencer named Daryl Anne for a specific influencer drop that created one of the largest moments in their brand's history. 12:29
Here's another influencer drop example, where this US fragrance brand partnered with an influencer named Daryl Anne. And this specific influencer drop created one of the largest moments for their brand's history.
Paid amplification
138. Key tactics for the athletic apparel brand's influencer activation included developing a new product aligned with consumers and using influencers in ad creative and website assets to create continuity between the ad and landing page experience. 10:07
What they did here as the key tactics was develop a new product that aligned to their consumer, and then also used influencers within that ad creative and also in website assets to create continuity between the ad and the landing page experience, which is something that you see a lot of people do.
The brief and the content
139. An influencer activation and product drop for a Pilates and wellness brand, promoting a signature product line aligned with consumer use cases, led to a 150% lift in day-over-day revenue and a 50% improvement in paid efficiency. 9:48
This example was for an athletic apparel brand. They did an influencer activation and product drop for a Pilates and wellness brand, and they used influencers to promote a signature product line that was created to align with consumer use cases. This led to a 150% lift in day-over-day revenue and 50% improvement in paid efficiency.
140. The product drops for the athletic apparel brand showcased against a clear use case that drove urgency, with influencers amplifying the core message. 10:28
And this also was on trend because the product drops showcased against a clear use case that drove urgency as the main driver for this moment, with influencers helping to amplify that core message.
How they measure it
141. The influencer drop outperformed the model by 39%. 13:11
So it's also highlighting a very important point here, that finding the correct influencer that has a big enough audience that also has a really engaged audience that trusts that influencer enough to make a buying decision based on their recommendation. That's the most important point when you're partnering with an influencer.
And they were able to outperform the model by 39% in this example, which was huge for them. All right.
Fits none of the categories
142. SAL is a tool for influencer marketing that handles discovery, automated outreach, relationship management, Shopify integration, performance tracking, and social listening. 5:41
“The best tool I found to do that is called SAL. SAL handles everything. Seriously, end to end. You can discover any creator you want, so they can help you to find the ideal partners. You can automate all of your outreach at scale. It's crazy. Every communication, every relationship, all visible in one spot. It integrates with Shopify, so you can ship the products really easily.
You can also track all of your performance with their built-in tools. And then you can monitor every mention on Instagram, Tik Tok, and YouTube through their social listening platform.”
How to pick affiliates who each stand for a different beauty ideal
Source: Breaking down Rihanna’s Company (Real Tactics You Can Use) · Alex Hormozi · 28 Jan 2025
Business owners should read this to learn five strategies Savage x Fenty uses that can be applied to any business, especially regarding partnerships and membership offers.
Who they pick
143. The brand was deliberate about who they chose as affiliates, selecting people like Gigi and Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski, Normani, Lizzo, Vanessa Hudgens, and Cindy Crawford, to represent different beauty ideals and attract a wider audience. 21:23
I think they were very deliberate about who they chose, so they have people like the Hadid sisters, Gigi and Bella Hadid. They had Emily Ratajkowski. I don't know how to say her name, but very pretty lady, but different look. They had Normani, right? Again, different look. Lizzo, different body type, right? Vanessa Hudgens, Cindy Crawford, Demi Moore. And so lots of different looking feels to attract a wider audience.
The brief and the content
144. The brand provided banners, links, and promotional materials to make it turnkey for affiliates to promote, ensuring promotions were on-brand. 23:21
So she sent them banners, links, promotional materials, so that it kind of made it turnkey for them, so they didn't have to take a lot of time to think about how they're going to promote it. And she could actually make sure that their promotions were still on brand.
Celebrities and athletes
145. Savage X Fenty has a fashion show that won an Emmy and was on Amazon Prime, and they invited mega influencers to join and represent the brand. 23:40
Savage X Fenty has a fashion show that actually won an Emmy that was on Amazon Prime, and she invited some of those mega influencers to come and join her to kind of rep it
A lot of this list comes down to knowing which creator actually moved the number, so if you want seeding and whitelisting run for your brand, with a report on what each creator brought back, that is the work we do.