Questions brands ask

That’s actually the only type of client we take. You need to have an influencer system in place.

We have the ABC system. Most agencies just do media buying, where you pay a creator for a post and move on. We focus on building communities and keeping the influencers who like your brand for the long run, so every round brings in more creators than the last.

Typically this is an investment, for when you’re ready to put a lot of dollars in, in a reliable and low-risk way, and get a lot of dollars out. The key is that you’re making more dollars out than you put in. The free audit shows what that looks like for your brand.

Any relationship with influencers takes months to build. That’s also what makes it hold up and keep scaling over time, which is why the whole system usually takes 6 to 18 months.

No. Say you only want the community, you can just have that. We’d still ask you to take the free audit first, because some products are really hard to build a community around without a celebrity endorsement behind them. If that’s you, we’ll tell you, and that should be your next move.

1. We learn your goal and your brand. Before any money is exchanged, we sit down with your creative team to learn your stories, values, goals, and actually understand your product in depth.
2. We audit your program. We map how far you already go on each of the four steps, find the gaps, and create a proposal for your team backed by the data and research we’ve pulled.
3. We test the strategy before making the big bet. If it’s a big play, we’ll use our consumer insights data provider, Sapiens, to run tests first and build a plan with the highest likelihood of success.
4. We install the relationships and systems. We’ll collaborate with your creative team to make sure the creative is on point while handling the logistics, fulfillment, negotiations, contracts, and management of the selected influencers and celebrities.
5. We hand it off to your team. We’ll train your team on every system and join your quarterly meetings to report on how the program performed, which KPIs were met, and what we can change if they weren’t, until your team runs it without us.

You know your brand best, so we collaborate closely with your creative team from the start. Before anything else, we sit down with them to learn your stories, your values, your goals and your product in depth. Then we work with them to make sure the creative is on point. We handle the logistics, fulfillment, negotiations, contracts and the creators themselves.

We have Billy Anderson on our compliance team. He’s a lawyer, and he goes through everything.

We have a ton of other resources we go through to make sure everything is compliant, not just this year, but for all of the following years.

It actually depends on the goal you have, both in the short term and the long term. After the audit, we’ll be able to give you a better understanding of that.

That’s fine. Put in your email and you don’t have to take the free audit. You’ll just get our YouTube videos when they come out. You can also follow our thought leader Alice Ksendzova on LinkedIn.

Talent agencies represent the talent. Their responsibility is to secure the strongest possible terms for their client. We advise the brand, independently, across the full market.

Alongside them. We lead the search, risk assessment, talent negotiation and creative development. Your agency can then execute the campaign across media, production and distribution.

No. We represent one brand per subcategory.

Measure it in weeks, not days. Ridge gave its Tony Hawk content a full 6-week test to see if a celebrity lasts longer than normal media.

Ridge still gets sales from Theo Von episodes from 2017.

That is the best place to start. Tonal’s founder says a deal only works when the talent wants in so badly they cut their number almost all the way.

That possibility is addressed before launch. The agreement defines the brand’s rights, and the response plan is written before it is needed, not after the first headline appears.

You send a standout gift to the right creators, built around what each one cares about. There is no ask attached, and you follow up with the ones who post.

Creators notice you in a pile of boxes and post because they want to.

1. Write down the bar before you send, the way Jones Road sends only to level three creators and up.
2. Add the people others copy, like doctors and hairstylists.
3. Check your customer list. They may already buy from you.

1. Put in 3 things: the product, good packaging and a founders note.
2. Make the opening something they do on camera.
3. Watch one of their videos and name what you liked.
4. Scroll their feed for what they do off camera.

A box about them makes them feel heard.

Say it comes at no cost, and they don’t have to post about it. Tell a short story about your brand. Ask about their story, not for a post.

With no pressure, they weave it into posts they were making anyway.

Watch who posts about you every week, and put them on a PR list. Set a number and check it mid quarter.

Most gifted posts can’t run as ads. Ridge gets maybe 2 good ones from 100 wallets.

You invite the creators who already like you into a private group with a bar to get in, a deal they can read and perks money can’t buy.

Named staff run the room every week, so creators keep posting for months and hand you videos you can run as ads.

Opening a Discord is not a community. RYSE signed up 20,000 ambassadors, and about 10% buy in a month.

Running the room is a job. Most brands treat keeping creators as an afterthought.

1. Set a bar before anyone gets in, like $500 of sales in the last 30 days.
2. Pay an open rate, and more to your own creators.
3. Write down how many new videos they owe each month.

Money motivates creators only so far. A community compounds.

A creator who becomes a fan talks about you for years. That is worth more than one paid post.

Give access, like IM8’s quarterly Zoom classes with Dr Dom D’Agostino and Bobby Rich, David Beckham’s trainer.

Whitelisting puts your ad budget behind a creator’s own handle, so the ad shows their name, not yours. You test the content your creators already made, then scale the ads that work.

Usage rights mean you own the content to run from your own page. Whitelisting means the ad runs from the creator’s handle instead, which converts better because it feels native.

You typically want usage rights on everyone and whitelisting on your winners.

Ask for a permission, not a password.

1. On Meta, send the request through the Partnership Ads Hub.
2. On TikTok, the creator makes a code and sends it to you.
3. Make the paid relationship obvious in the post itself.

A hit post is not always a hit ad, so test before you scale.

One video in many ad sets wears out. Meta found 40% of Ridge’s spend on worn-out ads.

Yes, the paid label stays on, and it is required, especially in regulated categories. It barely dents results: a labeled creator ad still beats a brand ad. We pre-clear compliance and lock the script before filming.

Everything is locked in the contract before filming: the ownership window and a repost-if-removed clause, both sides sign. Regulated brands also get a repost-if-banned clause. Your spend is safe for the agreed window.

Yes. If you are a brand with strict rules, we will even help you write the content plan and make sure it follows every rule.

Yes, exclusivity can be written right into the agreement, so your creators are not promoting rivals. We set the category and the time window, so you will not see your creator with a competitor next week.

There is a real sourcing engine behind us: our own creator database plus active outreach, not a random search. We rank names on real audience data (location, genuine followers, and engagement), along with their past sponsorships and how well they fit your niche.

Every creator is vetted before they reach you, and for regions we do not already cover we tap our partner agencies around the world. You do not chase anyone. We handle the outreach, negotiation, contracts, and tracking.

Yes, we scan each creator’s past sponsorships before we propose them, so you can see who they have already worked with and flag any competitor. We have tooling that pulls a creator’s sponsorship history straight from their own videos, so this is not a guess.

You see all of it up front, before anyone signs.

Our main areas are North America, Europe, South Africa, Australia, and East Asia. Our teams have people in these places, so we know the Canadian, American, and EU rules well, and we understand the local cultures.

In Europe, we focus most on Germany, Spain, Italy, France, and the UK. We are also linked with partner agencies almost everywhere else.