- Business Insider is recognizing the leading agencies, platforms, and marketplaces in the influencer-marketing industry.
- In this power list, we are highlighting the companies that connect top brands with social-media creators across YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.
- These 15 companies, including Mediakix, BEN, and Viral Nation have helped both top influencers and leading brands in developing innovative and effective campaigns.
- Click here for more BI Prime stories.
Influencer marketing is big business, with brands projected to spend $15 billion in the category by 2022.
While the influencer world includes many players — like talent managers, agents, and public relations professionals who are bringing the internet's biggest stars into mainstream media — a large portion of the industry's growth will come from influencer-marketing agencies and creator marketplaces that support digital creators of all sizes.
These companies work in a subsection of the industry that applies technology and old-school matchmaking skills to connect brands with the thousands of online creators earning a living on social media. These firms facilitate all different types of social-media ad campaigns, pairing brands with world-famous creators and early stage influencers alike.
Last year, influencer marketing agency BEN helped connect Electronic Arts (EA) with YouTube star David Dobrik for a sponsored Lamborghini giveaway video and social-media campaign that drove 18.9 million views and over 3.3 million total engagements.
"In less than 24 hours the Lamborghini gifting video received over eight million views and hit the No. 1 trending spot on YouTube," Ricky Ray Butler, BEN's CEO, told Business Insider.
Influencer-marketing agencies also work with smaller creators to help them reach brands that wouldn't ordinarily be interested in making a sponsored content deal with a low-follower-count influencer.
The influencer-marketing startup, Heartbeat, helped Dunkin' hire hundreds of "nano" influencers — those with fewer than 5,000 followers — to promote its new Beyond Sausage Sandwich in November of last year.
The company built out its product for small-audience creators after deciding "there should be a marketplace [so] that people who don't necessarily consider themselves influencers can have a place to kick off their influencer career," Brian Freeman, Heartbeat's CEO, told Business Insider.
From supporting the business of influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers to helping newcomers get their start, influencer-marketing agencies and creator marketplaces are key players in the fast-growing industry.
Like most companies in the ad industry, these agencies are adapting to a shifting economy in 2020 as the coronavirus outbreak halts travel, cuts into advertiser budgets, and alters consumer habits. These companies have found that engagement on social-media posts is higher than normal as more consumers spend time in physical isolation. They're also discovering that the influencer-marketing business model could be particularly well-suited to a time in which DIY ad content filmed at home remains viable while commercial photo shoots are shut down.
To form this power list, Business Insider relied on a mix of our own reporting, nominations from readers, and industry experts to narrow down the finalists. We chose these agencies based on factors like reach, effectiveness, and impact on the influencer business as a whole.
The 15 marketing agencies are listed in alphabetical order by agency:
BEN
BEN specializes in using AI to build branded integrations across the influencer marketing industry, and in streaming, TV, and film.
With over 10 years of influencer-marketing experience, BEN uses its AI, established industry relationships, and tech-driven processes to deliver personalized campaigns.
The company uses AI to predict campaign results, including sales, click through rates, views, and impressions.
BEN has partnered with top brands including Electronic Arts, Tencent, Swagbucks, and Philo, and has strong creator relationships, from star YouTubers David Dobrik and MrBeast, to top streamers Ninja and Dr. Disrespect.
CreatorIQ
CreatorIQ manages influencer-marketing campaigns for social-media creators, helping them connect with brands directly.
The company currently works for brands like Airbnb, CVS, Dell, Disney, Mattel, Ralph Lauren, Salesforce, and Unilever, among others.
Last year, Unilever Ventures invested in CreatorIQ, in an effort to better understand influencer marketing, which Unilever continues to use on a large scale, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The company also helps brands identify emerging trends like the rise of "micro influencers," which have proven to be highly effective for clients.
CreatorIQ is based in Los Angeles with offices in New York, Chicago, and London.
FameBit
FameBit is YouTube's in-house influencer marketing product designed to connect brands with the platform's top creators in order to facilitate sponsored content deals.
Acquired by Google in 2016, the company operates a creator marketplace that also serves as a full-service branded content agency.
The company works with major brands like Canon, Adidas, Sony, and Activision, and over 65,000 creators. FameBit requires that a YouTube user have at least 5,000 subscribers to join its marketplace.
Find Your Influence
Find Your Influence is an all-in-one influencer marketing platform that allows brands to identify influencers, launch campaigns, track performance, and report results.
When campaigns are live, the dashboard provides real-time insights, and access into campaign progress and performance. The dashboard allows brands to export performance results like ROI and campaign value.
Find Your Influence was founded in 2013, and is based in Arizona, with offices in New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
The company is led by cofounders Jamie Reardon and Cristine Vieira.
Heartbeat
Heartbeat operates an influencer marketing platform for over 275,000 registered influencers looking to create sponsored posts for brands.
The company focuses on connecting marketers with lower-follower-count "nano" and "micro" influencers who are much cheaper to hire and can often appear more authentic than career influencers with millions of followers. It also surveys all influencers in its network to gather demographic information and company insights for its clients. Heartbeat said it generates up to 100,000 survey responses within its influencer network in a single day.
The company has run campaigns with brands like Dunkin, Bose, Toms, and Kettle Foods, and said it helps coordinate thousands of sponsored posts each week.
"When we first started the company, the sweet spot was very much a sub-2000 follower audience and that's evolved over time," Heartbeat CEO Brian Freeman said. "People who don't necessarily consider themselves influencers can have a place to kick off their influencer career."
Hypr
Hypr services 400 enterprise clients around the world, using technology to help clients scale campaigns in the industry.
The platform focuses on automation and activation of medium and micro-influencers across North America.
The software is designed for group collaboration, and for discovery and outreach. Hypr provides automated anti-fraud technology and performance tracking for its clients as well.
Hypr has offices in the United States, London, Israel, and Ukraine. It was founded in 2013 by current CEO Gil Eyal, and CTO Guy Tamir.
Influence.co
Influence.co was launched in 2016 by its three cofounders Ryan Angilly, Niel Robertson, and Jeff Smith.
The platform has over 175,000 members — of which 35,000 are businesses — that have signed up with Influence.co.
The platform is used by Instagram travel influencers, mommy bloggers, YouTube beauty stars, and many other types of influencers.
Members use the site to share their work, learn from each other, and find collaborations. The platform offers a free business basics account and a subscription based pro account for both influencers ($4 a month) and marketers ($349 a year).
In March, the company announced the closing of a $3 million seed funding round. Bonfire Ventures led the round with participation from ACT Capital Partners, Alumni Ventures Group, Next 10 Ventures, and Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) Ventures. Influence.co will use this round of funding to scale its community and launch a media division focused on the influencer and creator lifestyle.
Influence.co has raised $1.4 million dollars from a number of angels, bringing Influence.co's total funding raised to date to $4.4 million.
The company is remote, with staff in Los Angeles, San Diego, Denver, New York, San Francisco and Austin.
Izea
Izea is an influencer marketplace that connects influencers across social media who sign up with food, fashion, beauty, and lifestyle brands.
Izea has worked with brands like Burt's Bees, Tom's of Maine, and Kellogg's.
The company also publishes data, case studies, and trend reports on the industry.
Izea was founded in 2006 and is based in Florida.
Linqia
Founded in 2012, Linqia is an influencer marketing agency that connects brands with a network of over 100,000 influencers to post sponsored content on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
In addition to matching creators with brands, Linqia offers a dashboard for companies to assess which influencer posts are performing and use creative in their paid, earned, and owned channels.
The company works with over 500 national brands, including Kimberly-Clark, McDonald's, Nestle, Unilever, and Walmart. Linqia has 70 employees and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA; with offices in New York; Chicago; Los Angeles; and Bentonville, AR.
Mavrck
Mavrck is an all-in-one influencer marketing platform.
The company works with companies like P&G, Kraft, Heinz, and Express in connecting with influencers and creating campaigns across various social-media platforms.
Marketers use Mavrck to identify and activate influencers, influential employees, and consumer advocates.
The platform also has a self-service influencer manager, where marketers can take an automated and performance-based approach to influencer marketing.
Founded in 2014, Mavrck is based in Boston, Massachusetts, with offices in Denver. The company has raised $13.8 million in venture capital funding.
Mediakix
Evan Asano launched Mediakix in 2011, and the company works to connect brands with influencers, as well as publish data and research about the industry online.
The company has partnered with brands like Backcountry, Blue Apron, Bumble, Dollar Shave Club, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Hallmark, Next Games, and Sony Pictures, among others. The agency has partnered with thousands of influencers — from "nano" to "celebrity" — to produce campaigns.
The agency is based in LA and has produced more than 20,000 individual sponsored placements across digital platforms including YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Twitch.
Mediakix is a part of the Stadiumred Group, a global marketing and communications holding company. The agency works with Stadiumred Group's portfolio of agencies: Creative Riff, Gyrosity Projects, MagicBullet Media, and SevenBlue.
Obviously
Obviously is a full-service influencer marketing agency that runs campaigns on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and blogs.
Founded in 2014, the company has facilitated thousands of campaigns across its network of 440,000 influencers. Obviously operates a managed-service business, hiring creators for campaigns on behalf of brands and handling details like photo rights, payment, and reporting. Obviously also uses its influencer network to run focus groups and surveys for its corporate clients.
It works with influencers of all sizes, from "celebrities" and "macro" influencers to "micro" and "nano" influencers. Obviously's brand clients include Google, Lyft, Ulta, and L'Oréal.
"We can work globally. We can work with influencers in any language, and we really started and pushed the micro influencer section of the influencer economy forward," said Mae Karwowski, the company's founder and CEO.
Sapphire Apps
Sapphire Apps is an influencer marketing agency that specializes in running branded campaigns on TikTok.
The company has guided TikTok strategies for both Fortune 500 companies and startups, like the fintech brand Tally. Sapphire has its own network of TikTok creators to amplify sponsored content on the app, and also serves as a production house, creating social-media-ready content for brands that it then runs on platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and Snapchat.
"The influencers on TikTok have huge followings, but a lot of people haven't taken advantage of them yet in terms of how many views they can deliver," CEO Anish Dalal said. "How aggressively TikTok is pushing in the United States and the explosiveness of the platform has just been tremendous."
Village
Village is an influencer marketing agency founded by Vickie Segar in 2013.
The 60-person company hires influencers who post content across a variety of verticals for brands like Amazon, Rent The Runway, SoulCycle, Boll and Branch, and Anheuser Busch.
In addition to running influencer campaigns for clients, Village operates content and events studios in New York and Los Angeles where influencers can go film or take photographs for brand campaigns. Village's studio facilities include props and accessories to help influencers tailor their content to a particular campaign.
Viral Nation
Viral Nation was founded in 2014 by Joe Gagliese and Mathew Micheli. The company works with brands directly in influencer marketing campaigns.
Viral Nation has worked on campaigns for Crayola, Calm, and Bud Light, among others. The agency uses the software, Influsoft, for campaign tracking, measurement, and social listening.
Some of the company's long term-clients that it works with every month include Match group (Match.com and its apps), Twitch, Victoria's Secret, and Ubisoft.
It signs influencers on Twitch, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter, TikTok and other platforms, working with them directly on deals.
The company has offices in Toronto, New York City, and San Francisco.
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