Braintrust CAA-GBG Presents:

An Overview of the Evolution

and Shift in Influencer Marketing

Braintrust CAA-GBG and CreatorIQ Present

Influencer Data Mapping:

Unlocking the ROI of Your Influencer Strategy
 2

The evolution and shift in

INFLUENCER MARKETING
By definition, Influencer Marketing is the discipline of identifying individuals that influence potential customers
and orienting marketing activities around their platform and audience via content. While the concept of leveraging
Influencers to sell products has existed for well over a century, digital and Social Media Influencer Marketing is just
over ten years old. However, in that short time, what it means to market with Digital Creators has evolved from
happenstance to a sophisticated system that is changing the way brands market communicate with customers.

When Digital Influencer Marketing arrived on the scene just before 2010, the goal of engaging was simple:
leverage people who had amassed followers on social platforms to help sell products and services. Product
placement had essentially “gone viral,” as marketers quickly figured out that a little product and at times a nominal
fee could go a long way in helping them gain those coveted PR impressions while creating a direct line to revenue.

In the beginning, the primary deciding factors around who to leverage for Influencers Marketing Campaigns were
instinct and many times, preference. As the channels evolved, metrics became more sophisticated and brands
became savvier, tracking brands became savvier and engagement rate emerged as a telling factor with which to
vet potential brand advocates, and as a result marketers found themselves explaining the value of “likes, shares,
and comments” to the C-Suite and beyond.
 3
The evolution and shift in Influencer Marketing has seen rapid growth in the last three years, with the

INFLUENCER
number of campaigns and posts increasing exponentially year-over-year since
2015. Influencer Marketing appears to be a go-to tactic for brands looking to
leverage the power of a highly-curated audience to help reach their goals.

MARKETING
 4
The evolution and shift in

INFLUENCER
MARKETING
Social platforms -- both third-party and owned by social media
companies themselves -- now house metrics that mimic traditional
media buying (think CPC, CTR, ROAS, etc.) However, most marketers
still operate under the assumption that the ROI tied to Influencer
Marketing activations remains difficult or even impossible to track.

With projected spend on Influencer Marketing 


set to be in the billions by 2020, the industry is experiencing 

an incredibly fruitful period.


One where data becomes the driver for decision making at scale,
creators become brand consultants, and marketers start to see
creators as a missing link to fully integrated campaigns.
 5

“As a seasoned veteran of the

Influencer Marketing space, and
having founded one of the f irst
agencies to represent Influencers
as talent, I’ve seen it all when it
comes to Creators and the way “As brand advocacy grows in
brands use them to sell products. importance across almost every
In my opinion, what’s often been organization’s marketing mix,
missing f rom the equation is data measurement—and the
backed deep human insight. When enterprise-grade technology to
these two fundamental elements facilitate and benchmark it—is
are combined, Influencer Marketing becoming increasingly
becomes not just a tactic but a paramount. CreatorIQ is excited
strategic way brands can connect to partner with BrainTrust CAA-
with consumers. Influencer Data GBG to provide a deeper level of
Mapping helps brands bridge the insight and attach a best-in-
gap between the data they f ind in class service provider to our
platforms like CreatorIQ and the industry-leading platform.”
wealth of expertise and insight we
bring that is needed to be smart
and nimble in the space.”

-K e n d r a
Bracken-Ferguson
-I g o r
Va ks
Founder, Chief Digital Off icer,
Founder, CreatorIQ
BrainTrust CAA-GBG
 6

Predicting the four dominate shifts

in Influencer Marketing
As we move into the future of Influencer Marketing, we see four dominate areas where Creators will change the landscape for brands.

Data-driven decisions The missing piece to integrated

Brands are more desperate than ever for turn-key technologies that campaigns
help them make and scale the volume of data-based decisions. Campaigns as one-off activations will soon be a thing of the past. With
Influencer Marketing is no exception. As brands become increasingly the ability to scale and mobilize creators en masse more possible than
sophisticated, tools like CreatorIQ will become increasingly ever due to Influencer Marketing platforms, integrating talent into
quintessential in helping brands source, strategize, and report on their unique 360-degree campaigns is becoming the norm.
campaigns.

Creators as brand consultants Emotional ROI

As we move into the future of Influence, the role of Creators (as it relates One of the most powerful tools brands have to capture young

to brands) is expanding far beyond traditional marketing. Savvy brands audiences are the emotional connections they forge throughout the

are beginning to look to Creators as audience experts -- for example, consumer journey. Depending on the conversation, social creators are

those can help them get ahead of trends or develop resonant products arguably the most authentic targeted voice of our time. As brands

that sell. uncover social communities and align with their causes, lifelong bonds
-- and market opportunities -- will be formed.
 7

The evolution and shift in

INFLUENCER MARKETING
As Influencer Marketing matures, some brands will - Creators are the mouthpieces of some of the most
continue to leverage creator activations as one-off important issues of our time, and with their credibility
amplification tools -- but the potential of Influencer comes an unmatched layer of authenticity for the
Marketing is much larger. Creators embody the day-to- brands who choose to leverage their reach and point of
day aspirations of the consumers brands are trying to view. Additionally, a growing pool of  robust data tools
reach. Within their content lies opportunities for product allow brands to move from toiling away at vapid
discovery, brand positioning, and, most importantly, the metrics to looking at deeper, insight-driven trends,
ability to connect with the causes and conversations of affinities, and popular topics of interest.
customers on an emotional level.

As the next generation of consumers come into their

own as spending powerhouses, capturing loyalty will
be both more difficult and increasingly necessary. The
brands who best capture this demographic’s long-term
commitment will be those who align with their causes
and tap into the passions they hold dear.
Case Study 8

GOOGLE PRIDE
#SHOWUP
Influencer Social Activation and Advocacy

In partnership with Google, The BrainTrust was tasked to generate awareness, online
advocacy, and an uprising of social noise in celebration of Pride Month throughout the
country. Nearly one hundred influencers jumped at the opportunity to support Pride
among their fans—reaching a combined online audience of 96.6M on Facebook, Twitter,
and Instagram.

The ask: tell us why you #ShowUp for Pride Month and what supporting the LGBTQ
community today means to you. Members and advocates alike share their thoughts
unabashedly, generating a groundswell of social conversations surrounding Pride Month
throughout June and July.

Google’s trending #ShowUp was used by celebrity and 


digital influencers with a combined reach of 46.1M 

on Instagram alone.

Because Pride Month is an initiative that calls for public support in a way that maintains
trueness to one’s self-identity, influencer were glad to take part in the project at no cost. As
talent scrolled through their own social feeds, the message of the campaign was clear.
Ultimately, the key was tapping into those individuals who have publicly supported the
LGBTQ community—whether or not their current success stems from it. This helped to
foster an impactful, feel-good campaign showcasing real people with real results.
The rise of 9

MICRO-
The average follower size of Instagram creators used in campaigns is trending
downward from 1 million followers in 2016 to half a million followers today.

INFLUENCERS
The rise of 10

MICRO-
The size of creators being pitched is trending downward from 4 million
followers in 2015 to 1.6 million followers today.

INFLUENCERS
 People consume and interact with social content like never before, driving brands to reach audiences in new ways. 11

Kendra Bracken-Ferguson and TV viewership quickly begins dropping through

In Stockholm Sweden, Andy
Karen Robinovitz co-found 2015 by 35% for 18-24 year-olds, which is
Warhol Declares, “In the future
Digital Brand Architects, one of replaced by mobile screen time (Nielsen).
everyone will be famous for 15
the first agencies to represent
minutes.”
bloggers

1968 2000 - 2008 2010 2012 2013

The rise of micro-blogs and

Fast Forward thru the rise of
social networks fulfill
the internet and the personal 

Warhol's prophecy, as Fans share what they like on social
home computer.
consumers now have the media and brands listen/learn.
power to amass an audience
via content and curation.
$5-10
founded
Billion
founded Opportunity

by 2022
2014 2015 2016 2017

Consumers put more trust in key opinion leaders Creators continue to command
and advocates. These influencers are connected upwards six figures working with
with brands through MCNs and influencer brands and advocate for long-term
agencies. relationships, ultimately becoming
business advisors and more to brands
they believe in.
The next phase

STAYING AHEAD OF THE CURVE Activating

Activate ecosystem of brand
ambassadors, advocates and
Publishing others in community

Schedule and publish

Listening content on owned and
operated social channels
Monitor digital conversations

2018
about a brand, specific topic
and/or industries

2008
2007
 13

nfluen Influencer Data Mapping exists to

enable brands to own, operate, and

market in different pockets and

segments to fundamentally change

the way brands and businesses

conduct research, develop

products, and drive scale.

 14

Influencing the engine

INFLUENCER DATA
MAPPING
Given the history of influencer marketing and where it is headed, the need for data-fueled decisions is greater
than ever before. Sourcing the tools and services that help bring social data to life is perhaps the biggest challenge
brands today are facing.

Influencer Data Mapping, a proprietary BrainTrust CAA-GBG service powered by CreatorIQ, gives brands the ability
to dive deep into audience architecture and understand the makeup of the creator’s fanbase with far more depth
than before. From demographics data to brand affinities and adjacencies, the pre-defined audience architecture
allows marketers to select creators based on desired outcomes and then measure the results against the
traditional marketing funnel and media-based KPIs.

With the wealth of information and metrics available to brands via Influencer Data Mapping, we are seeing a
drastic shift not only in the day-to-day concepts of influencer marketing relations, but also in how brands leverage
niche audiences and emerging topics to the benefit of their broader business goals.

Furthermore, leveraging Influencer Data Mapping, we are able to dive deep into audience data and measure
results in a way that shows tangible Key Performance Indicators when measured against traditional efforts.
 15

Influencer Data Mapping 1. Starting with your brand values, composition, and target audience,

HOW DOES
we develop a plan designed to help you reach your goals 


2. From there, our service plus technology scrubs audience data to

identify creators who can best capture your audience with content
that resonates and creates value  


IT WORK? 3. Throughout the campaign (and after it concludes), we track and

measure results to establish a one-to-one comparison of campaign
performance against traditional media metrics 

 16

Influencing the engine

INFLUENCER DATA
MAPPING
Influencers with audience followings of all sizes and makeups wield incredible power over consumer perception.
Additionally, the instantaneous quality of social media gives consumers more of a voice than ever before. Because
of this, we believe the power for future products, brands, and businesses lie deep within some of the most niche
segments of the social landscape -- and, more specifically, within social creator communities.

When brands look to creators and the communities they champion as means for buy-in, the overall sentiment
surrounding the brand increases. Additionally, many brands are able to change perception and buying behavior
based on these campaigns. However, the first step to a successful campaign is ensuring that your product aligns
with a socially-powered community.
 17
Case Study

BREVILLE
In 2017, Breville, the popular “smart” kitchen and appliance brand from Australia, decided to introduce it’s
collection of high-end at-home coffee machines to the passionate and engaged specialty coffee community
online. To do this, BrainTrust CAA-GBG and Breville created an activation around National Coffee Day that featured
nine creators and a countdown to the social holiday. These creators weren’t just your typical digital superstars; they
were also roasters, shop owners, and coffee experts.

As part of our countdown, each creator was asked to create a video featuring Breville’s newest product, The
Precision Brewer. During this video, each creator was to show their audience all the features of the product while
keeping them engaged and entertained at the same time.

With the added component of a giveaway, this campaign, which spread across paid, owned, and earned social
media, garnered an impressive 270K engagements and a sizeable reach. However, the most impressive thing to
come out of this campaign wasn’t a metric -- it was the measurable change in perception regarding the brand
amongst the specialty coffee community. Often a tight-knit but very opinionated group, they don’t always take
kindly to corporate or brands they deem as mass… but because of the credibility our creators lent to the campaign,
feedback around both the product and the company were surprisingly positive amongst the traditionally hard-to-
impress group.

Key Data Points: 270K Engagements, 635 Comments, 164 Earned Media Shares
18
 19

Case Study
Our point of entry in the speciality coffee community comes through our

BREVILLE
relationships with individual roasters. 



Why? Because these are the people educating the everyday consumer on
‘what’s in the cup’ and ultimately driving the specialty coffee story.
 20

Case Study

BREVILLE
 21

Purchase funnel, disruptive brands, and influencer integration

INFLUENCER DATA
MAPPING
Perhaps one of the most impressive uses of Influencer Marketing is its innate ability to balance upper, middle, and
lower funnel efforts in a way that speaks to the way the most disruptive brands disrupt. A 2018 study by Siegel + Gale
featured in Harvard Business Review found that brands who are truly disrupting are leveraging fundamental
elements of the digital space to shake up the marketplace in a way that traditional brands are not always capable of.

Many of the tactics and positioning strategies that brands are finding most successful in the digital realm are those
that Creators naturally do so well. From creating demand to encouraging advocacy to positioning themselves in the
lives of consumers, Creators are uniquely qualified to help brands flip the traditional marketing funnel on its head
and ultimately come out on top.
 22
Case Study

Under Armour
There is more to Influencer Marketing than boasting about simple
vanity metrics, such as total number of engagements and reach.
Positive Correlation between Brand Affinity
Instead, choosing the right Influencer for the right brand and
and Engagement on Influencer Content
arming them with the right message is the key to building a truly
relevant campaign.

In a campaign administered by BrainTrust CAA-GBG for Under

Armour, two hundred Influencers of all sizes were activated in an
Instagram campaign across multiple cities. The below quadrant
maps the each creator’s message relevance against their
audience brand affinity. Brand affinity measures the audience
index score for Under Armour. Message Relevance is a score
provided by CreatorIQ which measures the resonance of a
message by the creator’s audience. A creator with a relevance
score greater than one means that the creator’s Under Armour
posts in the campaign had a higher engagement rate than the
regular posts of that creator.
 23
Case Study

Under Armour
Not surprisingly, Creators with a higher audience brand affinity
towards Under Armour tended to over perform in the campaign
(denoted by the dotted green best-fit line). In fact, their campaign
posts outperformed their native posts. These Creators are getting
better engagement for their audience with their sponsored posts,
and incentivized to do more work for Under Armour.

Creators from the Under Armour campaign can be divided into

four profiles: Evangelists, Shape-shifters, Right Creator Wrong
Message, an Unnatural Content. Evangelists are creators who are
expected to perform well, as their audience has high affinity with
Under Armour. Their campaign posts end up outperforming their
native content. These are Creators who will become huge
proponents of the brand while still appearing authentic, as the
brand is actually helping them improve their social media value.

For these Evangelists, their posts stop becoming “ads” and start
becoming “content” that people tune in for specifically. This is the
ultimate goal of Influencer Marketing: to transcend the space of
advertising and unwanted clutter and transform into content that
people go out of their way to see.
24
 25

Case Study

UNDER ARMOUR
The second group is Shape-shifters -- possibly the most interesting group. This group had a low audience brand
affinity toward Under Armour, yet their campaign posts performed better than their native posts. This group
should receive particular attention since, though their audience represented the fringes of the target audience for
the brand, the creator influenced them. This signals an extremely powerful creator and good brand fit.

A campaign manager may not want to select all Evangelists, lest they be “preaching to the choir.” Instead, they
should choose a few shape-shifters whose audience are not fans of Under Armour but are otherwise in the target
market for athletic clothing. Perhaps this audience prefers Nike -- an opportunity for Under Armour to users
toward their brand.

The next group is “Right Creator Wrong Message,” which is simply that: a creator who should have performed well
based on their audience’s high pre-existing brand affinity toward Under Armour, yet failed to deliver a message
that resonates. This last group suffered a poor audience brand affinity, and their posts performed far worse than
their regular content. This group is called “Unnatural Content,” as their campaign posts with Under Armour seem
like a distraction from their regular content.

Every campaign is expected to have creator that land in all four categories. The idea is to leverage the Evangelists
and Shape-shifters, drop the Unnatural Content, and provide guidance to “Right Creator Wrong Message” creators.
 26

Creating long-term brand partnerships

INFLUENCER DATA
MAPPING
As brands work to get closer and closer to a direct line to sales across all digital activities, it’s important to
remember that true ROI runs much deeper than a one-to-one spend. While sales may be an immediate goal, the
brands who win are those who think long-term. While instant gratification is the nature of the online space, there
is still opportunity to forge strong emotional connections with consumers via influencer marketing -- connections
that go beyond one-to-one sales and ultimately, build brand presence. The brands who think long term and value
loyalty amongst the creators with whom they choose to engage are the ones who win.

The longer a brand works with specific creators, the better the long-term results. This rings true not just from a
sales perspective, but also from a competitive perspective. By working with specific creators for extended periods
of time, brands like Sally Beauty have been able to change perceptions around their customer demographics and
have encourage new audiences to come in and shop.
 27

Case Study

KENNETH COLE COURAGEOUS CLASS

We believe that a long-term relationship with a creator can lead to brand loyalty, which can be very transient
among millennials. In the competitive luxury shoe retail space, for example, it is difficult to build brand loyalty
among affluent young people. Kenneth Cole activated 16 creators over the course of three years in their
Courageous Class campaign. While a regular customer might shift between similar brands of shoes, such as
Kenneth Cole, Cole Haan, Clarks, and Nine West, a customer who follows Mari Malek, a Kenneth Cole brand
ambassador, is far more likely to chose Kenneth Cole.

Mari Malek has posted about Kenneth Cole not just once, but 70 times across her Instagram, Facebook, and
Twitter accounts over the course of three years. The graph below maps her audience’s brand loyalty to Kenneth
Cole compared to its competitors. Her audience has stronger affinity toward Kenneth Cole than Ralph Lauren,
Toms, Ecco, and Nine West combined.

Courageous Class is Kenneth Cole’s seasonal program, which has consecutively launched annually since 2012,
spotlighting individuals from all walks of life who have overcome obstacles and defied social norms. Each season
of Courageous Class focuses on specific issues, like social activism or art.  Kenneth Cole deems the program: “The
Courageous Class believes the real models are the role models.” The program focuses on the empowerment and
inspiration that consumers associate with fashion, and leverages influencers as role models while wearing
Kenneth Cole apparel. Historically, each class is shot in an urban environment via photoshoots and video, and they
spotlight the creator’s personal mission and association with Kenneth Cole. These topics all fall in line with those
associated with Kenneth Cole, including politics, activism, art, and fashion.
28
Case Study 29

KENNETH COLE COURAGEOUS CLASS

 30

A Peek Under the Hood:

peak CreatorIQ, the Platform

Engine that fuels Influencer

Data Mapping, and why it’s

mandatory.
 31
A peek under the hood CreatorIQ is one of the first—if not the only—influencer marketing platforms

CreatorIQ
which allows brands to source, evaluate, and manage creators and branded
campaigns in ways that align with traditional advertising and paid media efforts.
The robust platform houses more than three million creators, but also gives users
the ability to gain a rich understanding of their audience, their media value, and
their long-term potential in helping marketers reach their overarching goals.

Sample Social Media Dashboard from CIQ platform.

 32

A peek under the hood

CreatorIQ
With multidimensional audience affinity data, CreatorIQ can map the exact brand affinity of a creator against the
competition. The platform can also map which creators’ content resonated the highest with its audience. With
tools to measure brand loyalty and message resonance, CreatorIQ identifies which creators are the brand’s
“evangelists.” These are the creators whose audience is in-market for the brand, and whose message stands out
from the crowd.

Finding “evangelist” creators as brand partners is the heart of finding the right creator; marketers need to filter by
the right message and the right audience at the right time. When all of these factors align, branded content
transcends advertisement as authentic and welcomed messaging.
 33

A peek under the hood

CreatorIQ
 34

By 2020, spend on Influencer Marketing is set to reach $5 - $10 billion. With more dollars riding on smart,
sophisticated Influencer Marketing than ever before, marketers are desperate for resources in the form of deeper
data, better sourcing, and robust tracking systems.

BrainTrust CAA-GBG has created Influencer Data Mapping—powered by CreatorIQ—as a service that gives brands
access to robust data sets and powers them with deep human insights, all designed to help brands see a true
return on Influencer Marketing, regardless of how ambitious their goals might be.

This service plus technology offering affords brands the opportunity to approach Influencer Marketing as less of a
one-off tactic and more of a long-term strategy for growing business and keeping on the pulse of trends. From
product development to tapping new and niche audiences to increasing long-term brand affinity, Creators hold
the key to the most digitally savvy consumers. The brands who leverage Creators at every level of the marketing
funnel will succeed in an overly-saturated advertising marketplace—and, the best part, they can do it in a way that
builds brand presence (not just topline revenue).
 35

ho w
WHO WE ARE
 36

BrainTrust CAA-GBG is a Social Media and

brand representation agency committed to
helping the world’s most beloved fashion,
CreatorIQ is the SaaS platform that beauty, lifestyle, and celebrity brands
powers the leading enterprises in Social develop and execute strategies and
Media brand advocacy. campaigns that drive awareness, demand
engagement, and impact the bottom line.
Our technology suite provides
progressive companies with end-to-end We h e l p b ra n d s t h i n k c ri t i c a l l y a n d
workflow automation, proprietary data creatively, work together, and f ind
ownership, and actionable intelligence i n n ova t i ve way s to co m m u n i c a te . We i d ea te
that allows them to easily activate f rom a consumer-oriented point of view
with teams designed around customer
branded content and Influencer
insights and brand needs.
Marketing campaigns across every major
Social Media platform at scale. Select In January 2018, The BrainTrust joined CAA-
clients include Airbnb, Amazon, CAA, GBG Global Brand Management Group (CAA-
CVS Health, Dell, Disney, Edelman, GBG), the world’s largest brand
NatGeo, Ralph Lauren, Ref inery29, management company to enhance CAA-
Tiffany & Co., 
 GBG’s digital and Social Media capabilities.
and YETI.
Select clients include Sally Beauty, Kenneth
CreatorIQ is headquartered in Los Cole, Under Armour and Fox Sports.
A n g e l e s , CA , w i t h o f f i c e s i n N e w Yo r k BrainTrust CAA-GBG has expanded globally
City, Chicago, and London. w i t h a p r e s e n c e i n L o s A n g e l e s , N e w Yo r k ,
and London.

http://creatoriq.com http://BrainTrustCAAGBG.com