• In our second annual record, Insider is spotlighting the highest 16 influencer-marketing execs at manufacturers.
• They’ve led impactful and modern campaigns for manufacturers like Bumble, Pacsun, and Amazon’s The Drop. 
• They work with creators on a number of platforms, with many recognizing the facility of short-form video.

Even within the turbulent financial system of the previous few months, entrepreneurs have not stopped spending on influencers. Influencer advertising spending is projected to develop an estimated 12% to $4 billion in 2022.

“When the financial system is booming, manufacturers spend cash to capitalize on the local weather, and influencer advertising sees an upswing,” stated Mike Mikho, chief advertising officer of the advert company Laundry Service. “In an financial downturn, influencers develop into an effectivity play — you get content material, distribution, and a helpful co-sign in your product via a single funding.”

Because the creator financial system matures, manufacturers have additionally begun constructing in-house groups to create influencer campaigns and brought a extra data-driven strategy to measuring their affect.

Behind essentially the most profitable influencer advertising are the execs who’re executing these campaigns.

They embody Bumble director of expertise and influencer Christina Hardy, who labored on a marketing campaign to advertise 50 collegiate girls athletes in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of laws prohibiting sex-based discrimination in schooling, and Amazon’s The Drop’s Merryck Tann-Dickerson, who not too long ago joined as head of expertise partnerships from Goal and already launched a number of designer collaborations with key influencers.

What a profitable influencer advertising marketing campaign seems to be like

As partnerships between manufacturers and creators develop into mainstream, entrepreneurs are studying what makes a profitable marketing campaign.

Entrepreneurs, managers, and creators agree that the most effective campaigns are those that do not really feel pressured. The rise of TikTok, which has popularized content material that isn’t essentially polished or staged, heightens the necessity for partnerships that seem real.

“I believe [a successful campaign] must be very actual and uncooked and natural,” stated Tyler MacDonald, who leads Pacsun’s influencer advertising. “The connection between the influencer and the model wants to essentially be there, as a result of Gen Z specifically may be very good. They will inform when an influencer is approaching to a model for a paycheck versus as a result of they actually love and consider within the model.”

(Sarcastically, one among Pacsun’s present influencers of selection is digital influencer Miquela, an AI-generated character that MacDonald stated ties in with Pacsun’s curiosity within the metaverse and web3.)

It is also vital to strategy sponsorship offers as true partnerships, trade insiders stated.

Molly Tracy, founding father of expertise administration agency Vrai, stated the top-performing campaigns her purchasers work on are those the place they have been free to talk to their viewers on their very own phrases.

“Artistic freedom is so vital,” Tracy stated. “We have simply discovered that the campaigns which can be a little bit bit too inflexible when it comes to key messaging or what the content material must seem like simply have not carried out as properly, since you’re asking the creator to step out of their very own wheelhouse.”

In its second annual record, Insider is recognizing 16 influencer advertising execs at manufacturers who’ve constructed among the most artistic and impactful campaigns over the previous 12 months.

For this record, we relied on a mixture of our personal reporting, nominations from readers, and trade consultants. We selected people who find themselves constructing essentially the most profitable partnerships with influencers throughout social media; planning essentially the most artistic campaigns; and impacting the influencer house broadly. Observe figures beneath are correct as of Sept. 8, 2022.

The influencer advertising executives are listed in alphabetical order by model beneath: