Plus Company agencies combine forces on a new influencer marketing model

The two agencies have been testing the Performfluence system since last year with a few different models and types of influencers. Four clients are using it to help either drive new member acquisitions or direct sales to brick-and-mortar outlets, explained Crystalyn Stuart-Loayza, chief digital officer for Citizen and Mekanism. Additionally, other clients including Coast Capital and Ovega are also using the system.

“I always say if performance marketing and brand building had a baby, it would be Performfluence,” Stuart-Loayza said.

While Mekanism will provide a white-glove model around influencer partnerships mostly impacting top-of-funnel activity, Citizen Relations will handle more of the PR aspect of influencer partnerships and other credential strategies. Compared to traditional influencer agency models, Performfluence is designed to combine data, AI optimization, creative, media buying and measurement capabilities to offer clients a way to assess the value of their influencer marketing investments.

Stuart-Loayza described it as a system blending several platforms, while also leveraging the team for some tasks like social media listening. Performfluence focuses on several features, including search, campaign performance adjustments, long-term and short-term content generation, and measurable results. For example, the system can start collecting data on creators before the brief stage and creator selection — including where to optimize for search using key terms or the types of content to focus on based on the target topic.

“If you run it just like a media buy, you start to lose a lot of the creative firepower,” Stuart-Loayza explained. “On the more creative side, if we just focus on choosing the right influencers who support the brand message, and we partner with them based only on their reach or based only on the quality of their story and their ability to gather attention, we end up finding that there’s a bit too shallow of a total cost proposition.”

Over time, Stuart-Loayza contends that the agencies may be able to reduce the need to hire people on its influencer programs with this digital practice. The practice has grown to 22 people in under two years, as the company saw growing client demands for more data-driven digital outcomes. Plus Company has more than 20 agencies and 3,000 employees in its network.

Influencer shops are equally focused on trying to prove and enhance their influencer marketing results, which can be like an “ever-moving target,” said Chris Jack, growth strategy director at influencer agency HireInfluence. Jack attributed this need to the rise in companies adopting influencer marketing and investing bigger budgets into these programs.

“A growing trend in the influencer space has been how to demonstrate mid- and lower-funnel impact through organic and paid influencer content,” Jack said.

HireInfluencer uses a technology stack that allows flexibility to choose the right combination of tools to ensure campaign setup and metrics match what clients want, Jack explained. The agency picks from a range of tools that support influencer identification, campaign management and reporting.

For example, if a client is looking for improved influencer attribution, they might need a different tool that the social media platforms don’t offer. In that case, the agency might use a product like Segmetrics or Exactag — tools used for marketing attribution and benchmarks.

“As a result, we’ve not only provided value from a consultant perspective, but we also have set ourselves up for success by knowing we are capturing the data our client needs,” Jack added.

Despite influencer marketing’s growth in recent years, Bea Iturregui, vp of creator and brand partnerships at influencer agency Cycle, believes that the tools and reporting still have shortcomings as metrics evolve. Impressions, for example, don’t carry the same weight they did previously.

“Having people see your content just isn’t enough anymore,” Iturregui said. “We want to know how the content made them feel, which is why we prioritize shares, comments and saves. These metrics tell a much stronger story.”