Episodes
-
CYLNDR Studios is a Los Angeles-based creative and production studio that operates at the intersection of strategy, design, filmmaking, and influencer marketing. The company serves brands looking to move beyond transactional creator partnerships by embedding creators into the creative process from the brief stage, treating influencer work as a craft discipline rather than a content assembly line.
Ceci chats with Leah Chaney, Director of Influencer at CYLNDR Studios, to hear her perspective on three critical issues: why brands lose their most valuable creative asset the moment a brief passes through legal, brand, and accounts teams before a creator ever sees it, what it actually means to embed a creator at the briefing stage versus claiming early involvement while handing them a finished TV campaign to amplify, and why the industry's obsession with scale and output volume is producing stock content that audiences scroll past without sharing. Tune in for a practitioner's case for treating creator work as authorship, not distribution.
The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.
-
Waypoint Partners is a specialist M&A advisory firm supporting high-growth businesses at the intersection of creativity, technology, and intellectual capital. With over $2 billion in completed deal value across 40 transactions, the firm advises founders, buyers, and investors navigating critical strategic moments across creator economy, marketing, entertainment, and talent businessesâincluding advising on the Sister Group acquisition of After Party Studios.
Ceci chats with Matthew Lacey, Managing Partner at Waypoint Partners, to hear his perspective on three critical issues: what Accenture's acquisition of Whalar signals about where enterprise consultancies see long-term value in the creator economy and who else might make similar moves, why the convergence of brand, entertainment, and talent worlds has taken longer than expected and what businesses like After Party Studios are doing right by operating fluently across all three, and how much runway remains when creator-native agencies are still small compared to WPP and global ad spend tells a very different story. Tune in for an M&A advisor's read on where the money is moving and what deals will define the next phase of the industry.
The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.
-
Missing episodes?
-
Pop.Store is an agentic AI commerce platform built for creators, combining a social-first storefront where creators can sell digital products, bookings, and affiliate deals with an AI operating system that runs key business tasks autonomously. The platform serves creators of all sizesâfrom aspiring entrepreneurs to established talentâand is the title sponsor of VidCon Anaheim 2026, where it is launching Echo Me, its multi-agent AI platform.
Ceci chats with Jo Wong, CRO and General Manager at Pop.Store, to hear her perspective on three critical issues: why virality is not a business and what it actually takes for creators to build recurring revenue and owned communities that compound over time, how Echo Me's five AI agents handle DMs, comments, deal monitoring, audience nurturing, and content creation so creators can stop spending 80% of their time on admin, and why VidCon's 15th anniversary marks a pivotal infrastructure moment for the creator economy. Tune in for a concrete look at what agentic AI means for everyday creators trying to scale without a team.
The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.
-
In this June episode, hosts Ceci Carloni and Nii Ahene break down three stories that reveal how brands are thinking about creator investmentâand where the line is between genuine cultural impact and expensive noise:
đš Lenovo's Creator Odyssey: When a Campaign Becomes IP: Two years, three chapters, fifty million views. Lenovo and agency Portal A built a creator program around a simple but powerful briefâdon't make it about the product, make it about art and creativity. By chapter three, two of the original creators had evolved into creative directors, helping design the brief and co-hosting a live showcase in Mexico City around the FIFA World Cup. The result is a blueprint for what happens when brands extend genuine creative trust and give partnerships enough runway to grow into something bigger than a campaign.
đŹ GM Creator Lab: Big Production, Real Questions: General Motors built five Hollywood sound stages, themed to different vehicles, and invited creators to compete for a carâgenerating 150+ submissions, 200 pieces of content, and 50 million earned views in the first month, double their target. But Nii isn't sold. His take: this is old advertising strategy dressed up as creator marketingâbringing creators onto the brand's turf instead of meeting them in the spaces that actually influence purchase decisions. The auto creator community on YouTube already exists. The real question is whether GM is showing up in the right places at the right moment in the buying journey.
đȘ VidCon or Cannes? The Industry Weighs In: A Net Influencer roundtable asked 18 industry professionals which festival they'd send their team to. Cannes advocates say that's where the senior buyers and big budgets areâthe Coachella for B2B. VidCon advocates say that's where you stay close to creator culture before everyone else catches on. Nii's honest read on Cannes: too many agency pitches, not enough decision makers, and real risk of losing the pulse of actual creator culture. Net Influencer is heading back to VidCon for the fifth year runningâand Nii explains exactly why the three-floor layer cake of community, creator-to-creator learning, and industry conversations is still hard to beat.
From a two-year creator IP program to a splashy activation that raises real ROI questions to where smart teams are actually investing their conference budgetâthis episode cuts through the noise on what creator marketing looks like when it works and when it doesn't.
The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.
-
CESD Talent Agency is one of the leading talent representation firms operating across both Hollywood and the creator economy, with offices in Los Angeles and New York. The company's digital department represents content creators across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and podcasts, applying traditional Hollywood representation principles to building sustainable creator careers.
Ceci chats with Eddie Pietzak, SVP of Digital at CESD Talent Agency, to hear his perspective on three critical issues: what the Hollywood mailroom-to-agent mentorship model built over decades that the creator management space still hasn't replicated at scale, why creators who refuse to diversify beyond one platform or one revenue stream are running a one-to-three year business at best, and how the always-on service model that defined legacy talent representation became a competitive advantage in a space where most managers go dark after 6pm. Tune in for a practitioner's framework on what professional creator representation actually looks like when it's done right.
The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.
-
Superfiliate is a creator-led growth platform helping thousands of D2C brands run and scale creator partnerships across Shopify, Meta, and TikTok Shop. The platform provides unified affiliate and creator management, automated gifting workflows, creator storefronts, discovery tools, and performance visibilityâconsolidating what used to require 12 different tools into one system.
Ceci chats with Andy Cloyd, Co-Founder and CEO of Superfiliate, to hear his perspective on three critical issues: why creators have become the new creative production house replacing quarterly high-budget shoots with volume testing where brands kiss a lot of frogs to find the prince worth $100K in paid media spend, how the operational chaos of managing 100+ creator partnerships causes brands to miss their best-performing relationships while wasting money on usage rights the paid team never activates, and where AI creates real value versus hypeâautomating everything except relationship building while human authenticity becomes more valuable in a world of indistinguishable content. Tune in for tactical frameworks on scaling creator programs without scaling headcount proportionally.
The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.
-
Underscore Talent is a premier creator economy management company representing diverse talent across creators, comedians, athletes, and thought leaders. The company's division, Shorthand Studios, provides editorial services, editing, digital strategy consulting, and production support to help creators build sustainable businesses across social platforms, CTV, paywalls, and original content development.
Ceci chats with Nick Jacklin, Partner at Underscore Talent and President of Shorthand Studios, to hear his perspective on three critical issues: why creators must shift from posting content to building IP that works across 25-50 episodes instead of chasing one-off viral moments, how the economics of creator businesses have grown 10-100x in the past decade but the infrastructure to support multi-platform monetization still requires specialized teams most creators can't build alone, and which platforms are being seriously underestimated right nowâYouTube for podcasts, CTV for premium placement, and paywalls like Substack where creators need marketing and pricing support to unlock exponential growth. Tune in for operational frameworks on what it actually takes to run a creator business like a media company.
The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.
-
Verbatim is a boutique marketing agency that helps SMBs and startups grow through influencer marketing and speaker sourcing, specializing in SaaS and eCommerce brands. The agency focuses on helping businesses tell compelling stories that drive measurable results rather than just creating content for visibility.
Ceci chats with Brianna Doe, Head of Influencer Marketing and Founder at Verbatim, to hear her perspective on three critical issues: why SMBs and startups approach creator marketing differently than enterprise brands and what infrastructure gaps prevent smaller companies from scaling programs effectively, how the rise of B2B influencer marketing has changed what types of creators and partnerships make sense for SaaS companies versus traditional consumer brands, and what brands at the SMB level misunderstand about building sustainable creator programs when budgets are tighter and every dollar needs clear attribution. Tune in for practical frameworks on making creator marketing work at startup scale.
The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.
-
In this May episode, hosts Ceci Carloni and Nii Ahene unpack three stories revealing how brands are rethinking creator program structure, compensation models, and platform commerce strategies:
đŻ Does "Make It Cool First, Scale Second" Actually Work?: A Net Influencer roundtable asked industry professionals whether brands need a macro creator to anchor credibility before scaling through micro creators. The consensus? The logic works in theory, but you don't always need a celebrityâjust the most trusted voice in a niche, regardless of size. The real insight: treating macro and micro as separate budgets breaks the entire system. Nii argues the anchor doesn't have to be a creator at allâcultural events like the Grammys, NBA playoffs, or F1 Miami can serve as the universal touchstone that smaller creators triangulate around.
đł Target Drops Commissions for Gamification: Target is replacing its commission-based creator program with challenges, rewards, gift cards, and productsâpart of a broader retail shift toward gamified programs that scale creator marketing at lower cost. Nii's take: only a handful of brands have enough cache to pull this off. Target is ubiquitous enough that creators will participate without cash, but most companies still need actual financial incentives. This model works when you're a household name that looms large in American consciousnessânot when you're still building brand equity.
đïž Instagram's Shoppable Reels Rollout: Instagram launched a feature letting creators tag up to 30 shoppable products directly in Reels, including affiliate links, with in-app checkout. Facebook followed with a similar update launching Amazon first, then Temu and eBay. Meta says tagged content will appear in partnership tabs for brand discovery. Nii's verdict: too little, too late. While Meta focused on the metaverse for three years, ShopMy and LTK built giant creator commerce networks that now dominate boutique curation and creator-led shopping. Instagram's new features help creators not on those platforms, but the zeitgeist already shifted.
From rethinking tier strategy beyond celebrity anchors to compensation models that only work for household brands to Instagram playing catch-up in creator commerceâthis episode captures the tactical and structural shifts brands are navigating in mid-2026.
The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.
-
Sounds Profitable is a media property covering strategic and tactical changes in the podcasting business through newsletters, podcasts, and industry research. The company produces educational content, conducts quarterly research series, and provides advisory services to keep companies informed on the state of podcasting. Bryan Barletta also serves as President of Podcast Movement, the world's largest conference for podcasters.
Ceci chats with Bryan Barletta, President of Podcast Movement and Partner at Sounds Profitable, to hear his perspective on three critical issues: how the podcasting industry's infrastructure and measurement capabilities compare to where creator marketing sits today and what brands need to understand about attribution differences, why the convergence of podcasting and the broader creator economy creates opportunities for brands to think about audio creators as part of their overall influencer strategy, and what the shift from experimental podcast budgets to core marketing spend means for how the industry must mature its tooling and standards. Tune in for strategic context on positioning podcast creators within enterprise marketing programs.
The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.
-
Spotter is a platform that provides creators with capital, community, and AI-powered tools to accelerate growth. The company has deployed over $940 million to YouTube creators for reinvestment and operates a premium catalog generating 88 billion monthly watch-time minutes, offering brands a scaled media solution that's transparent and brand-safe.
Ceci chats with Christian Liquigan, Director of Brand Partnerships at Spotter, to hear his perspective on three critical issues: how brands can move beyond transactional influencer campaigns to build partnerships where creators and brands tell authentic stories that actually drive results, what the shift from traditional advertising to creator-led content means for how media buyers allocate budgets and measure success, and why the combination of creator capital and brand partnerships creates opportunities that neither side can unlock alone. Tune in for practical guidance on designing campaigns that leverage Spotter's unique position connecting top YouTube creators with enterprise brands.
The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.
-
Creator Revolution is a talent management and advisory firm that helps top creators scale businesses through strategic partnerships and long-term monetization while helping companies unlock creators as a core growth channel. Founded by Monica Khan, the firm operates at the intersection of creator management, platform strategy, and corporate advisory, including work with McKinsey & Company.
Ceci chats with Monica Khan, Founder and CEO of Creator Revolution, to hear her perspective on three critical issues: why the creator economy needs to move beyond treating creators as contractors and brands as ATMs toward partnerships where both sides actually build together, how her decade at YouTube, Facebook, and Spotter shaped her understanding of what separates creators who build media empires from those stuck chasing algorithm luck, and what brands must change to design collaborations that creators actually want instead of awkward influencer campaigns. Tune in for strategic frameworks on building sustainable creator businesses and authentic brand partnerships.
The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.
-
OWM is a platform building infrastructure to help creators move from brand deals into equity and ownership. The company standardized the influence-for-equity agreement, created creator stock option pools, and built systems that let founders, operators, and creators partner on attention-first businesses with real upside.
Ceci chats with Jeff Frommer, Founder and CEO of OWM, to hear his perspective on three critical issues: why creators need to make ownership an "and" conversation instead of an "or" conversation when brands come knocking, how the three barriers blocking creator equity (lack of standardization, education gaps, and manager compensation models) can finally be solved, and why brands using equity as growth capital need to build creator advisory boards that activate storytellers instead of treating them like transactional megaphones. Tune in for concrete frameworks on structuring deals where creators invest social capital for long-term returns.
The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.
-
In this Q2 kickoff episode, hosts Ceci Carloni and Nii Ahene unpack three stories that reveal how brands are scaling creator programsâand where the industry still falls short:
đ± **Samsung Goes All In**: The Galaxy S26 Ultra launch brought 140 creators from 35 countries to San Francisco for a three-day summit with structured content tracks (camera, gaming, sound), live streams hitting 17 million views, and an award ceremony recognizing top performers. This wasn't just a product launchâit was a mini-conference designed to create algorithm-spiking density. Nii breaks down what other brands can learn about using real-life events to generate authentic UGC and why creating creator ecosystems beats flying out individual influencers.
đ **Mr. Beast's 117M Subscriber Secret**: The largest single-year gain in YouTube history came from running 428 ads monthly through his company Creator Global, targeting India, Indonesia, and Vietnam with localized content. At peak, 298 unique ads ran in a single day. But Nii questions the strategy: is this growth for growth's sake, or can these markets actually deliver advertiser ROI? The bigger opportunity? Most brands aren't thinking about paid YouTube ads to grow their own channelsâand they should be.
đ€ **The Partnership Gap That Won't Close**: An IAB study shows 60% of buyers say creator partnerships are their top priority, yet creators still face late payments and over-scripted briefs daily. Net Influencer's roundtable with 70 industry voices surfaced the same themes: creator freedom, fair pay, stop treating them as distribution. Nii's take? The conversation won't change until someone bridges the gap between how brands think (channels, demographics) and what creators need (creative liberty, partnership respect).
From creator summits as algorithm strategy to paid growth at YouTube scale to the operational gaps holding partnerships backâthis episode captures both the sophistication and dysfunction of creator marketing in 2026.The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.
-
Later is a leading influencer marketing and social platform that helps brands identify creators and launch campaigns backed by data-driven intelligence. The company serves both B2C and B2B companies looking to build scalable creator programs with measurable ROI.
Ceci chats with Scott Sutton, CEO at Later, to hear his perspective on three critical issues: why B2B companies stayed on the sidelines of creator marketing for so long and what changed to make it relevant now, how attribution technology finally enables SaaS companies to track creator content from click to install to subscription revenue, and what separates experimental creator tactics from programs that CMOs can defend as legitimate growth channels. Tune in for concrete guidance on building creator strategies that deliver measurable business outcomes in B2B contexts.
The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.
-
Amaze is an integrated commerce platform that helps creators and brands turn content moments into revenue streams. The company provides tools for product launches, audience insights, and monetization infrastructure that enable creators to build businesses around their audiences rather than relying solely on brand deals.
Ceci chats with Danielle Pederson, CMO at Amaze, to hear her perspective on three critical issues: why the creator economy is shifting from attention and brand deals into a third wave focused on ownership and equity, how engagement signals from fans translate into actual product opportunities that creators can capitalize on quickly, and what brands misunderstand when they over-index on reach instead of audience intent. Tune in for actionable guidance on building creator businesses with compounding value beyond one-time partnerships.
The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.
-
QYOU Media is a global creator marketing and media company that helps brands design creator-led campaigns reaching audiences across social platforms. The company works with major brands, studios, and entertainment companies to execute strategies that blend creator partnerships with media amplification and distribution.
Ceci chats with Glenn Ginsburg, President of QYOU Media, to hear his perspective on three critical issues: how creator marketing shifted from experimental budgets to enterprise-level infrastructure inside major corporations, why media amplification has become necessary for brands investing six and seven figures in creator programs, and what breaks when companies try to scale creator marketing from 10 creators to hundreds while maintaining brand consistency. Tune in for concrete guidance on building creator strategies that deliver measurable impact at scale.
The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.
-
Beacons is an all-in-one platform that helps creators manage their businessesâfrom link-in-bio storefronts and audience monetization to brand partnerships and creator tools. The company was built for creators first, and now focuses on connecting brands with creators who drive measurable impact.
Ceci chats with Sabrina Haschak, Head of Partnerships at Beacons, to hear her perspective on three critical issues: why brands still struggle to measure creator marketing the same way they measure traditional media channels, what the most successful brand-creator partnerships have in common that others miss, and how creator pricing should reflect the reality that creators now function as full production companies. Tune in for practical guidance on treating creator marketing as a core channel, not an experimental budget line.
The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.
-
Net Influencer is a trade publication and intelligence platform covering the creator economy, publishing daily content and roundtable research drawn from hundreds of industry professionals and executives. Its roundtable series aggregates frontline perspectives on the strategies, tools, and challenges shaping influencer marketing.
Ceci Carloni sits down with Nii Ahene, founder of Net Influencer, to hear his perspective on three critical issues: whether brands are moving beyond last-minute cultural moment activations : why measurement in creator campaigns remains structurally difficult to solve : and what it actually takes to scale whitelisting beyond a single boosted post. Tune in for a ground-level read on where the industry is putting its energy â and where the gaps remain.
From cultural moment strategy to the platform incentive misalignment that makes measurement hard to the operational reality of scaling paid creator mediaâthis episode captures what 125 industry voices say matters most right now.
The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.
-
In our fourth guest episode, host Ceci Carloni sits down with Greg Glenday, CEO of Acast, for an in-depth conversation about why 2026 is the year podcasting finally becomes mainstreamâand what brands are still getting wrong about discovery, measurement, and showing up authentically in audio.
đïž The Meritocracy of Podcasting: Unlike traditional media where gatekeepers decide what content reaches audiences, or social platforms where algorithms put their thumb on the scale, podcasting is a pure meritocracyâlisteners decide what's good by seeking it out. Greg argues this makes it fundamentally different from every other medium, but also harder for the industry to categorize. Podcasting doesn't fit neatly into audio, video, influencer, or social teams, so agencies and brands are still trying to find where it belongs.
đŻ Discovery Isn't BrokenâIt's Just Slow: The challenge isn't technology or algorithmsâit's trust. Building a relationship with a podcast host takes time, unlike the instant judgment you make with Netflix shows. Greg shares how Acast is tackling discovery through curation, playlist experiments, cross-promotion, and transcription data that surfaces topical connections. But the real unlock? Getting brands to understand they're buying audiences, not creatorsâand 25 mid-sized shows with overlapping audiences can be more effective than one massive podcast.
đ° Why Big Brands Haven't Arrived Yet: Most top 250 US brands still don't buy podcasting. Greg uses peer pressure to wake them up: "Are direct response advertisers like Athletic Greens and BetterHelp smarter than billion-dollar CMOs? They only buy channels that workâand they've been growing with podcasting for years." The missing pieces are trusted third-party measurement, brand safety verification (now solved with partners like Barometer), and understanding that podcast ads should feel additive, not disruptiveâintimate conversations, not roadside billboards.
From why podcasting is narrative influence (not just audio) to how revenue should spread beyond the top 200 shows to why sought-not-served content changes everything about brand safetyâthis conversation captures podcasting at its inflection point.
The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.
- Show more
