The top 15 influencer-marketing agencies and creator marketplaces that connect major brands with Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok stars
- 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.
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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 Branded Entertainment Network (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:
