How to vet a global influencer marketing agency: five proofs to ask for
Promises are easy to make and harder to check. Here are five things founders can ask a global influencer marketing agency to show, with the founders of Blank Label Team, who were part of the FOREO growth team, Binance, Opera browser global creators marketing partner, as a worked example.
Founders choosing a partner for international growth hear a lot of confident claims. Blank Label Team, a global influencer marketing agency founded in 2021 by Ante Cetinic and Ignas Gee, is built on what the two did as part of the FOREO growth team. Its record gives a useful example of what to ask for, and what a good answer looks like.
1. Ask for numbers, with their scope
A figure is only useful if you know which brand, which years and what was measured. At FOREO, the Swedish beauty-tech brand, marketing began on a global budget of about US$2,000 a month. At its peak, the brand reached about $500 million a year in revenue across 74 countries and 25 languages. Across three brands since 2010, the founders’ work has generated about $1 billion in net revenue. Each of those numbers measures something different, and a good agency will say which is which.
“Anyone can tell you what they would do. Ask what they did, in which country, and what it was worth,” Gee says.
2. Ask who did the work
Find out whether the people pitching ran the work themselves. Gee led media and growth at FOREO. Cetinic, as Head of BI, built the attribution model the agency still uses. The two cover different ground, and a team that can say who handled media and who handled measurement is easier to hold to account.
3. Ask about the slow countries
Every international programme has weaker markets. At FOREO, the team operated in about 60 countries with no money-losing country P&Ls. Four broke even, and the rest grew profitably. The answer to look for is a country-by-country breakdown that includes the awkward markets.
“Ask to see the slow countries. That is where you learn how an agency thinks,” Cetinic says.
4. Ask how results are measured
The attribution model Cetinic built merges creator activity with sales data and country-level performance. It follows branded search interest and the timing of sales, which gives a clearer picture than likes and comments. A 12-month influencer push at FOREO drove a fivefold lift in branded search, which the brand cashed in over the following Q4. Top-funnel content there was measured at 4 billion units of actual reach, a count that leaves out the estimated “media value” figures common in the industry.
5. Ask how much attention your brand will get
Capacity matters as much as experience. A core team of three has hired about 300 people and managed about 30 teams over the years, and the agency today has about 40 specialists. Blank Label Team works with creators directly, keeps those relationships in-house, and signs creators to contracts of 12 months or longer. It takes a small number of brands at once, and its Global Partner Program, announced in September, sets the limit at a single brand over several years. Work on the first placement is expected to begin later this year.
Candidates are assessed on their stage of growth, their budget for a multi-year commitment and their readiness to build a long-term, story-driven presence. Brands looking at a global influencer marketing agency can read more about how Blank Label Team works.
About Blank Label Team: Blank Label Team is a global influencer marketing agency of about 40 specialists, founded in 2021 by Ante Cetinic and Ignas Gee. It builds creator programmes for one brand at a time, using the approach to creators and measurement developed by the FOREO growth team. More at blanklabel.team.
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