An introduction to the independent global creator marketing agency, for brand-side marketers who commission creator work and for every new person here in their first fortnight.
What you will be able to do
Five modules across three parts, two conversation practices, two checkpoints, and a scenario assessment.
Explain who Influencer is, when we started, and why we exist.
Say what True Human Influence means in their own words.
Name the six areas behind a campaign and say what each one does.
Describe the path a campaign takes from brief to live.
Recognize what makes a brief workable for a creator.
Explain why creator freedom produces better results than tight control.
Identify what a good client partnership looks like from our side.
The course
Eight real campaigns run through it as worked examples. The checkpoints below are live, so you can try them.
Part one, who we are
20 minutes
Module 1 · 6 min
Welcome to Influencer
Establish who we are, where we came from, and why any of it matters.
Attention now lives with creators, and the brands that win are the ones who understand that.
We are the world's largest independent creator marketing specialist, combining proprietary technology, enterprise capability, and independent agility.
Founded in 2015 by Ben Jeffries and Caspar Lee. One needed creators for his own business, the other had lived on the other side of the brief.
Nine global commercial hubs and 200 plus people.
Creators were being treated as media placements. We believe they are people, and the work is better when you treat them that way.
Creators bridge the gap between how brands want to speak and how audiences want to be spoken to
Module 2 · 7 min
What we believe
Make the philosophy concrete rather than leaving it as a slogan.
We humanize brands. A brand speaks through a person the audience already chose, sounding like that person rather than like the brand.
True Human Influence. The relationship between brands, creators, and audiences, measured in what people remember, feel, and buy rather than in likes and impressions.
Act with instinct. Creators thrive on action, not on waiting for perfect plans.
Be unmistakably human. Empathy, authenticity, and relatability are the foundation of trust.
Create to connect. The goal is not output, it is outcome.
What we rule out. Over-scripted content, creators chosen on follower count alone, and campaigns measured only on views.
Practice one · 5 min
Explain us in 60 seconds
A colleague stops you and asks what Influencer actually does, and what all this True Human Influence stuff is. They have a marketing background, no creator marketing knowledge, and will interrupt if you get abstract.
What good looks like. Explaining the mechanism rather than the vocabulary, defining True Human Influence without reciting it, and not overclaiming.
Checkpoint
Question 1
Influencer was founded in 2015 by a founder and a creator. Why does that origin matter?
Question 2
Where creativity meets data, magic happens. What does the data half actually do?
Question 3
Which of these would Influencer not do?
Part two, what we do
42 minutes
Module 3.0 · 4 min
The six areas and how they fit together
Creator marketing is not one job. Six distinct areas sit behind every campaign we run.
The six areas behind a campaign
Marketing Science
How we decide what to make, before anyone makes it
Strategy
How a business problem becomes a creator idea
Creative Production
How the work gets made, and remade, at pace
Commerce
How creator work drives a transaction, not just a view
Brand
How creators build a brand and not only a campaign
Performance
How we measure it, defend it, and then do it again
These are not a sequence. They overlap, and on any campaign one or two lead while the rest support.
Module 3.1 · 6 min
Marketing Science
Decide what to make before anyone makes it, using audience data, casting logic, and testing.
A large audience made of nearly anybody performs worse than a smaller audience made of the right people.
We read audience composition, how a creator already talks about the category, and comment quality rather than comment volume.
We cast by role, not by tier. A campaign needs someone who explains, someone who entertains, and someone who demonstrates.
Worked example
Head & Shoulders
16 creators, 3 markets, 102.5 million views from 26 videos
Pharmacists and science communicators educated, comedy and lifestyle creators made it native. Reach came from casting rather than volume.
Module 3.2 · 6 min
Strategy
Turn a business problem into a creator idea.
Name the commercial outcome before naming the audience.
Find the belief that has to change for that outcome to happen, then choose where to play and where not to.
Write a strategy a creator can read once and act on.
Worked example
Nike, Style By
138 plus creators across 3 seasons, 427 million views, 10.5% uplift in purchase intent
Nike wanted to be read as a streetwear staple, not only performance sportswear. Perception moves slowly, so this was a program rather than a campaign.
Module 3.3 · 6 min
Creative Production
Get the work made, and remade, at pace and at volume.
Native by default. Match the format the platform rewards rather than fitting existing brand assets to it.
The brief transfers intent. Everything a creator invents afterward should be recognizably in service of what was written down.
Direction, never control. Over-specified content sounds like the brand, and the audience notices immediately.
Worked example
Wonderskin
12 creators in 2 streams, over 300 bespoke assets
Half produced polished, personality-led content. The other half captured raw footage our in-house team remixed into performance assets.
Module 3.4 · 6 min
Commerce
Turn creator work into a transaction rather than just a view.
Between watching and buying there are usually 4 or 5 steps, and every step loses people.
Know where the click lands and treat that page as part of the creative. The offer in the content has to match the offer on the page.
Choose the commerce model before choosing the creator. Affiliate, storefront, and live selling suit different work.
Worked example
ASOS
90 plus creators, 100 plus assets, 202% return on ad spend, 56% conversion rate
A 3-month always-on TikTok campaign optimized in real time. Finance-approved numbers come from optimizing continuously, not reviewing at the end.
Module 3.5 · 6 min
Brand
Build long-term perception and relationships rather than one-off activations.
A creator lends a brand relevance and permission. Neither is permanent, and neither transfers because you paid for it.
Repeat partnerships compound. One-off activations do not, and audiences notice when a creator is renting out their name.
The strongest brand work makes creators participants rather than posters.
Worked example
Spotify VIP
106 creators, 30 plus activations, over $2 million in earned value, 90% post rate
Early music access, behind the scenes content, and front row seats over six months. They posted because they were participating, not because a contract said so.
Module 3.6 · 6 min
Performance
Measure the work, defend it, and make the next campaign start further forward.
A measure agreed after a campaign has run is an argument, not a metric. Write down what failure looks like before launch.
One primary measure. Everything else is a diagnostic.
A benchmark is what turns a number into evidence.
Worked example
A Year in Monzo
11 creators, 48 million impressions, 202,000 clicks, 68.9% positive sentiment against a 53.8% benchmark
Creators got early access to their own spending data and complete freedom to turn it into platform-native stories.
Checkpoint
Question 1
Head and Shoulders delivered 102.5 million views. From how many videos?
Question 2
Which area turns a business problem into a creator idea?
Question 3
Wonderskin ran 12 creators in two distinct streams. Why?
Question 4
ASOS delivered a 202% return on ad spend. Which area does that sit under?
Question 5
Spotify VIP achieved a 90% post rate across 106 creators. What does that number really show?
Question 6
Monzo reported 68.9% positive sentiment. Why does that figure carry weight?
Part three, how it works
28 minutes
Module 4 · 12 min
How a campaign happens
The path from a brand brief to a live campaign.
The brief arrives
We read what a brand sends, clarify the business goal, and ask for the details that are usually missing.
Strategy and measures
The business problem becomes a creator idea, and the primary measure is agreed before anything launches.
Casting and contracts
Creators are cast by role against audience data, then contracts and usage rights are settled.
Briefs and compliance
Each creator gets a brief naming the outcome, the single message, the freedom they have, and the rules that cannot flex.
Production and approvals
Creators submit for brand approval. Alignment without micromanagement is the whole job here.
Launch and optimization
Content goes live and paid amplification is optimized in real time against performance.
Reporting
Success is judged against the measure agreed at stage two, benchmarked so the numbers mean something.
Global payments
Creator payouts are handled on sign-off, in whatever market the creator is in.
Worked example
Coca-Cola, Real Magic at Meals
33 creators, 5 markets, 836 assets, 34.5 million impressions
Localized execution inside a single global message, launched in sync. End-to-end multi-market delivery is a capability, not a claim.
Module 5 · 9 min
Working with us
What a brand can do to get better work out of us. Practical, honest, and slightly uncomfortable.
Write a brief a creator can act on
Name the outcome, not the deliverables.
One message. If there are three messages, there is no message.
Say explicitly what the creator gets to decide. If the freedom is not written down, they will assume it does not exist.
Name how the work will be judged before it exists, and keep the non-negotiables short.
Trust the creators
Over-briefing is the easiest failure to spot. The content sounds like the brand, and the audience notices.
Give creators the reasons behind the rules so they can apply judgment you did not anticipate.
Old Spice, Big Man Ting: 4 creators, no scripts, 19.8 million views.
Oral-B iO2: complete freedom to share genuine experiences, and 32% of creators over-delivered on their contracted assets.
Agree the goal, and the measure, at the start
Decide what success looks like, and what failure looks like, before launch.
Agree the measure with whoever will question it later.
Accept the measure that fits the work. Judge a perception campaign on immediate sales and good work will look like failure.
Practice two · 7 min
Brief a creator
You are briefing a creator on a household product campaign. Partway through they tell you one of your rules will not work, because their audience will hear it as scripted.
What good looks like. Opening with the outcome, stating one message, naming the freedom explicitly, and explaining the reason behind a rule when it is challenged. Some rules are legal and cannot be dropped, so check before you fold.
Assessment
Twelve scenarios, and 9 to pass
Situations rather than definitions, drawn from the campaigns in the course. Retakes are unlimited.
Every question maps to one of the seven learning outcomes.
Taken online, whenever you are ready.
A certificate is issued on passing.
The certificate is not the credential
Passing this course proves you completed it. That is a different thing from a Verified credential, and the difference matters.
