Open Influence

The best brands are not built on tactics. They are built on systems, and the 2026 Association of National Advertisers Brand Masters Conference is making that crystal clear. Our VP of Sales and Brand Partnerships, Jaime Frank, has been on the ground in Los Angeles for the ANA Brand Masters Conference, and the conversations coming out of this event are ones every marketer needs to hear. Across two days of panels featuring CMOs from McDonald's, Dove, YETI, Keurig Dr Pepper Inc., Saatva, and more, a few themes kept rising to the top. AI is no longer a channel. It compresses the entire customer journey into a single interaction, and brands that treat it as SEO 2.0 will fall behind. Authenticity at scale is possible, but it requires a brand strategy clear and strong enough that real moments can be identified and amplified without losing integrity. Community depth beats awareness breadth every time. And premium investment pays off when the right measurement infrastructure is in place. The overarching message? The brands winning right now have traded short-term performance thinking for long-term system building. Invest in roots before canopy, and the tree takes care of itself. More takeaways to come as the conference wraps! #ANABrandMasters #InfluencerMarketing #CreatorMarketing #BrandStrategy #AIMarketing #InfluencerMarketing #AI

The future of creator marketing is being built right now, and Open Influence is at the table helping shape it. Last week, our SVP of Platform and Brand Partnerships, Kimberly Beauchaine Uihlein, took the stage at the TikTok Partner Summit for a panel titled "What's New? Learning from Partner-Led Innovation," alongside leaders from Winclap and Adyssey Media, moderated by TikTok's Head of Creative Ops EUI, Jihane B. Kim spoke to how Open Influence has been leveraging AI and visual recognition technology for nearly a decade, long before it became a buzzword, and shared how tools like TikTok One are transforming the way we identify creators, measure performance, and build smarter, faster campaigns for our brand partners. The conversation covered everything from agentic advertising to AI-powered creator discovery, and what it really takes to stay ahead in an industry that moves at TikTok speed. This is the kind of innovation we live for, and we are just getting started. CC: TikTok for Business, Gina D'Andrea, Erica Fernette, Kylie Walsh, Alexandra Nemchenko #TikTokPartnerSummit #CreatorMarketing #InfluencerMarketing #TikTokForBusiness #TikTok

The next era of marketing is collaborative by design. Isobel Sita-Lumsden, global head of business marketing, TikTok underscores how partner ecosystems are helping brands turn connected capabilities into scalable growth. #sponsored

Being small has never been a liability. In the right hands, it is the whole advantage. The Drum asked agency leaders and operators from across the industry to weigh in on how smaller shops can compete with the giants, and the responses are anything but generic. Intelligence editor Sam Anderson pulled together a piece full of hard-earned perspective from founders and operators who have actually been in those rooms, fought for those clients, and built something real without the safety net of a holding company behind them. The throughline across all of it? Size is not the differentiator. Clarity, access, and obsession with the outcome are. Open Influence's own Joey Chowaiki, COO, is featured, and his contribution hits on something we live by every single day. Clients can tell when senior people are genuinely in the work versus showing up for the pitch and handing it off. Smaller agencies offer direct access to the people who are actually thinking about your problem, faster decisions, and a level of responsiveness that larger shops, no matter how talented, often struggle to maintain at scale. The goal was never to look established. It was always to be the partner that clients cannot imagine working without. If you are building an agency, growing one, or just thinking about what great partnership actually looks like, this one is worth your time. Give it a read: https://lnkd.in/eKaVkvNf #AgencyLife #ThoughtLeadership #CreatorMarketing #InfluencerMarketing #AgencyGrowth

Reach is not the flex it used to be in B2B, and 30 industry experts just made that case in one place. Net Influencer tapped some of the sharpest minds in creator marketing for their latest piece, "B2B Creator Vetting: 30 Experts on Why Audience Quality Beats Reach," and we think the timing could not be better. The industry is moving away from vanity metrics and toward something that actually drives pipeline: the right audience, not the biggest one. Maria A. Rodriguez, VP of Communications and Marketing here at Open Influence, was among the voices featured by author Dragomir Stojkov. Her take? In B2B, one trusted connection can be worth more than thousands of impressions, and trust is often the metric that matters most even when it is the hardest to measure. Give it a read: https://lnkd.in/gz7a4Mfk #B2BMarketing #InfluencerMarketing #CreatorMarketing #B2BCreators

🏆 We have been named TikTok’s North America winner for Innovation in Creative at the first ever #TikTok Partner Innovation Awards. The awards recognize partners driving exceptional results, advancing innovation, and shaping the future of marketing on TikTok. We’re incredibly proud to be recognized alongside leaders across the global TikTok ecosystem. As creator marketing continues to evolve at the speed of culture, we’re excited to continue pushing creative innovation forward and helping our clients build meaningful impact on TikTok. Thank you to the TikTok for Business team for the recognition and partnership. Read more about it here: https://lnkd.in/eJnG-8ER ADWEEK #TikTokForBusiness #CreatorMarketing #InfluencerMarketing CC: Steph Marr, Erin Dorr, Alexis Biegeleisen, Gina D'Andrea, Kimberly Beauchaine Uihlein, Erica Fernette, Kylie Walsh, Alexandra Nemchenko

AI search is rewriting the rules of brand discovery. And creator content is at the center of it. AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Gemini do not return a list of links. They synthesize a single answer and cite only a handful of sources. According to recent data, 85% of brand mentions in AI-generated answers come from third-party pages, not brand-owned domains. Your corporate website is not what AI is reading. Creator content is. In our latest trend report, The Playbook to Win AI Search Visibility With Creators, we break down exactly how to get there, including where creators are winning the citation race across YouTube, Reddit, and Instagram, how to brief creators for AI retrieval and not just engagement, and how to measure citation outcomes alongside traditional metrics. The playbook is clear. The question is whether your brand moves now or waits until competitors have already built citation dominance. Download the full report here: https://lnkd.in/gzdc4SRR #CreatorMarketing #AISearch #InfluencerMarketing #CreatorEconomy #BrandDiscovery #DigitalMarketing #ContentStrategy

We’re hiring a Creative Strategist in Italy 🇮🇹 Open Influence is hiring a Creative Strategist to help shape the next phase of growth in the region. We’re looking for someone who lives at the intersection of culture, creativity, and creators - someone who can develop ideas that resonate, collaborate with talent, and bring brand stories to life in a way that actually performs. Our Italy team has built incredible momentum, and this is an opportunity to be part of something that’s growing quickly and intentionally. If you or someone in your network might be a fit, we’d love to connect! View the full job description and apply at 👉 https://lnkd.in/gYFRkFHK #CreativeStrategist #CreatorMarketingAgency #TeamItaly #InfluencerMarketing #WeAreHiring

Yesterday, our Chief Client Officer, Maggie Reznikoff, took the stage at Marketing Brew's The Next Phase of Social and Creator Marketing in New York City for one of the most timely conversations in the industry right now. On the panel, Platform Diversification: Where to Play, When to Pivot, When to Bail, Maggie joined fellow industry leaders Celia Kelly Bouza Bouza, VP of Multi-Platform Video at ESPN, James Pastan, Head of Growth at Framer, and Jaimee Kidd, Senior Programming Manager at Morning Brew Inc., to dig into one of the biggest challenges brands are facing today: how to stay nimble across platforms without chasing every new trend. The conversation covered the signals that tell you a new format is working, when to double down versus when to pull back, and how to future-proof your brand against algorithmic unpredictability. With new platforms constantly coming to market, knowing where to invest and where to hold off has never been more critical. A huge thank you to Marketing Brew for putting together such a thoughtful and energizing event. The conversations happening in this space are exactly the ones that move the industry forward. #MarketingBrew #CreatorMarketing #SocialMedia #PlatformStrategy #InfluencerMarketing #CreatorEconomy #OpenInfluence

Creator content is everywhere. But where is it actually working hardest for your brand? Here is something worth thinking about: Organic social remains the number one channel brands use to distribute and promote content. But with organic reach on Instagram dropping nearly 30% in recent years and Facebook's post reach falling to under 9%, the playing field has shifted. Brands are having to be a lot more intentional about where creator content lives and how it gets amplified. Meanwhile, investment in paid media, owned channels, and CTV is on the rise as marketers look to extend the life of creator content beyond a single post. So we want to know: where does most of your creator content live today? Cast your vote below and let us know in the comments! #CreatorMarketing #InfluencerMarketing #ContentStrategy #PaidMedia #CreatorEconomy #DigitalMarketing #OwnedMedia