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Influential’s Chief Growth Officer Kim Iadevaia on building creator connections | Marketing Voices and Perspectives
00:22:54
Kim Iadevaia has been at the forefront of the influencer space for years, helping brands navigate successful partnerships. Now as Chief Growth Officer at Influential, she reveals the secret to building trust, scaling content, and driving real business...
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- [00:00]
A
We often see brands just kind of pop in. Yeah. And say, oh, I just want to do this creator campaign for this one big moment we're going to have. But how are you speaking to that audience through creators from a long term perspective? Yeah.
- [00:21]
B
This is MVP Marketing Voices and Perspectives, a podcast where the sharpest minds in marketing reveal what. What's shaping the future of video and creator marketing. We get into how they've grown, how they stay relevant and where they think video is heading next, from storytelling to monetization to the culture they're helping create. My name is Amrie Nelson Bogle, Vice president of ads marketing at YouTube and I've got the great honor of hosting these conversations. I am joined here today by Kim Idavaya, who's our chief growth officer at Influential. Welcome, Kim.
- [00:57]
A
Thank you.
- [00:58]
B
We're excited to have you here to share a bit more about the work you're doing with brands and creators on platforms like YouTube. Ready to get into it?
- [01:06]
A
Absolutely. Let's go.
- [01:07]
B
All right, sounds good. Now before we get started, first tell us a little bit about yourself.
- [01:12]
A
I started in the industry just a few short years ago. No, I started right out of college in production. Really wanted to get into understanding the craft and how content was created and, and from there, jumped into marketing at various different television networks and then through mutual relationships throughout the years, landed at Publicis at Zenith, overseeing content there and started to really lean into the influencer space and worked with Influential for many years and there was an opportunity and three years ago I started at Influential and now we are back within this group, which I know we'll talk a little bit more about. But exciting kind of full circle moment.
- [02:01]
B
That's amazing. And I really, I'm so excited to have you here and share that story, share your learnings and perspectives for a lot of brands out there that are, you know. Yes. Wanting to work with influencers, wanting to work with creators and how they can really help it to drive business growth.
- [02:14]
A
So.
- [02:15]
B
But before we get started, I want to break the ice a little bit and so I'm going to ask you a few rapid fire questions. So, favorite YouTube creator and why?
- [02:26]
A
Well, right now not enough Nelsons is a big thing in my household. So I have a 13 year old daughter.
- [02:32]
B
Love it.
- [02:33]
A
And a 16 year old and an 18 year old. But the 13 year old in particular is very focused on that family and we actually are just doing a brand deal with them.
- [02:41]
B
So that's amazing.
- [02:42]
A
We're consuming a lot of that content at the moment.
- [02:45]
B
That's great. And what are we most likely to catch you watching on YouTube? Short form or long form videos?
- [02:53]
A
I would say right now it's short form and that's part research, part infinite scroll at night, when you're seeing what's trending and which creators you should start to follow, what brands are doing. So shorts right now is definitely the platform, but there are definitely moments where we sit down and watch the Coachella livestream. So that was on my living room television and we were watching it all afternoon when it was, it was live.
- [03:22]
B
We are going to pivot now right into our podcast. And you know, at the heart of what we're here to talk about really is the fact that we are at this pivotal moment right now where we're seeing an exciting transformation of video landscape. For example, we're seeing more and more people engage with YouTube on the big screen, but really at the heart of that are creators. I mean, they're such a huge part of the video ecosystem. They're the startups of Hollywood. They're, they're not just building these phenomenal cutting edge studios, but they're building trust with their communities of fans on YouTube. Want to understand from your perspective, how do you approach brand building and creator partnerships and what role does YouTube play in those strategies? When you're speaking to brands, well, at.
- [04:06]
A
Influential, everything has to start with the audience the brand is trying to reach. If you are reverse engineering or saying, I really like that creator, let's work with them, but you don't truly understand their audience, who's following them, who's engaging in their content. And you put a brand in that situation, that could be a recipe for disaster. So it really has to start with who you're trying to reach, where does that audience? And then we're using our technology, we have a full team of folks who are embedded in the creator community and really understand how to activate brand creator content.
- [04:41]
B
How do brands feel when you share that information, that context with them? Are they leaned in? Are they resistant? Is it a test and learn?
- [04:49]
A
And it's interesting because it depends on the maturity of the brand and in the space, in and of itself. So if you have, which there are still, strange as it may be, there are still brands who are just starting to dip their toe into how do I work with creators. I've always just been doing that high production value, 30 second commercial, I know I need to be in the creator space, how do I get into that? So when we show them the data points and saying, this is the audience you're trying to reach, Here are the creators that match with that audience and are going to be the right messenger for your brand content. They're often surprised because sometimes they would think, I need to be with Mr. Beast because he's got the biggest audience on YouTube, but he may not have the right followers for that particular brand.
- [05:35]
B
I love that. And when thinking about a data centric approach, a lot of the data we're seeing is that the consumer journey has evolved as well too. So, yes, you want to work with creators, but you also need to think about the formats in which you're going to produce that content. And we're seeing that consumer journey really involving a mix of scrolling, searching, shopping, even streaming. So from your experience at influential, how do you see creators on YouTube navigating that multifaceted behavior, and what aspects of the platform do they lean into?
- [06:07]
A
What I think is really interesting is YouTube creators are endemically like producers, right? They know how to produce their content, they know what their audience wants to see. So they may be from behind the camera, they may be writing the content, they may be editing the content. Right. Of course, depending on their team's involvement as well. But I think intrinsically the platform has created creators who know how to produce. So I think that's a really interesting piece when you're looking at how do you step in, how do you start to work, what do you need to give to a creator for them to actually understand your brand? These are producers at heart. So I think there's some knowledge that's already there really helps.
- [06:54]
B
And do you see that differing across platforms, like, do you see that YouTube creators have a different approach to how they're creating content? Especially taking into account all the formats that they can lean into on YouTube versus maybe some other platforms that are limited in the formats they offer?
- [07:08]
A
I think so. I think certainly if you're looking at YouTube, there are creators that started, you know, started their channels first, right, maybe as a teenager, and now they're, you know, 20s, 30s, what have you. And they've started with that longer form content. Now with shorts really starting to accelerate, and you see more and more brands adopting to that. Now they're able to pivot and say, okay, what pieces of my content in the long form really will resonate with that audience in the short form and that flexibility. We've also supported a lot of the shopping capabilities with our partnership with y'.
- [07:44]
B
All.
- [07:44]
A
And I think that's an area when you're thinking about a full funnel. Not only strategy, but a full funnel creative approach. We're able to look at all of the different aspects of YouTube for a brand and advise them accordingly through awareness, consideration, all the way down to that actual conversion.
- [08:02]
B
I love it. And speaking about partnerships, I mean YouTube and influential have partnered on an exciting program we're calling Collab. And that's where we're really connecting brands and creators to create what we're calling best in class ads. So can you tell us a little bit more about the genesis of that project and how it came to be?
- [08:20]
A
Yeah, for sure. We are really excited about it. It really started as a means to teach more brands about shorts and get them to really lean into which are the right creators for them to partner with to scale that in a meaningful way for their business. So we are working with five brands in partnership both with Publicis and with YouTube. Right now most of our content is launched, it's running and, and just last week we saw the first week of Adam W. Who's one of our creators working on Jimmy John's which his content is, is amazing high production value. He is one of those creators who really understands how to produce content. In less than a week it's already gotten over a million views, 50, 50,000 plus engagements. That's only going to scale with the paid media approach on top of it.
- [09:12]
B
And I'm sure he probably also like the brand leaned into him and his expertise.
- [09:16]
A
Absolutely. We did go through that phase in pre production where they gave him a brief, but they also gave him the flexibility to say okay, where do I, where can I lean in? He actually asked, can I shoot in a location? Originally it wasn't going to be shot in store. He asked, can I go? Can I actually like make it a much more authentic experience by physically being in your local, you know, in one of your stores. So that I think also lent to it really resonating and it wasn't some setup in a production studio, it was truly the brand's representation.
- [09:54]
B
That's such a great tip for brands. I know a lot of times when we speak to creators they just say even though you have a brief lean on us, we know the platform in it and more importantly they know their fans and communities. Absolutely so in depthly so that's amazing. YouTube has been taking the lead in streaming watch time, as I mentioned, over the past couple of years. So how do you think people view content on the big screen affects the ways that brands should work with creators?
- [10:24]
A
I mean, I think first and foremost it just opens up another area of opportunity for them to deliver their message. I think from a streaming Perspective. I mentioned case study of one, but we spent the better part of a weekend watching live streaming Coachella. Whether it was on in the background as we were making dinner or we were actually watching Benson Boone. Because I'm a huge fan and really engaged in that content, I think it first and foremost it opens up another lane. It gives advertisers more of an opportunity, I think for those advertisers who maybe have focused on more of a long form approach, they can now look at how do I take that content that is more of a, you know, a stream in and of itself and how do I cut that down, make it more variation so that I can scale it, I can, you know, be much more budget conscious when I'm doing that and really utilize that full suite of content in more places.
- [11:22]
B
Yeah. And I think that the, you know, the aha for a lot of brands, I would say again, having been in this industry for almost 20 years, I'll say that under my breath. But now working with a creator, it will show up on the big screen, you know, and the big and right now living room has become our number one surface for where people are consuming content on YouTube ahead of mobile. So it really expands, I would say the reach, but as well as the ways in which you can reach your audience.
- [11:53]
A
Yeah, absolutely. I think one of the things that we've really embraced at Influential is how do you take creator content that's endemically always lived on social, to your point, and how do you scale it across more places and spaces, whether that be streaming, whether that be digital out of home, whether that be in cinema.
- [12:09]
B
If a brand is looking to improve their connection with gen Z on YouTube, you know, what aspects of creator partnership strategies or how would you suggest that they use the platform to really connect with that audience?
- [12:25]
A
I think first and foremost in having some gen zers in my life, I think they grew up right, you just turned 20. That's a big moment. They grew up with YouTube. Whether it be my 13 year old who's just starting to kind of get into it, or my 18 year old who's been watching it pretty much our entire life, probably I think they there is this intrinsic trust there because it's been a part of their lives. That's true. Now how do you get creators to connect with or brands to connect with that audience? Through creators. You have to have that same level of trust which goes back to the authenticity. You'll hear every creator say, if it's not authentic, my followers are going to know and they're gonna tell you in the comments or the lack of engagement or the lack of likes or whatever it is is the mechanism and you're gonn pretty quickly that that audience is not there for it.
- [13:22]
B
Right, Right. And I think to your point, just around how this audience, especially Gen Z, can sniff out what's real and what's not in that behavior, they still remain a key demographic for brands, this audience. So based on your work, what makes YouTube an effective platform for reaching this audience? And are there particular strategies that you employ at Influential to help brands particularly reach Gen Zs on platforms like YouTube?
- [13:52]
A
I think brands sometimes forget about, okay, we've proved to you the audience is there, but have you looked at their content? Does it feel right? So there is some qualitative and quantitative and marrying those together and then having experts who are living and breathing this like Influential every day is going to really help then connect the dots and build the success for that brand.
- [14:17]
B
How does the influential approach the YouTube shorts format? I mean it is short form video, but it is the way that I would say audiences consume it on YouTube different than other platforms. So would love to hear your approach, especially when speaking to brands. And then what potential do you see for brands and creators with YouTube shorts?
- [14:39]
A
I think first and foremost you have to feed the funnel, right? You have to, you have to feed it. If, if you are just producing one piece of content with a creator and then you're walking away from it, you're never going to get the value back with that, with that audience, you're never going to see the return on investment, I think. So you have to have a strategy that is not only, you know, short term from a camp, maybe a campaign, a launch, a moment, holiday, back to school, whatever it may be. But what's your long term creator strategy? We often see brands just kind of pop in and say, oh, I want to do this creator campaign for this one big moment. We're going to have blockbuster movie launch or whatever. But how are you speaking to that audience through creators from a long term perspective? You can create long form content that maybe lives and breathes and people keep coming back to. But then the short form content, you're able to kind of create those pulse moments.
- [15:35]
B
Now I'm just going to have you imagine that you've left Influential. I don't want you to leave Influential because we love our partnership. But let's just play this out. You love intellectual and now you're a brand marketer CMO and you're thinking about partnering with creators on YouTube. What would you Take from your experience to your marketing team. And what advice would you give your marketing team based on your experience?
- [16:00]
A
I think I would start if I was on the other side of this is to try and encourage the teams to really listen to the creators. You know, I thought some of the creators that were at the new front and then also brandcast hearing, when brands can hear directly from their voice about what they think will work best for their audience and then how to weave in the messages because that's certainly important. I think that's, that is the greatest gift that you could give brands is to let them hear directly from the folks who are creating the content themselves.
- [16:35]
B
I guess like just a follow up question. I love your point around like letting go of the reins a bit. How would you advise brands on doing that?
- [16:43]
A
How would I advise brands on doing that? I think you need to have senior leadership who embraces that because like anything, if it doesn't work from the top down, then it's hard for the folks who might be, you know, working on the day to day campaigns or accountable for how the delivery of those campaigns are going to be.
- [17:04]
B
So now I'm putting you back in Influential Chief Growth Officer and now that Influential is part of Publicist Group. How does this strategic positioning impact your approach to developing and executing creator campaigns on major platforms like YouTube? What has shifted now that you're part of a bigger organization?
- [17:26]
A
Well, I think there's a long list of benefits, but I would say first and foremost I think it really brings the formula together for a successful creator campaign. So not only do you have obviously the, you know, the power and proudness of Publicist as a media, you know, a media entity, but now you have influential inside there advising from a strategic standpoint on where creators, you know, live and breathe and how brands should embrace that. And then with the, you know, recent announcement of Captivate now being part of Publicist, we now have that powered by technology that captivates really brought to bear in the marketplace. So it really, it kind of checks all those boxes, I think for clients inside group to be able to not only create the right content for the right audiences, but then also scale it from a meaningful media perspective.
- [18:19]
B
And that's great because one of the things that we often talk about is it's great to create our ads, but then it's how do you scale it? Absolutely. And again, thinking about all the KPIs and measurement that you put behind that, what are some of the media products you think brands should think about when they want to complement creator Ads.
- [18:43]
A
So I think we've done a lot of studies in terms of creator ads plus BAU or brand ads. Right. And what is that value of them working together? You do see? I think we see two times the engagement rate, the delivery of content when you're pairing those things together. So it's not to say one is better than the other, but that power together they can use that brand creative to do that heavy hitting, very direct brand message, but then they can give the creator that freedom that we've spoken about in terms of letting them take the reins a little bit. Right.
- [19:21]
B
Well, you've heard it here first from Kim. That's called the creator power pair. So I'm gonna label it.
- [19:26]
A
You're gonna use that.
- [19:29]
B
Okay, great. Now you've talked a lot about authenticity throughout your career. What would you consider authenticity when it comes to influencer marketing? And what have you found works well on YouTube for achieving genuine brand messaging through creators?
- [19:46]
A
I think from a brand perspective, I know we talked a lot about audiences and I will continue to double down on that. But if across that creator's feed, across their social footprint, if you're not seeing similar type of content or you're not seeing them as a mom and now they're talking about back to school and shopping for their kids with a brand, it's not going to resonate. It's not gonna do what you want it to do.
- [20:15]
B
I would love for you to share. As brands are thinking about diversity of formats, diversity of content, how should brands think about podcasts and all of that?
- [20:25]
A
I think it's just another lever now. Right. Creators are not just creating short form or long form visual content now they're creating audio content and that can certainly be used in a cut down format to be more shareable. I think certainly when you're putting folks in a room together and they're talking about a certain topic, there are a lot of different aspects of those conversations that then you can take and you can plug into other areas of your marketing strategy from a content perspective. But I think a lot of what you're seeing sort of the gravitational pull of is the Mel Robbins and her podcast, right. The call her daddy. Right? And her podcast, like those have become viewable experience, visual experiences. Just like, you know, sitting here today and not just being an audio platform anymore.
- [21:18]
B
What role do you think AI is playing in the evolution of brand and creator collaborations, specifically on a platform like.
- [21:24]
A
YouTube, from an AI perspective, on the influential side of the house, we have been using AI technology for years in terms of helping us to speed to market, select the right creators. We have our own proprietary platform that our creators are linked into and then we're able to use AI to really quickly identify okay what might be that first subset, right. And then layer on that kind of human, you know, understanding ability to kind of marry those two things. I think from a creator standpoint now from a YouTube perspective I think AI is really helpful in terms of editing or in briefing sort of on the production side is where we're seeing it. So I think, you know, getting into market more quickly. Yeah, that's certainly been an aspect that I think AI has been useful.
- [22:19]
B
Kim, thank you so much for joining us here on Marketing Voices and Perspectives. A true MVP in the creator marketing space. So thank you for joining us today. It was so much fun. We'll definitely would love to have you back.
- [22:31]
A
Thank you so much. All right, Sam.