#828: From eTail: Building a long-term creator strategy with Wendy Wildfeuer from Motom

Summary

Podcast Summary

The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström®: Expert Mode Marketing Technology, AI, & CX

Episode #828: From eTail: Building a Long-term Creator Strategy with Wendy Wildfuer from Motom
Date: March 16, 2026
Host: Greg Kihlström
Guest: Wendy Wildfuer, Co-Founder of Motom

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Episode Overview

This episode explores the shift from traditional influencer marketing to advanced, integrated creator commerce strategies. Host Greg Kihlström and guest Wendy Wildfuer discuss how brands like Macy’s and Sephora are leveraging new tech to build long-term, data-driven partnerships with creators—transforming them into genuine revenue drivers and extensions of merchandising and sales organizations. The conversation delivers actionable insights on structuring internal teams, improving customer journeys, utilizing first-party data, and creatively integrating AI in the evolving e-commerce and content landscape.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Traditional Influencer Marketing vs. Creator Commerce

[03:07 - 05:38]

• Evolution of the Space:
  Old influencer marketing focused on partnering with big-name creators for campaigns, hoping for conversion ("crossing your fingers"). Now, technology and creator sophistication allow the purchase funnel to collapse, enabling instant discovery and purchase.

  "The old school way of influencer marketing was...focusing on identifying creators that have large reach...and hoping that it resulted in lower-funnel impact...Now...that purchase funnel...has collapsed. Not in a bad way...in a good way."
  — Wendy Wildfuer [03:40]

• Integrated Revenue Model:
  New creator commerce models bring together paid social, affiliate, PR, and influencer marketing into a unified revenue engine, rather than siloed departments with limited results.

• Strategic Imperative:
  For CMOs, the distinction is now mission-critical: brands must transform creators into active sales partners, not just awareness channels.

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2. Unifying Brand, Merchandising, and E-Commerce Teams with Creator Storefronts

[05:38 - 07:55]

• Internal Dynamics Shift:
  Integrating creator storefront strategies forces marketing, merchandising, and e-commerce to collaborate. Owning the creator relationships and data (rather than relying solely on third-party platforms) boosts control and insights.

• First-Party Data:
  When brands manage their own creator commerce solutions, they gain direct access to vital customer data and creator relationships, breaking down previous barriers enforced by platforms.

  "The most effective way for leadership to bring these things together is to build and own the capability and bring it in house...to minimize the overreliance for brands and retailers on third party platforms because they don't get the first party data."
  — Wendy Wildfuer [06:14]

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3. Creator Perspective: Reducing Barriers & Unlocking Opportunity

[07:55 - 10:21]

• Creator Enablement:
  Direct brand relationships mean creators need less infrastructure and can focus on what they do best, while brands unlock higher loyalty and advocacy.

• Market Gap & Secret Sauce:
  Many platforms were built either for creators (e.g., LTK, ShopMy) or for brands. Few bridge both. Motom aims to deliver a controlled environment for brands that's also useful and enticing for creators—a critical ‘middle ground.’

  "The middle is building something that delivers on the needs of brands and retailers...but in a way that is built to address the needs of creators. And that is where that kind of secret sauce comes in."
  — Wendy Wildfuer [09:58]

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4. Real-World Activation: Themed Creator Storefronts & Campaign Execution

[10:21 - 12:09]

• Seasonal Campaigns:
  Using Macy’s Valentine’s Day as an example, Wendy details how brands empower creators to curate themed storefronts, aligning content with merchandising priorities and creating excitement among both creators and consumers.

  "They wanted to align seasonal priorities with their content campaigns...Now with the ability for them to give creators options to merchandise and curate products...the creators are excited to share their storefronts."
  — Wendy Wildfuer [10:45]

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5. Optimizing the Customer Journey

[12:09 - 15:30]

• Removing Friction:
  Creator storefronts allow customers to land in a non-chaotic, personalized shopping environment, increasing conversion rates and average order value (AOV) by up to 135% compared to standard links.

  "When the creator has a storefront...we've been able to increase AOV by 135%...They get right to where they need to go and it's done."
  — Wendy Wildfuer [13:56]

• Key Differentiator:
  Enhanced, branded creator experiences build trust, streamline path to purchase, and provide important context, outperforming generic affiliate links or routes through busy marketplaces.

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6. Data & Attribution: The Power of First-Party Insights

[15:30 - 16:46]

• Attribution & Measurement:
  Brand-owned storefronts allow for direct pixel/tag placement, sharper retargeting, and more accurate tracking of spend and performance.

  "So in that storefront environment, they can capture first party data and then start to use that for retargeting. So it increases their ability to capture first party data."
  — Wendy Wildfuer [15:54]

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7. The Role of AI in Creator Commerce

[16:46 - 19:02]

• Human vs. AI Creators:
  Despite hype, authentic human creators remain irreplaceable. AI will excel at supplemental tasks—discovery, optimizing recommendations—but won't supplant genuine creator relationships.

  "They are not media units and they are not affiliate links. They are human beings and you need to treat them that way..."
  — Wendy Wildfuer [18:41]

• Service + Tech:
  Motom maintains a service arm because technology alone can't solve every challenge—human relationships remain foundational.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "I do not see it going to a place where an AI creator replaces the actual human creator."
  — Wendy Wildfuer [17:48]

• "What drives me? I hire people 20 years younger than me...Everything that we do requires flexibility and adaptability."
  — Wendy Wildfuer [20:11]

• "Tech alone does not solve every issue for again, human beings."
  — Wendy Wildfuer [18:52]

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Important Timestamps

• 03:07–05:38 — Strategic shift from influencer to creator commerce
• 05:38–07:55 — Impact on internal teams and first-party data
• 10:21–12:09 — Seasonal creator storefront campaigns
• 12:09–15:30 — Customer journey and AOV improvements
• 15:30–16:46 — Attribution and data collection
• 16:46–19:02 — AI’s evolving, but human-powered, role
• 20:11 — Wendy’s agility tip and career philosophy

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Wrap-Up

Wendy Wildfuer emphasizes that the new frontier in brand marketing harnesses creators as co-owners of customer relationships and revenue growth—by blending tech, service, and authentic connection. The conversation urges brands to proactively own their creator commerce infrastructure, centralize data, and maintain real, mutually beneficial human relationships—while leveraging new technology and AI as accelerators, not replacements.

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For more from Wendy and Motom, see show notes or visit their website.

Transcript

[Strayer University Announcer]

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[Carvana User]

Hey sweetie, your mother showed me this Carvana thing for selling the car. I'm gonna give it a try. Wish me luck. Me again. I put in the license plate. It gave me an offer. Unbelievable. Okay, I accepted the offer. They're picking it up Tuesday from the driveway. I haven't even left my chair. It's done. The car is gone. I'm holding a check. Anyway, Carvana give it a whirl. Love ya.

[Wendy Wildfuer]

So good you'll want to leave a voicemail about it. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pick up fees. May apply.

[Carvana User]

Foreign.

[Greg Kilstrom]

Welcome to Season eight of the Agile Brand Podcast. This season we're going all in on Expert Mode, MarTech, AI and Customer Experience, talking with the people and platforms behind the brands you know and love. I'm Greg Kilstrom, your host and I help Fortune 1000 companies make sense of martech, AI and marketing ops. Hit, subscribe or follow to make sure you always get the latest episodes and leave us a rating so others can find us as well. And make sure you check out our sponsor Tech Systems, an industry leader in full stack technology services, talent services and real world application. For more information, go to teksystems.com now let's dive in.

[Podcast Host]

In a world of fleeting social trends, how do you build a creator strategy that drives measurable long term revenue instead of just chasing momentary spikes in engage engagement Agility requires not just launching campaigns, but building systems that can learn and adapt in real time based on actual consumer behavior and sales data. Today we're going to talk about the evolution from influencer marketing to true creator commerce. This isn't just about paying for posts anymore. It's about building scalable data driven ecosystems where creators become a genuine extension of your sales and merchandising teams directly impacting the bottom line. We're here at Ital Palm Springs and to help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome Wendy Wildfuer from Modem. Wendy, welcome to the show.

[Wendy Wildfuer]

Thanks for having me. Good to see you.

[Podcast Host]

Should I say welcome back to the show?

[Wendy Wildfuer]

That's Right, that's right.

[Podcast Host]

So before we dive in, why don't you give a little background on yourself and your role at Modem.

[Wendy Wildfuer]

Great. My name is Wendy. I am one of the co founders of Modem. We are a social commerce, technology and managed services company that enables any brand or retailer to build their own creator commerce solution so that they can solve some of the challenges tied to customer journey from social media, first party data ownership and direct relationships with creators.

[Podcast Host]

Great. Love it. So let's dive in here and wanna start from the strategic level, kind of high level here. So Modem recently did creator commerce report, and in that report you draw a clear line between traditional influencer marketing and this newer model that we're going to talk about today. So for a CMO at a enterprise, what's the fundamental strategic difference between a more traditional influencer marketing and the newer model? And why is this distinction so critical to grasp right now?

[Wendy Wildfuer]

That's a great question. What I would say is there, it shouldn't be a distinction any longer because the old school, which is really new school, but the old school way of influencer marketing was obviously focusing on identifying creators that have large reach, recognition, recognizability and using them for campaigns and crossing your fingers and hoping that it resulted in lower funnel impact. And now today, given technology sophistication of social shoppers, sophistication of creators and just the advancement of tech, that purchase funnel, that marketing funnel has collapsed. Not in a bad way.

[Podcast Host]

Right.

[Wendy Wildfuer]

In a good way. So it's condensed, right? So you go from upper funnel awareness, which is at the discovery point, and given the way that creators are really focused on driving recommendations, et cetera, with linking technologies and all of that, you get the ability to discover and purchase in the same moment. And so what marketers have been struggling with is how do they quantify the investment in creators, how do they demonstrate performance internally and more importantly, how do they actually turn it into a revenue model? And so for CMOs, for heads of e commerce, for heads of affiliate, whoever it might be, what we've built enables to bring those disparate groups together. And so paid social can work in collaboration with affiliate, who can work in collaboration with influencer marketing and PR to turn this incredibly powerful marketing engine into a revenue growth engine.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, yeah, got it. And so you work with some amazing brands like your partners Macy's and Sephora, they have well established merchandising and e commerce teams. How does integrating a robust creator storefront strategy change the internal dynamics and processes between marketing, merchandising and that the core e commerce functions.

[Wendy Wildfuer]

It's a. A great question and it's a great segue from what we were just talking about, which is it brings it together.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Wendy Wildfuer]

And so every team is structured differently.

[Podcast Host]

Sure.

[Wendy Wildfuer]

Especially the influencer. Marketing teams vary company to company. Some have a very robust group and robust could be 10 people and many have two people. And so shared responsibility can be a very positive thing. It can also silo groups and so what? The most effective way for leadership to bring these things together is to build an own capability and bring it in house. And we don't advise clients to do that in lieu of being in marketplaces because you have to be in the places and spaces where people are shopping. But what's super important is to minimize the over reliance for brands and retailers on third party platforms because they don't get the first party data. They don't have a direct relationship with the creator. They may have an indirect relationship, but the platforms gatekeep that.

[Podcast Host]

Right, right.

[Wendy Wildfuer]

And so then the brands and retailers lose control and the power dynamic has completely shifted. So the market's now catching up. When I say the market, I mean, Brandon, brands and retailers are starting to catch up and understand that having your own creator commerce solution and offering that to creators is critical to their business growth and also something that the teams have to come together and align on in order to greenlight and move forward.

[Podcast Host]

Right, right. And I know we're mostly going to talk about this from the, from the brand perspective, but I can't help but imagine from the creator perspective that's got to be a load off as well. Right. Because I mean, all that, they don't need to have as much infrastructure to be able to support some of these efforts as well. Right.

[Wendy Wildfuer]

Well, if you think about. I'm going to use creators as a broad term.

[Podcast Host]

Sure. Yeah.

[Wendy Wildfuer]

So it doesn't matter what category. From a retail standpoint, it could be beauty, it could be sports, could be pet food.

[Podcast Host]

Right, right.

[Wendy Wildfuer]

They want to work closely with the brands and retailers. That is where the revenue comes from for them at the end of the day. Even if it's, you know, even if the transaction happens through a platform and they get affiliate commission or a flat fee payment is run through someone's agency. The brands and retailers fund the economy.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Wendy Wildfuer]

Greater economy. And so when you have creators who are fans of a brand or retailer, they want to work more closely. They want to have direct asset access. And so they're excited about this and they have been, you know, what we've been doing over the last few years is testing the experience of what you know. I think the problem in the market has been that all these tech solutions popped up. Right. And then there were redundant tech solutions that were just iterations of the one before. And so you have creators, there were platforms like LTK and Shop My, who have kind of established the market, were built for creators. Right. They were built to help creators monetize, and everything was focused on that. You have on the other side, you have all these B2B platforms and the old SaaS world, which we're not, we don't say SaaS anymore. I don't know if you know that. And so those platforms were built for brands and retailers to find creators, but they weren't built for creators. Right. And so you have that split if someone doesn't address the middle. Right. And the middle is building something that delivers on the needs of brands and retailers, that brands and retailers can control and monetize, but in a way that is built to address the needs of creators. And that is where that kind of secret sauce comes in.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, yeah. So let's talk a little bit about how this works in practice. And so you've had some recent success with themed creator storefronts for things like Valentine's Day. Can you walk us through the tactical process of how a brand moves from an idea to a live multi creator campaign that actually drives sales?

[Wendy Wildfuer]

Oh, boy, that's a big one.

[Podcast Host]

Maybe the condensed version.

[Wendy Wildfuer]

Yeah, yeah, the 30 second elevator pitch of that. What I would say is, so in that example specifically, Macy's has been our client for long term, in the short term world that we all live in, and they've got a great network of creators. And what they started to identify was that they wanted to align seasonal priorities with their content campaigns. Obvious right back to school, Valentine's Day, et cetera. But the campaigns were focused on content. And so now with the ability for them to give creators options to merchandise and curate products and then have themed seasonal storefront designs, the creators are excited to share their storefronts. And Macy's gets to drive their broader brand priorities through that lens. But it doesn't matter for the Valentine's Day initiative if the products were tied to Valentine's Day. Right. So it's just a fun way for a brand to own the experience while giving all of that flexibility and adaptability to the creators.

[Podcast Host]

So a key part of the value proposition is also curating the customer journey. How does the path to purchase through a creator storefront differ from a more traditional social ad or click through to a main brand site. And what are the friction points you're helping to eliminate? I know you touched a little bit on this, but maybe a little more detail.

[Wendy Wildfuer]

The most important thing is to enable a potential customer to come over to an a non chaotic environment when you're coming from such chaos on social media. So with the concept of creator store, a brand owned creator storefront or just a direct product link, because those still exist, you know, you have to give the creator tools so that they can use what they need in that moment. But focusing on storefronts, the previous journey would be a brand pays creators or they give them access to affiliate links through either their affiliate network or through an LTK or shop My if that's the category right creator and then their content features, the products, the recommendations and then there's a link in their link tree or link in bio or they, you know, post as a comment like manychat and things like that. And then they drive the customer to a marketplace that has many different brands hard to find that product or the brand will give the creator a direct link and they're driving them to the homepage and so you lose the customer when you drop them in a non contextual environment. They're motivated, inspired by the content that they've seen from the creator or just loving that creator and wanting to, you know, whether you are seeing a piece of content where that product matters or you just trust that creator's advice, making that path to purchase and to get their recommendations easy is table stakes. And so what we're seeing is increased conversion rate. We see creators again, this is brand owned. So we're able to compare the creator conversion prior to having this capability for the brand and can increase 10 times average order value. So, so when the creator has a storefront and they have a potential customer run through, they may not buy anything from that exact curation, but we can track all of the click paths and the cart value and so that then what we've seen is that we've been able to increase AOV by 135%. So rather than just grabbing a link right or clicking on someone's link that sends them to a marketplace like ltk, they get right to where they need to go and it's done right because they want to buy from the brands and retailers. As much as TikTok shop has blown up and will continue to be a very important piece of the puzzle. They, you know, people don't want to buy from a social platform. They have concerns about privacy, trust and, and also logistics, operational.

[Podcast Host]

Right. Well, and to the other point as well, I mean, attribution is key from the brand perspective. I mean, they want to know that their dollars are going to the right place. And so having, you know, centralizing some of that stuff and I know you talked a little bit about this, but you know, what kind of first party data are you enabling brands to collect through this? Cause that's another key part of it too.

[Wendy Wildfuer]

Right. It's huge. Especially given the importance of paid media in the mix. So many conversations we're having while we're here at ETEL has been about the increase in investment in paid media for social. So being able to capture drop pixels, drop your Google tag manager on those pages. So rather than sending the potential customer through a circle, right, on a, on a winding road to get to you, to get that first party data, you get to them, they get to you faster. Right. So in that storefront environment, they can capture first party data and then start to use that for retargeting. So it increases their ability to capture first party data.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. So, you know, we're here at ETEL hearing, as you said, you know, hearing about a lot of exciting things, a little bit of hype, but also a lot of real things and real, I mean, I've loved some of the real case studies and real examples as well, because I think we're all, we've been hearing about all this AI stuff and the promise of it for so long and you know, we're hearing some real things. As AI becomes more integrated into E commerce and content creation as everything else. How do you see it impacting the creator commerce space?

[Wendy Wildfuer]

I think that there's a lot of discussion, I think more last year than this year about AI creators taking over real creators. And I'm happy to hear that. I haven't heard anything about that yet.

[Podcast Host]

That's true. Yeah, yeah, There was a little about it last year.

[Strayer University Announcer]

Yeah.

[Wendy Wildfuer]

And I was like, dude, that's not good because it is not what people want for the most part. I don't know what everybody wants in the world, but it's right. So it becomes inauthentic. I think that it will enable definitely creator discovery, I think in the future. Could it be product recommendations? Yes. But I do not see it going to a place where an AI creator replaces the actual human creator. And so what we do, and we talk a lot about this when we're speaking with our clients about how to manage creators because it is notoriously difficult, lots of pain points with bandwidth and the Chase to get in touch and all of that. And the way that we say is they are not media units and they are not affiliate links. They are human beings and you need to treat them that way and give them the capabilities that deliver on their needs and also lean in and support them. So those two things, which is why we have the service arm of our business. Because tech alone does not solve every issue for again, human beings.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. Love it. Well, Wendy, always great talking with you. Two last things before we wrap up here. What's been a highlight for you at Etel far this year?

[Wendy Wildfuer]

I think what I would say is it's great to see people that you've seen before. It's also great to see new faces and people and brands that were not here before and having discussion about our product. Whereas as a provider, the old days is brands run away from you, away from you. And now I'm really seeing a key difference in the buy side wanting to really understand what's out there and have a significant interest in learning and so that broadly I just love because it makes, you know, human interaction face to face is so important, especially in this post Covid world where Zoom meetings has, you know, have replaced schmoozing.

[Podcast Host]

Right.

[Wendy Wildfuer]

So it's great to do that too.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, love it. Well, last question for you. What do you do to stay agile in your role and how do you find a way to do it consistently?

[Wendy Wildfuer]

Oh my goodness. I hire people 20 years younger than me. That's what I do. I mean we have to do that in this space. Everything that we do requires flexibility and adaptability. So, you know, having stamina to keep figuring out how we can help our clients and their creators win is what drives me. Plus I have two dogs and I love them and take care of them. They make me happy in addition to my family. But I love my fur babies.

[Podcast Host]

Love it, love it. Well, again I'd like to thank Wendy Wildfuer at Modem for joining the show. You can learn more about Wendy Modum and ETEL by following the links in the show notes.

[Greg Kilstrom]

This episode is brought to you by Tech Systems. They're leaders in full stack tech services, talent solutions and helping companies put it all in action. You can learn [e-mail] and thanks again for listening to the Agile Brand podcast. If you like the episode, hit subscribe and drop a rating so others can find the show too. And if you're interested in consulting and advisory work or if you need a speaker for your next event, feel free to reach out. Just visit GregKilstrom.com that's G R E G K-I H L S T R O M.com the Agile brand is produced by Missing Link, a Latina owned, strategy driven, creatively fueled production co. Op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and and informative content. Until next time, stay curious and stay agile.

[Strayer University Announcer]

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