Influence Marketing

Creators people trust. Content that performs.

Creator strategy Content production Paid amplification Brand safety Independent measurement

We run influence as one loop: the right creators, content made to brief, amplified as paid media, and measured on the business result. You own the relationships and the data, we carry the strategy, the safety and the proof.

Talk to us → A creator shortlist, a brand-safety read and the way we would prove it, in one conversation.

8 yrsin social and creator marketing

Nano → macroevery tier, brief to payment

EU-firstdisclosure: EU, FTC & ASA

Independentmeasurement, not self-reported

In short

Four jobs, one team.

Most brands buy influence in pieces: a strategy from one place, creators from another, paid amplification from a third, measurement from a fourth. The value leaks in the gaps. We keep strategy, creator production, amplification and measurement together, so the content is briefed from day one to perform as media, and the results feed the next brief.

We do not represent talent, so our creator picks are for your outcome, not our roster. We are tool-agnostic, so you get the best platform for the job with no lock-in. And we measure what actually moved, not the vanity numbers. You keep the creator relationships and the first-party data.

Most brands buy influence in pieces and lose the value in the gaps. We keep strategy, production, amplification and measurement together, own no talent roster, stay tool-agnostic, and measure what actually moved. You keep the creator relationships and the data.

Why it matters in 2026

Budgets are moving to creators, because trust moved there first.

Momentum

The money is following

In the 2026 industry benchmark, about 87% of brands plan to raise influencer budgets and roughly seven in ten of the big spenders by half or more. Creator content now runs on a trusted human profile, not a brand handle.

Trust

Bought reach is not belief

People act on a recommendation from someone they follow in a way they never do on a cold ad. The 2026 research reports roughly 71% of consumers buying within days of seeing the right creator content, which is why smaller, trusted creators are winning budget.

New surface

Creators feed the AI answers

AI answer engines lean on creator and user content over brand copy when they recommend. Influence is now an input to whether a model mentions you at all, which links it straight to answer-engine visibility.

Market figures from published 2026 research, including the Influencer Marketing Hub Benchmark Report 2026. Cited by source, in the FAQ.

How we run it

One loop, not four vendors.

The reason influence underperforms is rarely the creators. It is the handoffs: a strategy that never reaches production, content that was never briefed to be amplified, numbers that never close the loop. We keep it in one team.

Strategy and tiers

The right mix of nano, micro, mid and macro for the outcome, with audience-fit and authenticity checked before anyone is briefed.

Production, then amplification

Content made to brief, then the pieces that earn it turned into paid media through whitelisting and partnership ads, so creative becomes performance.

Rights and usage, handled

The contracts behind amplification: image rights, usage windows and exclusivity, so a whitelisted piece can run as media without a legal snag. Directly or through partners, case by case.

Measurement that returns

What worked, and why, fed straight back into the next brief. A programme that compounds, not a series of one-offs.

Whitelisting built in from the brief, not bolted on after, so the best content runs as media.
Only about one in twenty brands rates creator whitelisting a top-effective format today. It is the under-used lever.

Strategy, creator production, paid amplification and measurement run as one loop, with what worked feeding the next brief, so creator content is engineered to perform as paid media.

Creator strategy

Every tier earns its place.

A follower count is not a strategy. Smaller creators carry the most trust and the highest engagement per follower; the biggest carry reach. The skill is matching the tier to the job, and usually mixing them.

Nano and micro, for trust

The highest engagement and the credibility of a real recommendation. The 2026 budget shift is clearly towards them, and they do the heavy lifting for consideration and always-on.

Mid-tier, the workhorse

Reach with engagement still intact. Often the sweet spot for a standing programme rather than a one-off spike.

Macro and celebrity, for reach

A launch, a mass-awareness moment, a credibility halo. Justified when you need scale fast, not for efficiency.

B2B and LinkedIn creators

A distinct lane when your buyer is on LinkedIn, not a consumer feed. Independent industry voices and subject-matter experts who carry authority in a niche, plus your own employee and executive advocacy, where a trusted person in the field moves a considered purchase in a way a brand page never will. Fewer creators, longer relationships, content built for a buying committee rather than a scroll.

Micro and nano lead the 2026 shift, expanded by more brands than any other tier in the industry benchmark.
Picked for the outcome, because we do not represent talent and have no roster to keep busy.

Creator tiers from nano to mega: smaller creators carry more trust and engagement per follower, larger creators carry more reach. The mix is chosen to the outcome.

Vetting and brand safety

Real audiences, real safety.

The brand carries the legal liability for a creator post, so vetting is a headline for us, not a checkbox at the end.

Authenticity

Fake-follower auditing

Audience quality, engagement integrity and content history checked before anyone is signed. Published 2026 research puts fake or bot followers at over half of all creator-quality issues, so we look hard, with AI for volume and people for judgement.

Governance

Screen before, monitor during

A values-and-history screen before activation, then live monitoring while content is running, with an issues playbook ready if something turns. The same discipline our crisis work is built on.

Compliance

Disclosure done right

EU consumer-protection rules first, with the FTC and ASA where they apply, on every paid post in the format each platform requires. Correct disclosure is a trust asset, not a disclaimer, and it keeps the liability off your desk.

A vetting funnel narrowing from the whole market, through an authenticity check and a brand-fit and safety check, to a brief-ready shortlist, with bots and fake followers screened out.

Measurement

We measure what moved, not what showed.

Impressions, likes and earned media value describe visibility, not business. We connect creator content to revenue with trackable codes, affiliate links and native shop tracking, and for the brands where it matters we run a real incrementality test: an exposed group against a holdout, so the number you see is the lift the programme actually caused, the one you can take to finance.

Vanity metrics like impressions on the left, versus a real incrementality test on the right where the gap between an exposed group and a holdout control is the true lift.

→ Trackable codes and affiliate links → Native shop and checkout tracking → Exposed vs holdout incrementality → Brand-lift studies, pre and post → Cost per creator to CPA and payback → Earned media value, as a proxy only

Start with a read

Bring us a brief or a brand. We will show you the creators, the mix and the measurement.

→ A tier and creator shortlist for the job → An authenticity and brand-safety read → How we would prove the result

Talk to us

Independent by design

On your side of the table.

The reason to use an agency that owns no talent and no single platform is simple: every recommendation is for your outcome.

Talent-agnostic

No roster, no bias

We do not manage the creators we recommend, so the shortlist is picked on fit and the rates are negotiated for you, not for a stable we need to keep working.

Easy in, easy out

You own the relationships

The creator contacts and the first-party performance data stay yours. No proprietary platform to be locked inside, nothing to unwind if you leave.

Honest limits

We say what it cannot do

Virtual and AI creators are a niche with disclosure risk, not a shortcut. Earned media value is a proxy, not ROI. We are clear about what influence can and cannot prove.

Proof

Creator programmes that carry real brands.

Eight years running social and creator work for brands across sport, retail and finance, from single seasonal moments to standing ambassador programmes.

8 yrssocial and creator marketing

Nano → macroevery tier, briefed and paid

Always-onand campaign programmes

Independentmeasurement, not self-reported

Retail

A retail brand

A mixed pack of paid and gifted creators across seasonal moments, from a first shortlist of thirty nano and micro profiles to briefing, delivery and post-campaign analytics.

Banking

A major bank

Creator content built to reach a younger audience on the platforms they live on, wired to the brand's content and antifraud messaging, with disclosure kept correct throughout.

Consumer

A consumer brand

An always-on ambassador programme built from nano and micro creators, with the trust and content library compounding across a full year rather than one burst.

Representative of our work; named client results are being cleared for publication and will be shared here. Figures describe Wise Pirates. Market figures are cited by source in the FAQ; FTC and ASA disclosure are recognised public standards.

Who it is for

Built for brands that want influence to perform.

Brands ready to move past one-off gifting into a measured programme: consumer and retail names that live on trust, regulated brands that need disclosure and safety handled, and B2B teams whose buyers are on LinkedIn. If you want to know what your creator spend actually moved, this is built for you.

Ways to work with us

Test with a campaign. Grow with a programme.

Campaign

A moment, proven

Strategy, creators, content and measurement for a launch or seasonal moment, run end to end, so you learn which creators and formats work.

Always-on

Ambassador programme

A standing creator and affiliate programme where trust, content and performance compound month over month, run as a retainer.

Measurement

Proof and amplification

Whitelisting and incrementality on top of your existing creator work, when you have the creators but not the amplification or the real numbers.

Global network

The whole market, not one database.

Influence is cultural. The right creator, the language and codes that land, the genuine local credibility and the real going rate all change from one market to the next. A database in one country cannot see that. Through ICOM, the global network of independent agencies, we work with partners on the ground so discovery is accurate and talent is genuine, wherever you need it.

Influence is cultural: the right creator, the local codes and the real going rate change by market. Through ICOM, the global independent-agency network, we work with partners on the ground, wherever you need them.

Cultural read

Local language and credibility

Partners who read each market's culture, know which profiles carry real credibility, and spot genuine talent over an inflated following, not a shortlist pulled from afar.

Real prices

The true local rate

The going rate per market and per profile, so negotiation starts from local reality and protects your budget, with the leverage of a network behind it.

Scale and speed

500+ campaigns, 20+ markets

More than five hundred influence campaigns across twenty-plus markets through the network, so discovery, negotiation and execution move fast, and talent-agnostic really means the whole market.

In each market we work to the models and terms that are valid and practised locally and by our partners. You own your creator relationships, within those local models.

See the ICOM network →

Connected

Part of the wider social engine.

Influence works hardest wired to the rest of what we do.

Social Media →The owned channels the creator content also feeds. Paid Media →Where whitelisted creator content becomes performance media. AEO & AI Mentions →Creator and user content feeds what the AI answers say. Listening & Crisis →The same vetting and monitoring discipline, for reputation. Wise Studio →Content production at scale, alongside the creators. Competitive Intelligence →Who is winning the creators, and the conversation.

FAQ

The questions buyers actually ask.

Is this influencer marketing, creator marketing or content? What do you actually run?

All of it, as one loop. We set the strategy and the tiers, we get the creator content made, we turn the content that works into paid media through whitelisting, and we measure the business result. Most brands buy those four things from four different suppliers and lose the join. We keep them together, so the creative is briefed to perform and the performance feeds the next brief.

Do you represent or manage the talent?

No, on purpose. We do not run a talent roster, because owning the creators we then recommend creates a bias. We stay on your side of the table, pick the right creators for the job from the whole market, and negotiate rates for you rather than for a stable we are trying to keep busy. You own the creator relationships and the first-party data. Easy in, easy out.

Which platforms and tools do you use?

Whatever fits the brief. We are tool-agnostic and run the leading discovery and measurement platforms, from CreatorIQ and Traackr to Upfluence and the affiliate and whitelisting rails on Meta, TikTok and YouTube, rather than locking you into one licence. You get the best of each, run by us, with nothing to procure or administer.

How do you measure ROI, and what about earned media value?

We measure what moved, not what showed. Trackable codes, affiliate links and native shop tracking connect creator content to revenue, and for the brands where it matters we run incrementality tests: an exposed group against a holdout, so you see the true lift rather than the last click. Earned media value is a visibility proxy we will report if you want it, but it is not the ROI number, because every vendor calculates it differently and bots can inflate it.

How do you handle fake followers and brand safety?

It is a headline for us, not fine print. Published 2026 research puts fake or bot followers at over half of all reported creator-quality issues, so we vet audience authenticity, engagement quality and a creator's content history before anything is signed, using AI to do the volume and human judgement to make the call. On brand safety we screen before activation and monitor during, and because the brand carries the legal liability we keep disclosure correct on every paid post, to EU consumer-protection rules first and the FTC and ASA where they apply.

Can you find the right creators in markets you do not run day to day?

Yes, and this is where being agency-run and not tied to one database pays off. Through ICOM, the global network of independent agencies, we reach genuine local talent with partners who read each market's culture and credibility and know the true going rate, which removes the discovery barrier, sharpens negotiation and speeds up execution. It is the whole market, not a list from afar, and it is what talent-agnostic really means at global scale. In each market we work to the models and terms that are valid and practised locally and by our partners.

Who handles usage rights and image clearance?

We do. Behind every paid or whitelisted piece sits a contract: image rights, usage windows, exclusivity and the terms that let content run as media without a legal snag. We manage that as part of the programme, directly or through partners case by case, so the team keeps it in view across the whole project and nothing you are amplifying is left uncleared.

Nano, micro, macro, celebrity: which tier should we use?

It depends on the job, and usually it is a mix. Nano and micro creators carry the most trust and the highest engagement per follower, and the 2026 shift in brand budgets is clearly towards them, so they do the heavy lifting for consideration and always-on programmes. Macro and celebrity buy reach fast and suit a launch or a mass-awareness moment, not efficiency. We pick the tier to the outcome, not to a vanity follower count.

Should this be a one-off campaign or an always-on programme?

Campaigns are good for discovery, programmes are where the growth compounds. A one-off moment tells you which creators and formats work; an always-on ambassador and affiliate programme turns that into a compounding channel where trust and content library build over time. We will start you wherever the risk and the budget make sense, and grow the programme from what the campaign proves.

Where do the numbers on this page come from?

The Wise Pirates figures, the eight years, the tier and disclosure claims and the network cases, describe our own work. The market figures, budgets rising, the shift to smaller creators, the trust and fraud numbers, are from published 2026 industry research including the Influencer Marketing Hub Benchmark Report 2026, cited by source rather than presented as our own. On disclosure, EU consumer-protection rules, together with the FTC and ASA standards, are the recognised public references; the EU rules follow the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive as transposed into national law.

Influence Marketing

Bring us a brand. We will bring the right creators.

Tell us what you want to move. We will show you the mix, the safety and the way we would prove it.

Talk to us →