Today, influencer marketing has emerged as the golden ticket that everyone wants to hold. It's the powerhouse driving brands to unprecedented results and sales. However, despite its skyrocketing popularity, the intricacies of influencer marketing remain somewhat murky.
Recognizing the need for clarity and guidance, seeking knowledge from industry leaders becomes paramount. These are the individuals who have mastered the ins and outs of influencer marketing, holding a wealth of knowledge that can be the compass in this complex landscape.
This is important because influencer marketing can be a bit confusing. A lot of what happens is like mere speculation. But these leaders are the torchbearers.
They really know what they're doing.
These leaders understand how social media works, what people like, and how to work with brands in a way that feels genuine. It's not just about having lots of followers for them—they know all the little things that make influencer marketing successful.
In a world where many things are uncertain, these leaders are like guides. They show us the way and help everyone understand how to do influencer marketing the right way.
At Phyllo, we are committed to deepening our understanding of this ever-evolving industry. To unravel its mysteries, we've curated the Voice of Influence 2023 - a comprehensive list of the best influencer marketing leaders.
Voice of Influence 2023 - Top 30 Influencer Marketing Leaders
Note: The names of the influencer marketing leaders are listed in alphabetical order, and are not ranked.
1. Antoine Laurent, CTO of Ykone
Antoine Laurent is the CTO of Ykone. After graduating from EM Normandie with a master's in marketing, he started at Lagardere in the ELLE advertising department. He then joined Ykone in 2015 and led the launch of a brand-new engineering team in Bangalore, India. Today, he is the head of the data expertise of the agency, overseeing the development of our proprietary tool Campaygn, to maintain the innovative edge of the software and achieve great customer success.
2. Ashutosh Harbola, Founder of Buzzoka
Ashutosh Harbola, CEO & Co-founder, Buzzoka has made it to the list of the World’s 100 Most Influential Marketers in the Influencer Marketing Ecosystem in 2019 by Influence Weekly. Ashutosh is the only Indian listed in the report and has been named with prominent personalities like- Instagram’s Sensation, Kylie Jenner, YouTube’s CEO Susan Wojcick, etc. Ashutosh Harbola is considered among the pioneers in the Influencer Marketing space in India and has been instrumental in directing the ecosystem.
3. Baxter Box, CEO of LTK
Baxter Box is the CEO and Co-Founder of LTK (previously known as RewardStyle Inc). He and his wife (the other Co-Founder of LTK) are revolutionizing the online shopping experience as we know it. LTK is a social commerce that helps brands and lifestyle Creators monetize the digital space. Baxter is a skilled engineer and investor. He launched his career through a series of innovative tech startups.
4. Ben Sinden, SVP of Electrify Video Partners
Ben Sinden, the Senior VP at Electrify Video Partners, a company that believes in the transformative influence of YouTube creators within the digital landscape. Drawing from his experience at Netflix, Telegraph, Brave Bison, and MDLBEAST, Ben leads efforts to invest in and accelerate the growth of content creators in the dynamic world of the creator economy. At Electrify, he's at the forefront of supporting creators on their journey to success.
5. Corbett Drummey, Co-Founder of Lightricks
Corbett Drummey is a pioneer in innovative mobile photo and video editing technology. Corbett co-founded Popular Pays in Chicago in 2013, leaving his role at Leo Burnett. Lightricks acquired Popular Pays in March 2022. He is a regular author and speaker who passionately talks about transformative marketing. He was named part of the 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 in marketing and advertising.
6. Danielle Lewis, Co-Founder of Scrunch
Danielle is the Co-Founder & CEO of Scrunch, a global membership platform for The Creator Economy. She is also the founder of SPARK, which provides sales courses and coaching for founders. Over the last decade, Danielle has raised over $3 Million in capital, built a global remote team, built and exited a D2C company, and helped female founders find their success in business. Awarded EY Entrepreneur of the Year in 2019, Danielle is building a life she loves around sales and marketing and showing other leading females how they can do the same.
7. Donatas Smailys, Co-Founder of Billo
Donatas is currently the Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Billo, a position they have held since January 2020. Prior to this, Donatas worked as the CBDO at Unboxed.network. He also had a role at the World Economic Forum, where he was part of the European Digital Leaders Network. Additionally, Donatas served as the CEO of KTU Startup Space at Kaunas University of Technology from 2015 to 2018. Earlier in his career, he was an Adviser to the MP at the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania.
8. Eric Dahan, Founder of Mighty Joy
Eric Dahan is a serial entrepreneur who launched his first start-up in the e-commerce space from his college dorm room. He is the CEO and co-founder of Open Influence (established in 2013), and a key authority in influencer marketing, helping shape the industry since its inception. Dahan has established Open Influence as the premiere influencer marketing company, operating across multiple verticals, platforms, and regions. With an international scope and background, Dahan has successfully piloted its global expansion throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.
9. Gabe Gordon, Co-founder of Reach Agency
Gabe Gordon has over 15 years of global experience in content marketing, building creative, integrated solutions for world-class brands such as General Motors, The NFL, Nestle, Walmart, and PepsiCo. Prior to building Reach, Gabe worked with PepsiCo as lead strategist on their partnership with The X Factor on Fox. For Super Bowl XLV, Gabe was responsible for executing one of the industry’s largest content licensing deals for The NFL’s American Family commercial spot, consistently ranked in the top 5 in industry and fan Super Bowl XLV ad polls.
10. Guilherme Gomes, CEO of Beatly
Guilherme Gomes currently serves as the CEO and Chief Growth Officer at Beatly. At Beatly, he focuses on leading product and marketing teams to make the creator's economy scalable, transparent, efficient, fun, and fair. Before his current position, Guilherme worked as a Strategic Advisor at Nabla Analytics, providing data-focused consulting and SaaS products to help energy companies operate more efficiently and effectively.
11. Heinz Sohm, CEO of Blind Creator
Heinz Sohm is a serial entrepreneur and passionate data scientist. He has more than nine years of experience in creating tech products and leading teams. He now focuses on solving problems, orchestrating solutions, and professionalizing influencer marketing.
12. Jacobo Zelada, CIO of Apple Tree
Jacobo Zelada is the Chief Innovation Officer at APPLE TREE. He designs and implements changes in communication approaches, methods, and processes to enhance competitiveness and improve organizational efficiencies. He has been a partner at this leading international communications agency for over 12 years, where he also led the digital and the operations team in Madrid and London.
13. James Creech, Co-Founder of Measure Studio
James Creech is a 3x entrepreneur who helps founders accelerate their growth and sell their businesses. He has built and sold his first startup and is working on two more. James helped four companies navigate the M&A process to a successful exit. He has advised 20+ companies that have collectively raised $100M+. Around 20k+ people follow his journey on LinkedIn, and 4k+ people read his monthly newsletter.
14. Jennifer Quigley-Jones, CEO of Digital Voices
Jennifer Quigley-Jones is the CEO & founder of Digital Voices - an agency that drives growth for brands through the power of Influence. The agency has offices in the USA and UK and has run campaigns in 36 countries, with 19 native languages spoken on the team. Digital Voices was named Influencer Marketing Company of the Year in 2022.
15. Krishna Subramanian, CEO of Captiv8
With over 15 years of experience, Krishna Subramanian is a marketing leader and entrepreneur with a passion for connecting brands and consumers through social data and content creation. He co-founded Captiv8, a platform that organizes social data and makes it universally accessible and predictable, and Unanimous Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage startups. He is driven by the mission of helping change the way the world connects to brands, and bringing diverse perspectives and experiences to the industry.
16. Mads Wedderkopp, CEO of Dreaminfluence
Mads Wedderkopp is an ambitious C-level leader with over ten years of experience in a high-growth environment. He has demonstrated excellent capabilities in funding, operations management, analytics, sales, strategy, business planning, talent acquisition, early-stage finance, liquidity forecasting, leadership, and product strategy.
17. Natalia Syzdykova, Senior Marketing Lead of HypeFactory
With 15 years of marketing experience under her belt, Natalia Syzdykova mastered the art of turning businesses into authority figures. Her work has been focused on B2B lead generation, go-to-market strategies, product development, compelling content creation, digital promotion, performance marketing, and brand marketing. She helped grow the market share for brands in declining markets, increased quality leads by 300%, launched ten new brands, managed marketing budgets of over $7M per year, and much more.
18. Nic Campanile, Co-Founder of Creatorcore
Nic CampanileCo-Founder at CreatorCore and The Clementine Group, a TikTok marketing & creator agency based in Los Angeles. With a background in software and influencer work, he has built Clementine into a service-tech hybrid agency that truly stands out from the rest. Nic has had an entrepreneurial spirit his whole life and found his first success in middle school when he launched a successful influencer merchandising company out of his parent's garage. Prior to that, Nic taught himself graphic design and worked with influencers on their branding for social channels. In high school, he helped several Silicon Valley firms create their first MVPs and brought multiple to market.
19. Paul Boulet, Founder of Click Analytic
In the last six years, Paul Boulet helped international & local DTC brands successfully generate tangible results with influencers. Paul founded Click Analytic, a platform that connects brands with influencers to help them reach their customers and maximize campaign performance. The solution enables businesses to find influencers across multiple social networks, check their audience, compare competitors, and manage campaigns from a simple and intuitive interface.
20. Permele Doyle, Founder of Billion Dollar Boy
Permele Doyle began her career at Estée Lauder, where she played a key role in Tom Ford Beauty's success on social media. She foresaw the influencer marketing trend before it took off and founded Billion Dollar Boy, which assists brands in their online marketing strategies. Doyle's known for her early insights into digital marketing trends.
21. Randall Rothernberg, Executive Chair of IAB
Randall Rothenberg has spent much of the past 40 years helping consumer and B2B brands, media companies, advertising agencies, tech firms, governments, political parties, NGOs, and creators see - and adapt to - the waves of technology-driven change that have overwhelmed economies and restructured entire industries. For the past 16 years, as CEO and most recently as Executive Chair, he built the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) into one of the most influential trade associations in the world.
22. Ricky Ray Butler, CEO of BENlabs
Ricky Ray Butler is the CEO of Branded Entertainment Network (BEN), a company that specializes in using AI to deliver cross-platform brand integrations for TV, film, streaming, digital influencers, music, and more. With over a decade of experience in entertainment advertising, Ricky Ray is a passionate advocate for brand integration to connect brands and communities in meaningful ways. He was named to AdAge’s 40 Under 40 and was listed as one of the top 100 people in influencer marketing by Influence Directory.
23. Robert Levenhagen, Chairman of Social Match
Robert Levenhagen is the CEO and co-founder of Social Match. He has worked with companies globally to develop scalable and effective influencer marketing strategies. Robert has co-founded five companies that have helped to make him one of Europe’s leading experts on influencer marketing, including InfluencerDB in 2016; Social Match, an influencer marketing agency; My Style Hit, a fashion blogging platform; and Skincerely Yours and Melou, influencer marketing-driven e-commerce brands. Robert focuses on a combination of data, processes, and education to develop successful influencer marketing strategies.
24. Ryan Detert, CEO of Influential
As CEO of Influential, an influencer marketing company, Ryan Detert has brought influencers, Fortune 500 brands, press, and financing to his venture-backed company. Through Influential, Detert has led campaigns for advertising agencies and holding companies including Dentsu, Interpublic, Omnicom, Publicis and WPP, for global brands like Walmart, Nestle, NFL, NBA Nike, McDonalds, Pepsi, Toyota, General Mills, Unilever, and even The United Nations. Detert has also forged exclusive partnerships with dozens of technology and media partners, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, IBM Watson, Oracle Data Cloud, IRI, and WME, who came in as an investor in Influential’s most recent Series B round of funding.
25. Steven Galanis, Co-Founder of Cameo
Steven Galanis is an American entrepreneur passionate about building strong, lasting relationships predicated on integrity, respect, and mutual trust. His passion for connecting people led him to found Cameo, a marketplace where fans can book personalized video shoutouts from their favorite people, with Martin Blencowe & Devon Townsend. Recognized as one of “Hollywood’s Top Innovators” by THR (The Hollywood Reporter), Steven has been named “40 under 40” by Crain’s Chicago Business, Entrepreneur of the Year Midwest Region by EY, “Innovator of the Year (B2C)” by Chicago Inno. He has twice been named one of Goldman Sachs' 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs.
26. Steven Lammertink, CEO of The Cirqle
Steven Lammertink is a serial entrepreneur and the Founder & CEO of The Cirqle, the world's first conversion-driven influencer marketing platform. With over nine years of experience leading and growing The Cirqle, he has raised $2.5 million in funding and secured partnerships with global brands such as Samsung, LG, Scotch & Soda, and Manchester City. He is also a Kauffman Scholar, a prestigious program that selects and trains the most promising entrepreneurs worldwide.
27. Tiffany Kelly, Founder of Curastory
Tiffany Kelly is the founder of Curastory, a video enablement tool for creators that allows them to edit, monetize, distribute, and track their videos across social media. For monetization, Curastory is the first programmatic media buying solution for influencer content.
28. Tony Tran, CEO of Lumanu
Tony Tran is the CEO and co-founder of Lumanu, the platform that lets creators grow, collaborate, and become more successful. He is a product expert in machine learning and marketing SaaS. He formerly worked at McKinsey and Google. He is a big believer in democratizing entrepreneurship and is passionate about building and growing technology and community to empower creators to build thriving businesses.
29. Torsten Petersen, CTO of Woomio
Torsten Petersen, the CTO and Founder of Woomio, is a visionary leader who strongly believes in the creator's role in business growth and the significance of their social capital. With over 13 years in the tech industry, Torsten has guided Woomio since its founding in 2015, emphasizing the transformative power of creators. His earlier role as a Senior Developer at Cabana A/S provided him with valuable experience. Torsten Petersen is not just a CTO; he is a forward-thinking entrepreneur shaping the future of business by integrating technology and the creator economy.
30. Zachary Rozga, CEO of Thece
Zachary is a lifelong entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of Thece. His business approach comes from a global perspective, having worked in over 50 countries. Zachary is dedicated to building a next-generation, family-friendly enterprise where everyone feels welcome and appreciated. Thece is an ad platform for live streaming and is the reach and frequency solution for brands seeking to connect with 18-34-year-olds. The Thece platform offers a turnkey solution for brands and agencies to engage with esports' game-viewing audience (GVA) actively. Digiday has named Thece: The Alternative Media Rights for Esports.
About Phyllo
In the creator economy, creators are brands.
And these “brands” are built on the creator’s credibility. This is the capital that these “brands” thrive on. The sum total of all of the audience’s interactions with the creator amounts to their credibility.
And to get paid as a creator, you need at least some credibility. This includes data to -
- Verify a creator’s identity
- Access a creator’s proof of work, i.e. engagement
- Access a creator’s audience demographics data
- Verify a creator’s income from multiple sources, among many others
Phyllo is a universal API gateway that provides developers access to creator-consented data across 20+ social platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Twitch, and more.
Phyllo takes care of data normalization, platform partnerships, and app approvals, allowing you to focus on the product you’re building without spending additional bandwidth on infrastructure and maintenance.
Today, Phyllo’s biggest use case is for influencer marketing space, where you can use it to build a robust application that can onboard verified influencers, track content performance, understand fan demographics, and measure campaign ROI seamlessly. Phyllo APIs also power critical use cases in other industries, such as creator tools, financial services, and social identity verification.
Check out https://www.getphyllo.com/ to learn more about us.
Coming soon! The Voice of Influence Report 2023
As part of this initiative, we also conducted a survey to understand the current state, problems, and necessities of smooth data-sharing systems between brands and creators.
Stay tuned! This comprehensive report will be made live by the end of this year.
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