How top brands are hunting for the next breakout influencer

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Marketers are getting smarter about finding their next influencer partners.

At a CMO Insider roundtable during Advertising Week New York, top marketers told us how they're using AI-powered platforms, social listening tools, and some surprisingly old-fashioned tactics to discover new creators and niche communities.

Meredith Diehn, SVP of marketing at Goodwipes, said her company recently adopted the influencer discovery tool Modash, which has significantly reduced manual work in identifying potential partners, freeing up the team to review creators' previous content and determine whether they're a good fit.

Goodwipes' searches using Modash are remarkably granular, Diehn said.

"I'm going to find a creator who is a girl with IBS who lives in Nashville," she said.

Diehn's team is also using a social listening tool called Nectar to uncover microcommunities already talking about the brand that might not have been obvious targets. Diehn said Goodwipes is exploring opportunities to reach communities like postpartum mothers, whose needs can make flushable wipes particularly useful.

Alicia Latoya Richardson, head of community and partnerships at the creator membership community FiveTwoNine, said brands are finding success using a tool called Companion, from its parent company Billion Dollar Boy Group, to search for creators across different geographies and demographics and assess their potential value.

For its client Adobe, for example, FiveTwoNine has used Companion to analyze posts created by attendees at its events and estimate the resulting earned media value. (EMV is a measure of what the same reach or engagement would have cost if bought through paid ads.)

"AI has definitely elevated the way we report to clients on value," Richardson said.

Mars Pet Nutrition is also using AI-powered creator-discovery tools to help it cast a wider net when searching for creators and narrow the pool to candidates most likely to deliver reach and engagement. But there are still some areas where the tech falls short, said Paolo Narag, creative excellence lead at Mars Pet Nutrition.

Earlier this year, while he was working on its Sheba brand, Narag's team launched a campaign called "Ignored to Adored." The campaign played on the insight that cat owners often feel ignored by their pets, despite loving them, and leaned heavily on content creators who shot candid videos of being snubbed by their feline companions.

The creator who "popped" was the American figure skater Ilia Malinin, who already had two cats and was about to adopt a third. While AI filtering helped Mars find the right influencer, the team had to dig deeper to uncover the actual storyline that ultimately worked.

"We still have the human discernment to say, 'OK, let's work with their management teams,'" said Narag. "Let's talk to their creators. What are the stories that they have that we can then jump on and amplify?"

Sometimes it pays to just ask

Another way to discover promising creators is simply to ask different communities which influencers they trust, rather than relying solely on algorithms, said FiveTwoNine's Richardson. FiveTwoNine hosts creator events on subjects such as AI, Pinterest, and fashion.

"We will ask that community that is engaged: Who are you listening to? Who are you following? Who are you paying attention to?" Richardson said.

Authenticity is a major consideration when selecting a creator partner. A Morning Consult survey of about 2,000 US adults in September, conducted exclusively for CMO Insider, found consumers ranked creators expressing genuine opinions (33%) and demonstrating they actually use a product themselves (30%) as the top factors that make sponsored content feel authentic.

Kate Ridley, chief brand officer of Stanley 1913, said she prioritizes working with creators who genuinely appreciate its products. She added that the brand hasn't necessarily codified a tried-and-true way to identify new talent because the relevant microcommunities can change so quickly.

Ridley said her approach is one of "constant listening," followed by being ready to make "quick and agile decisions" about how to tap in.

"We don't have a formula, and if I'm being really candid, frequently feel lost in it," Ridley said.