In this episode of Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast, titled "The Authenticity Advantage: Driving Engagement and Revenue with Curated Creator Content," host Kerry Curran speaks with Erin Gagnon, Managing Director of BrandCycle, about how brands can harness the power of creator-driven content to boost engagement and drive sales. They discuss how authentic, real-life product endorsements on platforms like Meta, TikTok, and YouTube outperform traditional ads by building trust and fostering stronger audience connections. Plus, they explore how performance-based models—using affiliate links, trackable codes, and measurable results—enable brands to align creator partnerships with revenue goals. This episode is packed with insights on leveraging authenticity to build credibility, enhance brand visibility, and achieve measurable growth.

Podcast transcript

Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:01.486)

So welcome, Erin, please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your background and expertise.

Erin Gagnon (00:08.172)

Thank you so much. I'm really happy to be here. So my name is Erin. I am the general manager here at Brandcycle. I have been with Brandcycle pretty much since its inception. We are nine years old, and we are an influencer creator and content network. We work with about 7,000 mid to long-tail social media influencers and content creators and about 600 brands. We work on both the affiliate performance model as well as with paid

Prior to joining BrandCycle, I had a background in a bit more traditional media. So I started in newspapers and I went into PR after that, but have been in performance and influence for almost a decade now.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:53.059)

So I know you're saying you had a front-row seat to the birth and evolution of the influencer space. So talk a bit about how you've seen that evolve and kind of what's been the most interesting to you in that time.

Erin Gagnon (01:12.204)

Yeah, think so. It's interesting to track the growth of influencers with really the organic growth of brand cycles. So, you know, when we were founded in 2015, the conceptual idea behind our company was really publisher representation, specifically in performance marketing back then, but content publishers, we came out of the idea of the brand cycle and came out of an agency at the time. Agencies representing brands and publishers were coming to the agency and saying, hey, can you help me? 

Like I want to work more closely with this brand. I want a better commission rate. I want a paid opportunity. I want product gifting and all of that good stuff. And the agency really couldn't do that, right? They can't be the buyer and seller agent for that. But there was a massive need because we had a lot of smaller creators who were generating a lot of revenue, but the proportion of their revenue, like the overall budget, was small. And so there was a need for a company to come in and advocate for this community to kind of roll up their collective power and to put technology behind that to help them establish those partnerships. And back then it wasn't influencers, it was bloggers, right?

Kerry Curran, RBMA (02:30.147)

Hmm.

Erin Gagnon (02:37.388)

We worked with a lot of mommy bloggers in the early days. And as time has gone down, just more and more, we have moved from long-form bloggers to now 95 % of our user base is social first or social only. And so that is where content is being created. And those are where stories are being told about the brand's products.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (03:01.51)

No, it's becoming an increasingly important and impactful part of a lot of brand strategies. So talk about from your perspective why influencers have become so impactful and how it really plays a role in the media mix.

Erin Gagnon (03:20.03)

Yeah, so I think it's twofold, right? There's the authenticity bit, right? So the creators are using the products that they're talking about all day long. They're using it for themselves. They're using it for their families. They just understand it, and they're talking about things that they love, and you really can't buy that. I think the... my God, I just went out of my brain.

Erin Gagnon (03:48.104)

Yeah, I went back and back. Okay. And then the second part of that would be their engagement, right? So our creators are good at creating those community conversations in a way that mass media has sometimes struggled with, right? So getting the people who read them, who buy from them, who make buying decisions based off of them, talking to them, getting their firsthand feedback on what they're promoting …

Kerry Curran, RBMA (04:00.322)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Erin Gagnon (04:16.842)

… what their experiences are with the product, creating those conversations, creating that safe space to have those conversations. Influencers are just really, really good at that in a way that sometimes larger publications seem a bit disconnected from that.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (04:26.659)

Yeah definitely. And so I know a lot of brands look at influencers more as a PR play or an upper funnel and maybe just a pay-a-fee-based approach. But talk about how you've seen more affiliate integration with the influencers and creators and kind of the value of that. Like really, why should brands look at that approach as part of their strategy?

Erin Gagnon (04:59.358)

Yeah. So I know you're particularly interested in, you know, how marketing drives revenue growth. And I think this is the perfect example of exactly how it can do that. So influencers are great at the top of the funnel content, right? They are great at highly editorial, beautiful videos and content as well. But the type of creators that we work with who are mid-tier, we work with some micro-influencers too, but the creators that we're working with have community sizes.

Anywhere from 10,000 to 750,000, kind of that mid-tier community, guys. They are also, you know, they are thought leaders with their communities and they create that FOMO, and they actually can help brands drive sales, right? And so they are typically, you know, especially the larger ones still expecting a payout structure that is not commission only, right? In the sense that if they're creating original imagery,

Kerry Curran, RBMA (05:46.178)

Yeah.

Erin Gagnon (05:57.928)

If they are writing long-form content, the commission alone is not going to be all that they need, but they can drive that sale. So the disconnect that influencers can only do top of the funnel is just not the reality. We're already in that space. And I think that's surprising to some people.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (06:17.878)

Yeah, well, though my perspective is to your point, it also gives you that measurement, right? So you can really see which creators are driving sales. They are impacting your revenue growth. And then you can optimize or lean in and continue to build relationships with those. So I agree. I think it's such a smart strategy for brands to at least test into that approach. Not just that fee-based.

Erin Gagnon (06:49.78)

Yeah. I, you know, prior to going into performance marketing, I was in PR, right? And so I fully understand having to go back to your client and tell them your value or justify your value. Right. And this is all trackable. There is no, there is no guesswork in the value of the creators when you are also, you might be working with them on a feed, but if you're also using an affiliate link or a coupon code that you can track, there is also performance behind it.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (07:19.372)

Yeah, and so with Brand Cycle, talk a bit more about the kind of the platform and how you make it easier for brands and creators to build those relationships.

Erin Gagnon (07:32.342)

Sure. So we'll start with creators first because we are creator-centric and we want to ensure that they're getting everything that they need. So for creators, specifically, it's entirely overwhelming. And then the industry also includes a lot of jargon. if you want to say, so I always use the example, say you are a health-conscious creator, right? Or you're a creator who is really into fitness and you want to promote it.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (07:41.133)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Erin Gagnon (08:02.368)

You know, Nike and you want to promote Lululemon and you want to promote your favorite water bottle and you want to promote your favorite yoga mat, you know, to find those partnerships, whether they are direct partnerships, product gifting or affiliate partnerships, you have to go seven different places. You have to get someone to listen to you. You have to say you establish relationships with four of them.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (08:22.254)

Mm-hmm.

Erin Gagnon (08:29.196)

Then you're still going to four different places for reporting, four different places for building your campaign, for tracking that campaign, all of that good stuff. So a platform like BrandCycle, we do all that for them in one place, right? So there's one set of logins, instant access to 700 brands, we're negotiating the higher commission rate, we're negotiating those paid partnerships, we're negotiating those gifting opportunities. And so it just really makes it easier and also easier for them to grow their businesses. Right. So we provide a lot of leadership, a lot of hand-holding, a lot of how to get those micro creators from a community size of a thousand to ten thousand and ten thousand to fifty thousand, et cetera, and growing them. And then for brands, you know, we manage the mid to long tail so you don't have to. Right. And we're also full service. So there are a lot of brands who …

Kerry Curran, RBMA (08:55.95)

Hmm.

Erin Gagnon (09:23.16)

… they might have an in-house team, but they don't have the capacity for their in-house team or maybe they have you know Tick-tock relationships, but they haven't done much on Facebook or YouTube or whatever it might be Working with a partner like a brand cycle. We're full. We are full service So you give us your KP eyes and we can manage everything else for you and we can also manage that with an eye on return if that intends to be a KPI that you care … 

Kerry Curran, RBMA (09:55.318)

Yeah, no, I, it sounds like such a great opportunity for the creators that want to get better and stronger at what they're doing and grow their network so that they can be more impactful, but also you're making it easier for the brands to work with them as well. So it should be a smooth and easy process there.

Erin Gagnon (10:19.094)

… that's the hope and the dream.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (10:20.814)

Great. So I love knowing what you talked about is being very creator-centric. I know that creating that safe space, that growing space for the creators has been a huge differentiator for you. And with that advocacy, you do an annual survey to see how they are doing, how the creators are doing. So talk a bit about the insights and the questions that you ask. I think this is important and shows kind of we they're not just the creators but aren't just talent that you hire like they really are passionate and you want to make sure they have what they need.

Erin Gagnon (10:59.456)

Yeah, absolutely. So we survey our creators every single year. We do it annually in September. So we just did this, you know, not too long ago. And we asked them a range of questions. Obviously, we asked them how we're doing, but, you know, more importantly, for the future of their work, we kind of asked them what challenges their businesses are facing and what are they thinking about and what is keeping Mehmet up at night.

And sometimes the answer to that is not exactly what you would think. So when we just asked our creators what their biggest challenges were that were facing their business, the biggest one that popped up was social media algorithms, right? So 70 % of the creators who responded to our survey said that they were constantly challenged by algorithms and whether or not their content was being seen, what they could do about that and then whether they could do anything about that.

That is consistent year over year. It's not going away. It's getting just as it was top of mind last year, it's top of mind this year. So I think that's interesting. We can help our creators understand algorithms, understand how they work, and how to best approach them. But another thing that we really do for our creators is help them to think about their work.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (12:02.99)

Mm-hmm.

Erin Gagnon (12:22.238)

As a business, and so if you have, or if you're a creator and you only have one platform, so say you're a TikTok creator, that might not be the best business decision for long-term health, right? In the sense that you will always be beholden to what TikTok decides to do in terms of showing your content. So we encourage our creators to be multi-platform, to have their websites, to ...

Kerry Curran, RBMA (12:29.368)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Erin Gagnon (12:48.79)

… collect emails and send emails or think about some of the future of platforms that are not algorithmic based, right? So dedicated messaging platforms, safe spaces or email marketing platforms. I think it's really interesting that that is their top concern.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (13:06.092)

Yeah. So what that, no, and it makes sense. I mean, I see it myself when I'm trying to promote that podcast, for example, and I'm like, sometimes something gets, you know, a thousand views and sometimes it gets 300 and then you have to, you have to tweak it. And yeah, I mean, right now I'm just one platform, but I, I'd see the value to your point of helping them and coaching them to kind of expand their reach.

Erin Gagnon (13:33.668)

And it's even worse when a brand is trying to work with a creator on a paid campaign. So we had a creator who was just cast for a paid campaign. Their original content received like a thousand views and their follow-up content received 10,000 views. It wasn't that the content was that much better the second time around. It was that the original content went out on a Monday and the engagement there, I mean, that's part of the reason, but it's just some of this is a little bit of a … 

Kerry Curran, RBMA (13:56.733)

Yeah.

Erin Gagnon (14:03.104)

We all have to figure it out together. so brands being understanding of that or like understanding the challenges there and working with creators through that is helpful.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (14:06.498)

Yeah.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (14:12.15)

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And so what were some of the other questions that you asked and insights that you were able to collect?

Erin Gagnon (14:21.77)

Yeah, so specifically more for that question, you know, we also found that creators, which was kind of new to this year, are increasingly concerned or worried about competition within their own competitive set, right? So as influencers become more and more prevalent and part of the marketplace, there's a lot of...

Kerry Curran, RBMA (14:36.12)

Yeah.

Erin Gagnon (14:46.144)

… focus on, how can I differentiate myself from other creators? How can I get brands to see the work that I'm doing? How can I find new opportunities while still maintaining authenticity? Authenticity also came up as something that they struggled to balance, especially when they were thinking about monetization or even when brands approached them and wanted to work with them. It's just something that they think about on a daily basis.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (15:13.038)

Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. And it is, you're seeing it becoming more and more competitive. And so what are some of the other valuable insights that you were able to get out of the survey?

Erin Gagnon (15:27.684)

That's a good question. Sorry, I don't have a, let me pull up. I have a bunch of certs, like, let me, let me see what else is going to be important to you.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (15:30.967)

Okay.

Erin Gagnon (15:43.112)

Okay, cool. So another question that we asked within the survey that I think is important for marketers more generally is we asked our creators what strategies were most effective in maximizing their influencer marketing efforts. And for the creator specifically, they found that social media tools were the top answer. So in terms of analytics, content planning, and scheduling, et cetera.

And SEO was the least common choice for all creators who completed the survey. So that is also interesting in the sense that, you know, a lot of influencer marketers are not using SEO as probably as other marketing channels. I thought that was pretty interesting. They were also talking about, you know, texting and SMS, giveaways, researching trends, those types of things were helping them to grow their business.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (16:37.868)

Yeah, no, that's interesting. so you talked about one of the bigger year-over-year trends was just the creators dedicating more time to their efforts. Like, talk about kind of what you've seen from that perspective.

Erin Gagnon (16:55.316)

Yep. So last year we found that our creators finding the time to dedicate to their efforts was of more concern than it was this year, right? In the sense that as their businesses grow, they're dedicating more time. It's becoming less of a side gig and more of a full-time gig, which I think a lot of people can assume that, like showing it in data too, right? That people are taking this … 

Kerry Curran, RBMA (17:06.04)

Interesting.

Erin Gagnon (17:22.55)

… side hobby, side hustle as a full-time job, where not only is it a full-time job, a lot of our creators have contractors and people that help them, is definitely something that we're seeing grow over time.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (17:35.148)

Yeah, well, it's definitely, as you know, you've had this front-row seat to this industry really explosion. So it's definitely fascinating to watch, again, how prevalent it is. for brands, what would be your recommendation for a brand to kind of get started with your brand cycle or think about influencer partnerships that go beyond just that upfront fee?

Erin Gagnon (18:04.46)

Yeah. So I think the number one thing that depends on who you decide to partner with, whether you're partnering with a creator themselves, you're partnering with a more full-service partner like Brandcycle can be. If you're partnering with a marketplace where you're going to find creators and they're going to help on the tech side. The number one thing that you think would be a no-brainer, but you'd be surprised by the amount of partners we work with that haven't fully fleshed this out is understanding what your goals are as a company before approaching the influencer, right? So really understand what success looks like. There are a lot of partners that are curious. Call them curious influencers, right? Like they're curious, they heard it's the thing they want to understand, but they don't really, haven't really fully thought internally about what.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (18:49.902)

Yeah.

Erin Gagnon (19:00.384)

What they want the creators to accomplish for their business. And it can be really hard for the creators themselves or partners such as Brands cycle to back out that success with strategy unless you get success metrics. So that's definitely if you have that very clear from day one, you're gonna have a much more likelihood of having a successful campaign, whether it be a short-term or long-term campaign.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (19:03.638)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. No, that's, that's so important. Definitely. If you don't know what you want, you're not going to be able to really articulate it to the creators. They're not mind readers. So that makes sense. You know, I talked to a lot of people in the influencer space and one of them, the top challenge that just keeps coming up is brands wanting to control the script and the content and … 

Kerry Curran, RBMA (19:54.19)

… and the need to just let the creators create. Do you see that getting better or do you think?

Erin Gagnon (19:57.878)

Just don't do it.

Yeah, sometimes I think it kind of depends. We are seeing it get better in pockets, but especially when you're working with creators like ours who have a history of also selling on a performance model, they truly do know what will get their followers to buy your product. So being too prescriptive with that, it's, it's just not … 

Kerry Curran, RBMA (20:04.599)

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Erin Gagnon (20:31.788)

… helpful. Now I get it from the brand's point of view, like there are certain ways they don't want their brand talked about. There are certain guardrails that they want to put up for sure. Like, let's definitely all align.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (20:42.028)

Yes, yeah, definitely with brand brand safety guidelines, of course. Yeah.

Erin Gagnon (20:46.824)

Yeah, but outside of that, they truly do know that their community is the best and even more than me. I can't, I spend all day every day with them and I still can't talk to them as well as they could themselves.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (21:01.409)

Yeah, excellent. Well, this is great, Erin. Any other tips or recommendations for brands or creators in the space?

Erin Gagnon (21:12.285)

Any other tips or recommendations? That's a good one, sorry. Let me think.

So if I'm thinking about any other tips for brands or creators, I would also say just have fun with it. I mean, it's a really fun channel within the marketing space. There's so much creativity. There are so many different directions it could go. One size does not fit all. And really, it's fun, right? I think we sometimes forget what the creator means. And so, yeah, I would say have fun with it, especially if we're talking about a holiday.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (21:46.211)

Hmm. Yeah.

Erin Gagnon (21:53.725)

Just let it, it's just really fun where the campaigns can go.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (21:58.51)

Excellent. Well, thank you so much, Erin. This has been great. Always great to talk with you. So thank you for your time.

Erin Gagnon (22:05.875)

You too, thank you.