Working with Celebrities and Celebrity Influencers for Original and Branded Content

My definition of an influencer is anyone who can motivate an audience to take action. Now, that’s a very broad definition. In fact, anyone can be an influencer (or more accurately, influential) under those criteria.  But when it comes to differentiating between influencers, we have to split hairs. And one category where my hair-splitting axe comes out is the category of celebrities. I think there are two categories of celebrity influencers: Those who are celebrities and also have social media followings. And celebrities who are such because of their social media followings. Regardless of the differences or similarities, Brittani Kagan works with both kinds. She is the head of talent partnerships and a partner at Portal A. It bills itself as a branded and original content company. What they do specifically is create branded content … so influencer and celebrity campaigns, commercials and even long-form content, for brands. But they also create original content for streaming and media platforms like Netflix, HBO Max and beyond. They work with celebrities, but also with those I might classify as influencers. If the creator is a good fit for what they’re building, they work with them. I put my definitions to the test with Brittani when we caught up recently. She shared a lot of insight into how bigger, celebrity-focused branded and original content talent scouts cast their projects, come up with ideas and more. Our conversation revealed a bit more about what it’s like to create and partner with creators at the highest levels … with the biggest budgets. It was an enlightening conversation and one that should spark a few interesting ideas for us all.  This episode of Winfluence is presented by Tagger, the complete influencer marketing software solution. You can meet me and Tagger president and founder Pete Kennedy at the Influencer Marketing Show April 27 in New York City. We will be joined on stage by Jenny Heinrich who leads influencer marketing at Ketchum as we discuss the metrics that matter for moving the needle in influencer marketing. Tagger is a great partner for isolating those success metrics and helping me report back to our clients at Cornett how their campaigns are doing at returning the KPIs and ROI they’re seeking.  Come see us both and hear more at the Influencer Marketing Show. See the full speaker and topic lineup and get your ticket at jason.online/imsfalls. On checkout, use the code FALLS to get a 15 percent discount, just for listening to Winfluence.   And thanks to Pete Kennedy and the team at Tagger for helping bring Winfluence to you each week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices