Nicolas Roope and Dan Cullen-Shute Join This Here to Help It Reinvent Influencer Marketing

This Here, the female-founded co-creative agency launched in 2013 by Jemima Garthwaite, has formalised its first strategic advisory board with the appointments of respected industry forces Nicolas Roope and Dan Cullen-Shute. After a year of arm’s-length collaboration – during which Nicolas and Dan provided informal counsel – this marks their official roles as strategic advisors.

Underlining the shift in influencer marketing’s reputation, Jemima says, “Influencer marketing became cemented as a kind of dirty business and something that you didn't really want to be associated with if you were a creative person.” Determined to overturn that perception, she adds, “We're decided that we weren't an influencer marketing agency – that was really grimy. We were a creative-first agency that worked with real people.” She credits Nicolas and Dan with helping This Here realise that “instead of accepting that distance… we should own that space and do influencer marketing exactly the way it should be done. To hell with the status quo.”

Since its inception, This Here has specialised in human-centred campaigns – offering cultural-immersion strategy, influencer partnerships, co-creation workshops, creative direction, talent management, production, events and performance analysis – that fuse authentic storytelling with data intelligence. Its client roster includes The North Face, Scape, Forestry England, Puma, and Foot Locker.

Remarkably, This Here has grown almost entirely by word of mouth since its foundation in 2013, eschewing traditional agency PR, awards entries and marketing spend. Clients arrive via personal recommendation, drawn by the agency’s reputation for real, human-centred work rather than glossy pitches or paid placements.

Industry-Defining Expertise on Board

Nicolas, co-founder of Poke and digital-media innovator behind Hulger and Plumen, brings a portfolio that spans The Lovie Awards, multiple Webby Awards and D&AD Black Pencils, with work held in the MoMA, the V&A and Cooper-Hewitt. Dan Cullen-Shute, founder and former Worldwide CEO of Creature, built his agency on an ethos of “intelligent misbehaviour,” served on the IPA Council and Forbes Agency Committee, and now runs his consultancy Negroni Breakfast while advocating for social mobility, coaching grassroots sport and writing for the Evening Standard.

For its 10-year anniversary in 2023, This Here produced a celebratory film series titled ‘This Here Who Made Us,’ in which every team member interviewed the one person who had most influenced their career. The project culminated in a short film featuring founder Jemima’s conversation with Nicolas – her chosen mentor – underscoring the agency’s collaborative ethos and personal bonds at its core.

Jemima and Dan first crossed paths at the IPA President’s Lunch in 2015, where they instantly hit it off. After stepping away from leading Creature – a role that “took up a lot of time” – Dan founded his strategic consultancy Negroni Breakfast and embraced what he calls “the slightly more liminal, undefined world that I’m operating in now… where I can do stuff like this. I don’t have to be envious of other agencies that I think are brilliant. I can look at those agencies and go, ‘I think you’re brilliant. Can I help? Can I do stuff with it?’” Through late-night phone calls and WhatsApp messages, he provided informal counsel for nearly a decade – long before officially joining This Here’s advisory board to formalise their partnership.

Authenticity Over Quick Wins

This Here’s approach stands in stark contrast to quick-win tactics. Dan comments, “This isn't ‘Throw 20 grand at Gemma Collins to pretend that she really, really loves your brand for the day. This is proper, deep, authentic relationships, telling stories.” He adds, “The thing that gets lost is how hard it is to do it well and to tell proper stories. And I think for too many people, it's a cheap way or a quick way to get to the top. And that falls apart very, very quickly.”

Jemima describes the agency’s secret sauce as its “beautifully balanced” methodology: a disciplined fusion of cultural nuance and data integrity. By marrying granular audience insights with an instinctive understanding of subcultural trends, This Here ensures every campaign not only looks and feels authentic but also delivers measurable brand impact.

With influencer marketing now a core brand-building tool that delivers organic coverage, premium content creation, on-brand talent and actionable data, many agencies still treat it as a bolt-on tactic or outsource it to opaque platforms. This Here operates at the intersection of genuine partnerships, cultural intelligence and data-driven strategy – specialising in uncovering niche subcultures, from paddle-boarding enthusiasts to vintage-car aficionados, and matching them with brands to co-craft stories that resonate.

At the heart of This Here’s proposition is a co-creative agency model: brands and influencers share creative control from the outset, relinquishing a degree of traditional oversight to achieve genuine authenticity. Acting as “creative brokers,” the agency facilitates every step of the process – from initial strategy and casting through to content creation – so that each campaign truly reflects the voice and values of both client and creator.

Charting the Next Chapter

Looking ahead, under the strategic counsel of Nicolas and Dan, This Here will consolidate 12 years of heritage and elevate its co-creative model into the mainstream. Jemima is keen to demonstrate to CMOs why brands that care about reputation should embrace This Here’s co-creative approach over one-size-fits-all influencer marketplaces.

When a major CMO recently requested a meeting “to understand why you’re better than the big influencer marketplaces,” Jemima took the challenge in stride. She is now finalising a razor-sharp slide deck that will demonstrate, with clear data and case studies, why one-size-fits-all platforms fall short of the deep cultural insight and authentic engagement that define This Here’s bespoke approach.