Smarts Launches New ‘Creator Hub’ to Accelerate Award-Winning Influencer and Talent Work

Global PR and creative agency Smarts will invest £1m+ in a new influencer and talent division this year, to help brands forge a new kind of agile cultural relevance.

The agency’s ‘Creator Hub’ will forge authentic partnerships between brands and content creators globally (from celebrities to micro-influencers) to co-create content with genuine cultural traction.

The ‘Creator Hub’ builds on Smarts’ existing global talent and influencer work – including campaigns alongside the likes of Melissa McCarthy, Peggy Gou, Snow Patrol, Jenson Button and Dua Lipa, for brands like Johnnie Walker, ASICS, Bosch and North Face – which have seen the firm rise to become one of the UK’s largest consumer agencies, and a global leader in culture-driven communications.

The new division will be led by PR Week 30 Under 30 winner Jill Boobyer, supported by Smarts US President, Mike DaRe, former Global Head of Culture and Entertainment for Diageo’s Johnnie Walker brand.

Smarts plans to hire 10 new creator specialists, who will join the 15-strong team across its offices in the UK, New York and Los Angeles – with recent appointments including influencer strategist Gina Deen (who, in previous roles, ran PUMA UK’s ambassador programme and led global influencer campaigns for Max Factor and Gucci Beauty) and Josefina Ballesta (who has led influencer campaigns for Disney, Netflix and Sephora).

Commenting on the new offering, Boobyer said: “The influencer industry and creator economy are evolving fast. There is a real shift towards brands seeing influencers and talent as collaborators and creative consultants rather than just paid distribution channels - and that means there is new kind of craft and invention in how creators are producing content today.

“When creators live and breathe the codes and behaviours of the platforms they are truly native on they can forge a new kind of agile cultural relevance for brands - co-creating clever, attention-grabbing, campaigns that do what a brand needs them to do, in ways that the audience wants to engage with.

“The old forced ‘grip and grin with products’ approach that dominated the influencer world for so long has had its day. The emerging opportunity is to unlock the cultural potential of thousands of creators who can work with brands to make work that really sticks – and that’s exactly what we’re trying to do with ‘Creator Hub’.”

The new division is already working on recently won global campaigns for Booking.com and Zalando.