We’ve Got Some News For You
We’ve Been Keeping Busy With Our New Name and the Launch of Activate Studio Underway
While we typically write about industry analysis and updates, today I am thrilled to share some exciting new developments:
1. We Are Now Activate!
Today, our company is excited to officially re-brand as Activate. The name Activate comes from the phrase “activating influencers”. It has become a phrase frequently uttered throughout our day-to-days here at the office. Today, we are fully re-branding our company to Activate as it best represents who we are.
In our eyes, this has been a long time coming. As many of you may know, in 2007, we started out as Bloglovin’, a platform and community for creators, tastemakers, bloggers, and their most avid fans. Today, we have over 12 million registered global users engaging with content on the Bloglovin’ platform. It has proven to be an incredible content discovery engine and community for influencers and consumers alike. Through Bloglovin’, we have learned all about emerging creators, what makes content compelling and engaging, and how to run influencer partnerships at scale to fuel our own growth. We will continue to leverage this platform to distribute inspiring influencer (and brand) stories.
In recent years, brands and marketers caught on to the power of influencers and began leveraging the Bloglovin’ platform to not only find the right ones, but to also ask for our help in partnering with them. In 2016, after many months of google spreadsheets and DMs, we formally launched the Activate technology platform to help our team and our partners to run these influencer collaborations across all social channels, at scale, more efficiently.
The Activate platform has grown tremendously since then. Over the last year, we have activated over 75,000 influencers and creators to publish more than 6,500 pieces of collaborated content per month. As a result, we continue to learn what works and what doesn’t work in the ever-evolving social media and content landscape.
2. How We Partner with Brands (and the Launch of Activate Studio)
We have also refined how we work with our brand and agency partners. Across the board, we partner with brands and influencers to tell engaging and compelling stories across social media, at scale. We are a team of influencer strategists, technologists, data scientists, and operations professionals that invites brands and agencies to work with us in one of two ways:
Activate Studio: Our Activate Studio team works to collaborate with brands on innovative, data-driven programs that seek to deliver engaging content, strong consumer engagement and measurable results.
Our Studio team leverages our Activate technology platform, driving efficiencies all along the work flow so that the influencer collaboration can be much more about driving creative strategy and measurable results.
The Studio team seeks to identify creators that not only show strong affinities to our brand partners, but also drive actual impact with the right, qualified audience. Finally, based on key performance metrics, we help brands to magnify the top performing pieces of content with targeted amplification strategies spanning paid social, re-targeting / programmatic, and our wholly owned Bloglovin’ platform of more than 12MM global tastemakers.
Activate Self-Serve Platform: As another option, brands and agencies alike can leverage Activate, our proprietary influencer technology platform, on its own to identify, manage, and report on scaled influencer programs. They will have direct access to our Activate Studio team on an as-needed basis. In both regards, our dedicated team of engineering, product, and data-focused individuals will work closely with both our Studio team and self-serve clients to continually define the influencer marketing platform of the future.
3. Change in Leadership & Our Role in Industry Landscape
Finally, on a personal note, I am excited to be taking on the role of Chief Executive Officer at Activate. I am extremely privileged to work with an incredible, passionate team that truly cares about the future of this industry.
Having spent the last four years watching the influencer marketing ecosystem form and flourish before my eyes, I believe in the tremendous potential of influencers and creators.
I believe that influencers are the future of media with real, measurable impact on how today’s consumers engage with brands. As traditional marketing channels continue to fragment and lose consumer attention, the relationship between influencers and their audiences continues to grow across social platforms and content formats.
Our role in this ecosystem is to build trust between influencers and brands, provide transparency and efficiency on everything from impressions to pricing, and foster truly collaborative and innovative partnerships.
It is only with real trust and collaboration that magic in storytelling can happen.
Warmest regards,
Kamiu Lee
CEO, Activate
ACTIVATE is a fully end-to-end influencer marketing platform, covering influencer discovery, program workflow, measurement, and analytics. Last year, the ACTIVATE platform enabled over 75,000 influencers to collaborate with brands.
Want to learn more about Activate? Just drop us a note at research@activate.social.
