Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, media consumption was on the rise across all social media platforms, boosting the influencer marketing industry along with it. 

From Instagram to TikTok, brands are now well-aware of the advertising opportunities on these channels, and they are spreading marketing dollars across various platforms to provide audiences with content that feels more authentic. However, many influencers are now struggling to manage this demand, and keep their campaigns organized. 

That’s why we are pleased to welcome Clout Jam, an innovative campaign management platform for social media influencers and content creators, to our virtual first accelerator program. 

The Nuts & Bolts

Problem: A majority of influencers lack the resources to scale their side-hustles into full-fledged businesses effectively. The average creator manages multiple campaigns and client relationships, and receives hundreds of messages per week. Most don’t have access to professional management or full-time staff, and therefore, are spending several hours per day on administrative tasks alone. 

Solution: Clout Jam is a campaign management solution that helps creators track deals, manage campaigns, and grow their revenue so they can focus on what they love: creating great content.

Getting to Know Clout Jam

We first met the Clout Jam team back in March 2020, and we accepted them into our virtual accelerator program shortly after. 

Both founders of Clout Jam have solid experience in the space. Co-founder and CEO, Trevor Mengel, has been building media marketplaces for publishers and marketers for over 10 years. Co-founder and Professional Creator, Samantha Cutler, is an influencer with 50,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok. She has worked with major brands such as Activia, Keurig, Quaker, W Hotels, and L’Oreal, among many others, over the past six years. Using Clout Jam, her own brand @thefitfatale, reports that it was able to increase revenue by 49% in six months. 

We are impressed by the online community Clout Jam is creating. Recently, the team launched #CloutForGood, an initiative that enables influencers to use their voices to bring attention to social injustice, the Black Lives Matter movement, and non-profit organizations dedicated to advocacy, education, and action around issues that we are also highly-focused on with our ESG strategy. 

Why Now?

When brands started taking micro-influencers more seriously a few years ago, young people began to leverage their social presence to make money. Nowadays, 86% of young Americans, or approximately 75 million people, would like to be paid for their social media influence.

As we move deeper into the COVID-19 pandemic, media consumption continues to surge. Engagement rates on social media are 61% over normal usage rates. This has created a surge in influencer marketing-focused platforms and agencies. In fact, the number of these platforms is practically doubling annually. 

The problem is that an average influencer would need to sign up for multiple platforms to access 100% of the demand for their services, which is incredibly inefficient, Clout Jam notes. Not to mention, most influencer marketing platforms still use email as the primary interface. According to Clout Jam, Influencer inboxes are flooded with hundreds, if not thousands, of RFPs from potential clients each month, making their solution crucial as the influencer marketing industry continues to expand. 

With Clout Jam, creators can manage conversations with brands, track contracts, automate their content calendars, and much more, all in one place. 

Future of Clout Jam

Clout Jam is hyper-focused on improving influencer marketing for creators large and small. In the short term, this means equipping individual influencers with better tools and guidance for brand outreach, effective negotiation, and content strategy. Looking beyond the horizon, Clout Jam seeks to be the driving force behind the standardization of contracts and transactions between creators and their marketer clients – creating greater efficiency, transparency, and ultimately performance for the market as a whole.

 

You can learn more about Clout Jam at https://www.cloutjam.com. 

If you would like to learn more about ideas, sectors, and trends that we are excited about as well as receive invitations to exclusive previews, and expert roundtables, please sign up here. 

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