Agency
Divij Vaswani, CEO and Founder of Division Media, on Contracting over $6 Million in Brand Deals & The Influencer Marketplace
Contracting over $6 million in promotional brand partnerships deals is no small feat. Today, Divij Vaswani, the CEO and Founder of Divison Media, shares his experience in the influencer marketing world, how he started his company and some of his most successful brand campaigns. Read on to learn about Divison Media’s exciting future plans and notable brand campaigns.
What is Division Media?
Division Media is a leading influencer marketing agency and media buyer based in Los Angeles. Through influencer marketing, Division Media helps brands leverage many social media platforms, including Twitch, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. They connect brands with extensive million and multi-million-dollar media advertising budgets to influencers, athletes, and celebrities.
Division Media’s specialty is creating long-term client engagement that drives performance and healthy business relationships. Their ideas and campaigns drive conversion, increased sales, better customer loyalty, and a winning deal for both the brand and the influencer.
Division Media had its official launch in March 2020. However, Division Media was unofficially started in November 2019 when Divij Vaswani managed brand deals for a Youtuber.
Division Media’s Start
Division Media started after its CEO and Founder, Divij Vaswani, stumbled on Logan Paul’s podcast, Impaulsive. At the time, he was working in the music industry but wasn’t looking to make the music industry his long-term career.
He noticed that Mike Majlak, a co-host on the podcast, was dating famous adult star Lana Rhoades and had a considerable male following.
Divij had the idea to create a brand partnership that took advantage of Mike’s large following and connection to Lana Rhoades.
He thought, “Why don’t I try and reach out to a few different erectile dysfunction or condom-related brands because it would make a lot of sense for Mike, given he has an all-male audience and who he is dating. So, I ended up reaching out to this company called Bluechew [, and] pretended to be Mike’s brand guy.”
This strategy paid off for Divij because the brand immediately called him. He ended up DMing Mike on Instagram, who was amenable to the deal.
“So, I put that deal together, and then the light bulb went off, and I was like this could be a real business, so then I spent the last three years building Division Media, which is basically a brand partnerships agency, and we have about 15 people on our team [and] work with 120 brands right now and some of the biggest influencers and celebrities and athletes.”
Influencer Marketing
Divij shares that he started Division Media after realizing how massive influencer marketing was about to become.
“It already was this massive avenue for brands to gain attention and gain eyeballs and, you know, the money goes where the attention is. So, I figured, “Why don’t I become the brand guy for all these people?”
He adds, “I’m not a talent agent, but creating a sponsorship business around influencers and brands made a lot of sense to me.”
Recently, Division Media announced they have contracted over $6 million in brand partnership deals through their promotional partnerships between brands and influencers.
Although, Divij shares, “I don’t really care about the revenues. It’s more about getting creators paid, making brands happy because they’re building, and then my team, giving them employment and giving them work and success and all that is what matters.”
Brand Campaigns
When asked about some of Division Media’s biggest success stories, Divij shares that they work a lot in the sports betting industry.
Last year, they were one of the biggest talent buyers for a large sports betting company, MyBookie. They also facilitated a partnership between MyBookie and Aidan Ross, famously one of the biggest entertainers in the world.
Division Media has created notable partnerships with Jake Paul. Some of their biggest brand deals have included giants like Walmart Plus, Pretty Little Thing, and Too Faced Cosmetics.
The Influencer Marketing Market
As is the case with any industry, industry marketing can ebb and flow with the economy.
Divij shares, “I think brands have definitely pulled back in the last two months, I think in terms of influencer spending, just trying to reevaluate as they head into the rest of quarter three and obviously quarter four being holiday shopping [and] the biggest time [of year.] So, I think everyone’s pulled back a little, we saw a lot of contracts that canceled, but I think we’ve seen a pickup in different categories.”
Notably, he’s seen an increase in financial services as a reaction to the economy. He’s also noted increases in energy drinks, alcohol, and sports betting, which typically increase during the summertime and heading into the NFL season.
One of the things that Divij would love to watch in the creator marketplace over the next few years is seeing which SAS platforms take off.
“There’s a lot of tech and SAS platforms that are coming in and trying to be that gap between the talent and the brands and kind of manage spending for the brands. So, I think it’ll be exciting to see which of these SAS platforms kind of picks up.”
He shares that he also feels there is a need for more tech, SAS software, and diversity among creators and brands.
Future Plans
Divij shares that Divison Media has recently expanded its services to include paid media and out-of-home advertising.
“Our biggest goal is we don’t represent talent. We don’t really want to be on the talent side at all. We are more focused on the brand side and becoming what’s called the AOR or the agency of records for these brands, where we are their exclusive influencer marketing agency, so that’s kind of where I see us going in the next six to 12 months.”
