Hireinfluence, established in 2011, is a full-service influencer marketing agency. Chris Jacks, a veteran with a decade of experience in the field who has witnessed the evolution of influencer marketing, is at the helm of its growth strategy.

Jacks’ journey in the industry began at Paradigm Talent Agency, where he observed a pivotal shift in artist promotion. 

“Artists that were building a social presence were able to circumvent the standard practices for getting noticed by a big agency like Paradigm,” he recalls in an exclusive interview with Net Influencer. 

“This insight came at a time when social media influence was just beginning to affirm itself as a powerful tool in the music industry,” he adds.

Jacks’ subsequent experience at a startup developing influencer marketing technology proved formative.

 “Going back seven, eight years ago, there were very few tools and services in place to contribute to the influencer marketing process,” Jacks explains. This period was characterized not just by selling services, but by the need to educate clients on the very concept of influencer marketing itself.

Since joining Hireinfluence, Jacks has been instrumental in maintaining the company’s commitment to a full-service, bespoke approach. 

“Everything that we do is tailored to each opportunity that we work on,” he emphasizes, underlining the agency’s dedication to personalized service. 

“Many brands have the ability to leverage whatever technology best suits them, but there’s still a need for companies to align themselves with an agency that has industry professionals and experts who know the space inside and out,” Jacks asserts. 

This focus on personnel-driven, customized services allows Hireinfluence to address aspects of influencer marketing that technology alone cannot handle, positioning the agency to navigate the complexities of the influencer space with human expertise.

The success of this approach is evident in Hireinfluence’s strong industry reputation, which Jacks attributes to both the company’s longevity and the caliber of its team. 

“It’s an incredible place to work. I think it’s some of the most talented people I’ve ever come across in this space,” he says, highlighting the collaborative and innovative environment that has become Hireinfluence’s hallmark.

Strategic Prioritization of TikTok

“We were contacted fairly early on in their development of [their] agency program,” Jacks explains. 

The initial collaboration involved providing feedback on TikTok’s features and client inquiries, which has since evolved into a more formalized prioritization of the app.

Hireinfluence now benefits from a dedicated TikTok agency representative and bi-weekly meetings. 

“Having a direct line of communication to TikTok is invaluable,” Jacks states in the interview. This access extends beyond exclusive features and data, emphasizing the importance of timely communication in winning deals and effectively advising clients.

The prioritization  yields two primary advantages for Hireinfluence. First, it enhances the agency’s ability to secure new business. 

“The ability to leverage the agency account rep on a sales call to help lock down a potential opportunity,” Jacks notes, provides a competitive edge.

Secondly, the relationship grants Hireinfluence access to advanced tools and resources for campaign execution. These include alpha and beta features, information polls, and leveraging the TikTok Creator Marketplace.

Enhancing Campaign Strategies

Hireinfluence recently announced prioritizing TikTok to enhance campaign strategies and measurement capabilities. Jacks highlights the agency’s approach to maximizing the impact of creator content.

“We know that we’re setting campaigns up for success,” he says, explaining the agency’s strategy of combining organic content activations with paid media support. This approach aims to mitigate the challenges posed by organic content algorithms and ensure maximum value from creator content investments.

Hireinfluence’s prioritization  of  TikTok provides access to exclusive ad formats, allowing the agency to tailor its approach based on client goals. 

“The ability to have access to different ad formats that are exclusive to this prioritization  are really valuable,” Jacks notes.

The agency also benefits from alpha and beta features developed by TikTok. Jacks cites the example of comments anchoring, which aims to improve viewership transfer to dedicated landing pages or websites. 

“TikTok is very aware of the ecosystem here and builds alpha and beta resources to better address the challenges that we face,” he explains.

A key advantage of the prioritization is access to comprehensive measurement reports through the TikTok Creator Marketplace. 

Jacks emphasizes the value of first-party authenticated data: “The benefit of using TikTok Creator Marketplace is not just the robustness of the data, but the fact that you know it is as first-party data authenticated as it could possibly be.”

By leveraging these tools and insights, Hireinfluence aims to provide its clients with more accurate and comprehensive campaign reporting to its clients.

Innovating Campaigns with TikTok Trends

Regarding challenges with new tools, Jacks states, “In our experience, these tools have been pretty issue free.” 

He emphasizes the value of the prioritization when dealing with alpha and beta phase tools: “If there ever has been a challenge, the ability to get that challenge resolved through the prioritization  has been exceptional and very immediate.”

The agency’s approach to innovation leverages TikTok’s inherently dynamic nature. 

“TikTok comes off as the innovative space, right? Whether that’s through viral trends or new creator content forums,” Jacks explains. Hireinfluence uses trend analysis tools and follows platform best practices to keep campaigns fresh and effective.

However, Jacks acknowledges the rapid pace of trends on TikTok: “By the time a trend is here, it’s almost kind of gone.” 

To address this, Hireinfluence relies on TikTok’s insights to anticipate future trends. “TikTok has made it a lot more digestible to understand what the future might hold in terms of trends,” he notes, adding that the platform provides “data and insights as to why they’re sending that.”

This approach allows Hireinfluence to move beyond “gut intuition” and base campaign strategies on more concrete data. By utilizing TikTok’s tools and maintaining a close relationship  with the platform, Hireinfluence aims to keep its campaigns innovative and aligned with the latest trends.

Future Outlook: TikTok and Hireinfluence

Hireinfluence closely monitors emerging trends and innovations on the platform that are reshaping influencer marketing.

Jacks highlights several key developments: “There’s going to be an increasing emphasis on TikTok Shop,” he notes, pointing to the platform’s push for seamless product integration and direct purchasing. He also mentions the appeal of new paid media formats being rolled out by TikTok.

However, Jacks emphasizes that creativity remains TikTok’s core strength. “We’ve kind of broken this mold of this being like a Gen Z or younger leaning platform,” he explains, noting the platform’s broad demographic appeal while maintaining its unique content identity.

Looking ahead, Jacks outlines Hireinfluence’s ambitions in the TikTok space: “Become recognized as one of the most trusted agencies in the space to facilitate TikTok-first campaigns.” He stresses the importance of leveraging TikTok’s tools and resources to maintain a competitive edge in the influencer marketing industry.

Jacks expresses satisfaction with the relationship , praising TikTok’s level of support and the quality of their agency representatives.

“We rely on them to win business, to better serve our current clients,” he states, underscoring the collaborative nature of the relationship.