Industry veteran LaTecia Johnson saw a creator economy drowning in emails and spreadsheets. Her response? She built a lifeboat called Ingenius Studio.

LaTecia’s vision extends beyond mere optimization; she sees Ingenius Studio as the future infrastructure layer for the entire media industry.

Her prediction that “every creator will eventually operate as a media company” seems increasingly prescient as traditional media, entertainment, and influencer marketing merge. 

In an exclusive interview with Net Influencer, LaTecia explains Ingenius Studio’s goal to become the indispensable toolkit for the next generation of creator-driven media companies.

Scaling Creator Genius

In addition to Ingenius Studio, LaTecia runs the creative agency Visionary Rising and has held senior executive positions focused on creator technology and ecosystem growth.

“I like to say that I was working in the creator economy before the creator was a part of it,” LaTecia says, reflecting on her extensive background in the field.

The industry veteran identifies the current state of influencer campaigns as “a super manual process” that often fails to deliver a satisfactory return on investment due to time-consuming management tasks.

Ingenius Studio’s initial vision of “empowering the next generation of creator genius to scale” has evolved as LaTecia and her team recognize broader industry shifts. 

“This landscape of media infrastructure as a whole is changing and shifting, where media, what we know traditionally as media and entertainment, is converging into the space that we understand of the creator economy,” she explains in the interview.

This realization has expanded Ingenius Studio’s focus beyond creator-led campaigns to address challenges across all in-market activations. 

LaTecia sees an opportunity to “help to scale systems and programs and processes to help streamline” operations throughout the media industry.

She tells us, “It’s not just a creator economy problem; it’s a media problem.” 

“We’re able to be at the forefront of helping drive revenue, acquire new users, and acquire brand partners in a way that easily automates 90% of the process,” she adds.

Tech-Driven Answer to Influencer Marketing Challenges

LaTecia describes Ingenius Studio as an “acquisition process on autopilot.”

“Traditionally, the process includes agencies sending a bunch of emails to people explaining why they should work with their creator,” she explains.

Ingenius Studio aims to simplify this process by offering data-driven insights to optimize creator partnerships. 

The platform helps brands evaluate their current creator relationships and identify new opportunities based on audience metrics and key performance indicators. 

LaTecia illustrates this with an example: “If you’re Nike and you want to work with a creator, but you find out that 90% of that creator’s audience prefers Adidas, should you still be making a deal with that creator’s audience?”

The company’s services include brand acquisition, creator sourcing, and partnership brokering.

LaTecia highlights the importance of moving beyond spreadsheets to optimize in-market activations. 

“We can help you optimize all your in-market activations,” she says. “And what that looks like is understanding your audience data and being able to tie that into other opportunities that can ultimately drive commerce for your program.”

LaTecia believes Ingenius Studio’s competitive edge lies in its team’s extensive experience. 

“I don’t see anyone else who has the depth of experience to understand what it takes to launch and scale multimillion-dollar campaigns for large corporate entities but can also take that down to a very granular view for small to mid-size companies,” she states.

Tailoring Services for Agencies and Brands

Ingenius Studio caters to two primary client segments: agencies managing large creator rosters and brands with in-house marketing teams. 

LaTecia explains its approach to serving these distinct markets: “Today, we’re working with agencies and brand clients with in-house marketing teams.” 

For agencies managing 50 or more creators, Ingenius helps “optimize opportunities for that creator roster, create more brand partnerships, work better together, and work more effectively.”

On the brand side, Ingenius assists marketing teams of ten or more who are running active campaigns. “We’re helping them manage their process internally so that they can do more and better and grow their programs over time,” LaTecia elaborates.

She shares a success story: “A small customer of ours came to us. They were generating about $50,000 monthly in brand partnership opportunities for their roster. Over the six months of us working together, they could increase that to about $500,000 per month.”

Ingenius offers a multi-faceted approach to support its clients. This includes access to their Brand OS, an operating system for managing creator rosters and running campaigns. 

Additionally, the company is developing a software-as-a-service intelligence tool to provide deeper insights.

LaTecia illustrates the practical application of their services: “We can go in and pull out data that can tell them exactly who they should be partnering with, who’s making the investments in that space, and then who they can contact to make sure that their creator is on the list for the next campaign.”

From Fragmentation to Integration

LaTecia envisions a transformative role for her company. 

“Our long-term goal is to become that infrastructure layer that powers the future of media,” she states, exposing the fragmented nature of the current industry. 

The entrepreneur notes the lack of a unified tech stack in media, unlike other sectors where systems work seamlessly together.

Ingenius Studio addresses this by creating a comprehensive platform that integrates various tools and workflows. 

“We see a great opportunity for Ingenius to become that tie,” LaTecia explains. 

The company’s ambition extends beyond offering a standalone platform; it seeks to enable clients to build their tech stacks on top of Ingenius, ensuring compatibility with other industry tools.

LaTecia identifies a key future trend – every creator will have a media company. 

This extends beyond traditional content creators to include athletes and entertainers across various fields who are becoming increasingly aware of their brand value. 

Ingenius positions itself to provide the necessary platform for these emerging media companies.

However, LaTecia emphasizes the need for industry-wide changes, particularly in creator equity and parity. 

“If we don’t change and we don’t put that at the center, then we’ll be in a situation where every few years we’re getting a new set of creators who have to start over,” she warns. 

This cycle, LaTecia argues, has been evident over the past decade due to the slow evolution of creator tools.

For budding entrepreneurs and creators, LaTecia offers this advice: “Exist outside of the box.” 

She encourages individuals to take the initiative to address industry problems rather than wait for others to solve them. 

“If you see something that needs fixing, get to work fixing it, and you’ll be surprised at the people who come along to help you repair it,” she advises.

LaTecia sees both challenges and opportunities in leveraging emerging technologies. 

While acknowledging the tendency to improve upon existing solutions, she advocates for innovation: “The challenge for us over the next few years will be doing things that have never been done before with the technology that exists.”