Jake Rosen Entertainment (JRE), helmed by its eponymous founder, Jake Rosen, has quietly transformed digital popularity into tangible profits for a roster of talent that collectively commands the attention of nearly 700 million followers. What began as a fortuitous venture helping a single Facebook personality monetize their following has blossomed into an agency that’s executed over 13,000 brand deals. JRE’s rise is a testament to Jake and his team’s agile approach to an industry where trends shift at the speed of a viral post. From leveraging AI for content strategy to leading social commerce initiatives, the company’s playbook offers a glimpse into the unique aspects of influencer marketing.

Turning Followers into Fortune: JRE’s First Big Break

With a background in unscripted television and social media, Jake has leveraged his experience to build a thriving talent management venture. His journey began at ABC, where he produced content and ran social media for a summer series. This led to a position managing social media for People magazine’s OTT Network “PeopleTV.” “I learned how to build successful social channels and run successful channels from scratch,” Jake says. 

While at People, he continued to explore opportunities in social strategy. He discovered a Facebook creator with 3 million followers who had never been able to figure out a way to monetize her social presence. Jake helped her start earning revenue, and word spread quickly. “She went from making $0 a month to $20,000 a month pretty quickly with us,” he says, adding that this success led to more creators seeking his assistance.

JRE has proliferated since its inception. “We represent a pretty large roster. Last month, we completed our 13,000th brand deal. We represent talent of all different genres, including family, foodies, and lifestyle creators as our main categories,” Jake reveals.

The company’s core values include consistency, reliability, creativity, and professionalism. Jake emphasizes a proactive outreach: “The majority of the brand deals we do with our talent are ones that come from personal relationships rather than leads they may get from brands reaching out directly to their inbox.”

In an increasingly crowded space, Jake believes professionalism makes JRE stand out. “Brands and agencies want to work with talent and agencies that handle things professionally,” he explains. “Any email that comes in, our team responds to within an hour and knows they will get top-notch service. We’re getting things in on the due date, before the due date, making sure we’re going the extra mile.”

According to Jake, JRE’s mission is “to create successful campaigns on behalf of our talent and [be] an agency that hits [the client’s] values in a timely, professional, creative manner.”

JRE’s Unique Services

JRE distinguishes itself through its agile and comprehensive approach to talent management. Jake elaborates on the company’s ability to execute campaigns swiftly, often turning around projects in as little as two days. 

“We’ve established ourselves as an agency that if somebody needs something done quickly, they know they can come to us,” the founder says. This quick response capability is particularly valuable for clients with time-sensitive budget constraints.

Rather than simply providing a list of potential talent, the agency offers detailed justifications and examples of relevant past content. Jake explains, “We send a list of talent who are [brand] fans, a few sentences about why they think they’d be a good fit, and two to three posts they’ve posted organically about [the brand].”

The company’s core services include end-to-end talent management for brand partnerships, from negotiations to payment collection. Jake and his team’s background in social media growth allows JRE to offer strategic guidance on organic content as well. “Having run social channels myself and seeing the work it takes to run a successful channel, I’m able to help talent better understand how to grow their following organically, which, in return, will lead to more branded opportunities,” Jake states.

JRE also assists talent with diversifying revenue streams, including podcast sponsorships and merchandise lines. When identifying new talent, the agency looks for creators who fit into its established categories, such as family and food content creators or talent that brings unique value to its roster.

“I’m always looking for talent in unique verticals and categories that we don’t currently represent to continue to diversify our roster to ensure that we’ll have a variety of options when brands reach out looking for talent in a specific niche,” Jake says, highlighting the company’s growth and diversification strategy.

Campaign Execution and Success Metrics

JRE leverages its extensive industry experience to handle the complexities of influencer marketing negotiations. “One thing I realized from having conversations with talent prior to signing with our agency, who may have previously been managing themselves, is that when they were offered deals, they had no idea if they were getting a great rate or being completely taken advantage of because they just didn’t have anything to compare it to. Having negotiated thousands of brand deals of all different rates and sizes, I have the knowledge to ensure I get our talent deals at the top dollar.”.

The agency’s comprehensive campaign management process involves a dedicated team overseeing every aspect of the campaign, from brief refinement to payment collection. While many agencies and brands typically provide a brief for talent to follow, JRE advocates for its talents’ unique styles of creating content, often suggesting modifications to ensure campaign success.

“We want this campaign to be as successful as possible,” Jake states. “We know what does well in [the talent’s] channel. [If] the content just doesn’t feel organic, [we present our idea].”

When measuring campaign success, JRE tailors its approach based on client objectives. For awareness campaigns, typically favored by more prominent brands, the focus is on view counts relative to the talent’s average performance. Conversion campaigns, often preferred by e-commerce brands, prioritize sales metrics.

“We do everything we can to provide the agencies/brands with all the necessary demos and analytics on our talent in the vetting process to ensure the talent’s audience is the audience the brand is looking to target,” Jake says. This includes sharing historical data on metrics like link clicks to set realistic expectations.

Ultimately, the social media maverick views client retention as a key indicator of success, both on the brand and talent sides. “What I consider successful with conversion-based campaigns is whether the brands  are returning to rebook the talent because they were happy with how the previous campaign performed.”

The Art of Mediation in Creator Campaigns

JRE faces the challenge of balancing the needs of creators and brands. Jake stresses the importance of advocating for talent while ensuring client satisfaction. 

“The biggest challenge is being the middle person and wanting to make sure both sides are pleased,” he explains. When unexpected issues arise, such as scheduling conflicts or delays, JRE focuses on finding mutually beneficial solutions. For instance, Jake describes offering additional content or extended usage rights to compensate for posting delays.

Since the creator marketplace is becoming more and more crowded, JRE advises its talent to strike a balance between following trends and innovating. To help clients stand out, JRE encourages creators to incorporate brands into their content authentically. Jake provides an example: “If you are obsessed with Chipotle, I don’t want you to go and give Chipotle a free ad in the hopes of working  with them, but if you’re already making a TikTok and doing a day in my life, and let’s say you are a Chipotle fan, include a clip in the video of you eating at the restaurant to show brand authenticity.” 

Jake also focuses on aligning content with desired brand partnerships. “If you want to work with a travel brand, for example, then you cannot create content in your living room and expect travel brands to want to work with you when your audience clearly does not follow you for travel purposes. Create content around the type of the brands you want to work with.” He advises creators to demonstrate their relevance to specific industries or product categories.

Building Relationships and Scaling Success

In JRE’s early days, Jake faced significant challenges in establishing industry connections. “I think the biggest thing I’ve learned about this industry is it’s so relationship-based,” he reflects. The entrepreneur’s initial strategy involved sending hundreds of cold emails daily and scouring social media for potential brand partnerships.

Persistence was vital to overcoming these hurdles. “The biggest challenge is just to keep going and not get discouraged when it’s not working,” Jake says. His perseverance paid off, as JRE now receives numerous inbound inquiries weekly.

As the company has grown to nearly 20 employees, Jake’s role has evolved to manage internal operations alongside external relationships. He focuses on maintaining solid connections with talent, even as the company scales.

Jake finds the impact on creators’ lives particularly rewarding. “We’ve changed some of their lives,” he says, citing examples of family creators achieving better work-life balance and teachers doubling their salaries. “You literally helped change my life. I never thought I would have the opportunity to make a living doing what I love,” Jake recalls hearing from multiple clients.

Adapting to Industry Shifts and Future Trends

JRE highlights the dynamic nature of the creator economy and the importance of adapting to platform shifts. “When I started our agency five years ago, I would say 70% of our roster was Instagram followers,” Jake notes. “Today, about 60, 65% of our followers are TikTok.”

Looking ahead, the industry veteran sees social e-commerce as a significant trend. “I’m really interested in TikTok Shop,” he says, revealing that JRE has partnered with TikTok as a preferred partner for this initiative. Jake explains why having multiple income sources as a creator is vital: “Brand deals are inconsistent. One month, you might have five; the next month, you might not have any.”

He predicts further developments in the industry: “I think our industry will continue to lean a lot more into live shopping and live events. 

Regarding industry improvements, Jake advocates for greater transparency, particularly in campaign performance data. “Having that data would allow us to do things better, such as analyze why a campaign did or did not perform well and make strategic decisions as to how to fix/replicate that performance on future campaigns,” he explains.

Leveraging AI for Creator Success

Jake sees emerging technologies like AI as opportunities rather than threats to the creator economy. He points out how AI can enhance content creation and strategy: “I think AI can give a lot of people data and information to make better decisions [about] their content,” Jake explains. He describes an AI tool that analyzes YouTube channels to suggest video ideas and thumbnails based on successful content from similar creators.

AI can also assist with scripting, helping creators polish their ideas for brand partnerships. “Some of them have been able to use AI [to say] ‘Here’s my idea, here’s what I want to do. Can you help me put it in words that could be professional to send back to a brand?’” Jake notes.

Turning Setbacks into Opportunities

Jake’s essential advice for newcomers to the creator economy is persistence. “Not every idea you have is going to blow up. You can’t post one video and [give up if it flops]. Consistency is key,” he says.

He shares an inspiring example: “I had a talent that we rep with 5 million followers on TikTok. They have been making YouTube videos since 2015. And for those five years of making them, they never got more than a thousand views on a video.  It was not until five years later, when TikTok became big that these creators decided to transition their content to short form, and they saw growth.  But during those five years, at any time, they could have quit and said this was not working, but they didn’t and are now living the dream they always wanted.”

Jake concludes with a personal insight: “Failure is not a bad thing, and it only motivates me to reach success. Sometimes, when you are doing well, you get complacent and stop working as hard. I was more motivated when I knew that I failed to achieve something. It made me work twice as hard to make sure I did not fail in the future.”