With social media creators driving more advertising spending than traditional social ads, Reach Agency CEO Gabe Gordon aims to transform how brands and creators work together. His company marks its 14th anniversary by positioning itself as the next generation of marketing agencies – one that puts creators at the heart of brand strategy.

Building the Future of Brand Partnerships

“We believe in the power of creators to reshape advertising as we know it,” says Gabe, whose agency partners with major brands, including Nestle, Unilever, Google, and JM Smucker. “Our mission has always been to move brands beyond that sponsored post and elevate the role of creators in helping brands achieve their business goals.”

Gabe believes this strategic shift arrives at a crucial moment for advertising. “The shift in advertising hasn’t just been in media channels,” he explains. “It’s actually impacted consumer purchase decisions – how people decide and discover products. The nature of creativity that resonates with consumers has moved from what used to be a traditional ad to now trusting people and how they consume it.”

Reach’s CEO describes the company’s transformation: “We’re really pivoting to not just being an influencer agency, but trying to be the next generation agency of record. That means we’re building holistic agency services, not just offering a single tactic that is one piece of the cog.”

Creating Authentic Brand Collaborations

Reach Agency distinguishes itself by deeply integrating creators throughout campaign development. Gabe cites their recent partnership with Grammy award-winning artist Lil Jon as an example demonstrating this approach.

“Rather than reach out to him and just simply hire him to be a spokesperson, we truly collaborated with him,” Gabe shares. “We noticed that he was going on a journey of his own. He was releasing a meditation album, and we partnered with him, asking how we could help him. In turn, he understood the role and what the brand could do to help his followers, his consumers.”

The campaign for Natural Vitality’s Calm magnesium supplement created an immersive meditation experience: “We had mocktails with our product in it, there were sound beds, massages, crystal pyramids, and a live meditation with [Lil Jon]. We made sure there was PR around it. It was for a purpose and focused on mental well-being, but it was an organic role for the brand. We truly collaborated with Jon on what the creative on the social videos was, what the experience was, and what the PR messaging was. It was a true collaboration.”

Preparing for Platform Changes

With recent legal and political scrutiny surrounding TikTok, Gabe provides insights on possible outcomes moving forward. He points out, “TikTok has created new jobs, an industry many Americans rely on, and a platform for free speech and creativity. Its impact on American culture, the creator economy, advertising, and e-commerce is not to be underestimated.”

Prepared for platform uncertainties, Reach Agency implemented protective measures years ago. “This isn’t the first time there’s been a threat of a ban,” Gabe notes. “For many years, we have had contractual language that allows for channel flexibility with creators should there be a platform outage. In that case, we can transfer commitments from talent to other social channels.”

Their creator selection process reflects this preparation: “When selecting creators, we choose those who aren’t [limited to] just one platform. There are very few, but we still ensure we find people with commensurate followings on TikTok and other social channels.”

Redefining Creator Impact

The relationship between brands and creators has fundamentally changed, Gabe observes. “We’re now seeing job descriptions at large companies saying, ‘We are looking for a content creator,’ whereas before, that was on a one-time basis through an agency,” he says. “Brands are hiring content creators on staff to run their TikTok channels.”

Success metrics have shifted beyond follower counts. “We’re starting to focus on creators’ ability to transact,” Gabe explains. “Certain creators have huge followings but can’t drive transactions. Some creators don’t have the largest followings; however, looking at how much revenue they generate from affiliate partnerships outweighs their follower count.”

“The new metric is the ability to transact for brands working with creators,” Gabe emphasizes.

Expanding Creator Opportunities

Reach Agency champions “influence without a follower count.” The company maintains strict diversity standards: “At Reach, we push for 70% diversity across all of our influencer campaigns, account for it, and hold it true on everything. As an agency level, we’re more in the 80% range of diversity across all our clients.”

This approach addresses industry inequity where, as Gabe notes, “really, the top 1% of creators are getting the majority of brand deals.” He advocates for broader inclusion: “We’ve always believed that there should be diversity in any campaign, both in follower size and representing the diversity of the consumer – race, gender, age, religion, identity and experience.”

Results validate this strategy. “Instead of partnering with one huge Creator, the same thing can be achieved by partnering with multiple smaller creators,” Gabe explains. “And frankly, there’s more authenticity, power, and value in those creators with a deeper connection to niche audiences than people realize.”

Innovation and Technology

Reach Agency is expanding into product development as consumer preferences shift. “Consumers don’t want just the same product time and time again,” Gabe explains. “They like seasonal changes, limited editions, and they now want to buy brands not just from trusted corporations, but from the people they trust, like Creators”

While leveraging AI for operations, Gabe remains cautious about AI-generated influencers. “I think traditional influencers are the antithesis to everything AI can creatively perform,” he argues. “You follow Influencers because they are authentic and you share a personal connection. We are not bullish on AI influencers because, again, there’s just that lack of authenticity and connection to them.”

The company uses AI strategically: “We’ve been leveraging our proprietary pricing data and AI to help inform our pricing and negotiation strategy and creating our own marketplace to understand what average costs are across certain influencer sizes or verticals.”

Creator Recognition

As his company approaches its 14th anniversary, Gabe sees tremendous potential in creator-driven marketing. “Every year, I am more and more excited to see more dollars go behind it, become a larger share of voice in both media and grab the attention of C-suite,” he says. “Years ago, you wouldn’t hear CEOs of public companies talk about Creators, but now we are starting to see it.”

“We are seeing the rise and recognition of this creative class,” Gabe concludes. “Even TikTok’s court battle alone exemplifies the power of creators and their free speech to leverage social platforms and cause change. It is just amazing and I hope it continues on the same trajectory.”