About Samantha Schoenberg

Samantha Schoenberg attended Chapman University and studied film and advertising to pursue her goal of becoming a director. Later, she started working at UTA as an assistant for Ali Berman, the current Head of the Digital Talent Department. 

After working with Ali Berman for six months, Samantha was promoted to coordinator in the digital department. Later, she worked as a UTA agent before joining Underscore Talent.  

Talent Management at Underscore Talent

In Samantha’s new role as Talent Manager at Underscore Talent, she will be responsible for representing a variety of talents. 

She shares, “I think that when it comes to brands, it really depends on the individual talent that you’re representing. I try to keep my roster pretty unique, so I’m not representing a ton of talent that fall into the same vertical, or if I do, you know there’s a very clear niche there.”

She adds, “When I’m going up to brands, I have a lot of different angles to come at it from, in terms of pitching to brands. I think it’s all about how you tell a story and every opportunity is unique.”

Samantha shares that it can be hard to see each opportunity as a unique moment when you have many inquiries and are pitching to many brands. However, she stresses that explaining your reasoning and thought process behind recommending a specific creator or idea during your pitch is essential. 

“Explain the reasonings. Why the talent would be a good fit and really make it seem, I would say, making it unique to that talent. The copy-paste, here are my rates type of thing, I think just doesn’t work as well.”

Copy and paste pitches may be more efficient, but Samantha explains that these can hurt your potential for long-term brand partnerships. A strong connection is much more critical to developing partnerships that last. 

How Can Content Creators Grow Their Audience Effectively?

Samantha shares that she stresses to creators constantly that consistency is key. 

She says, “I think I say that to every person I meet. At the end of the day, if you’re not consistently making content, there’s not much for us to work with. It’s essential to maintaining your audience and keeping up with the trends and all of that.”

She adds that sticking to what you know and what your audience wants to see is another crucial factor in creator growth. However, creators should slowly integrate and try new things with their content to keep things fresh. 

Collaborating with other creators and tapping into different audiences, demographics, and platforms can also play a huge role in growing a creator’s audience. 

“I do heavily rely on my talent to know what works for them. That is ultimately the reason why they’re here and being represented is because they did something right, and they’ve continued to do a really good job at maintaining their audience, so ultimately I think they know what’s best and what their audience wants to see and I’m just kind of a helping hand guiding them from the outside.”

How Can Brands Scale with Influencer Marketing?

Samantha shares that one of the best ways brands can scale with influencer marketing is by finding the right influencers that are genuinely passionate about your product or service. 

“I know a lot of the talent that I work with are set on, if it’s not something that they would organically use and enjoy, they’re not saying yes to those partnerships. I think there also has to be an understanding that a partnership with the talent doesn’t necessarily always convert to numbers, but brand awareness is equally a big deal.”

While sale conversions are exciting, brand awareness is equally important to brands developing an audience online. She adds that influencer marketing can also help brands discover what verticals work, so experimenting with different influencers in different niches can be helpful. 

“Being really supportive of the talent that authentically loved the brands and tapping into the micro-influencers as well. Those audiences are great. The smaller the audience, sometimes the more attention they’re able to get, but it just depends on who the brands are working with and how authentically the talent is using the product.”

@Remi Bader

Signing Model Remi Bader with PINK

When Samantha worked with model Remi Bader, she signed Remi to a lucrative contract with PINK, part of Victora’s Secret & Co. brand. 

As part of the contract, Remi became a PINK ambassador and size consultant, which had previously never been done with a content creator before. 

This partnership started with the addition of expanded sizes, up to a size XXL in swimwear, followed by intimates and apparel. The Pink’s Wear Everywhere bra sizes were also expanded and are now available in 33 sizes. 

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A post shared by Remi Jo (@remibader)

As a PINK ambassador, Remi will be involved in different PINK events throughout the year and launch a curated selection of her personal favorite PINK styles and products. She will also be a judge for the annual Pink With Purpose panel, which awards young women and men financial assistance to create positive community changes. 

Closing Thoughts

When asked what she would like to see in the next few years, Samantha shared that she would love to see more long-form content again. 

“I started watching YouTube in high school, and it was a lot of long-form content, and obviously, now we’ve switched over to a lot more short-form content, which I also love. I am on TikTok all the time. I have to be careful because otherwise, I’d be on there for hours, but I think I’d love to see more of the longer-form content… I think it is an amazing way to display your creativity.”

She adds that short-form content can be very creative, but she hopes to see long-form content making more of a comeback. 

In closing, she shares, “I’m excited to be here with Underscore. I think it’s amazing the model that they’ve created with the focus on digital content creators. I think that is essential representation in our space… and being at a company that is digital content creator first is huge. I think, ultimately, it will be very helpful in growing many of these content creators’ careers.”