Blurring the Lines with Brendan Gahan at Creator Authority

This week I spoke with Brendan Gahan who is the Co-Founder of Creator Authority , the one-stop shop for LinkedIn influencer campaigns. Prior to his current role, Brendan spent over 15 years at Mekanism and was also on Forbes 30 Under 30 "Marketing & Advertising" list.

Tell me about your career journey up until this point. How did you get where you are today? Was your path more linear, or less so?

My first internship in advertising was back in 2005, in San Francisco. Social media was just becoming a thing, and I was in the right place at the right time. I was the only person in my office that was on Facebook because you still had to have a college email to create an account. My colleagues would ask me about Facebook, Myspace , and I became their resource for social media.?

At that time I remember seeing how much money was being spent on billboards and print ads and thinking it made no sense. As a consumer myself I would go home and spend a ton of time on MySpace and YouTube . So I started pitching social media ideas. That’s what made sense to me.

The first real important activation of my career was in 2006. I sold through a YouTube influencer activation that got millions of views and literally crashed the client’s website. It was amazing, and I thought everybody was going to be doing this now. Sure enough, nobody did for a really long time.?

In 2007 I joined Mekanism . They were doing a lot of branded content and viral video work. They hired me and we built a small team doing blog seeding on Reddit, Inc. , influencer campaigns, really just trying to get the word out because paid media wasn’t an option on many platforms back then.?

We were doing influencer marketing for years before it generated much hype or interest.

That really started to change in 2012. That was the MCN era, YouTube launched their $100 million dollar grant program, and around that time YouTube launched their 谷歌 Preferred program — now called YouTube Select —? that allowed advertisers to place ads on high-performing videos. Suddenly influencers were being put on a pedestal in a way they hadn’t been previously.

Around that time I joined Fullscreen and you could feel the momentum around the space.

After that, I launched my own influencer marketing agency called Epic Signal , which Mekanism later acquired. It was a full circle moment, and I spent another 8 and ? years at the agency as Chief Social Officer and then Chief Innovation Officer before co-founding Creator Authority .?

What is one moment during your career where there was a notable shift in the industry??

The pivotal moment was when YouTube launched a Google-funded $100 million initiative bringing original content onto the platform because we started to see creators on billboards. That’s really when marketers started to take notice. That really helped put the gas on the pedal for influencer marketing.?

Last year you co-founded Creator Authority, which connects marketers with LinkedIn influencers, industry experts, thought leaders, and top voices on LinkedIn to promote their products and services. When you looked at the creator economy and influencer industry, why did you decide to lean into LinkedIn?

What I’m seeing happening on LinkedIn is what we saw happening on YouTube more than a decade ago. This platform is about to explode. But there’s still more supply than demand.?

LinkedIn is different from what we see on Instagram or TikTok or YouTube (where the path to a career as a creator is well established). Most people creating content on LinkedIn are doing it because they are passionate about it.

At the same time LinkedIn has made significant investment in creators. They launched the LinkedIn Creator Accelerator Program, they released a Creator Mode, and as a result there was a 41% increase in public content being shared between 2021 to 2023. It’s this ecosystem with an affluent audience that’s highly engaged.?

LinkedIn also introduced ad formats and tools, launched a brand disclosure feature and thought-leader ads where you could promote content from employees at an organization. Earlier this year they rolled that out for creators and influencers.?

In short, LinkedIn invested in creators, those people gained an audience, and now LinkedIn is bringing brands on board to this brand-safe environment that is highly trusted.?

To me, it’s exciting to see these elements coming together to create this inflection point.?

How are you seeing LinkedIn influencers monetize their content on the platform? What's working for these creators?

An audience is leverage. LinkedIn creators are harnessing what they’ve built in a variety of ways.

The most common way is elevating your profile within your industry to make you more desirable to companies. It helps you with upward mobility within your organization, and helps you get a better job.?

The other way is as an acquisition funnel for Courses or Newsletters, which people can monetize. Selling courses as a whole tends to be a big revenue driver.?

You're also seeing creators launch their own brands and companies on LinkedIn, as they do on other platforms. Recently, I was on a panel at VidCon with Ruben Hassid , who is the founder of EasyGen , a software tool that helps creators craft their LinkedIn posts, where we chatted about this.

Brands are starting to trickle in, too. Brand deals are happening more and more. And, I’m bullish on the future of LinkedIn influencer marketing. This time next year I think it will be massive.

What’s exciting you about social media marketing in 2024?

Definitely LinkedIn (for obvious reasons).?

But, did you know that influencer marketing only accounts for about 4% of all ad revenue? There’s so much more opportunity! It's been around for so long, but we’re just scratching the surface. There’s much more opportunity for co-creation and collaboration between creators and brands.

Some other trends I’m keeping an eye on are social commerce. That's really exciting to me. There’s the bifurcation of online communities — and this is both exciting and frustrating because we're seeing people splinter off in all directions. Now people are in their Facebook Groups or LinkedIn Groups or Discords, and all these communities are all over the place. Social media was never really centralized, but years ago if something was trending on X you knew it was a big deal. Now, you see trends everywhere but they’re within your own little bubble. Everyone has their own Oprah.?

What advice would you give to someone about to graduate college that wants to work in marketing?

Show don't tell. Go that extra mile. Build things, prove yourself. If you think you’re going to be amazing at social, start creating social content. We’re in a great moment in time where you don’t have to ask for permission.?

My other piece of advice is to ask for help. If you’re a recent or upcoming graduate, shoot your shot and reach out to that person you admire. Personalize emails with a bit of flattery and you’d be surprised how many people you will get access to. If you’re young and/or just getting started in your career people want to help you out.

Rapid Fire Questions:?

What’s your favorite song right now? All My Friends by LCD Soundsystem

What’s the last book you read? The Best Land Under Heaven: The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny by Michael Wallis

Who’s one person in this industry that inspires you, that everyone should go follow? Kevin Mulroy at Mischief @ No Fixed Address

If you could meet one person for coffee, who would it be? Warren Buffett

What brand do you love following on social media? Stab Magazine

What is one word you would use to describe 2024? Confusing