From Zero to Hero: How to Built an In-House Influencer Team

Case Study: How Flowwow Built Their Influencer Strategy from Scratch in the UAE, UK, and Spain ??

Recently, Irina Tatarinova , Brand Director at Flowwow , dropped some gold in the R-Founders groups. Here's what we learned about their influencer game across different markets:

Why They Built an In-House Team

At first, they tried working with agencies, expecting:

• Ready-made influencer databases
• Operational ease and payment handling

But… agencies charged 20–25% in fees and caused messy communication. So they switched gears and built their own team—now with 3 dedicated managers!

Why in-house works better:

• Expertise stays in the team
• Warm influencer relationships for long-term collaborations
• Faster fixes for mistakes (typos, wrong links)
• Own database of influencers that stays even if a manager leaves
• Clearer, faster communication

How They Find Influencers

• Platforms like Hypetrain.io ($149/month for 10K accounts + 500 analyses)
• Manual searches
• Competitor research
• Small agencies (affordable in some countries)
• Database swaps with non-competing brands (their fave!)
• Co-branding collabs to split costs and share expertise

What to Ask Influencers For

• Geo and audience demographics
• Engagement rate (Instagram: 2–5%)
• Retention metrics (e.g., how long viewers stay for ads on YouTube)
• Reach stats from the last 1–2 weeks (screenshots!)
• Examples of past integrations—watch out for over-promoters!

Pro Tip: Always check post comments for bot activity.

Country-Specific Insights

UAE

• Channels: Instagram, YouTube, Telegram (expat-focused)
• Facebook communities feel inactive
• Metrics: CPV, ER, geo, and demographics (beware of inflated stats!)
• Events and gift sends work wonders—even with big influencers
• Barter deals are easy to negotiate

UK

• Expensive and highly competitive
• Hard to find influencers with 50%+ UK audiences
• Personal blogs/websites still popular
• Expat communities exist but are tough to scale

Spain

• Channels: Instagram, YouTube, Telegram (expat-focused)
• Metrics: CPV, ER, geo, and demographics (often lots of LatAm followers)
• Gift sends perform well
• Barter deals are common and easy

At the R-Founders session, Irina even shared benchmarks and an influencer brief example—pure gold! But the juiciest stuff stays inside our groups.

So, ready to grow globally with a squad of like-minded founders? Let’s make it happen in the new year. ??