Bad Moon Talent started as a talent firm for gaming and esports creators and has expanded to lifestyle and entertainment

Bad Moon Talent was founded in 2019 by Andrew Drake, formerly at Activision Blizzard, and professional esports player Brice Faccento, with the aim of bringing quality representation to gaming and esports creators.

The company was acquired in early 2023 by production company StudioNow but continues to operate independently with a roster of 63 exclusively managed creators, plus a network of other talent that it occasionally pitches to brands for collaborations. The roster has expanded beyond gaming to lifestyle, tech, and entertainment talent, too.

Cofounders Drake and Faccento said they invest in creators who are "young, hungry, and driven," and that their continued commitment to mid-level creators has proven fruitful.

The company told BI that, in their experience, brands care more about the quality of the content a creator publishes than their follower count. They've also noticed a growth in requests for content that can be boosted through paid ads on social platforms.

Talent includes: Cecee, ModelMorg, Amanderz

Campbell Francis Group focuses on representing creators who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color

Campbell Francis Group is an influencer-marketing agency founded in 2019 by Annelise Campbell. It focuses on representing influencers from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds around the world; its current roster has approximately 35 creators.

Campbell started her company after seeing the discrepancy in opportunities for Black and brown creatives when she worked in consumer marketing. Now, she and her team use that experience to deftly advocate for their talent, who have worked with brands like Skims, Amazon, American Express, and Revlon. 

"Most of our team members have been on the brand or agency side and really understand what matters to our brand partners and what is needed to make a campaign successful," Campbell said. "We have a strong duality of understanding how to advocate for our clients but also make sure the partnership is successful and brands want to work with us again." 

Talent includes: Amina Marie, Jamilla and Que, Jasmyn

Estate Five was cofounded by an attorney, a publicist, and an influencer

Founded in 2017, Estate Five is an influencer-management agency based in Dallas.

The firm manages clients across lifestyle, fashion, and beauty. It represents talent on an invitation-only basis.

The Estate Five roster is made up of over 125 clients, ranging in age, specializations, voices, and ethnicities.

The firm was cofounded by Lynsey Eaton, a former attorney; Tina Chen Craig, formally known as Bag Snob online; and publicist Suzanne Droese.

Talent includes: Aaron Wester, Emese Gormley, Tori Bradburry

Founded by a Latina micro creator, Influence with Impact offers services from talent management to consulting

Lissette Calveiro, a Latina creator and digital entrepreneur, founded in 2020 Influence With Impact. The company operates as a consultancy, offering services like coaching, social strategy, talent management, and education. It also supports communications agencies and media platforms with their influencer-marketing strategy and talent casting.

In the past two years, the firm has grown to five full-time employees and an exclusive roster of 15 creators, half of whom are micro influencers.

For creators who want support but aren't ready to sign with management, Influence with Impact also offers free resources such as a "Creator Starter Pack," which gives guidance on how to create a media kit, understand industry terms with a 10-page glossary, learn to price content with a rates guide, and draft emails to reach out to brands.

Creators can also access one-on-one consultations with Calveiro, sign up for a six-month group program on mastering the industry of influence, and access products such as "pitch scripts" and a creator calculator that estimates the rates creators can charge brands for paid partnerships based on parameters like following and engagement rate.

Talent includes: Emmalynn Cortes, Gigi The First Gen Mentor, KiariLadyBoss

Insanity also runs an in-house production company that produces branded podcasts

Based in London and Los Angeles, Insanity works with creators in entertainment, including social media, television, radio, and music.

The company also runs a record label in partnership with Sony Music UK, representing a boutique roster of artists. Aside from music, the firm represents creators spanning categories including, fashion, beauty, lifestyle, parenting, automotive, and comedy.

Insanity works with its clients to help develop and produce content, including podcasts, and to partner with brands on campaigns. Past partnerships include working with brands such as New Balance, Google Pixel, and Nespresso. The firm also runs an in-house production company, Insanity Studios, which produces podcast content for brands.

Talent includes: Adam Pearson, Chris Bavin, Chloe Plumstead

Kensington Grey represents almost 100 creators of color across fashion, lifestyle, and travel

Shannae Ingleton Smith established Kensington Grey in 2020 after noticing the lack of robust representation within influencer marketing. Smith said her company celebrates the unique value that Black creators hold, both individually and collectively.

The firm represents more than 100 creators across niches like fashion, travel, lifestyle, career, and family.

It looks for talent with high engagement and month-over-month growth and consistency across two platforms, preferably TikTok and one other, Smith said.

The firm has helped micro influencers land paid partnerships with well-known brands like Delta Air Lines, Target, Tiffany and Co., Walmart, Skims, and Amazon.

"We work with micro influencers because they are going to be the macro and mega influencers of tomorrow," Smith said. "We get involved early, invest in them early, and because of that, they get to where they want to go faster."

Talent includes: Joshua Popoola, Erin Garnes, Fatou Fall

Ode aims to address the gap in cultural competency between creators of color and brands

Ode is a marketing and artist-management agency focused on people of color, including creators, artists, brands, and businesses. The company is located between New York, Toronto, and Los Angeles.

The agency was founded in 2020 by Jashima Wadehra. She said she started Ode because she didn't see many creators of color, specifically South Asian creators, who were represented in brand campaigns. She believes her team's lived experience within subcultures gives them a comprehensive understanding of how to advocate for their talent.

"It's a perspective that can't be taught," Wadehra said. "Micro creators prioritize transparency and authenticity, they feel familiar to audiences which creates a sense of true 'influence.'

Her firm looks to work with creators who have built community and a sense of self and seek representation that's based on similar values. 

Talent includes: Raaginder, Abe, Ramya Pothuri

Shft is working to remove barriers to entry to the industry, both for talent and for managers

London-based talent-management firm Shft was founded in 2021 by Chloë Downes after she worked for a few years in the talent space at different UK talent agencies.

Shft currently has a roster of 15 exclusive talent and a team of four employees. The company has hit £3 million in revenue (about $3.8 million) since its inception two and a half years ago, Downes told BI.

When bringing on new talent, Shft focuses on creators with "good influence," who have a positive impact on their audience, and who approach content creation as a career, regardless of follower counts.

"I always think, if I had kids, would I be happy for my kids to follow one of my talent?" Downes said. "Social media can be a very negative place, and we're not trying to add to that negativity."

The company helps creators not only grow their businesses monetarily, but also expand beyond social media with "offline" projects like book deals, TV, or physical products.

Downes also said the company makes it a priority to remove barriers to entry into the industry for the talent it works with and the employees it hires. It focuses on giving opportunities to people from working-class backgrounds who may not have had access to higher education and might not have prior work experience in the talent and marketing space.

Talent includes: Char Victory, Chrystal King, Kia Commodore

Select Management Group works with a variety of creators across micro to macro sizes

Founded in 2014, Select Management Group is based in Los Angeles, New York City, and Nashville. The firm works closely with a wide group of creators across verticals like family, fashion, beauty, tech, pets, and finance. The firm represents clients from micro to macro creators, actors, athletes, and artists.

The company has helped its clients build partnerships with brands across P&G and Toyota, among other major consumer-packaged-goods companies. It also works with its clients on building business ventures and earning revenue in the creator economy.

"In 2023, we saw a lot more creators who found their audience originally with short-form content make the successful transition into diversifying their monetization with long-form content across platforms," said Select manager Charley Button. "We also saw more brands with budget allocated specifically for TikTok. Within TikTok sponsorships, it was exciting to see increased willingness to let creators be creative directors and embrace online trends rather than commercial messaging."

Talent includes: Gigi Robinson, Andrew Zhan, Ella Wang

Charlotte Stavrou, an influencer herself, started SevenSix Agency in 2019

SevenSix Agency is a UK-based talent-management and marketing agency that was founded in 2019 by Charlotte Stavrou, who was a marketing consultant and influencer.

She said the agency launched in direct response to the lack of diversity within the influencer-marketing industry and focuses on amplifying creators from underrepresented backgrounds.

The agency also has a Creator Club, which is a community of 2,000 creators it taps to participate in various brand campaigns. Stavrou said these members receive weekly newsletters with tips and tricks on how to grow their online businesses and brand partnership opportunities. Some of the brands the agency has helped creators collaborate with include Gucci, Prada, Dior, L'Oréal, Samsung, Vodafone, and Google.

"There was a real disconnect because I realized brands weren't working with Black and brown creators, LGBTQ+ creators, plus-size creators, and I knew that all of these groups had very engaged communities," she said. "I built SevenSix as an answer to that."

Talent includes: Beulah Davina, Christopher Chin, Sachi Patel

Shifted Digital is a leading Canadian boutique talent firm working with creators of all sizes

Founded in 2021 by Thomas Johnston, Shifted Digital is a Toronto-based boutique talent firm representing creators in the beauty, entertainment, fashion, wellness, and lifestyle spaces.

Its roster has grown to 12 Canada-based creators over the past two years, and half of them are micro influencers.

Johnston said he's noticed a continued interest from brands in working with micro creators, particularly to develop UGC collaborations, which is short for user-generated content — when influencers partner with brands to create content that gets published on the brand's social-media account or is used as paid advertising.

Talent includes: Tiana Pollard, Allie Cui, Arasteh Gatchpazian

Society 18 works with creators from underrepresented backgrounds and advises brands on the importance of diversity

Founded in 2019, Society 18 is an influencer-management and marketing agency with a focus on multicultural and multiethnic content creators. Its roster counts 42 clients, and 15 of them are micro influencers.

Founder Pamela Zapata started Society 18 after spending a decade in talent management and noticing a gap in how BIPOC creators were represented and treated in the industry. The company now works to not only advocate for underrepresented creators, but also advise brands and agencies on the importance of strategically including diverse influencers in their brand campaigns.

Zapata also said Society 18 puts a strong focus on data and audience analytics when working with creators as brands become increasingly strategic about the creators they work with, and it looks for partnerships that can spread awareness, and also convert into sales.

Talent includes: Kirk Brown, Veronica Bonilla, Janibell Rosanne

The Digital Dept. was born from a merger between influencer companies Be Social and Socialyte

The Digital Dept. is an influencer marketing and management firm providing brand strategy and creator representation. The firm was born from a merger between the influencer companies Be Social and Socialyte and is led by Ali Grant and Sarah Boyd. It has offices in Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, and Miami.

The Digital Dept. represents traditional celebrity talent and digital-first creators, and helps clients develop brand partnerships and creative strategy. It also works with brands on their influencer marketing, including concept ideation, casting, and execution.

The firm aims to work with creators who already have some experience managing brand deals on their own.

"It lets us know that they are serious about their creator career and understand the basics of creating content on behalf of a brand," Grant said. "We also look for creators with a strong community that engages with their content, as that is extremely valuable for building their business."

Talent includes: Alexis Mueller, Anthony Urbano (Oh Anthonio), Brady Tolbert

The Sociable Society works with over 130 creators and looks for influencers who have proven they can generate sales

The Sociable Society is a firm that manages digital talent and influencer-marketing campaigns, founded in 2015 by Emily Fonda and Jay Kent-Hume. The company is based in Los Angeles but operates remotely. It manages a roster of about 130 creators, with over a dozen micro creators.

The company primarily manages creators in the lifestyle, fashion, beauty, and parenting niches, and looks to work with talent who are committed to building a career on social media, are goal-oriented, and can demonstrate high-conversion rates and successful strategies to drive affiliate marketing on their platforms.

"The rise of online-retail marketplaces like LTK and Amazon storefronts has changed the game from the peak of the [direct-to-consumer] boom in 2021," cofounder Emily Fonda told BI. "Brands are savvier around using creators to reach their target audience and redirecting them to these marketplaces, which in turn has created a stronger emphasis on conversion metrics and affiliate marketing tactics."

Talent includes: Cora Shircel, Brooke Mooney, Brittney Mooney

The Sunday Chapter focuses on creators who use their influence 'for good'

Having worked as a professional writer for online publications in Australia and in social-media marketing for companies like Nestlé, Lucy Pilz moved in 2017 to digital-talent management and founded in 2022 the UK-based boutique talent firm The Sunday Chapter.

The company currently represents 13 clients with backgrounds in traditional entertainment and digital content. Six of them are micro influencers.

The Sunday Chapter focuses on working with creators who use their influence "for good," like advocates, who "stand for something and use their voice to create meaningful and positive interactions and engagements," Pilz said. That also helps with connecting with brands, making it easier to sell their story, and leading to better partnerships.

In recent years, Pilz has noticed a shift toward more "raw" and "honest" content on social media, especially when it comes to micro influencers.

"Overly curated content and image editing is less engaging," she told BI. "People want to see themselves in the people that they follow, and to be able to feel that they are their 'friend'."

Talent includes: Kavita Cola, Charlotte Illidge, KlaudiaCloud

Vrai is a women-led and women-focused boutique talent agency based in LA

Vrai is a Los Angeles-based talent-management firm that focuses on women creators in the motherhood, wellness, and lifestyle spaces. The company's roster currently includes 12 creators, five of whom are micro influencers, and is actively recruiting to sign new talent in 2024.

Molly Tracy, the founder and CEO of Vrai, said the company prioritizes creators "who exude kindness, who have a specific and direct point of view with their content, and add value to their community, whether that's sharing a recipe that even a picky toddler will love or talking openly and vulnerably about body positivity."

The firm looks to work with talent who are already able to support themselves financially through content creation and that has a strong track record of driving conversion and sales when collaborating with brands.

Talent includes: Shaheen Khan, Caroline Moss, Jess Keys