"About That with Carl Mayer:" Katy Gee (Episode 11: Influencer Marketing and Building Lasting Brand Value)

About Katy Gee:

Katy Gee is a Senior Planner with seven years of experience developing data-driven planning frameworks across industries including education, alcohol, finance, insurance, and D2C. She specializes in building full-funnel media strategies that balance innovation with measurable business impact. Katy holds an MBA from St. Thomas Aquinas College and uses her analytical foundation to guide clients through complex media landscapes with clarity and precision. She also brings a unique perspective as an aspiring content creator, staying closely attuned to emerging platforms, creator trends, and evolving consumer behaviors.

Transcript:

Carl Mayer: Influencer marketing has grown to become a multi-billion-dollar industry, and it's not done growing. It's also still evolving.

With us today to tell us more about that is Katy Gee. Katy is a Senior Planner at AMS and author of the article Rethinking Influence: How Brands and Creators are Building Long-term Value Together. 

Katy, thanks for being here on About That.

Katy Gee: Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.

CM: Before we get all excited, we got to define some terms just to level set and make sure everybody knows what we're talking about. There are terms that have to deal with the size of an influencer's following.

KG: For sure. Because the creator space has grown so much, we're seeing a lot more people come into the space. We've given them different labels for their sizes.

So you have your Nanos that's going to be your like under 2000, maybe under 5000. We have our micros that's starting at 5000 followers. You have your macros that's 500K followers and then you have your Megas at 1,000,000 followers.

CM: And because there's just that gamut, that spectrum of sizes, it has affected the way that brands utilize them and build their strategies and have seen the various attributes of each of those sizes.

KG: Yeah. We're seeing the partnerships change too. So brands are coming in and they're looking for more specific, like what they want for their campaigns. They're looking for creators or influencers who have the engagement if they want to really push those lower funnel campaigns.

They're seeing that more so with those mid to lower follower creators, your micros and your nanos. But if they're looking for more awareness base, they're going for the megas or the macros because they have that following, they're more likely to get those views.

CM: The Megas are oftentimes becoming huge celebrities in their own right, sometimes bigger than the brands they're partnering with. How are they changing the game?

KG: They're becoming really business savvy. I give them a lot of credit for it, and they're all very smart in the field now.

We have Alex Earl for part of her Poppy collaboration. She actually now has stock within the company. And we also have creators who are starting their own brands as well. So Emma Chamberlain, she launched her own coffee line. I think Alex also started her own Margarita line as well.

CM: You recently at the most recent advertising week spoke with one of those larger influencers, Katie Feeny. Tell me about her.

KG: She was absolutely lovely. I talked to her and I wanted to get her feel for how she thinks the industry is going and especially from her side as a creator, what she kind of sees from brands happening. And her perspective is that like we're seeing a shift in how brands and creators are collaborating together.

It's more so on how brands and those creators align on values and how well they fit in with each other, it's no longer a brand hiring a creator. It's a partnership. And like we need to start treating it as like an equal-sided thing.

So with that, we're also seeing a shift in how those partnerships are working. Some brands they're no longer doing your one-off. Here's a post, we're done. It's going to be over extended amount of time.

EMarketer recently posted that it's taking viewers at least three times before they even like convert on an ad they see from an influencer. They have to see it on their page multiple times. So we're going to see those partnerships expand maybe six months, a year. We're going to see how those contracts go.

CM: So that's something that'll be happening this year. Just putting on your prediction hat, your prognosticator chapeau. Pick one or two things you think are going to be the big thing to happen this year. And if you're wrong, nobody's going to blame you. And if you're right, you can take all the credit in the world.

KG: I love credit, so we'll take it. But if I'm wrong, don't blame it.

CM: It didn't happen.

KG: Yeah, exactly. (Katy and Carl Laugh)

CM: So for the couple things that we're going to see in 2026 and 2027. We're going to see how pay is lined up with brands. So we're seeing that sometimes brands are like, here's a rate you can take it, or they're kind of fishing and they're like, what do you charge for these deliverables?

KG: And that kind of like puts creators at a back end, because you're kind of like, all right, well, do I undercut myself to get the deal or do I charge my full rate for what I'm worth? So we're going to see a shift there.

There's also an issue where it's like, are you charging off your followers? Are you charging off your engagement rates? No one really knows. And there's such a discrepancy. So people are just choosing their rates and they're running with it. So we're going to see more alignment on that from both sides, hopefully within the coming year and a half.

CM: You are also an influencer, one that has also done some brand partnerships of her own. While we're here, take advantage of the platform. Plug away. Tell us about your socials.

KG: Yeah, I post a kind of lifestyle content, like my day in the life between running between Philly and New York City and occasionally up here in Rockland County. And with that, I also have my little dog with me most of the time. He's in a lot of my videos. And I could be on, I'm on Instagram and TikTok at KatyGee44.

CM: I already followed you, but you guys should also. Also check out her article Rethinking Influence: How Brands and Creators are Building Long-term Value Together. That's on MediaVillage. 

Katy Gee, thank you for being here.

KG: Thank you for having me

CM: And thank you for watching About That. We'll see you next time.

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