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NOV 04
2025
Influencer marketing was built on creativity, but today, it’s driven by data.
70% of brands are now measuring the ROI of their influencer marketing campaigns, according to the Influencer Marketing Hub report. It’s signaling a major shift toward accountability and performance-driven partnerships.
Still, even as technology changes, many marketers struggle to connect content to conversions. Too often, brands celebrate reach when they should be tracking revenue. And that’s changing fast. As budgets tighten and customer acquisition costs rise, business leaders are demanding proof.
In an interview with DesignRush, Simon Yencken, co-founder and CEO of Fanplayr, and Vivien Garnès, co-CEO and co-founder of Upfluence, share how leading brands are using data, AI, and honesty to build scalable, measurable marketing systems and finally see what’s really driving ROI.
Before a big brand commits to a tech or marketing partner, they’re looking for evidence.
“Data is always a big part of the conversation,” says Garnès. “Brands want proof that the partnership will deliver measurable business results." That proof takes many forms: ROI tracking, creator analytics, and attribution models are now standard. But Garnès points out it’s also about efficiency. “They care about time savings and scaling campaigns through simplified outreach, automation, and AI,” he says. In other words, brands want to personalize at scale without burning out their teams.
Yencken sees it from the same lens. “Major brands care about three things above all: trust, scale, and measurable outcomes,” he says. These companies want to know a partner can fit securely within their global tech stack, handle multiple regions, and still deliver results quickly. Both leaders agree: brands don’t want promises. They want a preview of the return before they sign.
One of the best ways to build that trust? Show, don’t tell. When Fanplayr pitched a global retailer, they skipped the deck entirely. “One flagship win came from showing a prospective global retailer a live proof-of-concept in their own eCommerce environment within days,” Yencken recalls. “Instead of a slide deck, we demonstrated how our behavioral targeting could personalize the user journey in real time.” The demo converted. Seeing their own site adapt in real time gave the client confidence that Fanplayr’s tech wasn’t just theory. It worked.
Upfluence had a similar moment. A global retail client was struggling to pay creators across multiple markets: a logistical nightmare that slowed every campaign. Garnès’s team showed them how automation could handle outreach, compliance, and payments all in one place. The result? “Saving their team more than 20 hours per campaign,” Garnès says. “What sealed the deal was giving them a simplified and reliable system for compliant global payments at scale.” Proof beats pitch, every time.
It’s tempting to think one great product sells itself, but as both leaders know, the story that works for a startup doesn’t land the same with a global enterprise. “With enterprises, we emphasize integration, compliance, and scale,” Yencken explains. "These are buyers who live in spreadsheets and security audits. They need to know how a new platform will fit into their global systems without breaking anything. For growth-stage brands,” he continues, “the conversation is different: it’s about speed, experimentation, and growth impact.” These companies want to move fast, test, and iterate.
Garnès approaches it similarly. For large organizations, Upfluence leans on reporting, governance, and advanced analytics. For smaller ones, the focus shifts to speed: getting campaigns live quickly and making scaling simpler. Two audiences, same product, just a different story.
Sometimes, the smartest move a partner can make is saying no. And Garnès is straightforward about it. “Telling clients the truth, even when it’s not what they want to hear,” he says. His team has had to tell brands when their ideas won’t fly. “A good example is when a brand wants to rely only on product gifting as payment,” he says. “That can work for high-value items, but not for low-cost products where creators won’t see the trade-off as worth their time.” That kind of honesty isn’t always easy, but it pays off. “By being honest before they invest, we build trust for the long run,” Garnès adds.
Yencken calls it “radical transparency.” If a campaign underperforms, his team doesn’t sugarcoat it. “If something isn’t working as expected, we say so, and then show exactly how we’ll optimize performance,” he says.Trust, after all, is built in how you handle the misses.
Talk about AI too abstractly and you lose people fast. So Fanplayr takes adifferent approach.
“We start with education through their own data,” Yencken explains. Instead of launching into jargon, his team begins by showing clients what’s already happening in their data: how customers behave, where they drop off, and what motivates them to buy. “From there, it’s a natural step to demonstrate how AI-driven models like Verada AI can automate and optimize those customer journeys at scale,” he says. By grounding AI in their own metrics, clients can see exactly what’s possible, and more importantly, what’s profitable.
When you’ve worked with brands like Samsung and MSC Cruises, you learn fast that one-size-fits-all doesn’t work globally. “Working with global brands taught us to design for complexity from day one,” Yencken says “These clients operate across multiple languages, currencies, and regulatory environments." That lesson prompted Fanplayr to develop a modular, privacy-first architecture that could handle everything from GDPR compliance to localization.
Ironically, that same foundation now helps smaller, fast-growing brands scale faster, too. When you build for the most complex users, everyone downstream benefits.
Plenty of marketers still measure success by likes, impressions, or “earned media value.” Garnès says that’s a problem. “Many brands still try to estimate ROI instead of knowing it,” he explains. “They base success on impressions or earned media value, which are only guesses. The real measure comes from sales, average order value, and customer lifetime value.” That’s why Upfluence integrates directly with commerce platforms like Shopify, Amazon, and WooCommerce, so brands can see the exact revenue tied to each creator partnership. When you can trace dollars to data, influencer marketing becomes a reliable sales channel.
The Bottom Line? Proof Builds Trust.
Both leaders agree: the future of marketing partnerships isn’t about buzzwords or vague promises. It’s about showing, measuring, and owning the truth, even when it’s messy. As Garnès puts it, data and honesty are what keep brands coming back. And as Yencken reminds us, transparency builds longevity.
Ultimately, marketing is about results that can be proven.
For press inquiries please contact pr@fanplayr.com
