Shine has launched Shine Influencers, a talent management agency that seeks to match social influencers with brands and agencies.
“Instead of scouring the internet to find the influencer that fits with them, (brands and agencies) can come to us and we’ll manage the whole process for them from start to finish, says “chief glitter officer” Jess Hunichen (above left).
Hunichen and Emily Ward opened Shine in Toronto in January and the public relations firm is now supporting brands such as Pandora, Young People’s Theatre and Orbis Canada with events, social media and media relations programs.
The Shine Influencers initiative has been in the works for a few months and is based on a few similar agencies Hunichen saw in her native Australia that have worked well.
While brands are working with social influencers, Canada lacks a matchmaking platform to get the two together, she says. “There’s a huge amount of growth in that space that can happen.”
Shine Influencers has signed a number of lifestyle, fashion, food, beauty, health, and travel bloggers to its roster who it describes as “storytellers through snaps, curators of conversations and igniters of trends.”
Among others, it’s representing Kimberly Moffit, Random Acts of Pastel, Woah Style, The Prep Guys and Field Guided.
“There is so much talent in this field and I really wanted to harvest that. I really sincerely hope we can help push careers of these influencers.”
The Shine Influencers website lists numbers of Instagram, Pinterest or Twitter followers and monthly or yearly blog views for each of its “influencers.”
To date, influencers have been matched with brands such as Victoria’s Secret Pink and Hudson’s Bay and a number of local brands, Hunichen says.
Being chosen as an influencer is not just a matter of numbers of followers, she says. She likes to see influencers engaging with followers and responding to comments.
“It’s definitely about people who are authentic in what they do,” Hunichen says. “We’ve made sure to sit down with talent one, two, three, four times to make sure they are the right fit and that their brand is important to them.”
Hunichen says people do not necessarily trust traditional advertising and “we wanted this to be a platform where trust was in abundance.” That’s why influencers it has chosen “have a really great line of trust between themselves and their followers.”
She does not want to see influencers pushing product they don’t believe in, but admits the industry is tricky “because there’s no standardization around it. There’s no legal requirements as to whether you have to disclose that you’re working with a brand or not.”
