The Future of Influencer Marketing in 2025 with Charlotte Stavrou

The influencer marketing industry has been growing exponentially over the past few years, and it seems that it’s going in the same trajectory in 2025.

Our bread and butter at Purple Goat is influencer marketing, so we were very excited to sit down with Charlotte Stavrou, founder of SevenSix Agency. We talked about the future of influencer marketing, imposter syndrome and life as a founder.

There are some amazing insights in this episode that you don’t want to miss!

And if you want to learn how you can create some successful AND truly inclusive influencer campaigns this year, make sure to contact the team of experts at Purple Goat.

[Transcript below]

Trailer (00:00):

Charlotte Stavrou:

2024 was an interesting year. I think that’s it. Done.

I’m kind of annoying right now. I feel really top of my game. I think I’ve had imposter syndrome for quite a while. Now I’m like, “oh no, I know what I’m doing”.

Dom Hyams:

There’s an amazing stat that I think it’s 40 or 41% of people trust creators more than their best friends.

Charlotte Stavrou:

The thing I love most about influencer marketing is creators being able to transform their lives through influencer marketing in a way that you can’t really see in any other industry. I think there’s something so powerful about that, of being able to be yourself on the internet and being paid to be you.

I think YouTube is about to have a massive resurgence because the amount of creators that in January said, I’m going onto YouTube. They saw that TikTok was disappearing, so I’m excited to see what that looks like.

Introduction (00:58):

Dom Hyams:

Hello and welcome to a brand new series of The Purple Goat Podcast. Today I’m joined by Charlotte Stavrou, founder of SevenSix Agency, accomplished influencer, and diversity and inclusion champion. We have a really amazing conversation about her as a creator, her life as a founder of the agency, her journey through 2024 and what that was like for her, and then looking forward into 2025 and what she hopes for both the influencer economy and her agency as well. Really interesting conversation and I hope you enjoy it.

So without further ado, would you mind just letting everyone at home know who you are, what you do, and I suppose in one line how 2024 was for you?

Charlotte Stavrou:

Oh gosh. Okay, so I’m Charlotte. Charlotte Stavrou. I’m the founder of SevenSix Agency and we are an influencer marketing agency based in London, and we do all things influencer. It’s a bit of a 360. So we manage talent, we do influencer campaigns, and then we also work with creators on upskilling them, and we have what I would like to say is an accelerator programme for creators called our Creator Club. So that’s what we do.

I personally am also a creator. I have been in the content creation world for the last 14 years, so I’ve seen the journey of content creation and it’s been crazy. But yeah, 2024 was an interesting year. I think that’s it, done. In it was a year for me personally, in terms of running my agency, it was years of highs and lows. And I saw it as, even though we’ve been around for five, six years this year, I see it as year one for us, which is quite interesting because we have grown and shrunk as an agency as time’s gone on and we’ve had slightly different services. But I feel like I always say when I talk to people about my experience as a founder, I always say, I feel like I’ve just been doing a really long MBA and I finally graduated in 2024, I feel. So 2024 was a bit epic ,and I know it was for the industry quite a stressful year. Budgets were cut, things were a bit uncomfortable, but for me personally, it was a good year.

Dom Hyams:

We often talk about maybe pulling the training wheels off, or even just iterating and honing our offering over time because it’s evolving because the industry’s evolving and the wants and needs of evolving. Is that kind of what you mean by that this is now year one because we’ve found the rhythm of what we want to be and how we want to do it?

Charlotte Stavrou:

Yeah, I think so. I think also on a personal level, I kind of started the agency without having any business experience. I just knew how to do influencer marketing, which seems like a great idea, but actually a lot of the agencies that we see performing and they’re the biggest ones, they’re people who have no industry experience, but they’re just, they know how to run a business. So I’ve come at it differently and that’s made it really hard. I dunno how to, well, I do now, but I didn’t know how to run a business.

So I feel like by 2024 I figured it out. We had so many amazing opportunities, especially for me to learn and I feel like now my team is just chef’s kiss. Actually I am getting on a weekly basis people message me to say, “oh, I’ve just met someone in your team and they’re amazing” or “I just spoke to someone and they knew your team and they were amazing”. And I just feel really excited about that. But yeah, I feel like I’m now in that sweet spot of I know what I’m doing. We’ve figured out our services and my team is just amazing. So I feel like I can just relax and sit back.

Dom Hyams:

That does almost sound like the holy trinity when you have the team around you, the offering around you that you know is right, and then almost like the confidence in yourself as well. That probably feels like an unstoppable little kind of triad of things you’ve got there.

Charlotte Stavrou:

Yeah, I’m kind of annoying right now. I feel really top of my game. I think I’ve had imposter syndrome for quite a while now. I’m like, oh no, I know what I’m doing.

Dom Hyams:

How do you combat the spinning the plates problem of as you and your agency grow, and there’s only so many hours in a day or a week. Of course having great people around you helps with that, but similarly, you can’t make more hours in a day as you grow. So how did you combat that bit? Because I know we’ve definitely felt that as a thing as you went up capacity, you obviously need to become lean, more agile, delegate, all of those kinds of things more and more.

Charlotte Stavrou:

I think that’s the hardest, I think for everyone, the hardest thing to figure out. But I think last year I just got to a place where I was near burnout again and I was like, no, I’m not doing this. I can’t do that again. So I got to the point where I was like, if it’s not going to move the needle and it’s not going to cause destruction, it’s not important.

So if we don’t do it and the walls don’t fall down, we’re just not going to prioritise it. So it was a lot of saying no, a lot of saying not yet or saying, let me move this. Lots of rescheduling last year, but it just made for just a bit more of a peaceful, stress-free to an extent, environment, especially when you’ve got clients who, some of them know what they’re doing and it’s fine, it’s seamless.

Some of them want more than what you can offer and make you bend over backwards. Some of them don’t know what they want and you have to juggle all of these hats. So I think what I’ve really focused on is thinking at the end of the day, we post pictures on the internet and videos now, but that is what we do. Sometimes it is saving lives to an extent, but generally it’s just entertainment.

So nothing’s going to go wrong if you don’t do something at 11 o’clock and you do it at 12, or if you don’t do it on Thursday and you do it on Friday, just relax. But as long as whatever you do, you do it well. So that’s what I would just try to instil in my team. If you can’t meet the deadline, that’s fine. Communicate and get it done to the best, even better than what you even think you can do because yeah, we’re not surgeons in the operating room.

Dom Hyams:

You talk about moving the needle and I know that that has two meanings, one in terms of for you in your business, but I know that you also mean in what your business does, what you put your name to, and how the industry is going to move. From a 14 year lens and a 4, 5, 6 year lens, how have you seen the influencer economy change? And particularly then almost like a status check, where do you think we are now in the maturity of that influencer economy and where that might go from here?

Charlotte Stavrou:

A big question. Especially today after what happened on the weekend. So I’m kind of like, I don’t know. No comment.

So for context, I don’t know when this is going to go out, but context, over the weekend, TikTok went down for the US and then it came back. I spent the weekend thinking, wow, what’s going to happen? And then I was like, oh, maybe it’s fine. So much has changed in the last 14 years, and I was talking to one of our creators that we manage last week for a strategy session, and we were saying how different new gen creators are compared to the OGs.

So at the beginning we were doing it to build community. So it was literally young people generally online, mainly YouTube posting videos to find people like them to build their community. I remember I was on YouTube when I was in my twenties when I was at university, but because I was lonely and I was trying to find people to talk to about my interest, and then I moved to Spain for my year abroad, and I was even more lonely because I was in this little village where there was nobody my age and it was really, really lonely and I was just going to YouTube to find this community and I found it.

And that’s what it was mainly about. And then we started to get invited to Fashion Week and the BTS of what’s going on with the makeup. And then we started getting invited to these events and getting gifts, all these products, and it was really exciting and there wasn’t that much money being exchanged. It was very much community driven and opportunity, and a lot of us at that time wanted to be journalists. So it was like that step in the door where journalism was quite inaccessible for a lot of people, especially if you’re working class. So it was that step in the door to get you to that place.

And in the end, a lot of us didn’t become journalists and we ended up continuing being creators. But I think that’s really interesting to look at that and then see where we are now, where we are paying tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands. I was watching, reading the comments of a TikTok over the weekend of one of the creators saying, “okay, now we are leaving TikTok, creators, let me know what was the highest amount you’ve ever been paid”. And reading these comments, I was like, whoa. Some of them it was like $400,000 for one Instagram post and I was just like, wow. The amount of money that runs through our industry is actually quite gross.

Dom Hyams:

And often, and I think you’re probably very similar to us, we take a more data-driven approach, but actually often those kind of vanity creators, vanity payments don’t add the value for the brand that the brand thinks they might because actually they’re making this binary connection of big creator and loads of followers and big amount of money, and then that’s their big play in the influencer space. And then we or you, we’d go, well actually, if you work with 10 smaller creators and you actually think about their performance, not just their follower count and their relationship with your brand, that becomes so much more valuable and we can take a more data-driven approach to that campaign and think of it much more as a media channel.

Charlotte Stavrou:

Exactly.

Dom Hyams:

And that is so often what’s happening still. I find that fascinating, that in that way it almost feels like there’s still so much of the industry to learn. Sometimes where you still see those kind of huge creators that we are looking at their engagement rate, and it’s like 0.4%. You’re like, well, why are people throwing a bucket of money at them, when actually don’t even think their content’s are sort of forward thinking and progressive either?

I think it is fascinating also the data and the insight that comes around people’s trust in certain and pillars of marketing and marketing channels. And you see still print and TV is trusted the most and then you end up in on some scales, influencers at the end. But then when you do insight around people’s connection to social and their connection specifically to creators, there’s an amazing stat that I think it’s 40 or 41% of people trust creators more than their best friends, and it’s like mindbogglingly, almost scary in that sense.

But the power of connection between creators and an audience, you cannot ignore that. Yes, social as a whole, is full of certain things and that includes misinformation and whatever it might be and the good, the bad and the ugly. But if you know what you’re doing in that medium and you know how to engage it with, especially younger audiences now are switched on and savvy to this. They build a social collateral, they build things that they’re following around their interests and they know how to navigate it and they know what to look out for. That could become such a powerful thing that they are utterly connected to, and they do feel trusted in those certain individuals that they’ve built that relationship over time.

Charlotte Stavrou:

And I think it also, that’s a really good stat that I hadn’t heard, but I also am that person thinking about as you said it, I was like, yeah, I do actually trust a lot of influencers more than I would my friends. I was looking for a specific product this weekend, I was looking for a specific hair product and a specific makeup product, and I didn’t look to any of my friends for it. I sat for an hour going through TikTok and seeing, but it’s because I visually can see that this person has used that. If it’s a makeup product, let’s say it’s a foundation as an example, if their makeup looks flawless, I’m going to want to copy them and I don’t need to see them in real life to know that it looks good seeing on my phone.

But it also spans race, it spans gender, it spans age. Anyone can go to an influencer, a person of influence and be excited by them. And I think I was talking to someone last week and they were talking about B2B influencing, and I was just like, yeah, it exists. It’s a thing. And I had to walk them through it and it made me laugh. I was like, it’s becoming even more of a thing than it has ever in the past.

Everyone’s got their own personal brands evolving at the moment, but we’ve always had B2B influencer marketing has always been a thing. We’ve just never called it a thing. We’ve just been doing it for free, just been writing on LinkedIn for free and now people are starting to be paid for it. But yeah, it is so interesting how influencer isn’t, I feel like it’s still just not taken seriously.

But I love, the thing I love most about influencer marketing is creators being able to transform their lives through influencer marketing in a way that you can’t really see in any other industry. Anyone can be a creator and you don’t need to have the best equipment just, you could be on an iPhone 7 if you need to be, and or insert any smartphone, but you could be on anything that can record you and you can still make a living from it. And it’s just to do with your story that you have to tell and the way that you can tell that story. And I think there’s something so powerful about that, of being able to be yourself on the internet and being paid to be you. It’s like it’s lovely. Where else can you do that?

Dom Hyams:

Yeah. When you are looking now forward through to 2025, what do you think is well, what are you excited about? What is on the horizon? What do you want to see in terms of change both for yourself and in the industry? What do you want to achieve?

Charlotte Stavrou:

I’m really excited for this year. I think this weekend specifically is very much shaken up the industry. I haven’t spoken to, you’re the first industry person I’ve spoken to so far. So when we finish, I want to have a chat, but I want to know, especially for the bigger agencies who are doing stuff in the US, we are quite European focused. How are they feeling? What’s going on? What’s the plan? So I think seeing a platform just shut down has probably turned this industry on its head quite quickly.

I don’t think, it’s not happened, but I don’t think many of us thought TikTok was ever going to go. And then when it did, I was like, oh. And then it came back and I was like, oh, yeah, fine. But I think that is going to spark some interesting conversations. And we’ve seen apps like Red Note pop up now for US and UK specifically, and we are kind of moving over there. I think we’re probably not going to stay there for that long. And then there’s some other apps that have popped up. So I’m excited to see what happens there because there might just be a new app on the market, there might be one that sticks around as well.

We saw BeReal and that didn’t really stay for that long, so I am interested to see that. I think YouTube is about to have a massive resurgence because the amount of creators that in January have said, I’m going onto YouTube because they saw that TikTok was disappearing. So I’m excited to see what that looks like. I’m really excited. We’re releasing our pricing report in June this year around Cannes Lions festivals. That’ll be quite exciting. And we will talk about that offline because we’ve been talking about this literally for the last year.

Dom Hyams:

We’ll definitely do.

Charlotte Stavrou:

But with TikTok now having a change, it’s all I could think about this weekend. What does pricing look like on TikTok if TikTok doesn’t exist, and what pricing is needed? So I’m just really excited to see, I feel like I’m just sitting here with my popcorn. I’m really excited to see what’s going to happen.

Dom Hyams:

We can’t have the answers. For example, logic might say, well, TikTok prices will go down because the total viewable audience has come down, but then does that mean that people are just going to shift onto Insta, but then that pushes prices up? But then how does the industry feel about Meta right now? And is that pushing it down? All sorts of nuanced things that almost create that fluctuation. And I think you are totally right. There is now this opportunity for a new app on the scene to grow massively, but also YouTube Shorts, if they get it right, you could see something very dramatic happen as well.

Charlotte Stavrou:

I think so. And I think also looking at Instagram this weekend, there’s 360 changes that they had overnight. I’m kind of just chill out, this is a bit too much for me, and I’ve got logged in and I was like, this is a completely different app to what I logged into yesterday. It’s kind of annoying.

The thing about YouTube is it’s never changed. It’s looked the same. It looks the same. They’ve tweaked it to make it a bit more modern, but it’s looked the same. And they’ve introduced Shorts, but they haven’t made it annoying. It’s just this great fully functioning extra that people are using that’s performing really, really well, and it’s really exciting. So I think YouTube is about to have, they’ve always been, they had their huge moment 10 years ago, YouTube was everything. Now everyone still uses YouTube, but we don’t see it as much in influencer marketing. I think everyone’s all about TikTok, TikTok, but I’m excited to see what this year does with YouTube because I feel like they’ve moved so people are ready to start posting.

Dom Hyams:

You, personally, as a creator, are you going to see that move more in that way as well?

Charlotte Stavrou:

Yeah, I am really excited about myself as a creator. Last year I didn’t really do that much creator work. I was focusing on the business and that was really needed. I think 2022 was my big year. I did so much. And this year I’m kind of like, okay, I’ve got a really strong strategy that goes into effect in February because January is a slow start. We’re coming to the end of this month, but I just don’t want to stress myself out.

But yeah, YouTube, we’ve got a podcast starting Sevensix, so we’ll be on YouTube. I personally have a segment in the podcast that is business influencer focus, so I’m really excited for that. And I have a project that I’m pitching at the moment, which is kind of a year-ish long project around female founder and business owner empowerment that I’m really excited for. And I just think there’s just so much opportunity and it’s about being creative with how you pitch. And I don’t think, I’m not pitching traditionally, like I will do one Instagram post. It’s very much community driven and yeah, I can’t tell you how excited I’m for this year, but I’m also excited because kind of shifted how I move and everything is just, it’s a lot slower and more intentional, whereas naturally because of how my brain is wired, I move super fast. So in the past you’ve seen reports report after report and all these campaigns, all these things, marketing things happening in the background. This year it’s a very much less is more kind of year. But what we are doing, I’m so excited for.

Dom Hyams:

Awesome. I’m very excited to see it as well. To then can you, you’ve got many hats on, including the one you’re wearing right now, almost a piece of advice to the different audiences that are in your world for 2025 for success, if you don’t mind. So I suppose audience number one, the creator, the individual, what one thing would you say is important for them to remember, cherish, do in 2025 that they might not have been thinking about in 2024?

Charlotte Stavrou:

I think my biggest thing, I think for all of them is just create a strong strategy that is impactful, but also gives you something that will last. I think something I want to talk a lot about this year with creators is building a career and thinking about being an entrepreneur. Because I have a lot of creators that I know, they live paycheck to paycheck, they get these big, big deals, and then after a month or so you’re like, where’s all that money gone? And it’s like, have you saved it? Do you have a pension? There’s so many things, and I think I’m not a finance expert and I never will pretend to be because my journey has been, there’s been a lot of learning, but I think seeing what’s available to creators, it worries me how so many young people are getting these large sums of money and they’re getting this instant fame, and then one day it turns off, what’s your next step and do you have savings? So this is something that I keep thinking about with the creators that we work with and with our creator clubs. That’s one big advice. It’s just create your strategy and treat yourself like a business.

Dom Hyams:

Amazing. And then finally, to the brands, to the industry, we are both in this sort of pushing the inclusive mantle forward as it were. What one piece of advice or learnings can you take forward or push the brands that you work with to take forward into 2025?

Charlotte Stavrou:

Yeah, I think so many nuggets, but I think the big thing is thinking about why you’re doing what you’re doing and not focusing on what’s hot right now. Because I think this weekend is a perfect example of how something overnight can change. And we see that with creators being cancelled. We see that with creators just going offline for a year and maybe not coming back or coming back and not having the same reach.

You really need to think about the community that you are building and why you’re trying to tap into them. And I think that goes beyond the numbers of how many followers they have and how many views they got on one specific video. It’s like, what’s the longterm conversation? So I think that falls into inclusivity quite heavily. You might not be thinking about the right people because what looks hot right now might not necessarily be actually what you need.

Dom Hyams:

Boom. Great thing to end on. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for being here with us.

Charlotte Stavrou:

Thanks for having me.

Dom Hyams:

We literally could have talked..

Charlotte Stavrou:

Yeah, I feel really proud of us because when we go on Zoom calls together, it is like a group of four and then it’s just me and you chatting for at least 45 minutes. And then we’re like, so what we actually want to talk about today is have we got for 15 minutes?

Dom Hyams:

But I mean, again, we’d love to have you back in the future. We’d love to see what happens in 2025. We’ll link all your social bits and stuff as well, you as an agency. So thank you so much for fighting the good fight in everything you do.

Charlotte Stavrou:

Thanks, back at you. Thanks.

Outro (25:19):

Dom Hyams:

Thanks so much for watching the podcast. We also want to thank our friends at ID Studios who so wonderfully host us for all of our podcasts. If you have any podcast needs yourself, we highly recommend them. Not only is their space inclusive, accessible, they are also just a great group of people. So please reach out and they will be more than happy to accommodate you.