Lippe Taylor, the creative communications firm focused on Moving Her, announced that Lauren McGrath has joined as the newest member of the agency’s senior team. McGrath was formerly Vice President of Talent Partnerships and Influencer Strategy at Refinery29. At Lippe Taylor, she will serve as Head of Talent & Influencer Engagement, a new role designed to further develop the firm’s innovative offering.
The addition of this key position is part of a major investment in influencer marketing at the agency. Lippe Taylor also recently tapped its virtual crowd of developers to develop a proprietary software platform, Starling AI, which uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to more effectively identify, segment, measure and optimize influencers and their networks for brands.
“While most of our clients share our belief that Influencer Marketing has come of age as a discipline, they are frustrated by a lack of standards and best practices in the rapidly evolving landscape,” said Maureen Lippe, CEO and founder of Lippe Taylor. “Lauren’s hiring and our investment in the industry’s first analytics platform that uses artificial intelligence and image recognition to measure influencers reflects the acceleration of our agency’s evolution as well. We will continue to innovate while maintaining our core competency in earned media and driving real results for our clients.”
McGrath is best known for her key role at Refinery29 where she led the East Coast arm of its talent and influencer division known as the “Here and Now Collective,” working with Fortune 500 brands and building the team up to a dozen full time staffers. As part of this growth, she negotiated and managed relationships with digital influencers and celebrity talent for branded partnerships spanning custom content, social engagement and live events. In addition, she established best practices for engagement and ambassadorships, and also leveraged data and trends to scale Refinery29’s talent business model and offering. McGrath started her career in talent management at Creative Artists Agency (CAA).
McGrath’s philosophy on successfully engaging influencers is based on the principle of mutual value exchange. “I believe the most powerful Influencer Marketing programs leverage both analytics and relationships to develop holistic partnerships that drive a strong ROI,” explained McGrath. “I’m excited to develop programs that move beyond the one-off, transactional engagements with influencers that have become so common in the landscape. With the Starling AI platform, Lippe Taylor is leveraging best-in-class analytics to innovate how we discover and evaluate influencers, as well as how we define success.”
