Prominent Company Brings Onboard Executives from Havas and OMD, Surpassing $100 Million in Revenue Milestone
In a significant move, Andrea Millett, who spent over 20 years on the agency side, has left Havas Media Group to become the Chief Operations Officer at Influential. This shift is part of a broader trend where top executives are leaving traditional advertising agencies to join influencer marketing companies.
Millett is not the only one making this transition. Katherine Rae has also left Virtual Health to take the head of people role at Influential. Latarria Coy departed OMD USA to become head of ethical media at Influential.
The reasons behind this shift are clear. Influencer marketing offers performance-based, measurable results, deeper audience trust, and authentic connections compared to traditional advertising. This sector, especially within the creator economy, enables brands to achieve higher conversion rates, longer-lasting content impact, and more direct engagement with niche, loyal audiences.
Conversion-focused campaigns are a key driver of this shift. Influencer marketing increasingly emphasizes partnerships that drive measurable purchase actions, unlike traditional splashy campaigns with vanity metrics. Authenticity and audience trust are also crucial factors. Creators build loyal communities and deliver recommendations that consumers trust significantly more than traditional ads—89% of consumers trust personal recommendations over other channels.
Platform-specific content and engagement are another reason for the shift. Micro and nano influencers create authentic, platform-tailored content (e.g., on TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts) that fosters community and high engagement, something traditional agencies struggle to replicate.
The growing creator economy and market demand are also driving this shift. As the creator economy expands rapidly, brands are investing heavily in influencer marketing to tap into this fast-growing, effective channel, while traditional agencies are often less agile or focused on legacy media.
Finally, many brands are reallocating budgets from traditional or broad influencer campaigns to targeted creator commerce and social commerce models, seeking measurable performance and niche audience impact rather than broad reach alone.
In summary, top executives are moving to influencer marketing firms to embrace this more dynamic, data-driven, authentic, and ROI-focused sector that aligns better with current consumer behaviors and brand marketing priorities. Millett, Rae, and Coy are embarking on a new chapter in this exciting and rapidly evolving industry.
- Andrea Millett, Katherine Rae, and Latarria Coy are moving their careers from the traditional advertising industry to influencer marketing firms, such as Influential, to position themselves in a sector that offers performance-based results, more authentic connections, and a higher focus on ROI.
- The finance sector has been paying attention to the business opportunities in the influencer marketing industry, along with technology, due to the increased conversion rates, longer-lasting content impact, and direct engagement with niche, loyal audiences that the sector offers, especially for brands within the creator economy.
- The growth in technology and the creator economy, combined with the demand for measurable performance and niche audience impact, has led many brands to shift their trading strategies from traditional or broad influencer campaigns to targeted creator commerce and social commerce models, resulting in a significant shift in the business landscape.
