He was the first person to launch an influencer marketing agency in Australia and now David Krupp is opening Australia’s first licensing agency for social media influencers.
The Influencer Store (TIS) is a company that builds product lines specifically for social media influencers. This means that they build branded influencer product lines for those influencers to sell via their social channels.
TIS manage the manufacturing, product design and branding (with influencer input and creative control), e-commerce, distribution and customer service. All the influencer needs to do is promote the product on their social channels.
One of the most experienced people in the social media influencer space, Krupp knows a trend when he sees it.
From being one of the first employees at MySpace Australia after seeing the early rise of social media in 2006, to launching Nuffnang, the country’s first influencer marketing agency in 2009, to building the biggest TikTok network of Creators while at IMG, Krupp has always been first to move.
He believes his latest venture is the future of the social media influencer industry.
Who are some of TIS’s partners?
TIS have launched with two divisions; toys and beauty. In the toy space, they have partnered with Californian YouTube Channel JKrew who create content exclusively about slime.
While in the beauty space, they have partnered with Sydney based Instagrammer, Mishti Rahman who creates beauty, fashion and lifestyle content.
The idea came to Krupp when he was watching his six year old niece obsessively watching specific YouTube channels back in 2017.
It dawned on him, that the way children are consuming media has changed dramatically in the last decade. When he was young, he had to make sure he was home at 4pm to watch Transformers.
But now, kids control what they watch and when they watch and they are as obsessed with these shows as he ever was – the medium and delivery is just different now.
“I realised that in the same way that I went out to buy Transformer toys because of my love for the Transformers show, that my niece would also jump at the chance to buy an influencer branded toy product after watching one of her favourite YouTube shows.”
From there, the idea took on a life of its own and it registered that beyond toys, this model would apply to almost any other category. And the beauty division of TIS was born.
Krupp says that TIS is solving an influencer problem and a brand problem.
Influencer Problem – For the most part, influencers would prefer a world where they didn’t have to create sponsored posts.
While there are a few brands and sponsored opportunities that each would feel they closely align with, they typically see it as a means to an end if they want to be a full time influencer.
These partnerships are therefore not always authentic. If on the other hand, influencers were to create their own brand, with their own vision and their own story, they can be truly authentic and earn an income at the same time. It’s Influencer Marketing in its purest form.
Brand Problem – We all know that the holy grail of marketing is developing a brand that consumers can trust and feel an affinity for – this has traditionally been very difficult and very expensive.
Influencers however, have inherent trust and brand affinity, meaning building a brand and selling influencer branded products completely changes the marketing paradigm.
Krupp acknowledges that celebrities have been selling branded products for years but proposes that the social media influencer is very different.
“The difference between the old model of celebrity selling and the new model is that in today’s world, the celebrity is also the sales distribution channel. And this is a game changer.”
While TIS is starting with Toys and Beauty, and YouTube and Instagram, the idea is that they will expand into many categories and work with any social platform where influencers exist. TIS is seeking investment for this expansion.
Krupp is excited about his new venture:
“I have been very fortunate that in my career I have had the opportunity to become one of Australia’s leading voices in influencer marketing which has allowed me to build new industries after seeing market trends emerging.
From jumping on the MySpace train before social media was recognised as a genuine platform for advertising, to building the country’s first influencer marketing agency at Nuffnang to recently building the biggest Australian network of TikTok influencers at IMG, I think I have a good eye for seeing what is coming.
I believe that frictionless social commerce is the next evolution of the social media influencer industry and I am excited to build my new business in an industry that is looking for change. We are excited to find investors who share this vision.”
