Episode summary
EuropeanKid: The $32B Future of Influencer Marketing
How I Invest With David Weisburd
· · 24 min · Hosts: David Weisburd · Guests: Aris Yeager
Summary
Aris Yeager argues that influencer marketing is shifting away from expensive celebrity posts and toward activating hundreds or thousands of nano and micro creators who already love a brand. He says Storytime is built to automate that process: brands can gift products or experiences to hyper-local creators, match campaigns to specific audiences, and measure results without the manual work of agencies or in-house teams. He frames the model as more efficient, more authentic, and better suited to local businesses as well as large chains.
Yeager says the strongest campaigns come from real affinity, not reach alone. He points to brands like Beats by Dre and Skims as examples of companies that succeeded by distributing products broadly through many creators, not just relying on one famous face. He also argues that celebrity-brand deals often fail when the fit is artificial, while creator campaigns work best when the person is already a genuine customer.
He describes Storytime as a network-effect business that has grown from SMBs into national brands such as Joe and the Juice and Oakberry. AI, he says, helps generate and optimize campaigns, while vetting and data on creator audiences reduce waste. His broader claim is that social distribution is now core to business, and founder-led brands are often better positioned to take the risks needed to win on social.
Key takeaways
- Aris Yeager says the future of influencer marketing is “hundreds and thousands of smaller creators,” not one expensive celebrity post.
- Storytime targets hyper-local creators and can run campaigns for brands like Joe and the Juice and Oakberry at roughly $500 to $5,000 per month.
- Yeager says Storytime is “10 times cheaper than any other influencer marketing solution” because it automates gifting, matching, and campaign setup.
- He argues that authenticity matters more than follower count, and that the most effective creators are often people with small audiences who are real customers.
- Yeager says founder-led brands are more willing to be daring on social media, while corporate layers make it harder to move fast.
Notable quotes
“I charge 30 to $50,000 for a post, which I think is obscene”
“the future of influencer marketing is all nano micro brands want to work with people that love their brands, right”
“It's a marketplace that allows creators to instantly connect with different businesses”
“We're very much redefining by focusing on like how real is this person”
“we can create a campaign in less than five minutes”
How the episode opens
I charge 30 to $50,000 for a post, which I think is obscene. But taking that money that and being like, how do we distribute this to like hundreds and thousands of smaller creators out of our brands, that's the shift that I'm I'm betting on in the market.
Beats by Dre, Skims by Kim Kardashian, that they started a new model that made them successful. What was that model? even though these are like very celebrity oriented brands with like one face is that they're actually activating so many different nano micro creators.
Somewhere around a decade ago the business world started to take media seriously. You had Mr. Beast, you had George Clooney with his brands, you had The Rock.
You're now taking this attention that two billion people and transferring it into a business. tell me about what you're building.
Obviously, those are great case studies of success stories, but I've seen there's so many stories of like failed celebrity brands. Um, but it's yeah, like when you have distribution, it's everything in business. And and for me, the most important thing was what I learned was how to really do influencer marketing.
And for me, I noticed that like I'm exceptionally good at it. So I wanted to also build in that space because like from that experience I noticed that like also my background is I've always been very entrepreneurial and for me like being able to innovate in this area was I've always wanted to create startups. So for me I was like compelled to do a startup next in that space and that's kind of what pushed me to this next chapter.
Just an elevator pitch. What is story time? It's a marketplace that allows creators to instantly connect with different businesses.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- influencer marketing
- nano and micro creators
- creator-brand matching
- ai campaign optimization
- authentic engagement
Companies and tickers mentioned
- Storytime
Watch the episode
Watch “EuropeanKid: The $32B Future of Influencer Marketing” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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How I Invest With David Weisburd, this episode and its artwork belong to David Weisburd. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
