Social Soup Poaches Industry Leaders For New Division

Social Soup, the expert in scaled, authentic influencer marketing, has launched a new business unit, Creator, headed up by Maria Casas.

Casas was most recently head of content and social media at Ikon.

The Remarkables Senior Strategist Ashleigh Bruton has also joined Social Soup as partnerships director within the Creator unit.

Social Soup CEO Sharyn Smith said launching Creator was a strategic decision prompted by Social Soup’s rapid growth and the need for a dedicated team of social, content and influencer specialists to manage integrated partnerships.

Maria will lead a team of strategists, partnership managers, producers, community managers, designers, video specialists, events management, paid social specialists and social analysts.

The establishment of Creator was precipitated by a restructure of the Social Soup business and saw the internal promotion of Jo Dear Bowie-Johnson to head up the Operations and Analytics business unit to further develop Social Soup’s focus on influencer transparency and analytics.

The move signals the importance clients are placing on influence as key to their overall marketing strategy and looking for greater integration of programs as part of their digital ecosystems.

“Social Soup has 10 years of experience pioneering the influencer marketing space and we made a bold decision to restructure our entire business to be set-up for the future with influence at the core of all marketing strategies.

“To do this we are now the best of bread across an influencer platform, an agency and a technology company delivering adaptable solutions”

Smith said Casas and Bruton’s appointments would position Social Soup for the future as influencer marketing evolves as a discipline.

“Casas is highly regarded in the industry as a leader in the social and content space and brings an incredible depth of experience to the team to broaden our capabilities and deepen our expertise”

“Bruton has much to offer our business and her role as Partnerships Director as an expert in understanding what makes Content Creators tick and how to develop the best strategic influencer campaigns through long-term partnerships that deliver to business objectives,” Smith said.

“Over the past 12 months the breadth of our business has grown significantly – we’ve increased staff by 30 per cent and welcomed 21 new clients to the fold.”

“It’s clear to us that the future of marketing is all about clients creating and controlling the content narrative with influence key to this.”

Casas is charged with leading the Creator team building stronger relationships and education with our creator community, as well as managing brand partnerships.

“My passion lies in delivering effective strategies for clients, so It’s a priority for me to put the consumer at the core.

“With this approach, it’s clear that influencer marketing should be a key component, intrinsically linked to these strategies,” Casas said.

“I simply couldn’t imagine a business better placed to deliver on this and truly set the tone for the industry than Social Soup.

“They have been leading the space for more than 10 years, with  the smarts and instinct to navigate an ever-changing landscape, consistently staying ahead of the curve.

“It also excites me to set the standard on transparency in this space, educating our clients and once again being key players in moving the discipline forward,” Casas said.

Bruton said of her appointment: “I’m thrilled to be part of the new structure of Social Soup. The entire industry is seeing a huge growth period at the moment and I’m confident that this new business model moving forward is going to play a huge role in the new wave of influencer partnerships.

“Sharyn and Maria have both been dominating this landscape for such a long period of time and I can’t wait to see what we, along with the wider Social Soup team, accomplish in the coming months”.

Social Soup counts among its clients ALDI, Philips, L’Oréal, Nestle (Proplan, Cerelac), Church & Dwight (Batiste, Curash, Nair), Proximo, Comfortis, Fisher and Paykel, Carnival Cruises, Pepsi Co, Unilever (Omo), Bayer, Dyson, LG, Samsung and Nescafé.

Over the past 12 months, Social Soup has developed a suite of bespoke technology solutions including an app which allows retailers to sample at scale as well as a real-time campaign dashboard which allows clients to track live campaigns with sentiment analysis and reach measures – both entirely unique offerings in the Australian market.