Latest / Influencer Marketing with Fexingo: Creators, Sponsorships, and Modern Endorsement Deals / Why Influencers Are Buying Their Own PR Agencies
Transcript
- Lucas: So you've probably noticed that a growing number of top influencers are buying up the services they used to outsource — analytics stacks, email platforms, even factories. The latest one? Public relations agencies. Luna: Wait — influencers are buying PR firms? That's a big leap from just hiring a freelance press agent. Lucas: It is. And I want to anchor this with a concrete example. Fashion creator Aisha Chen — she's got about 2 million followers across Instagram and TikTok — last quarter acquired a six-person PR agency in New York. The firm had been representing her for three years. She didn't disclose the price, but sources say it was in the low seven figures. Luna: So she went from being a client to being the owner of the agency that pitches her. Lucas: Exactly. And the numbers she shared with a trade publication are pretty striking. Her cost per press hit — that's essentially what she spends to get a story in a magazine or a podcast appearance — dropped by about 40 percent year-over-year after the acquisition. Luna: Forty percent is huge. How does she get that saving? Is it just cutting out the agency markup? Lucas: Partly. But it's more than that. As the owner, she controls the agency's retainer fees for all clients — including herself. Plus she can redirect the agency's efforts toward her own priorities without negotiating scope changes. She told the publication that her team now pitches her for things that a traditional agency might have deemed too niche or too time-consuming. Luna: Like what? Lucas: She wanted coverage in small sustainability-focused blogs and local news in her hometown. A standard agency might not have bothered because the media value per individual hit was low. But in-house, the team can batch those pitches alongside major placements. That's a shift from a project-by-project mindset to a long-term brand-building one. Luna: It also gives her direct access to the media list and the relationships. That's often the most valuable part of an agency. Lucas: Right. And that's the second big motivation — control over narrative. If a crisis blows up — say a product collaboration goes wrong or there's a backlash — she doesn't have to wait for an agency to draft a statement. Her internal team is already aligned with her voice and values. Luna: Crisis management is exactly where I'd want full control if I were an influencer. One misstep can tank a career. Lucas: Exactly. And it's not just the top tier. I'm seeing mid-tier influencers — those with maybe 200,000 to 500,000 followers — pooling resources to buy a shared PR agency. They treat it almost like a cooperative. Each creator pays a monthly fee, and the agency works exclusively for the group. Luna: That's smart. They get the same in-house efficiency without the full price tag. Lucas: Yeah, it lowers the barrier. I looked at one group called 'The Collective' — four lifestyle influencers in Los Angeles. They bought a two-person PR firm for about 250,000 dollars total. Each pays around 5,000 a month for access. That's cheaper than hiring a dedicated full-time employee each. Luna: And they get the benefit of shared press connections and pooled story angles. It's like a mini media machine. Lucas: Exactly. The agency now pitches all four creators together for roundups, trend pieces, even joint brand collaborations. One recent example: a story in a major fashion site featured three of them as 'emerging voices' — the pitch came from their in-house team. That type of coordinated placement is harder to pull off when each creator works with a separate agency. Luna: It makes you wonder what traditional PR firms think about this. They rely heavily on influencer clients for revenue. Are they worried? Lucas: Some are. But the smarter ones are adapting. I spoke with a partner at a mid-size PR agency in Chicago — off the record — and he said they've started offering 'hybrid' contracts where the influencer co-owns the media list or gets a share of the retainer if they bring in new clients. It's a way to keep the talent from leaving entirely. Luna: So the agencies are basically monetizing the relationship in a different way. Instead of losing the influencer, they make them a partner. Lucas: Exactly. And there's also a shift in the type of talent that agencies hire. They're now looking for people who can work directly with creator-clients who are very involved — more like an account executive than a traditional media relations person. The dynamic is different when your client is also, effectively, your boss. Luna: And if these marketing conversations have sparked something you've actually used — a new way to pitch your brand, maybe — a couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these episodes coming. Buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, if you've gotten something out of them. Lucas: Yeah, we don't run ads, so listener support is what lets us dig into stories like this. It's appreciated more than you'd think. Luna: So back to the PR trend — I'm curious about the risks. Buying an agency means you also inherit its liabilities, right? What if the agency has a shaky reputation or burned bridges with certain editors? Lucas: That's the big downside. Due diligence is crucial. Aisha Chen's team spent months vetting the agency's client history and media relationships before pulling the trigger. She even required the current owner to stay on for a transition period of six months. Not everyone does that, and I've heard of deals where the influencer ended up with bad press contacts because the agency had gone stale. Luna: So you're buying an asset but you also have to manage it. That's a whole new skillset for a creator who's used to focusing on content. Lucas: Exactly. And that's why some are hiring a dedicated PR director to run the agency while they stay focused on creating. Others are essentially turning the agency into a subsidiary that also represents other creators — almost like starting a mini agency network. Chen's agency, for example, still has three other clients: smaller beauty and lifestyle influencers she mentors. Luna: So it becomes a revenue stream and a talent incubator. She gets the PR efficiency and also a slice of other creators' success. Lucas: Right. And that's where I think this trend goes next. Influencers aren't just buying services for themselves — they're building platforms that can scale. A PR agency is just one piece. I wouldn't be surprised if within five years, the largest influencer-led companies own a full suite of in-house marketing services: PR, creative, analytics, media buying. Luna: It's almost like we're seeing the birth of the vertically integrated influencer conglomerate. Lucas: Exactly. And the interesting thing is that these moves are being funded not by venture capital, but by the creators' own earnings from brand deals and merchandise. They're using their cash flow to buy tools that make them more efficient — and that's a fundamentally different model from the startup world. Luna: So it's bootstrap vertical integration. That feels very sustainable. Lucas: It is. And it's also a response to the fact that the influencer marketing industry is maturing. The days of just posting sponsored content are fading. The creators who will survive are the ones who treat their personal brand like a media company. And media companies own their own infrastructure. Luna: That's a good way to put it. So next time you see a big collaboration or a feature in a major outlet, you might wonder: does that influencer own the PR machine behind it? Lucas: Exactly. And more often than not, the answer is going to be yes. Thanks for listening to Fexingo Business.