CMG Talent launched an in-house publicity division in August 2026, folding media strategy and press placement into its creator representation package alongside management and legal, at no additional cost to talent. Taylor Kiesel, named Senior Director of Publicity, is leading the effort.

The reasoning behind the division traces to a pattern Taylor kept encountering in creator-focused PR: creators who wanted access to events and publicity opportunities but couldn’t necessarily afford the large retainers that came with standalone PR. Most talent management agencies, she observed, weren’t filling that void. “It always felt like it was a side to agencies that wasn’t there and should have been,” she says. 

At CMG Talent, the Beverly Hills-based creator management firm, that observation has become the basis for a new division. “We’re not just building social media platforms,” she says. “We’re trying to build careers.”

Building careers rather than managing profiles was also how Taylor came to creator publicity in the first place. Her path into the space began with VIP relations work at Miami Swim Week and New York Fashion Week, where she worked alongside an early generation of influencer-focused publicists building their own practices adjacent to the traditional entertainment media ecosystem. She joined CMG in August 2026 after a stint as Director of Communications and Casting at Shine Talent Group, bringing nearly seven years of creator-focused publicity experience. She now oversees media strategy for more than 100 creators spanning entertainment, lifestyle, fashion, beauty, sports, and wellness.

Including PR in the Representation Package Shifts the Competitive Offer

The defining feature of CMG’s new publicity division is not only what it does but how it is priced. “This isn’t an add-on service that our creators have to pay for,” Taylor says. “We’re positioning PR as an included benefit of representation.” Rather than billing a separate monthly retainer, CMG has folded publicity into its standard representation agreement alongside management and legal.

Taylor draws a parallel to major record labels, which have historically maintained in-house PR as a standard operating feature alongside artist management. In her view, the Creator Economy has reached a scale that makes the same structure viable for talent agencies, even if most haven’t built it yet.

The division covers media strategy, editorial placements, event publicity, podcast and television appearances, and crisis communications. Taylor also points to holiday gift guides and product launch campaigns as areas where in-house PR adds particular value for creators building their own brands, a segment of CMG’s roster that requires pitching product stories to press as much as securing event access.

One Roof, Faster Decisions

When an opportunity or a crisis develops, an external publicist has to communicate with a manager about scheduling, coordinate with an attorney about what the talent can say publicly, and wait on responses across separate teams. Taylor’s argument for the internal structure is speed. “We’re all under one roof,” she says. “It’s very easy to just hop on a quick conference call and bang it out.”

The management team holds the scheduling and brand exclusivity information that determines what a creator can and cannot commit to in a given window. The legal team guides them on legal matters and helps ensure clients are protected.

Taylor is direct about what integrated legal oversight means for creator protection. “There are a lot of agencies out there that do not have in-house legal or do not have attorneys redlining every contract,” she says. “And that ultimately is putting talent at risk. They don’t even know half the time that they are at risk.” At CMG, legal review is built into the standard representation model.

The Contract Problem Is Getting Harder to Ignore

“I’ve heard a lot of stories about creators signing with agencies,” Taylor says. “Horror stories. And it’s unfortunate because a lot of these influencers just don’t know any better.”

The problem she identifies is specific: creators entering representation and brand agreements without legal review, often because no attorney is part of their team or accessible through their agency. “Creators now more than ever have to be careful about the contracts they’re signing, the brand deals they’re committing to work with,” she notes.

Taylor’s read on the trajectory is that formal governance will follow the market’s growth. “I think you’re going to start seeing more regulations hopefully in how agencies can operate,” she says. She also expects creators to become more legally literate over time, asking more questions before signing and seeking out representation that can protect them before problems arise rather than after.

Measuring Publicity the Way Brand Deals Are Measured

Taylor notes that creator PR has rarely been measured with the same precision as branded content. She argues the two are not as different as they appear. “It’s fairly similar to the brand deal side, to be honest with you,” she says.

Her team tracks comment tone and sentiment around press placements, monitors follower and engagement changes after events, and uses inbound inquiry volume as a proxy for profile lift. A press appearance that produces a “best dressed” placement in a major outlet is a quantifiable outcome. A coverage cycle that drives a visible uptick in brand partnership inquiries has the same logic, according to Taylor.

The timelines differ from campaign metrics. Year-one success, Taylor says, means placing talent at events they’ve been targeting, securing recognition that previously felt out of reach, and demonstrating that the division is contributing to CMG’s ability to attract new creators. 

Full-Service Is Becoming the Baseline

Taylor’s broader read is that CMG’s move reflects a trend already underway. She says a number of agencies are already quietly pulling additional services in-house and expects the pattern to accelerate. “We’re going to start to see it be a normalized feature,” she says, referring to in-house PR specifically.

The scope she sees agencies absorbing extends further: legal, publicity, social strategy, experiential, and in some cases brand-side services for firms working with both creators and brands. She doesn’t expect external agencies to disappear. “There’s always going to be room for external agencies to partner up with existing agencies,” she says. But the competitive pressure from full-service structures, she argues, will continue to redefine what representation is expected to include.

The format of press itself is shifting, in Taylor’s view. She points to street interview formats as one of the most significant press developments of the past year, a casual, on-location style that gives audiences access to creators outside of traditional studio or editorial settings. “Teams are going to start being mindful of these new-age ways of press,” she says. “We’re not just focused on traditional press anymore. We can be a little bit more casual at times and more authentic.”

A Careers Model Without a Predetermined Arc

Taylor is deliberate about not imposing a single trajectory on CMG’s talent. Every creator has a different path, she says, and the content direction, personal circumstances, and platforms are all likely to shift before any five-year projection resolves. “It’s their real lives behind the camera, and I think that’s important to take into account,” she says.

The long-term vision she describes is presence at the milestones, wherever those milestones land. CMG’s history of managing celebrity estates gave her confidence that the institutional knowledge for long-arc career management existed inside the firm before she arrived. The ambition she expresses isn’t tied to a specific format, platform, or accolade. 

“I don’t think there’s a roof or a threshold,” she says. “The sky is the limit.”

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