In 2012, Aurélie “Lili” Sauthier was working as a media planner buying banner ads when she noticed something important: content consistently delivered better results than traditional digital advertising. Simultaneously working as a blogger herself and completing her master’s thesis on fashion blogging, she had a direct view of the emerging power of content creators.

“Content always outperformed the banner ads in terms of click-through rates. I could see that really early on – that people would trust content and would trust people more than ads,” says Aurélie.

Being just 25 at the time, Aurélie began approaching major brands to explain how bloggers should be incorporated into their marketing strategies. That same year, she launched Canadian-based influencer marketing agency Maison Made in (originally “Made in Blog”), with her sister Sophie Benarab (now managing the French office). The company’s original tagline was simple: “connecting brands with bloggers.” Today, her performance-driven approach has developed the business into an agency that guarantees results for global brands. 

A Results-Driven Model

What distinguishes Maison Made in within the creator economy is its clear focus on measurable outcomes rather than vanity metrics. As Aurélie succinctly puts it: “Influence without results is just noise. And there is a lot of noise in the influencer industry.”

This mindset has created a business model where Made in guarantees campaign outcomes for clients. “We are so sure about our capacities at Made in, we guarantee everything. Our model is a results-driven model,” Aurélie explains. “We run campaigns and guarantee outcomes even when we do gifting campaigns. It’s performance-based.”

The metrics that matter have changed beyond simple follower counts. “What the client would look at the most was the number of followers. It has shifted. Thankfully for us, the most important one is the reach and the amount of views,” Aurélie notes. The agency commits to delivering specific view and impression targets, carefully vetting influencers during recruitment based on their demonstrated ability to generate views.

“When we recruit creators, we do a full benchmark of how they are supposed to perform. We look at their other sponsored campaigns and how they performed organically. The number of views is super important because it’s the basis of what we guarantee,” she explains.

While views and impressions form the foundation of their guarantees, Aurélie finds the most valuable insights in deeper engagement metrics.

“What is most interesting is looking at the details. This is where I see the campaign outperform or not,” she explains. “Did people understand the message, and was the message delivered well to the audience? For me, it’s looking at all the other metrics, such as the number of shares and saves. These are the most important ones when looking at campaign results.”

Beyond quantitative measures, the qualitative insights from audience comments provide valuable market intelligence. “We always put the key comments and the most interesting ones in our reports, and sometimes it gives great insights for our clients, like where they should be next in terms of retailers or how people are actually using their products.”

This performance-based approach has attracted major brands seeking reliable returns on their influencer investments. The agency’s client roster includes the National Bank of Canada, Chicken Farmers of Canada, L’Oréal Group (L’Oréal Paris, Lancôme, shu umerura), Crown Laboratories (PanOxyl, Blue Lizard), Bel Group (Boursin, Babybel), Dairy Farmers of Canada, Ivanhoe Cambridge (now JLL), and fashion brands such as Aldo, Lacoste, Quartz, and Frank & Oak.

Sophie Benarab & Aurélie “Lili” Sauthier

Beyond One-Off Campaigns

Maison Made in’s vision goes beyond traditional campaign-based influencer marketing, which Aurélie believes is insufficient for brands seeking meaningful market presence. 

“Influencer marketing should be always-on, like working on your SEO. You don’t do that one month and then let it go for months, only to come back a year later. You have to be there constantly,” Aurélie says.

This approach comprises several connected components that work together:

First, traditional paid influencer campaigns form the foundation, with carefully selected creators producing content that guarantees views and allows for brand media teams to allow listing rights.

Second, the agency’s practical guaranteed mailer campaigns expand reach through genuine user-generated content. “When we send gifts to influencers, we guarantee results for our clients. So, depending on the industry, we would say, ‘Okay, we’ll reach X number of videos, X number of views,’ and we guarantee those results. Until we reach this amount of views, we won’t stop working,” Aurélie explains.

Third, Made in helps brands develop frameworks for managing the constant flow of inbound partnership requests from creators. “Especially in some industries, for example, tourism or beauty, retail, they receive a lot of inbound requests, and there is no division or internal service at our client side to help with that,” Aurélie says.

Fourth, the agency recognizes that influencer content has value beyond its original platform. “The first step of an influencer marketing campaign is that we create content. This content can serve multiple other purposes. It can serve your newsletters, your SEO, and drive conversion on your website. It can serve ads,” Aurélie explains.

This system is evident in campaigns like the one for PanOxyl, an acne treatment brand. “We reached a million organic views across Canada, both English and French. More than 20 or 25 videos, different types of content, different people, age groups, communities,” Aurélie says. “Then, with the mailer campaign, we also reached a million organic views with completely different, 100% genuine content.”

This dual approach creates a broad market presence that a single campaign type couldn’t achieve. “Strategically, both are important to actually build a brand.”

The Foundation of Effective Creator Partnerships

For Made in, creator partnerships aren’t merely transactional, but collaborative efforts where cultural relevance is essential to success. This becomes crucial when working across different markets and communities, as the agency does from its offices in Montreal and Paris.

“Working with influencers as a whole is always a co-creation process, absolutely always,” Aurélie emphasizes. “We obviously never put a brief in the mouth of the influencer. Mostly, we ask, ‘What do you think?’ Especially when we work with different communities or countries where we are not based ourselves, we need to be humble enough to ask, ‘Do you think the angle is relevant?'”

With bilingual capabilities and a deep understanding of both the French-Canadian market (which represents 30% of Canada’s population) and European markets, Made in helps brands address cultural nuances that might otherwise be overlooked. 

“For U.S. clients, I think this is what they think is most interesting at Made in, that they bring someone speaking French to the table even for the overall strategy to make sure that they have the Quebec aspect, which is very different from the rest of Canada,” Aurélie says.

Using AI to Expand Influence Marketing

Looking toward the future, Aurélie is exploring how artificial intelligence can solve one of influencer marketing’s main challenges: scalability.

“I think for me, what’s most exciting right now is how we will be using AI to scale influencer marketing,” Aurélie explains. “Influencer marketing is not just one click away and then your campaign is online; it’s a lot of work. On our client’s side, they have to review the profile, the concept, the content, go through the legal team, the confirmatory team, and the marketing team. It’s a lot of human work.”

This heavy workload makes influencer marketing difficult to scale, compared to other digital marketing channels. “Because of that, influencer marketing is stuck in most brands, because they cannot hire enough people. It’s not as scalable as pushing a button to put your Facebook ads online,” Aurélie says.

According to her, the solution lies in AI-powered workflow tools that can handle regulatory compliance, content review, and influencer vetting at scale. “Now we’re starting to use AI to check the concepts and content through AI agents that are filled with all the regulatory information, especially for our clients in industries that are very regulated.”

For Aurélie, the immediate goal is to build custom AI solutions tailored to each client’s specific needs: “What’s really in my playbook is how to integrate AI to help our clients that are really ambitious with influencer marketing to scale without increasing their team internally.”

The Future of Creator Partnerships

Reflecting on the growth of the creator economy, Aurélie has observed several changes that inform her vision for the future. One notable trend is the resurgence of long-form content, which she views as a response to audience demand for more in-depth value. 

“There’s a comeback of long-form content. TikTokers are now going to YouTube to build stronger relationships, provide more value, and go deeper,” she notes.

For Made in, the path forward includes expanding their roster of Canadian talent and exploring how to share the Made in playbook with local leaders in other markets for global expansion.

“For me, it’s really how to integrate influencer marketing as a whole,” Aurélie concludes. “It’s not enough to just do one campaign. You need to build a complete strategy that makes your brand visible across the entire creator economy, and you need to guarantee results. That’s what has set us apart from the beginning, and that’s where we’re heading next.”

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