Nine Agency, recognized as the “World’s Best Boutique Agency” in July, has established an influencer marketing operation that serves clients across Europe, utilizing data-driven campaign management and proprietary technology. Founded in 2018 as a continuation of Nouw.com, a Scandinavian blogging platform with 1.3 million weekly users, the agency brings more than a decade of experience in the creator economy.

“The absolute foundation for us is that we want to make influencer marketing essentially the foundation of modern marketing,” explains Jonas Westling, Head of Nine Agency. “There are still so many marketing departments out there that haven’t really discovered the power of working with influencers.”

Nine Agency emerged from identifying both opportunities and challenges in the nascent influencer space, including negotiating fees, managing projects, and understanding an industry without established guidelines or regulations. With experience spanning back to 2004 through their blogging platform, Jonas and his team positioned Nine Agency to serve brands seeking quality-focused influencer marketing partnerships backed by results.

CIMS: Technology Innovation in Influencer Marketing

Recognizing the complexity of influencer campaign management, Nine Agency developed its own software solution, CIMS, which recently marked its first anniversary as a standalone product. The technology emerged from necessity when Jonas and his team found existing tools inadequate.

“The tools that were available at the time – they simply weren’t up to the task, or what we required or wanted from a tool,” Jonas recalls. “A lot of the platforms, at that time at least, were developed by tech companies that hadn’t really done influencer marketing. So it was technology, but it was technology for the wrong things.”

CIMS now provides access to approximately 250 million profiles across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, enabling Nine to match creators to advertisers with advanced search capabilities. The platform streamlines campaign management by consolidating content collection, scheduling, messaging, tracking, and analysis in one place.

“So much of being successful with influencer marketing is, as with I suppose any other digital marketing discipline, knowing the numbers and the analysis, so you know what to do next,” Jonas says. For clients, CIMS provides a simplified user experience that consolidates everything and minimizes the need for back-and-forth communication.

As Jonas shares, clients began requesting access to use the technology themselves alongside Nine’s agency services. This demand led CIMS to offer in-house marketing teams the ability to manage both agency and internal collaborations in a single interface.

Services Driven by Strategy

From this strategic foundation, Nine develops tailored influencer campaigns across various formats, ranging from one-off projects to always-on collaborations, working with both micro-influencers and larger profiles, and creating user-generated content or implementing a pay-driven strategy.

The agency serves clients across diverse industries. “We have worked with everything from FMCG [Fast Moving Consumer Goods] to wooden stoves to digital services to banks,” Jonas says. “I would say pretty much any industry at this point we’ve touched upon, even business-to-business cases as well.”

Rather than limiting themselves to specific niches or creator sizes, Nine Agency focuses on what will deliver the best results for each client’s objectives. This flexibility enables them to tailor their approach to each brand’s distinct needs while upholding consistent quality standards.

“We always have benchmarks,” Jonas notes. “Our internal targets and goals are always above the industry benchmarks because we like to set the bar pretty high.” This commitment to exceeding expectations is encapsulated in an internal saying: “We’re never better than our last campaign.”

The Human Element in an AI-Driven World

Despite technological advancements reshaping digital marketing, Jonas emphasizes the irreplaceable human aspect of influencer marketing.

“It’s such a human industry and a lot of people tend to forget that,” he says. “AI has so many great and different applications, but you can’t automate everything in this industry. Some things need human interaction.”

This perspective is particularly relevant in an era where automation is increasingly prevalent. “The foundation of influencer marketing is very much authenticity and credibility,” Jonas says, “and you can’t automate authenticity.”

Nine Agency’s approach balances technology with human expertise, recognizing that successful influencer marketing requires both data-driven insights and genuine connections.

Predictions for the Creator Economy

Having witnessed the industry’s transformation firsthand, Jonas shares his insights into how influencer marketing has matured and where it’s heading.

“Influencer marketing has probably gone from being the baby in the marketing mix to at least being a teenager by now – and [it’s] on the verge of becoming a full-grown adult,” Jonas observes. “But in order to become a full-grown adult, you also need to take more responsibility.”

This greater responsibility is reflected in the growing regulation of the industry, which Jonas views as a positive development. “I think in the positive sense, there is more regulation coming for the influencer industry – positive because it’s been perhaps a little bit too much of the wild west over the past few years.”

As investments in influencer marketing increase, so do expectations for accountability and results. “That’s a very natural consequence,” Jonas notes. “Demands and what people actually expect from this increase as well.”

According to Jonas, the industry’s growth is driven by proven effectiveness rather than hype. “Advertisers are allocating more budget into influencer marketing,” he points out. “And the obvious reason for that is not hype in itself, it’s that it actually works.”

For brands, Jonas offers three essential recommendations. First, develop a comprehensive strategy before launching campaigns. “Have a strategy, do the homework,” he advises. “It doesn’t mean that you have to do it yourself. You can get help with doing the homework, but just have that in place before you venture out.”

Second, embrace creativity and be willing to take calculated risks. “The companies that tend to be brave in terms of what they dare to do through creators tend to be the most successful,” Jonas says. “This is so different from other marketing disciplines, and it has its own set of rules, but also its own set of opportunities.”

Finally, implement strong measurement practices. “Track and measure and analyze,” Jonas emphasizes. “It’s so easy just to skip that step, or you don’t know how to approach it. But those I would say are my three must-haves.”

He cautions against the common pitfall of treating influencer marketing solely as a performance channel without understanding the necessary groundwork. “So many companies tend to oversimplify, thinking, ‘I could just book some influencers and the money will just roll in,'” he says. “We’re not printing money; we’re creating marketing strategies.”

Nine Agency’s Future Plans

Following their recent industry recognition, Nine Agency isn’t resting on its laurels. The company is undergoing a complete brand revamp with a new identity, website, and visual language set to launch within weeks.

“We felt that it was time to do that after a few years in the business and to really look the way that we do and perform,” Jonas explains. The rebranding reflects Nine’s progress and positions them for their next phase of growth.

Beyond visual changes, Nine Agency is focused on team development, particularly creating more specialized roles to enhance expertise in key areas. “Looking at more specific niche roles and heightening the level of expertise that we can offer in certain areas, that’s a big thing for us coming up next,” Jonas shares.

As Nine Agency grows, its long-term vision remains consistent: making influence the foundation of modern marketing. “That is something that’s just begun basically,” Jonas says. “There is so much more to be done there.”

What keeps Jonas motivated in this field is precisely its human element and the constant change it entails. “I love working with people. I love psychology. I love this human aspect of things combined with this pace of change and just being in a field that’s on its way up,” he shares. “There’s so much opportunity and excitement.”

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