In 2011, Danish entrepreneur Henrik Akselbo spotted a marketing phenomenon that was hiding in plain sight: fashion bloggers were driving more sales for his startups than traditional advertising at a fraction of the cost. While most businesses were still sending free shoes to bloggers and calling it a day, Henrik looked to neighboring Sweden and saw something different emerging. 

“We saw the potential of bloggers doing marketing for our other companies,” Henrik recalls. “That was an eye-opener for us.” He recognized that these creator relationships had monetary value that could benefit both brands and bloggers

With that insight, he launched Blogger Delight, an early Danish blog network, laying the foundation for what would become a cross-border influencer marketing business.

As social media emerged, the company expanded beyond blogs to include Instagram and YouTube. This progression prompted a rebrand to Represented in 2020, shifting from representing creators to serving brands directly. “We saw a need for someone to be on the client’s side,” says Henrik, as the proliferation of platforms and influencer tiers made it increasingly difficult for marketing managers.

According to Henrik, multinational brands face a fragmented influencer marketing field across Europe, necessitating separate agencies in each country, which vary in terms of language, currency, and expertise. Multiple agency relationships result in varying report formats and communication styles, making large-scale influencer campaigns unnecessarily complex and difficult to manage effectively.

“All this hassle, headache, and chaos, we remove that by helping these brands across the different platforms, types of influencers, and in some cases across markets,” explains Henrik.

The Copenhagen-based company serves numerous B2C brands and has also expanded to B2B clients, particularly those requiring unified campaigns across Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and other northern European markets.

The Integrated Cross-Border Solution

Represented’s solution to the cross-market challenge is an integrated approach that begins with centralized strategy development and extends through execution, reporting, and evaluation. For brands operating across northern Europe, this means a single point of contact manages their entire influencer program across all relevant markets.

“They have one point of contact,” Henrik says. “There is one red thread, one common strategy, one type of report, one invoice, all these things in one language.”

This unified approach is achieved through a combination of informed influencer selection, cultural expertise, and standardized processes that can be applied across different markets while maintaining local relevance.

At the core of their methodology is access to first-party platform data. “We have API integrations with both Meta (Instagram) and TikTok,” Henrik explains. “We are actually the only Nordic company actively utilizing this API integration with TikTok.”

This data access enables Represented to combine quantitative metrics with qualitative assessment when selecting influencers. “We use both qualitative approaches because we have 14 years of experience in running campaigns. We know the industry and the profiles,” Henrik says. “We also look into the more quantitative parts, the data, and the metrics.”

The data analysis ensures that campaigns target the right demographics in each market. “We make sure that the target group is right. Is it female or is it male? Are they based in Denmark or Germany? How old are they? Are there any fake followers?” Henrik explains. “By combining both these qualitative and quantitative approaches and also being able to benchmark it with the pricing levels, the clients automatically get this full expertise as a built-in part of having us help them.”

Cultural Translation for Global Brands

Beyond logistics and data, Represented’s cross-market approach includes essential cultural translation, particularly valuable for non-European brands entering the Northern European market.

“We help quite a lot of Asian companies,” Henrik says. “They may want to enter the Nordics or Europe, or are already here, but don’t have local knowledge and feeling for the market.”

For these international brands, Represented serves as their local marketing partner. “It’s a necessity for them if they want to make sure that their brand is communicated in a natural tone of voice that actually fits the local environment,” Henrik says. “We will make sure that we find influencers that can communicate that brand, of course, communicating the USPs, but communicate it in a local language and in a natural way that fits how consumers think here in these markets.”

This cultural translation requires deep local expertise that global brands or agencies from other regions cannot replicate. “It would be quite difficult for me to sit and do it the other way around, figuring out how to communicate a Danish brand in China, not knowing the local influencers,” he says.

Results and Success Stories

A notable example of Represented’s work with clients is Bowers & Wilkins, the British speaker brand, as they expanded into the headphone market.

“They came up with a whole engagement strategy, using David Beckham as the global ambassador for their new line of headphones. They also decided to do local influencer marketing, local creators, and local ambassadors in each market, to back up the broad campaign,” Henrik says. Represented helped them implement this approach across Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.

The campaign made a significant contribution to Bowers & Wilkins’ market penetration in the Nordic region. “It was a huge success for Bowers & Wilkins during this launch, and shortly after they made this huge launch, they were actually sold to a bigger company in that industry,” Henrik says.

Represented has also worked with Shark Ninja, a major U.S. consumer electronics company, managing their influencer marketing rollout across Scandinavia, which, as Henrik notes, are “the most highly developed countries regarding Internet adoption.”

This high digital usage creates distinct market characteristics that Represented helps brands understand. “In Denmark, with a population of 6 million people, if you have 40,000 followers, then you’re actually quite a well-known name,” says Henrik, contrasting this with the U.S. market, where such numbers would be classified as micro-influencers.

Growth and Expansion

Building on its success in solving cross-market challenges, Represented is now focused on geographic expansion to strengthen its position as the premier multi-market solution in Northern Europe.

“We want to grow and become an even bigger player in Northern Europe. We’re looking into opening up in neighboring countries with local offices,” Henrik shares. This expansion strategy is driven by increasing client demand for truly integrated campaigns across multiple markets.

“There is no dedicated influencer marketing agency that has local offices in all three Scandinavian countries, for instance,” says Henrik, highlighting the opportunity they’re pursuing. By establishing a physical presence in more markets, Represented aims to further enhance its ability to offer truly seamless cross-border campaigns.

“Our main focus is, hopefully, to open in a new market, or at least be in the process of doing it,” he explains. “And then we really want to see even more clients that we help across at least five markets at the same time.”

This expansion reinforces Represented’s distinct position in the creator economy: reducing complexity for brands while delivering genuine, localized content through creators across multiple markets. 

As Henrik concludes, “We see our future in building expertise across different markets in Northern Europe and being able to help the brands that have a presence in these markets to have one point of contact. That’s where our growth lies.”

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Check Out Our Podcast