The future of marketing is in influencers and unsurprisingly, the recent years have seen multiple networks sprouted out across the globe. And in Singapore, one of the most prominent networks is Gushcloud.
Co-founded in 2011 by Althea Lim and Vincent Ha, the local company first saw success when it was acquired by South Korea’s Yello Digital Marketing back in 2015, allowing the team to expand their network across Southeast Asia.
And the start of 2017 marks another momentous milestone for the startup as it makes an acquisition of its own.
The Gushcloud Talent Agency
Last week, Gushcloud announced its acquisition of the uFluencer Group, a Hollywood-based social media talent management agency. Joining the Gushcloud brand are some of the top US beauty and parenting influencers such as Linda Tsang, aka bubzbeauty and Promise Phan.
This acquisition also marks the creation of the new Gushcloud Talent Agency (GTA), as the influencers come together under one network now spanning SEA and America.
According to Gushcloud co-founder Althea Lim, this move has been one in the works for a while now.
“For a long time, we have been toying around the idea of full talent management and what that will look like.
With the inclusion of uFluencer Group and her expertise in managing exclusively some of the world’s largest beauty and parenting influencers and content creators, we are confident to launch Gushcloud Talent Agency.”
uFluencer Groups’ founder Kenn Henman describes the move of coming under the Gushcloud umbrella as being “a gateway” into Asia.
By tapping onto Gushcloud’s clientele, he shares his hopes on “managing and working with some of the top social media talents in Asia to establish [their] position as the world’s leading influencer company”.
Henman will lead the Gushcloud Talent Agency as its global Chief Talent Officer.
Growing Influencers Across Asia And America
As GTA continues to grow, they will also be looking to “aggressively expand” their portfolio of influencers. The plan is to dig deep into the Asian markets’ pool of top talents with a focus on beauty and parenting, Lim shares.
There will also be plenty of opportunities for cross-border collaboration. This means opening up the Western market to Gushcloud’s talents in SEA, and the SEA market for uFluencer’s, as well as opportunities for influencers in Southeast Asia to collaborate with top influencers from USA.
Seeing how uFluencer’s talents represent over 25 million YouTube subscribers and a social media reach of over 150 million, collaborative opportunities are rich with potential for social media influencers in Asia.
And it wouldn’t be too long before it starts either.
According to Lim, uFluencer personalities will be in Kuala Lumpur for their Influence Asia 2017 event in April, and August 2017 will see Gushcloud host beauty conference and workshop StyleconAsia 2017 in Singapore, KL, Jakarta and Manila.
“This event is where we bring a top Beauty creator such as Bubzbeauty to tour Southeast Asia. As for local influencers, we are hoping to bring them to to VidCon 2017 in USA as well“.
More Support For Influencers
While the Talent Agency has its goals set on enhancing the vibrancy of the global influencer scene, it also aims to provide more support for influencers.
“The agency will also help influencers in creating products and merchandises, assisting in the logistics, distribution and sales within Asia and America.
That’s one of the core partnerships that we would kickstart with these top influencers and talents,” Lim shares.
She further adds that they will not be stopping at connecting just Gushcloud and uFluencer’s personalities she emphasises on her firm belief that “GTA can add value to multiple influencer networks and the influencers they work with”.
Featured Image Credit: marketing-interactive