Field Notes In Practice: the great convergence of UGC, influencer, and paid media
Only 3 out of 10 creators will perform—even in a great program. Influencer marketing is experimental by nature. Budget for testing volume, not perfection, and accept that not every partnership will scale.
Bigger influencers outperform micro-creators in paid ads. Meta has more page-level data on larger accounts (20K-50K+), which means better audience targeting and harder scaling potential when you run their content as partnership ads.
Influencer programs are a long game—not paid media. You're building a roster over months, slowly accumulating proven performers. This is a long game, not a channel with immediate scalability and clear attribution within weeks.
For years, UGC, influencer, and paid media lived in separate lanes — different teams, different budgets, different goals. That era is over.
Today, the most effective brands are collapsing silos and building creator strategies that move fluidly across organic, paid, and performance channels. The question is no longer if these worlds converge — it’s how to do it well.
In this Field Notes: In Practice conversation with Cody Plofker, CEO from Jones Road Beauty / Host of Marketing Operators Podcast, we’ll break down what this convergence actually looks like in practice: how brands are rethinking creator briefs, paid usage, whitelisting, and measurement — and where teams are getting it wrong. Expect real examples, honest lessons, and clear frameworks you can apply immediately.
Whether you sit on brand, agency, or creator side, this session is designed to help you build smarter, more integrated programs that scale without sacrificing relationships.
