Refluenced: How a Swiss platform brings together nano-influencers and brands

Advertising Week: Who is Refluenced?

Quirin Hasler: This is our great team and the two of us. I am Quirin Hasler, CEO and co-founder of Refluenced from St. Moritz. I also studied business administration at the University of Zurich and am co-founder of the SunIce Festivals St. Moritz.

Jonas Holzer: I am Jonas Holzer, co-founder and CTO of Refluenced. I grew up in Obwalden and am responsible for technology at Refluenced. My journey began at the advertising agency Collective Agency in Lucerne, where I co-founded a company with two colleagues. There I was able to gain experience in the marketing industry before I studied computer science at the ETH.

And what is Refluenced?

Hasler: Refluenced is a platform that efficiently connects businesses and influencers. It was born out of the experience of the SunIce Festival in St. Moritz, an international DJ festival where I am a co-founder. To make the festival successful, we relied heavily on influencer marketing, especially nano- and micro-influencers.

Did that work?

Hasler: We gave tickets to influencers to promote our event. This was actually very effective. Over 120 influencers promoted our event, but it wasn't very efficient. Managing and evaluating the performance was time-consuming. So we came up with the idea of how to improve this process. It was clear that we needed an online marketplace solution that would bring influencers and companies together. That's why I met Jonas.

Holzer: It was actually effective, but not efficient. We had to manually enter data into tables and collect screenshots from Insights back then.

Then came the idea for Refluenced?

Holzer: Exactly, in the beginning our mission was to connect businesses and influencers as efficiently as possible. From that, we developed the idea of creating a platform where influencers and businesses can register. We help find the best matches.

How does it work?

Hasler: Influencers use our app to connect with their Instagram accounts. Companies can create a campaign on our website within 10 minutes. Then influencers can apply for different campaigns, from big brands like Bang & Olufsen and Emmi to startups. Companies receive recommendations and can invite influencers.

How is the control performed?

Holzer: We have technically solved that screenshots from Insights are no longer needed. The content is automatically synchronized to our platform. We can also provide the audience and other insights such as reach and clicks automatically in real time.

Could you say that you are a kind of Tinder for companies and influencers?

Hasler: You could say that, but we try to achieve the best possible match between influencer and company. Furthermore, companies can download the content they create and use it for further marketing activities on platforms like TikTok, Pinterest or LinkedIn. So we are not only an influencer platform, but also a management tool.

You have specialized in nano- and micro-influencers. What are the advantages of this?

Holzer: Our focus on small influencers with around 1,000 to 30,000 followers creates a kind of crowd intelligence. In an average campaign, about 15 influencers work together. We observe that extremely creative content emerges from this group, which companies can use for their future marketing strategies. Suddenly, ideas emerge that were not considered before.

Can you give a specific example?

Holzer: Sure, let's take the example of Emmi. They launched a new Café Latte. As a result, videos like a music video, a drone show, and even a clip of a person in high school pretending to have invented the Café Latte out of thin air in a lab with friends were created. These campaigns resulted in 40 reels in two weeks alone, which simply wouldn't have been possible without our platform.

What makes you unique?

Holzer: We are unique because we seamlessly bring influencers and companies together. Unlike other tools that analyze influencers based on extensive data, with us, matching influencers can already apply for your campaign. About 80 percent of the matches we generate come from such applications, while the remaining 20 percent are invitations from companies.

Hasler: In Switzerland, we are the first accessible marketplace that makes it easy to place campaigns. In Germany, other platforms are like catalogs where you can find influencers, but they still have to be contacted directly. With us, that's not necessary, which makes us more scalable and user-friendly.

Holzer: By focusing on micro-influencers, we reduce the cost of contracts and minimize friction. Yet we reach a similarly large audience. The difference is that you can invite more influencers for a campaign, and we solve this problem by making it easy to manage in our platform.

A milestone for Refluenced was your appearance on "Höhle der Löwen"...

Hasler: Yes, Anja Graf made this opportunity possible for us. We were on "Höhle der Löwen" a year ago and pitched successfully there. We only had one day's lead time and were able to convince, even though we didn't have an app at that time, only a website. Our strength was in performance marketing, which showed that we could get results on a performance basis. We now have 250 active daily users (influencers) and have handled over 400 campaigns.

What is the pricing model?

Hasler: Our business model is interesting because no cash flows between the influencer and the company, but instead products or services. This guarantees that the collaboration is authentic and the creator wants to support the brand because he can show and recommend this to his community. Our revenue comes from license fees that companies pay to use our platform.

Who are your customers?

Hasler: We have small brands, startups, mid-sized brands, but also large corporations and agencies. We are not only an influencer platform, but also a content management platform. You get great content that you can then reuse for other marketing activities, like on TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and so on. So it's really a content management house.

What if a company wants to adopt the content on a fixed basis?

Holzer: A legitimate question, also in terms of copyright. The solution is that the influencer who works with us grants us an unrestricted right to use the content, which we can then pass on to the company. The influencer is, of course, compensated appropriately. Billing is based on reels of stories, with each reel costing 89 francs. The company buys the content, and 55 percent of the proceeds go directly to the influencer. In this way, the influencer can earn money and is encouraged to produce high-quality content.

What hurdles have you already overcome?

Jonas Holzer: We have developed an interface to Instagram and can provide all the necessary data, including the origin of an influencer's followers. This allows companies to target people in specific regions. We still want to improve how companies can choose the right influencers and how influencers can be inspired to create even better content.

What hurdles do you face next?

Holzer: A big challenge is that we are now expanding into Germany and opening up a completely new market. This market has its own requirements.

Hasler: Exactly, Germany is a big challenge, but also a huge opportunity. We've already partnered with the Foundry agency in Berlin, Zurich and New York to help us launch. We see great potential in moving towards a social media tool used by every social media manager. Content is so important these days, and there are many platforms that need to be covered on a daily basis. This is where we see the potential to simplify content creation and management.

Holzer: By the end of the year, we will also integrate TikTok into our platform. Currently, we only support Instagram, but with the insights we have gathered, we can apply this to TikTok as well.

Hasler: Our goal is to become a comprehensive social media management tool that facilitates content creation and distribution.

Briefly explained: Refluenced allows influencers to connect with their Instagram accounts, while businesses can create campaigns on the platform within 10 minutes. The platform suggests matches to influencers and businesses, and influencers can apply for campaigns. A key technological innovation is the automatic syncing of content to the platform and the provision of live performance and audience data.