Influential adds The Female Quotient to its creator roster—behind the partnership

A leading company committed to gender equality in the industry and an influencer agency are joining forces to raise the visibility of women through a creator partnership. The equality partnership unites Influential, one of the country’s largest influencer agencies, with The Female Quotient, which might be best known for its Equality Lounge (formerly called the Girls’ Lounge) event programs at industry events. Influential, Ad Age’s 2024 Social Media/Influencer Agency of the Year, reached $150 million in revenue in 2023, has over 3 million creators on its roster and has done work for clients such as Hilton, Amazon and Reckitt. The Equality Lounge hosts panel discussions and other networking opportunities at numerous conferences such as Davos, Advertising Week, CES and the Cannes International Festival of Creativity. Ad Age Leading Women Luncheon Join us Aug. 7 in New York as we recognize this year’s honorees Buy your ticket today The Female Quotient, which had been primarily focused on events since its inception in 2015, strategically “evolved” into promoting itself as a content and media company in January, said Talia Bender Small, its president. Leaning further into content and media is a natural outgrowth of the organization’s extensive social footprint. The FQ’s digital channels receive 146 million average social impressions per month and its social channels have 4 million followers in total, according to a spokeswoman for the group. Its Instagram and LinkedIn accounts have 2 million and 400,000 followers, respectively. One of The FQ’s social posts for International Women’s Day this month garnered 76 million views and over 4.5 million likes on Instagram. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Female Quotient® (@femalequotient) The FQ and Influential declined to disclose any financial details of the partnership. The partnership can help Influential generate more awareness for brands and creators on its roster using The FQ’s expertise in areas such as research, social campaigns and event appearances. The FQ, meanwhile, gets more exposure, and the ability to boost women creators. “One of our big missions is to really give visibility to women and underrepresented communities like pairing some of the women creators that maybe wouldn’t get the big deals, but [now they] can under this umbrella and attaching them to The FQ,” Bender Small said. Recent news: LinkedIn is a hot spot for influencer marketing The FQ itself will also be treated as an influencer within Influential’s roster, marking the first time Influential has ever worked with a company as one of its creators. As a result, Influential will find The FQ deals with brands to launch campaigns through its different channels. “We’ve never worked with a brand to create content on behalf of another brand,” said Latarria Coy, Influential’s head of ethical media. “We will treat it exactly the same [as other creators]. But what I’m expecting is that we’re going to get really good quality content.” In the past, The FQ has worked with brands such as Deloitte, for which it highlighted 30 women in cybersecurity through co-branded events, both in-person and with live video. It also recently released a report with Wells Fargo on how men and women approach financial health. The FQ created social materials to promote the 2023 Netflix film “Fair Play” including a LinkedIn Live chat featuring the film’s writer and director, Chloe Domont, and The FQ Founder and CEO Shelley Zalis. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Female Quotient® (@femalequotient) Influential, which is currently working on a list of creators for The FQ to begin working with, will also be able to tap The FQ as a resource during client pitches, Coy said.More: Women in advertising share their career lessons Influential said this partnership marks a continuation of its work promoting diverse creators. By the end of 2023, more than 90% of Influential’s influencer campaigns included at least one creator from a diverse background, and more than half (57%) of Influential’s campaigns starred a majority of diverse creators, the agency said. Coy said another goal for Influential is to make strides in closing the gender pay gap among creators. A 2021 study by influencer firm Izea found that men make an average of 30% more per post than female influencers do, despite women comprising a majority of the deal flow for sponsored posts. Along with raising awareness of the issue through the partnership, Coy also hopes to release a report on the pay gap issue and ways to improve it. Influential will also expose The FQ to more brand opportunities. One area The FQ is looking to grow is its LinkedIn influencer possibilities. “We very much believe that there’s an enormous opportunity for women in business to be influencers in and of themselves,” Bender Small said. “There’s going to be a big opportunity to work with brands in that way. And there’s not a lot of people doing that quite yet. Especially from a women in business perspective, we’re very well known for helping women raise their profile. How do we really turn that into another additional [vertical]? There’s so much growth opportunity from that perspective.”

Influential adds The Female Quotient to its creator roster—behind the partnership

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