Digital agencies focus on building personal brands of startup founders, corporate leaders

Digital agencies are increasingly finding value in creating personal brands for startup founders and corporate leaders. This could mean handling the content that goes on their social media profiles, thought leadership opportunities to even humanising their brand to better connect with digital natives. It could also include online reputation management, new-age media campaigns, crisis management, alongside social media and business communications.

Digital Agencies Focus On Building Personal Brands Of Startup Founders, Corporate Leaders

To tap this upcoming opportunity, digital and integrated marketing agencies are gearing up to launch new verticals to cater to the burgeoning demand of personal brands of leaders.

Digital Agencies Focus On Building Personal Brands Of Startup Founders, Corporate Leaders

Influencer marketing and talent management agency IPLIX recently announced the launch of a personal branding wing called Crest. The biggest motivation for the firm to launch Crest is to bridge the gap of communication and personalisation between the founder and their brands with their communities and target audiences.

Digital Agencies Focus On Building Personal Brands Of Startup Founders, Corporate Leaders

Jag Chima, co-founder, IPLIX Media says that the goal at each step is to build a personalised communication strategy and network for leaders that can benefit them and their brands.

Digital Agencies Focus On Building Personal Brands Of Startup Founders, Corporate Leaders

“For instance, while onboarding a new founder, we deep dive into their story, understanding their and their brand’s positioning in the market and media, identifying the target audience, etc. This helps us curate personalised vision boards and communication strategies,” he adds.

Digital Agencies Focus On Building Personal Brands Of Startup Founders, Corporate Leaders

Recognising the growing demand for personal branding services, especially on social media, Grapes, an integrated marketing agency, has recently set up a new ‘Leadership Profile Building’ vertical. The agency says it works with some of the top business leaders on their roster and amplifies their digital footprint with quality content.

Digital Agencies Focus On Building Personal Brands Of Startup Founders, Corporate Leaders

Shradha Agarwal, co-founder and chief executive officer, Grapes notes that contrary to what the name suggests, personal branding nowadays is less about the individual’s personal impact, more about establishing a brand extension through its leadership.

“An organisation’s founders and top leadership team are its face and have considerable impact on the brand’s image among the consumers. Moreover, in today’s startup and Shark Tank culture, the association is stronger than ever. So, brands are making sure to leverage it by strengthening the personal branding efforts of their individuals,” she says.

Do’s and Don’ts of personal branding

IPLIX Media’s Chima believes that agencies should ensure that they are maintaining a distinction for the founders and keeping their persona intact. There has to be authentic storytelling and breaking down their business and technical expertise into more understandable content formats and simpler language that appeal to a mass to create an organic community.

“In the process of building a personal brand, we do not want them to simply become a content creator. Making sure we’re only tapping onto the relevant opportunities and not jumping on every trend,” he notes.

White Rivers Media, which also manages the personal brands of top CXOs, does a thorough process of onboarding leaders. The idea is to first understand who the client is as a person and portray their real persona with thorough research.

“Once the persona is built, you must choose the perfect platform to create a better brand space. We cannot fake it; it has to be real,” says Shrenik Gandhi, co-founder and CEO, White Rivers Media.

According to him, someone trying to build a brand cannot speak about another category repeatedly.

“We have to figure out industry-specific trends. A person cannot and should not be projected as an expert in everything. There must be identified niches and multiple niches to be worked on,” he adds.

Handling personal brands of top CXOs brings multiple benefits to agencies. Apart from business it gives them the opportunity to build personal equations with top leaders and create more opportunities.

With Crest, IPLIX Media aims to build communities for the founders and leaders. There will be two aspects to community building. First, building a community for the leaders with their audience. Second, an exclusive community of leaders, founders and VCs that people at Crest can tap into, network and learn from at different stages of their entrepreneurial journey.

“We will kickstart this by curating closed-door events for leaders at Crest,” says Chima.

White Rivers Media’s Gandhi says although personal branding accounts don’t bring big numbers to the agency as an individual may not shell as much as a company might and may not need resources as much as the company would.

“..but the impact is very high. We get a table with renowned CXOs, which we wouldn’t generally get if we were doing a regular marketing campaign. So, that is the best advantage which acts as a catalyst to get other marketing initiatives going,” he concludes.