Inmar Intelligence is pioneering deep data analysis as a way to develop authentic partnerships between creators and brands.
At ADWEEK’s 2025 Social Media Week in May, Leah Logan, Inmar’s vp of retail media transformation, talked with Sarah Vates, vp of talent at United Entertainment Group, and Francesca Albo, CEO and founder of Puppy Sphere, to discuss the future of data-driven creator marketing.
Using Data to track conversion in creator marketing
Logan, who specializes in retail media, sees creator marketing as a “perfect fit” for retail.
“Creators have this awesome ability to live top funnel and drive that awareness and kind of overall interest in products, and then they can still, in the very same swipe, also drive conversion,” Logan said.
But creators can often be left wondering if they’re really converting consumers and making an impact on a brand’s bottom line. That’s why Inmar Intelligence helps them go beyond clicks and impressions and analyze transactional data, which, according to Logan, is the “holy grail of data.”
In doing so, Inmar Intelligence has three principles for working with clients. Activation is about streamlining data to make it more efficient to access. Optimization is making sure the right audience sees the content. And measurement tracks the real-world impact of creator marketing. Altogether, knowing what drives sales helps both the brand and the creator align their goals.
Analytics drive audience engagement
For Vates and United Entertainment Group, insights into audience engagement are paramount.
“When we think about celebrity partnerships, we look at content consumption. We look at sentiment analysis. We look at engagement, global reach, audience,” Vates said. “From there, we’re able to find the correct celebrities that authentically resonate with the brand.”
In doing so, the brands move beyond just having reach and instead begin to resonate with a niche audience.
Albo, who is on the brand side of this relationship with Puppy Sphere, shared her own story of finding a niche audience.
“In the beginning, we made the mistake of selecting [creators in] our exact demographic,” Albo recalled.
This was upwardly mobile Gen Zers and Millennials. But when Albo and her team really looked at the data, they found a niche set of creator markets that worked with their audience.
Of all things, it turned out to be “big, muscular men interacting with puppies,” Albo noted, saying a large percentage of these male creators had a lot of followers that were women.
“Surprisingly, women responded to that content,” Albo said with a smile, noting that the change led to more than a dozen reels receiving over a million views.
Using data to find the right partnership
Deep data analysis is where Inmar Intelligence thrives. Logan says that her team has actually challenged some of their clients by asking them to bring the creators they think they should be working with or ones they’ve worked with in the past.
“We’ll run that up against our commerce fit score. And we’ll look to see whether or not your sales KPI goals can even be met by this creator,” Logan said.
She pointed to a published study about a client, Mondelēz, who had previously chosen creators that only had about a 30% match rate: “It comes down to understanding the underlying data and matching that to your KPIs,” she said.
Vates emphasized the importance of pairing the right creator or celebrity with the right brand.
“We know that this partnership extends beyond just that social post,” she said. “It is important that we’re always working within that cultural zeitgeist and having moments that have cultural impact, that resonate with the celebrity, and that their audience cares about and is engaged with.”
Looking ahead, Inmar Intelligence has big plans. For one, the company is working on attribution using a social identity graph so that creator marketing can be measured. But it’s also focusing on retail.
“There’s this huge opportunity to bring creator marketing to the retail media world,” Logan said. “And I’m excited about closing that loop because it can be done.”
FEATURED PANELISTS
Leah Logan – Inmar Intelligence
Sarah Vates – United Entertainment Group