Episode 22 of the Influencer Marketing Lab podcast where I speak with Emma Harman,  President of Whalar for EMEA.

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The Influencer Marketing Lab podcast is sponsored by Tagger the data-driven influencer marketing platform and social listening tool.

Show notes

Welcome to episode 22 of the Influencer Marketing Lab - a weekly podcast tracking the growth spurts and growing pains of influencer marketing.

This week I'm in conversation with Emma Harman, President of Whalar for EMEA. Whalar is a global award-winning technology-powered influencer agency that recently became a badged partner of TikTok. 

Podcast episode highlights

In this episode we discuss:

  • Key advice for brands wanting to build successful and relevant TikTok influencer marketing strategies
  • The differences between Instagram creators and TikTok creators
  • Why the human-to-human connection of influencer marketing is so successful
  • How creativity drives emotion. Emotion drives memory. Memory drives recall. And, recall drives sales.
  • And why Emma is on a mission to bring back the jingle.


At the end of the show Emma also shares her personal long list of influencer marketing-related resources.


"It's all about liberating the creative voice. We see campaigns performing best when the influencer is empowered by the brand to tell an authentic story. And actually, when that narrative is forced, that's when we don't see great influencer marketing.

"TikTok is all about inspiring creativity and joy. And, we've seen how well that mission is translated into growth for them. So in terms of partners, our [Whalar's] DNA is really aligned, there."

Emma Harman // Whalar, President EMEA

Whalar worked with MAC Cosmetics on a TikTok campaign. The resulting creative generated 5.2 billion views in the space of around 10 days. Watch the video case study below.

Emma Harman Whalar - Influencer Marketing Lab

Collaborate with creators. Think about working with them as social strategists. Let them advise you on the way to win today; now. You can get so much insight when you actually engage the creators and the talent that you work with.

Emma Harman Whalar, President EMEA

Creativity drives emotion, emotion drives, memory, memory drives, recall and recall drive sales. We studied the brainwaves of people who watched traditional ads, where brands were speaking through a brand voice, and then showed them influencer ads.

There's of course a priming effect, if the person knows and follows the influencer already, we looked at that. But more broadly, when someone doesn't follow the influencer, still, their content registered as 270% more emotionally intense, and 87% more memorable. As a human, human connection just works - when it's authentic. We've always known it, but we now have the science to back it up.

Emma Harman // Whalar, President EMEA

Emma Harman biography

Emma is the President of Whalar EMEA, a global award-winning technology-powered influencer agency.  Recently, Whalar became the only agency of its kind to become a badged partner of TikTok.

Prior to Whalar, Emma led commercial efforts globally for Universal Music Group and launched Talenthouse - a platform for artists to discover opportunities to work with brands. Emma’s career blends the world of talent, creativity, and technology where she has played a key role in championing voices from every background and discipline as an effective medium for brand storytelling.

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Scott Guthrie is a professional adviser within the influencer marketing industry. He is an event speaker, university guest lecturer, media commentator on influencer marketing and active blogger. He works with brands, agencies and platforms to achieve meaningful results from influencer marketing. That tells you something about him but it's not giving you a lot of detail, is it? So, read more here.

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