Building UBlockout's Influencer Marketing Function From the Ground Up

The challenge

UBlockout makes premium custom blackout shades, a product customers often assumed was too good to be true. The brand needed authentic creators who could demonstrate it in real homes and build trust through real experience.

Influencer marketing had no structure: no contracts, no procedures, no creator database, no approval workflow. Campaigns were slow, founder-dependent, and impossible to scale.

My role

As the sole owner of influencer marketing inside a 35-person company, I partnered directly with the co-founder and head of marketing to build the function from scratch: strategy, recruitment, production, legal, campaign management, and reporting.

I also managed outside agencies and coordinated photographers, videographers, models, and production teams on lifestyle campaigns matching the brand's premium positioning.

What I built

Over two years I managed relationships with more than 1,500 creators, shifting the brand from one-time collaborations to long-term partnerships that lowered costs and improved authenticity. Every creator was evaluated on brand alignment, communication, content quality, audience trust, and long-term potential, not just audience size.

Why it worked

Most companies don't struggle because they lack influencers. They struggle because they lack the systems behind influencer marketing. Rather than just recruiting creators, I built the operational infrastructure that let campaigns launch faster, partnerships last longer, and the team scale without adding complexity. The result: a dependable, repeatable channel supporting both brand awareness and revenue.