We are the leading creative and strategic global influencer marketing agency
Billion Dollar Boy is a global influencer marketing agency creating award winning influencer led advertising campaigns, with a team of 150 influencer marketers across five offices.
Our History
It started with a phone call in 2014 between three friends – Ed East, Permele Doyle and Thomas Walters – all quick to realise the untapped influencer phenomenon. Ed was such a big fan of Pharrell Williams that when the rapper launched his Billionaire Boys Club fashion label, he bought the domain name BillionDollarBoy.com, with the hope that it may lead to an intro. The name stuck but we’re still waiting for a phone call from Pharrell.
We want to challenge preconceived ideas about what advertising should be by building a revolutionary, decentralised, integrated and effective influencer marketing agency business model focussed on the power of influencers, and which puts them at the heart of advertising.
We became one of the first truly global influencer marketing agencies and have grown to become one of the fastest-growing full-service influencer led advertising agencies in the world.
We believe that one of the biggest issues advertising agencies face is reputational. Our team and our culture are what set us apart, and our vision is to solve the reputational issues that advertising – the industry we love and breathe – faces. We want to:
“Set a new standard of advertising with a greater social purpose, where creativity is democratised, and technology drives efficiency and effectiveness.”
At the start of 2022, our whole agency worked together to identify problems that exist in our industry and then started to think of the potential solutions. Our collective thinking informed a set of Future Behaviours that we believe will positively change the industry. We believe that every agency should exhibit these behaviours.
We are not going to wait to follow others. We will lead the charge towards this new standard, but it will only work on a broader level as a collective effort.
Our Future Behaviours
Our collective thinking has informed a set of Future Behaviours that we believe will positively change the industry. These future behaviours are a goal – behaviours we can start to put into practice from today, and build on for tomorrow.
Work with brands, but on behalf of people
Seek out voices less heard, act upon what they tell you
Be fair to everyone, then you’ll have nothing to hide
Treat your clients like friends and your team like best friends
Solve problems with a curious mind
Empower employees with a framework for freedom
Brands are our clients, but our industry’s work and agency behaviours must be in the interest of the people. Agencies must educate brands on what is important for consumers - supporting them to create value for people in a variety of ways - societal, environmental, political and/or others. Agencies must also ensure that they act on behalf of the people with their own processes and operations too.
The world is filled with valuable opinions, perspectives and thoughts, that when brought together make better work and ultimately a better world because of it. Whether it be the people you already work with, the people who haven’t yet found, the brands you represent, the charities you could support - we need to work harder to seek out and actively listen to the broadest range of voices as possible, then act upon the information shared.
Agencies should not reward subjectively, or arbitrarily - it’s not rewarding those who shout loudest. A reward structure needs to have equality - the same structure and frameworks for everyone to see. This will create a culture of objective reward. There is a need for transparency, and agencies need to create a reward structure with nothing to hide. If you’ve got something to hide, there’s something wrong.
Understand that your clients give you the opportunities to do great work, but your people are the ones that turn that opportunity into work. Both are important in this ecosystem, but agencies need to ensure that when push comes to shove their ultimate interest lies in favour of their employees.
We operate in the creative industry, and creativity is ‘the use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness.’ Agencies need to feel more comfortable in solving problems in ways that maybe haven’t been proven before - they shouldn’t always do what worked before. Whether the problem is an internal workflow, a client brief, an operational structure or something else, agencies need to be less afraid to take the more risky path in favour of potentially greater outcomes. If it isn’t broken, still explore changing it.
Provide structure and support around your employees that guides and comforts them, but never restricts. Enable your employees to make their own decisions and trust them to do so, but provide the framework around them to support if anything is unfavourable. Encourage your employees to decide the speed and direction of their own career progression within clear parameters from the business.
Brands are our clients, but our industry’s work and agency behaviours must be in the interest of the people. Agencies must educate brands on what is important for consumers - supporting them to create value for people in a variety of ways - societal, environmental, political and/or others. Agencies must also ensure that they act on behalf of the people with their own processes and operations too.
The world is filled with valuable opinions, perspectives and thoughts, that when brought together make better work and ultimately a better world because of it. Whether it be the people you already work with, the people who haven’t yet found, the brands you represent, the charities you could support - we need to work harder to seek out and actively listen to the broadest range of voices as possible, then act upon the information shared.
Agencies should not reward subjectively, or arbitrarily - it’s not rewarding those who shout loudest. A reward structure needs to have equality - the same structure and frameworks for everyone to see. This will create a culture of objective reward. There is a need for transparency, and agencies need to create a reward structure with nothing to hide. If you’ve got something to hide, there’s something wrong.
Understand that your clients give you the opportunities to do great work, but your people are the ones that turn that opportunity into work. Both are important in this ecosystem, but agencies need to ensure that when push comes to shove their ultimate interest lies in favour of their employees.
We operate in the creative industry, and creativity is ‘the use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness.’ Agencies need to feel more comfortable in solving problems in ways that maybe haven’t been proven before - they shouldn’t always do what worked before. Whether the problem is an internal workflow, a client brief, an operational structure or something else, agencies need to be less afraid to take the more risky path in favour of potentially greater outcomes. If it isn’t broken, still explore changing it.
Provide structure and support around your employees that guides and comforts them, but never restricts. Enable your employees to make their own decisions and trust them to do so, but provide the framework around them to support if anything is unfavourable. Encourage your employees to decide the speed and direction of their own career progression within clear parameters from the business.
Our Diversity & Inclusion Progress
We are striving for greater representation within our business, industry and our output. We want to create more authentic, representative creative work that reflects society. We are on a journey to accelerate our efforts to create an inclusive environment for all.
The cherry on the cake is winning the following major accolades for our team and clients:
Our Billion Dollar Team
Edward East
Founder & Global CEO
Edward East
Founder & Global CEO
In 2012, as the founder of Exclusive Media Group’s digital marketing division, Ed East saw the huge potential of influencer marketing early in the game, engaging the influencer community to promote feature films. Two years later, Ed returned to his native London to launch Billion Dollar Boy as one of the first influencer marketing agencies in the UK.
Thomas brings vast experience in politics (he worked in the office of Tony Blair), film and television (creative development at NBCUniversal) and advertising (Exclusive Media Group) to BDB, where he oversees strategy, planning and global partnerships. After recognizing the untapped potential of the nascent influencer world, Thomas joined forces with Ed East to launch Billion Dollar Boy in 2014.
After 9+ years in the beauty and wellness PR space, Andrea saw the influencer light. She packed her bags for BDB where she now leads client relations for beauty and lifestyle brands. On the weekends, when she is not gallivanting around Newport, RI with her fiance and their dog Cooper, she’s test driving the latest skincare and fitness trends. Don’t get her started on how the BDB creative brief is the best in the business.
After completing a Masters in mathematics and statistics from Oxford University in 2013, Irving moved on to transform several tech start-up businesses, co-founding two of his own. Since Billion Dollar Boy in 2017, Irving oversees all tech and data developments of BDB’s proprietary tools.
Sarah (known mostly as Rams) has worked mainly agency side at Ogilvy, VCCP, McCann and some other delightful smaller agencies across multi disciplines. Before BDB, she worked for a creative non-profit called Girl Effect where she trained adolescent girls to become digital researchers (TEGAs) in Nigeria, Rwanda and Tanzania.
After an early stint as a CPA, James decamped for the business world of television broadcasting, experience that helps him maintain a long view of BDB’s business development. (James is the guy on the team who will delve into the forensics of a campaign to ensure optimal results.) Joining BDB just as it hit its steep growth curve has been his biggest thrill—so far.
Alex started using social media to promote student events, and the company evolved into The Audience, one of the UK’s first social media agencies. He then moved to VICE, Ogilvy Social Lab, and finally, BDB. Alex loves a side-hustle; he runs a charity, a clothing line and makes furniture.
Ed Bernardino
Global Talent Acquisition and D&I Director
Ed Bernardino
Global Talent Acquisition and D&I Director
Ed is an energetic and ambitious person who has developed a mature and responsible approach to his work. He is a motivated and creative HR professional, with a CIPD qualification and varied experience in diversity and inclusion. Ed has built a reputation as a highly effective communicator and influencer with people at all business levels. He has over 10 years of experience working across some of the biggest group names in the UK, including, Havas, WPP, McCann and M&C Saatchi.
Holly spent the first 9 years of her career working in fashion media starting at Condé Nast for WWD, followed by Hearst magazines where she was the Fashion Advertising Director at ELLE. She joined Billion Dollar Boy in September 2019 and oversees Business Development for North America.
Piet is dedicated to growing the creator marketing industry alongside the amazing Billion Dollar Boy team and its exciting global partners. He has transformed the agency and has secured clients such as King, Heineken, J&J and SC Johnson thanks to his long-term, integrated approach to creator marketing as well as his commitment and enthusiasm for delivering the best work for clients.
After graduating from university with a film degree, Lisa spent a year freelancing as an editor before joining Billion Dollar Boy in 2014. She has fulfilled a variety of roles over the years before spearheading the Paid Media department.
Sophie is an influencer marketing professional that puts special emphasis on the *human* side of the agency x creator relationship, with the motive to work with the most creative, purposeful and inspiring content creators out there. She has been a part of the influencer world since 2014, doing everything from gifting to talent management, production, events, and full end-to end campaign execution and now works with content creators from all over the world and in close to every vertical.
Robyn blends total professionalism with a deep knowledge of the creator industry. Her laser focus on delivering brave campaigns, on budget, to challenging clients, is second-to-none. She remains absolutely focussed on delivering to her clients, and always finds time to look out for others on the team.
Sami is a digital communications and marketing professional with over 15 years experience managing and delivering high profile influencer, digital publicity and social media campaigns. Sami loves staying ahead of the trends and her chameleon like ability to read a room, pitch the perfect tone and stand side by side as one of the team when the pressure is on and unrelenting is why she steers our campaigns time and time again.
Maxime has over a decade of international experience in the content, influencer and marketing industry. He leads the influencer marketing and influencer-led creative campaigns for a portfolio of clients that includes Clarks, Clarks Original, Desperado, Moretti, No7 Beauty Company and Xiaomi. Not only is he an influencer specialist but is one of the ‘Best Dressed’ members of the London team, according to the team, and is always the ‘Most Caffeinated’ in the office.
Christopher Douglas
USA Senior Manager of Strategy
Christopher Douglas
USA Senior Manager of Strategy
Chris is an experienced brand strategist with a demonstrated history of working in the marketing and advertising industry. He’s a superstar when it comes to market research, client relations, advertising, and brand management. He joined the US agency team to lead a dedicated strategy department.
José López-Sánchez has been an advisor to BDB since the company’s inception. A creative director by day, he has helped brands such as adidas, Slim Jim, Mtn Dew, Sony Electronics, Ikea, and Bethesda Softworks make a deeper connection with cross-cultural audiences, with a focus on engaging Millennials and Gen Z.
A native of the Dominican Republic, he is a graduate of Emory University School of Law and the University of Virginia.
The Billion Dollar Boys & Girls we hope to become!
The Billion Dollar Boys & Girls we hope to become!
