Ed East: From blogger to influencer marketing’s Billion Dollar Boy

“It occurred to me that we could build a database where PRs could find blogs like ours and others. We would charge them a license to use this database. And then we noticed that YouTube was on the rise and it wasn’t just bloggers, but YouTubers. And it’s not just YouTubers, it’s also Instagrammers. And it was becoming clear to us that this new economy was being created,” he recalls.

And so, Billion Dollar Boy was born. At least, that’s the short version of the story. In an extended version, East simultaneously builds and scales a YouTube content management business, which he sells to a Dutch company called Vintage House. The proceeds of which were pumped into the influencer agency.

Over that time, Billion Dollar Boy has become one of the fastest-growing influencer marketing agencies. In the US alone, over the past 12 months, its workforce has increased by 30%, revenue has climbed, and it has delivered a 99% increase in regional Ebitda. Globally, over the last four years, it has grown at an average annual rate of 40%. And this has not gone unnoticed in the market. East stresses that it has not taken on any institutional funding to get to this point and today, offers continue to come in from holding groups, private equity and other keen buyers looking to find their way into the burgeoning influencer marketing space.

“It’s flattering, but also it’s proof that what we’re building is what the market needs. We’re winning a huge amount of business from those holding companies, and we see a huge amount of talent leaving those holding companies to join independent, nimble, fast-moving businesses like BDB,” East says

“It’s far more exciting where we can control our own destiny and build an environment and culture where, of course, there are things we always need to work on, but hopefully we can build a culture that we’re really proud of, rather than being sucked into someone else’s.”

The end of the ‘wild west’

For years, East had been trying to build the business at a time when influencer marketing was dismissed as immeasurable or unserious. When Unilever’s then CMO Keith Weed publicly called out “influencer fraud” in 2018, East admits the criticism stung – but it also accelerated the industry’s maturation. “At the time, those comments just showed a massive lack of understanding. That’s changed completely,” he says.

Today, Unilever is one of Billion Dollar Boy’s biggest clients, not least because of new CEO Fernando Fernandez’s commitment to spending half of its annual media budget on creator-led marketing. East’s team is now working with the FMCG giant to help it scale its influencer roster.

“And look at L’Oréal – it spends more on creator marketing than on TV,” he says. L’Oréal is another early client of BDB that has grown its spend on the medium with the agency. “What used to be an afterthought, a leftover £5,000 from a campaign budget, is now central to strategy. That has really quickly shifted where now it’s right at the center of everyone’s plans.”

According to the Business Research Company, the creator economy grew 28% between 2024 and 2025 to become a $160bn industry. By 2029, it is expected that the market will be worth $436bn.

Meanwhile, new research from the IPA has examined effectiveness data covering approximately £133m of creator spend, spanning 28 markets, 36 categories, and 144 brands. It found that creators roughly return the same return on investment in the short term to TV. For every dollar you put into creators, you get about the average amount back within 13 weeks. And over the long term? Creators deliver the highest total ROI of any channel.

All this is to say, the perception of influencer marketing has shifted. But so too have the ways in which brands are now looking to work with creators. East points to the so-called Hollywoodification of creators: the convergence of social content, entertainment formats and IP development. Take Miss Rachel, the YouTuber who recently landed her own Netflix show. Or MrBeast, who was wooed by Amazon to produce and front a series. “Everyone’s calling this the year of Hollywood, but creators have been doing it for years. They’re entertainers and educators. What’s changing now is that studios and holding companies are finally catching up.”

YouTuber turned Netflix star, Miss Rachel

That convergence led Billion Dollar Boy to launch FiveTwoNine, a sister venture designed to bring the agency closer to creators and explore new revenue streams. “Getting proximity to creators is vital,” he explains. “We’re helping them grow their businesses, but we’re also learning from them – understanding how IP, entertainment and brand partnerships intersect.”

The agency recently produced its first episodic series, created by influencers but owned by a brand. “It’s entertainment living on the client’s channel, produced by creators and us,” East says. “That’s IP. It’s a show that could live beyond social.”

It’s a glimpse of where East sees the industry heading: creators not just as amplifiers but as creative engines, building franchises that span platforms. “The wild west days are over,” he says. “Now it’s about how to harness creator marketing to genuinely drive business performance.”

Since Weed’s comments, East has spent a significant portion of his time developing a robust measurement model that would instill trust in the sector. Testament to that effort, Billion Dollar Boy recently secured IPA Effectiveness Accreditation, a milestone that took three attempts over three years. It’s the first influencer agency to achieve the accolade, and one that cements the shift in thinking around creator marketing.

“That accreditation proves our work actually drives business outcomes,” he says, outlining its approach. “Measurement doesn’t have to be owned by us, but how we analyze and apply it does. We partner with the best data platforms and combine those inputs into frameworks tailored to each client’s objectives. It’s what differentiates us from agencies still treating influencer content as media buying.”

The process forced Billion Dollar Boy to articulate what East describes as the “secret sauce that’s been pushing our business forward” into a formal agency positioning. East calls it ‘Creator Instinct’, a newly trademarked framework designed to codify how the agency captures and scales the cultural intuition of creators. “Creators have an instinctive understanding of social culture that brands and agencies often lack. We’ve spent years building systems to leverage that thinking systematically.”

It’s all part of a 10-year plan to evolve from an influencer agency into a company that helps build the entire creator economy. “For the first 10 years, we built Billion Dollar Boy around influencer marketing. The next 10 are about building for the creator economy as a whole.”

A new leadership structure has been established to support this ambition. “We’ve brought in managing directors – our ‘quarterbacks’ – to connect teams and keep the engine humming while I focus on long-term strategy,” he says. “It gives me time to focus not just a year ahead, but thinking about three years ahead. I just haven’t had the time to do that. That has been a challenge, balancing making sure that the engine runs and dealing with all the tiniest of things that you could never possibly imagine and connecting the dots between the teams.”

While headquartered in London, East is now based in the US, a move he credits with sharpening his business mindset. “The US approach to business is more positive, more ambitious. People want you to succeed. In the UK, we’re getting better at that, but there’s still a bit of skepticism around success. Building something is hard; optimism makes a difference.”

The American market is, of course, also key to the agency’s growth. “The US is huge for us, so is Europe. But the UK alone can’t sustain the growth we’re targeting, so we’re thinking strategically about how to maximize both regions over the next three years.”

And as the industry matures, East is determined that Billion Dollar Boy will remain both credible and creative. “We’re not just trying to prove that influencer marketing works – we’re proving that it works better. That’s what will define the next decade.”