From Start-Up to Leading Influencer Marketing Platform

In the ever-evolving world of digital marketing, influencer campaigns have become a powerful tool for enterprises, PR agencies, and media giants. Julius by Triller saw the potential early and built a specialised SaaS for influencer marketing. This case study looks at our partnership with Julius by Triller and the typical process of building augmented teams.

An overview of Julius

Julius by Triller is a specialised SaaS solution for influencer marketing. Designed for enterprise brands, PR agencies, and media giants, it gives companies what they need to run impactful influencer campaigns in-house. Established in 2015, Julius serves clients globally from its New York City headquarters. Influencer search and discovery, outreach, campaign management, and a reporting suite: it's a one-stop solution for influencer marketing success.

With the Julius platform, companies search through profiles on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, Twitter, and Twitch to find the right partners for their brand. Julius uses data science to make finding influencers easier.

On top of that, a team of analysts works on each profile to give companies a richer view of the influencer as a person, not just a set of data points. That thorough search plus personalised approach helps companies find the right match: the right influencer for the campaign, ready to promote on their social platforms.

Main challenges

Julius started as a modest start-up with the ambition to grow into a larger, higher-value company. In the early stages, they ran into several challenges:

• Managing technical debt under speed: the initial platform was built by 2 developers on a home-grown framework with tight timelines, creating significant technical debt.
• Team building and rework: expanding the team and restructuring the project without locking into technology-specific dependencies.
• Hiring in the US labour market: expensive recruitment and a scarce pool of senior engineers.

Audience Health: Julius developed proprietary technology to validate influencer audiences by factoring in abnormal follower-count spikes, suspicious comments and engagers, engagement frequency, follower-to-engagement ratio, and audience quality.

The process

The collaboration with Inuits was a turning point for Julius by Triller. Here are the key stages.

1. Starting from scratch

We started with a deep dive into the company's vision and requirements, which led to a new team of 5 developers. After a thorough analysis, it was clear which steps to take first.

2. Rapid adaptation

We assembled and onboarded the augmented team quickly. Clear communication and a tight grip on client expectations let us hit the ground running.

3. Communication and talent management

Constant follow-ups and daily monitoring helped us identify the right talent and respond to evolving needs. The development team grew to 10 members: programmers, a Data Engineer, QA, and a UX/UI Designer. The enhanced application shipped in just 6 months.

4. Company expansion

As Julius expanded on both the business and engineering side, the augmented team grew to 15 members. Core functionalities were established, new features kept shipping, and technical debt was paid down continuously.

Audience Overlap: analyse audience overlap between multiple influencers by displaying the count of unique followers and the percentage of overlapping followers, for more informed marketing decisions.

Achieved results

• Julius assembled a specialist team of 5 skilled engineers, fast. Many were ex-colleagues from other companies we had worked with, so we knew they were the right fit. The mix: 2 senior full-stack developers, 1 senior front-end, 1 mid front-end, 1 mid full-stack.
• Julius ran a major transition: from legacy campaign reporting to a new system, plus a new influencer hub for creators to share performance and lift campaign usage. The new team set up: scrum, freedom with responsibility.
• Julius grew steadily: 15 people on our side and 50+ on their side within just 8 to 10 months.
• Team augmentation saved significant cost and time. We estimated MVP delivery at 2 years without extending the team. With the new team, MVP shipped in 8 months, with scope cut by 30%.
• New features keep shipping, like Audience Overlap and Audience Health. The backlog is reviewed regularly and delivery focuses on what the client needs now.

Inuits has been an excellent partner for us for many years. They are communicative, dedicated, adaptable, and always ready to work together to support our people needs and business goals.

— Karin Swanson, President, Julius by Triller

Conclusions

The partnership with Julius by Triller is a clear case study on the effectiveness of building augmented teams to drive influencer marketing success. By leveraging the expertise and versatility of an augmented team, Julius overcame early challenges, hit major milestones, and laid a strong foundation for the competitive influencer marketing landscape. If the potential of team augmentation excites you and you're ready to take your business to the next level, get in touch.