In the ever-evolving world of digital marketing, influencer campaigns have become a powerful tool for enterprises, PR agencies, and media giants. One of the companies that recognized the potential and created a specialized software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution for influencer marketing is Julius by Triller. This case study delves into the partnership between us and Julius by Triller, shedding light on our approach and the typical process of building augmented teams.
An overview of Julius
Julius by Triller is a specialized SaaS solution for influencer marketing. Designed for enterprise brands, PR agencies, and media giants, it empowers companies to run impactful influencer campaigns in-house.
Established in 2015, Julius serves clients globally from its New York City headquarters. With influencer search and discovery, outreach, campaign management, and a reporting suite, it's a one-stop solution for influencer marketing success.
With the Julius influencer marketing software, companies can search through profiles on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, Twitter, and Twitch to find the perfect partners for their brand. Julius uses data science to make finding influencers easier.
Additionally, the team of analysts work on each profile to give companies a better understanding of the influencer as a person, not just as a bunch of data points.
Thanks to this thorough search and personalized approach, companies can find their perfect match – the right influencer suitable for their campaign and ready to promote their products on their social platforms.
Main challenges
Julius commenced as a modest start-up but consistently aspired to evolve into a more substantial and higher-worth entity. In the early stages, they encountered challenges with several key aspects, such as:
- Managing Technical Debt in Rapid Development: The initial platform was developed by 2 developers using a home-grown framework, who had to expedite their build in order to deliver the first version with the shortest possible time to market, resulting in significant technical debt.
- Team Building and Project Rework: Building up the team and managing the rework of the project, without depending on specific technologies or tools.
- Hiring Challenges in the U.S. Labour Market: Coping with high hiring costs and the scarcity of highly skilled professionals available in the over-demanded U.S. labour market.
Audience Health - Julius has developed proprietary technology to validate influencer audiences by considering various factors such as abnormal spikes in follower count, suspicious comments and engagers, frequency of audience engagement, ratio of followers to engagement, and quality of the influencer's followers.
The Process
The collaboration with us proved to be a turning point for Julius by Triller. Here are the key stages of progress in our partnership.
- Start from scratch - We started with a deep dive into the company's vision and requirements, leading to build a new team of 5 developers. After a thorough analysis, it became evident which steps were necessary to be taken.
- Rapid adaptation - Starting from square one, we rapidly assembled and onboarded the augmented team. Effective communication and understanding client expectations allowed us to hit the ground running.
- Communication and talent management – With constant follow-ups and daily monitoring, we identified ideal talents and provided tailored solutions to evolving needs. The development team grew to 10 members, encompassing programmers, a Data Engineer, QA, and a UX/UI Designer, enabling the successful release of the enhanced application in just 6 months.
- Company’s expansion - As the company expanded, both on business and development, the augmented team grew to 15 members. They established core functionalities and continued to enhance the application with new features, ensuring a constant release of new functionality, while continuously paying off technical debt.
Audience Overlap - This feature lets you analyze audience overlap between multiple influencers by displaying the count of unique followers and the percentage of overlapping followers, helping you make more informed marketing decisions.
The Achieved Results
- With our help, Julius assembled a specialist team of 5 skilled individuals. It was a very fast hiring of our ex-colleagues from other company. We knew them well and were convinced they were a good fit. Based on the need we found 2 senior full stack developers, 1 senior front end developer, 1 mid front end, and 1 mid full stack developer.
- Julius has implemented major changes, propelling it towards its objectives. The goal was to make a transition from legacy campaign reporting to a new one, build an influencer hub for letting creators share their performance, and increase campaign usage. The new team has been created, that demands scrum and freedom with responsibility.
- Julius achieved consistent growth, leading to 15 people on our side and 50+ employees on their side within just 8 - 10 months.
- Thanks to the team augmentation, they saved significant cost and time. We estimated MVP to be delivered in 2 years if we didn't extend the team further. With a new team, we achieved MVP in 8 months, but had also cut MVP scope by 30%.
- New features continue to be added, eg. Audience Overlap or Audience Health, ensuring the ongoing development of the application. The features backlog is being discussed periodically and delivery is focused on what the client or lead 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 serves as a compelling case study on the effectiveness of building augmented teams for achieving influencer marketing success.
By leveraging the expertise and versatility of an augmented team, Julius by Triller managed to overcome challenges, achieve significant milestones, and lay a strong foundation for a thriving future in the competitive influencer marketing landscape.
If you're excited about the potential of team augmentation and are ready to take your business to the next level, we warmly invite you to get in touch with us today!