We Are Spring / Maria Cadbury / Founder

"Women having kids is a problem in the industry" - this quote comes from Maria Cadbury founder of We Are Spring this week on the Shiny New Object podcast. By her own admission, her "biggest work f*ck up" has been to have three children. Her employers have not been "as reasonable as they needed to be." Each time she had a child she's had to "fight to get the train back on the rails." Maria's story of grit and determination in the face of unsupportive bosses is important listening for employers and employees alike. Maria's Shiny New Object is Influencer Marketing. It was a relief not to hear the word 'authentic' mentioned once and to get an inside view of how she marries technology and influencers. She tells us how she uses tech to asses the right fit of an influencer (and their followers) for a brand. And the code doesn't stop there. Maria's team use a fraud calculator to report on the likely amount of bot activity in the engagement a post receives. With 94% of CMOs saying influencer fraud is an issue - it's good to see suppliers putting up some guard rails. She concedes that even though bots ramping up engagement scores is an issue, Influencers are a much better bet when it comes to brand safety. Your influencer post may get a few click farms headed your way - but your pouting genzedder is less likely to be putting your ad next to child trafficking content than your display/Youtube content is. Maria's most recommended books: Flip It: How to get the best out of everything by Michael Heppell Oversubscribed - How to Get People Lining Up to Do Business with You by Daniel Priestley Subscribe to the Shiny New Object on iTunes here Or listen to it on Spotify Listen to previous episodes here