Entrepreneur Interview: Jennifer Quigley-Jones

April 17, 2023

As part of our Entrepreneur Series, we had the pleasure of getting to know Jennifer Quigley-Jones, Founder of Digital Voices – a business that helps brands engage communities and drive global customer acquisition at scale through strategic influencer partnerships. Established in 2017 with just a £500 personal investment, the agency has grown to an international team of over 50 people, worked with clients across multiple verticals and has opened an office in the US.

 

What was your background prior to founding Digital Voices?
My background is very different to Influencer Marketing! My initial career plan was to be an academic or journalist with a specialism in Middle Eastern politics – I completed my Master’s at Harvard University in Middle Eastern Studies. Whilst there, I specialised in the Syrian crisis and worked with many nonprofits and social enterprises, including the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations.  After my masters, I worked at Oxfam, before deciding to pivot my career into tech and working for Google/YouTube.

 

Where did your inspiration come from to set up your own business?
While at YouTube, I worked as a Partner Manager. My job was to help over 200 creators grow and optimise their YouTube channels – when creators make money from advertising revenue, so does YouTube! We weren’t supposed to partner brands with creators as part of our job, but brands kept approaching our team and asking for recommendations for who to work with. There was a real gap in the market and I felt like I had stopped learning in the role. So I decided to leave and invest £500 of my own money in starting a business.

 

What types of brands and  influencers do you typically work with?
We run campaigns for a variety of global clients from Unilever, to Diageo, Meta, the NHS and Duolingo.  Our favourite type of client is probably DTC brands focused on growth, as we specialise in performance campaigns. As for influencers we work with a wide variety of creators, but their content will predominantly live on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok – and from anywhere in the world. From beauty experts to tech enthusiasts, gamers, travellers, comedians, sports experts and even an expert of golf course turf, we’ve worked with most niches! We source creators by looking at their audience demographics and whether that matches a brand’s target customer.

 

What strategies did you initially employ to promote Digital Voices?
Initially we reached out to start up brands who had never tried Influencer Marketing before. But we found a much stronger product market fit once we worked with larger companies, with the ability to try something new. These campaigns then became our case studies, winning us recommendations and PR.

 

What is the most exciting campaign you have worked on in your career?
The most exciting campaign we worked on recently was the Hinge NFAQ (Not-So Frequently Asked Questions) campaign last year. You may have seen it on the London Underground. It was all about creators sharing their LGBTQIA+ dating questions, in a very intimate, inclusive and vulnerable way. It was used in Out of Home adverts in both New York and London. The press coverage and personal messages I received from it were incredible.
I still love that we arranged the first ever influencer to fly with the Red Arrows to get young people interested in Space and STEM subjects for the RAF and Rolls-Royce. We also partly funded Colin Furze building a tunnel under his house last year!

 

Congratulations on your recent award ‘Best Influencer Marketing Agency 2022’! What are your plans for continued success in 2023?
Thank you! Our plan to stay at the forefront of the industry is to keep growing, focus on building our US team and presence, and develop tech tools. Lots more to come in 2023….

 

What influencer marketing trends do you predict for this year? 
We predict unexpected and creative brand partnerships, with lots more UGC from influencers. We are also excited to see more sophisticated data and attribution models for measuring success.

 

Is there an entrepreneur that inspires you most, and if so, who is it and why them?
Muhammad Yunus is my ultimate entrepreneur inspiration. He balances being academic, with ensuring his work has a transformative impact on the real lives of thousands of people. He also challenges what entrepreneurship looks like – by focusing on building up female entrepreneurs in Bangladesh and challenging power dynamics.

 

If you could offer a first-time entrepreneur only one piece of advice, what would it be?
Set the perfectionism aside. You’re going to fail at some aspects. There are going to be really hard times. But those times are when you’re learning and growing, so lean into them as an opportunity – rather than being hard on yourself.

 

Quick Fire

  1. If you could have dinner with one person, past or present, who would it be? Barack and Michelle Obama
  2. Most used social media app? TikTok
  3. What’s top of your bucket list? I want to learn to scuba dive this year
  4. Morning or evening person? Morning
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