Gil Eyal is the CEO and Founder of HYPR Brands, a company which offers marketers in-depth audience analytics for over 10 million influencers across major social channels. He has revolutionized the way many of the World’s biggest agencies and brands are running influencer marketing by focusing on the same data, analytics and audience demographic information relevant to any other form of marketing. Under Gil’s direction, HYPR boasts a client base of over 100 Fortune 500 brands, as well as the biggest advertising and PR agencies in the world, including LVMH, Whitewave, Mediacom, Michael Kors, Calvin Klein and Revlon.
As the pioneer in the influencer space, Gil also served as the COO of early player photo-sharing app Mobli Media, and has worked with influencers ranging from Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Pitbull, Lance Armstrong, Lil Wayne and Serena Williams to Nash Grier, Bart Baker and Cameron Dallas. He is an accomplished public speaker, and has delivered keynotes at notable influencer marketing conferences, including Influencer Marketing Days in New York and Influencer Marketing Hub in London.
Gil was recently selected as the 2017 recipient of the Digiday Top Boss Award in the technology industry, as one of 10 Israelis impacting the New York Tech Scene, as well as one of 40 must follow digital media influencers. He is also a two time winner of the MarCom Awards for Excellence in Marketing and Communications (Platinum Level and Honorable Mention). he has done MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, as well as a Bachelor of Laws from Bar-Ilan University in Israel.
Resolution as a Service
Gil believes that the key is to focus on problem solving and identifying pain points. According to him, any product offering needs to be a solution to a real issue that a client is facing. If one can identify a challenge that is enough of a problem to enough people, it’s easy to differentiate. Giving an example of his company, he asserts, “HYPR does not focus on the challenge of connecting with influencers. That’s a real challenge to a lot of people, but we don’t think it’s a big challenge. It’s one that can be addressed in multiple ways.”
Gil focuses on automating the process of identifying influencers – letting a computer look through a large pool quickly and make smart decisions. That’s a real pain point because clients don’t want to miss influencers that the company should be considering, but they also can’t look at every influencer and process how well they should do compared to thousands of others without a sophisticated tool.
Embracing Ambiguity
According to Gil, there are many components that define leadership but one that isn’t often spoken about is a high tolerance for ambiguity. He believes that Strong CEO’s make decisions knowing they are lacking information and that some of their decisions will be wrong. They need to stand behind these decisions and continue to inspire confidence with their employees, investors, management team and shareholders. “A good CEO is able to avoid the natural inclination to analyze to the point of paralysis even though they don’t have all the answers.” He asserts.
Assigning Fulfilling Jobs
Gil spent the first decade of his professional career doing a job in which he was not interested in. and it was very hard for him to find motivation in that kind of an environment. When he started building his own businesses, I know I wanted to create environments that get people excited to work. He believes, employees who are motivated, have a genuine interest in what they do and feel comfortable in their work environment, produce better. “The last thing you want is an employee who is doing enough to keep their job.” He states.
According to him, one should create an environment where people genuinely feel like they belong and one must do that by making the organization flat, encouraging questions and working together to deal with mistakes and challenges. One way to do that is allowing people to easily transition if they’re not doing something they’re excited about. The rewards are tremendous. Motivation always trumps resume for me.
Adversities of a unique Idea
Gil believes that startup founders should embrace the idea that people will look at them funny and whisper behind their backs. According to him, one’s idea should sound odd to people. If it’s obvious, everyone can see it. If one’s ahead of one’s time, a lot of people just won’t get it. The other challenge he talks about is fund raising. “Raising money as an entrepreneur is a very humbling endeavor. You meet many very smart people who don’t necessarily understand your vision or your industry the way that you do. You always have to ask yourself if you’re crazy or if the market just can’t see it yet.” He asserts.
Automation Is Future
According to Gil, Influencer Marketing can play a major role in the future of marketing so long that it becomes data driven and automated. He feels that the demand today cannot be answered because processes are completely manual and require a tremendous investment of time and effort without producing quantifiable results. This will change over time and HYPR wants to be one of the drivers for this to happen.
Imparting Wisdom
Gil asserts that the fleshy, trending markets aren’t the ones that necessarily produce the best returns. Hence he advises the young players to look for a problem no one wants to or knows how to solve, no matter how lethargic a job it is. That’s where the money is.
Source: The League of Extraordinary CEOs
Gil Eyal
