A new influencer marketing and talent management agency has opened its doors across the pond, repping a trio of viral stars at launch: Milad ‘The Singing Dentist’ Shadrooh, Goubran ‘GoubTube’ Bahou, and Kevin Freshwater — whose content reaches 100 million people every month.
Sweetshop will work with creators in the music, sports, entertainment, and lifestyle categories, providing influencer marketing services, social media consulting, PR, content creation, and 360-degree talent management. The London-based startup is the brainchild of founder and CEO Angus Imlach, an early exec at the now-defunct music-charting company Crowdmix, which notoriously blew through $20 million in funding before its formal launch; former Universal Music international marketing director Jamie Hole; Ross Patel, who has held roles at various firms within the music events space; and veteran electronic music publicist Morley Dave.
Given their extensive experience in the music biz, the guys say that Sweetshop will seek to fuse traditional music management with the digital influencer realm. It is currently accepting submissions for additional creators to add its roster, with applications available here.
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Shadrooh (189,000 followers on Instagram) shot to renown for his dental-themed parody of Ed SHeeran’s “Shape Of You“ (below) and has since amassed more than 10 million YouTube views, while Freshwater (241,000 Instagram followers) is the prankster behind the viral Floor Is Lava phenomenon, whose version has clocked 150 million views and spawned thousands of others. Bahou (573,000 followers), for his part, is a sketch comedian who holds the record for the most-viewed sketch by a U.K. influencer — for Sleeping Next To Your Girlfriend, which has been watched 356 million times on Facebook.
“One of our primary functions is to help brands and talent to collaborate effectively,” Imlach said of Sweetshop in a statement. “Our role at Sweetshop is to help brands to tell their stories. We use creators to translate a brand’s message authentically, and to engage new audiences in credible ways.”
To date, Sweetshop has partnered with heritage streetwear brand Ellesse to help it build its social strategy, and also collaborated with Island Records to bolster the presence of emerging musician Donae’O — who teamed with Bahou on a number of online clips.
While Sweetshop has been bootstrapped to date, the company plans to talk to prospective investors imminently in a bid to scale the business, it said.
