For the brands that dominate, partnerships aren't just a creator strategy; they're a full-blown operating system. But how do you actually build that out?

In this episode, Dave Yovanno is joined by industry veteran Steve Messa, Head of YouTube Creator and Influencer Program at BetterHelp, to unpack one of the most effective creator programs of the last decade. Scaling to over 5,000 active creator partnerships, Steve's team has made a notable shift, tossing out old playbooks that hinged on subscriber count in favor of ones built for the interest- and algorithm-driven economy.

Together, Dave and Steve dig into why video podcasting is the most underappreciated play in creator marketing today, how the right compensation model really depends on the brand's goals and risk tolerance, and how the budget freed up by a program like this is what funds the upper-funnel brand moments most programs never get to.

If you're ready to unlock the world of YouTube creators and build them into a funnel that inspires action, this episode is your place to start.

This podcast episode was produced by Quill.

Search is changing. Data is disappearing. Attribution is harder than ever. So what's a marketer actually supposed to control?

In this episode, Dave Yovanno sits down with Nick Wedewer, VP of Growth Marketing at Hims & Hers. Nick shares how he's learned to focus on what's controllable amid constant disruption in partnership marketing, from becoming an expert in one channel early in his career, to building measurement models that triangulate across data sources instead of chasing certainty that no longer exists. He and Dave dig into how growth partnerships create trust when first-party data disappears, why authenticity with creators is non-negotiable, and how generative AI is upending discovery itself. Nick closes with his take on where the marketing job is headed and why doubling down on creative judgment and real human trust may be the most durable strategy when the ground moves beneath you.

This podcast episode was produced by Quill.

Authentic. Lo-fi. And at scale. Today's algorithms demand it all from your ad creatives—so, how do you keep up without burning your team out?

In this episode, Todd Crawford sits down with Mal Chia, Managing Director & Co-Founder at Ecom Nation, to unpack a creative strategy most brands are sleeping on: hiring UGC creators purely as content producers. With Meta's shift away from manual audience targeting, creative is now doing the heavy lifting — leaving brands with a need for good content, and lots of it.

Ready to take advantage of this shift, Mal shares exactly how to work with creators to build a valuable content engine. From budgets and briefings to splicing and testing content, Mal walks through how this function should actually work inside your organization.

If you're still relying on a handful of big creators to carry your ad creatives, this episode offers a new strategy… and the playbook to execute it.

This podcast episode was produced by Quill.