Open Influence vs Stargazer

Why brands weigh Open Influence and Stargazer

When brands look at influencer marketing agencies, these two names often come up side by side. Both run campaigns with creators, but they feel different in style, focus, and how closely they work with clients.

Most marketers want clarity on who handles strategy, creator scouting, content, reporting, and how these teams fit different budgets and goals.

What each agency is known for

The primary focus here is the world of influencer campaign agency partnerships. Both teams help brands work with creators across social channels, but their strengths are not identical.

Open Influence is generally linked with polished, large scale campaigns across multiple regions. Stargazer is often associated with performance driven work and measurable sales impact.

Understanding what they’re known for helps you match them to your business stage, creative needs, and expected return.

Open Influence in simple terms

Open Influence is typically seen as a creative led influencer agency. They emphasize strong visual storytelling, brand fit, and cross channel campaigns that feel like integrated brand moments rather than one off posts.

They tend to resonate with consumer brands that care a lot about look, feel, and long term brand equity.

Stargazer in simple terms

Stargazer is usually viewed as a performance leaning influencer agency. They lean into trackable outcomes such as sign ups, installs, or purchases, particularly for direct to consumer products and apps.

They often attract marketers who want every creator dollar tied clearly to measurable business results.

Open Influence at a glance

Open Influence is a full service influencer shop that helps brands ideate, source creators, manage campaigns, and measure impact across social platforms. They tend to operate like a creative agency that happens to specialize in creators.

Core services you can expect

Brands generally lean on Open Influence for end to end support. Typical services include:

• Influencer research and vetting across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and more
• Creative concepts aligned with broader brand campaigns
• Campaign planning and messaging frameworks
• Contracting, briefing, and content approvals
• Usage rights and whitelisting support
• Reporting, insights, and recommendations for future work

The goal is to hand off most influencer execution so your team can focus on higher level marketing decisions.

How Open Influence tends to run campaigns

Work with Open Influence often starts with a discovery call around brand goals, past campaigns, and target customers. From there they shape creative angles and creator profiles that match your brief.

Campaigns usually run in structured phases: concept, creator shortlist, content production, launch, and reporting. Messaging and visual consistency are treated as core pillars.

Creator relationships and talent style

Open Influence works with a wide range of creators, from micro influencers to bigger household names. Their sweet spot often skews toward creators with strong visual style and well curated feeds.

They typically emphasize brand safety, audience quality, and aesthetic alignment more than raw follower counts alone.

Typical brand fit for Open Influence

Open Influence often appeals to:

• Established consumer brands wanting premium creative output
• Companies running cross market launches or global pushes
• Marketers who want influencer work to mirror TV or brand campaign quality
• Teams needing a strategic partner, not only a creator roster

If you prioritize brand storytelling and cohesive visuals, their style may feel especially comfortable.

Stargazer at a glance

Stargazer is a full service influencer agency with a stronger tilt toward measurable outcomes. They help brands acquire users, drive conversions, and scale creator programs that directly support revenue goals.

Core services you can expect

While also end to end, Stargazer’s offering is often framed around performance and growth. Common elements include:

• Creator sourcing based on historical performance and conversion potential
• Campaign planning focused on trackable goals like installs or sales
• Management of long term creator relationships and ambassador programs
• Affiliate or discount code structures tied to creator output
• Ongoing optimization based on performance data

The emphasis is usually on repeatable structures that can be scaled when results look promising.

How Stargazer tends to run campaigns

Engagements usually start with clear performance targets, such as customer acquisition cost or cost per install. From there, Stargazer matches creators and formats to those metrics.

They are likely to test multiple creators, narrow in on what works, and reinvest into top performers over time.

Creator relationships and talent style

Stargazer works across sizes, but often leans heavily on niche and mid sized creators whose audiences actually convert. Relatability, trust, and past performance may matter more than perfect aesthetics.

Creator content is guided to feel honest and action focused, often with clear calls to try or buy something specific.

Typical brand fit for Stargazer

Stargazer often attracts:

• Direct to consumer brands focused on revenue growth
• Apps, subscription services, and SaaS products
• Marketers who live in dashboards and performance metrics
• Teams that want to treat creators similar to paid media channels

If you judge success primarily by sign ups, add to carts, or installs, this style may align well.

How their approaches really differ

At first glance both are full service influencer agencies. Under the surface, the way they talk, plan, and measure can feel quite different.

Creative storytelling versus performance lean

Open Influence tends to lean toward brand storytelling and visual polish. They often treat each campaign as part of a bigger creative narrative for the brand.

Stargazer leans more toward performance outcomes. They see influencers as a growth channel, testing and scaling creators like you would paid ads.

Scale and market focus

Both can work with global brands, but Open Influence is more often linked with larger, multi market brand pushes. Their networks and processes are built for scale.

Stargazer, while also capable of big campaigns, often shines in focused performance efforts across fewer markets or specific niches.

Client experience and involvement

With Open Influence, you may spend more time on creative discussions, messaging nuance, and campaign integration across channels.

With Stargazer, conversations may lean heavily toward numbers, cost per action, and which creators to double down on.

Neither is better by default; it depends whether you value brand depth or performance iteration more.

Pricing and how brands usually engage

Neither agency sells simple menu style packages. Pricing is usually custom and influenced by your needs, markets, and the size of your creator roster.

Common pricing structures

Typical approaches you may see include:

• Project based fees for specific launches or seasonal pushes
• Ongoing retainers for year round creator work
• Management fees layered on top of influencer payouts
• Additional costs for paid amplification or content usage rights

Creator payments themselves are normally a large part of the total budget.

What drives cost with Open Influence

With Open Influence, factors that often raise or lower cost include:

• Number of markets and languages
• Use of larger or celebrity level influencers
• Complex content needs, like video shoots or multi day productions
• Depth of strategy, research, and reporting requested

Highly produced content and multi country campaigns will generally sit at the higher end of spend.

What drives cost with Stargazer

With Stargazer, pricing may hinge on:

• Desired volume of creators and posts per month
• Performance goals and speed of scaling
• Use of ongoing ambassador programs or affiliate structures
• Additional creative or editing support beyond creator content

Because the focus is on performance, budgets often ramp when target returns are reached.

Strengths and limitations of each

Every agency has tradeoffs. The key is knowing where each shines and where they may not be the right fit.

Where Open Influence tends to shine

• Brand storytelling that feels cohesive across channels
• Visually polished content that matches premium brand standards
• Integrated campaigns that support big product launches
• Support for brands needing strategic creative direction

Many brands quietly worry that influencer posts will feel off brand; Open Influence works hard to close that gap.

Possible drawbacks with Open Influence

• May feel too high end for brands with tight budgets
• Creative depth can add time before campaigns go live
• Emphasis on polish may not always match scrappy test and learn cultures

Brands seeking quick, low cost experiments may find the approach heavier than needed.

Where Stargazer tends to shine

• Campaigns tied closely to revenue or user growth
• Scaling winning creators and cutting underperformers quickly
• Helping brands see influencer spend like a performance channel
• Serving direct response marketers who live in spreadsheets

This mindset can be very useful for companies used to paid social and performance marketing.

Possible drawbacks with Stargazer

• May not be the best fit for purely brand building goals
• Content can skew more functional than highly crafted
• Short term performance focus may underplay brand storytelling

For heritage brands with strict creative rules, this style may need more alignment work.

Who each agency fits best

Instead of asking which agency is “better,” it’s more useful to ask which partner lines up with your goals, stage, and internal resources.

When Open Influence is usually a strong fit

• You are an established brand with clear creative standards.
• Campaigns must align tightly with TV, outdoor, or broader brand pushes.
• You care deeply about how your brand is visually represented.
• Your main goal is awareness, perception, and long term equity.
• You want a partner comfortable handling global or multi market work.

When Stargazer is usually a strong fit

• You are a growth focused brand or app, often digital first.
• You judge success by new customers, orders, or installs.
• You are comfortable testing many creators and quickly shifting spend.
• You want influencer activity to plug directly into your performance stack.
• You are open to more direct, action focused creator content.

Questions to ask yourself before choosing

• Is my priority brand storytelling or short term results?
• How much budget can I commit for at least six to twelve months?
• Do I have internal creative resources or need agency support?
• How involved do I want to be in creator selection and approvals?

Your answers will often make one direction feel clearly more natural.

When a platform like Flinque makes more sense

Not every brand needs a full service agency. Some teams want more control and lower ongoing fees, especially in earlier stages.

How a platform approach works

Flinque is an example of a platform that lets brands handle influencer discovery, outreach, and campaign tracking themselves. Instead of paying agency retainers, you use software to run and monitor creator work in house.

This structure suits teams willing to manage relationships and content workflows directly.

When a platform may be better than an agency

• Your budget cannot stretch to agency management fees.
• You already have marketing staff able to handle day to day creator tasks.
• You prefer building direct creator relationships you own.
• You want to test influencer work lightly before committing to larger campaigns.

In these cases, a tool based approach may offer more flexibility and learning without long contracts.

FAQs

How do I decide between these two agencies?

Start with your main outcome. If you want polished brand storytelling and integrated campaigns, lean toward a creative focused agency. If you want conversions and growth metrics above all, a performance leaning team will likely fit better.

Can smaller brands work with these agencies?

Sometimes, but both generally align better with brands ready to invest serious budget into creators. If you are very early or testing with limited funds, a smaller boutique agency or platform may be a better first step.

Do these agencies only use big influencers?

No. Both work across tiers, including micro and mid sized creators. The mix depends on your goals, budget, and how important reach versus depth of engagement is for your campaign.

How long before I see results from influencer campaigns?

Brand focused efforts may take months to fully show impact, especially in awareness and perception. Performance driven campaigns can reveal early signals within weeks, but reliable patterns usually emerge over several campaign cycles.

Should I sign a long term contract right away?

It’s often wiser to start with a clearly scoped project or short initial term. Use that period to gauge communication, process, and results before committing to a longer engagement.

Conclusion: choosing the right partner

Your decision should come down to three things: what success looks like, how much you can spend, and how hands on you want to be.

If you want creator content that feels like part of a premium brand world, Open Influence’s creative leaning style may resonate. Bigger launches and global pushes often benefit from that approach.

If you want direct, trackable growth from influencer spend, Stargazer’s performance tilt may be a better match. Their style fits brands that treat creators similar to paid ads.

If neither structure fits your budget or desired control level, exploring a platform like Flinque can be a smart third path. It lets you own relationships and processes while keeping costs more flexible.

Clarify your goals, pressure test them against each option, speak with the teams, and choose the partner whose strengths align most closely with the outcomes you actually need.

Disclaimer

All information on this page is collected from publicly available sources, third party search engines, AI powered tools and general online research. We do not claim ownership of any external data and accuracy may vary. This content is for informational purposes only.