Linqia Reveals Major Influencer Marketing Leadership Gaps Across Top CPG Brands in Report

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, UNITED STATES, August 12, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Linqia, the leading independent influencer marketing agency, announced the release of its CPG Influencer Marketing Staffing Report.

The report is the first industry analysis examining how the world’s largest consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies structure, staff, and scale their influencer marketing teams. Analyzing point-in-time data representing over 700 brands and more than $20 billion in total advertising spend, Linqia’s report provides an unprecedented look at how enterprise CPG companies organize talent to drive creator-led strategies.

While creator and influencer partnerships have matured into a foundational marketing channel, Linqia’s findings expose varying headcount figures by company, fragmented titling conventions, and a notable absence of senior executive leadership in this area.

“How to structure influencer marketing is something many brands question. Does it belong in PR, social, paid media, brand, its own center of excellence?” says Keith Bendes, Linqia’s Chief Strategy Officer. “We felt it was important to bring forth data on how some of the largest advertisers in the US are doing it today, and this report is the first to expose the realities.”

Several key findings from the report include:

– “Influencer” is now a widely staffed function, but with scale varying dramatically across companies. The average company in the research had 12.7 influencer roles across the organization.

– Less than 1% of identified roles hold a “Vice President” or higher title, indicating that despite multi-million dollar investments, influencer marketing has yet to secure a consistent seat at the executive leadership table.

– Inconsistent titling has created significant benchmarking hurdles. Only 42% explicitly use “Influencer” in their title; others are split across titles including “Social & Culture” (17%) and “Communications” (17%).

– In-house creators are emerging with 50% of companies having hired an in-house creator. Interestingly none have more than one on staff, keeping it an experimental function.

– Women represent 87% of all identified CPG influencer marketing professionals, a major skew to one gender.

Linqia says they will be releasing other reports on industries outside of CPG, and it will be interesting to see if these findings hold consistent or if there are industry specific behaviors.

Read Linqia’s full CPG Staffing Report here.

About Linqia
Linqia is the leading independent influencer marketing agency in the US. While some influencer companies offer only project management software, and others operate as creative agencies, we leverage our proprietary AI-powered technology platform, Resonate, and an experienced strategic and creative team to create emotive, human-first campaigns for the brands that inspire and perform.

Keith Bendes
Linqia
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