Persuasion, Meet Precision

Today’s featured startup is reshaping influencer marketing by decoding what words can’t say.

Project Overview

Influencer marketing keeps booming — in 2023, brands spent over $20 billion on it.

Yet most companies still choose influencers based on basic metrics: follower count, view numbers, or simply personal preference. The problem? These stats say nothing about how effective the influencer will be at actually delivering your message. As a result, brands often waste up to 40% of their influencer ad budget on creators who just don’t convert.

Trudy is an AI-powered tool that helps brands evaluate influencers not by raw stats, but by “human metrics” — qualities that help predict how convincingly an influencer will communicate a brand’s message, especially in a video format.

Trudy watches influencers’ past videos and analyzes over 160 indicators of how they speak — the words they use, the emotions they convey. This analysis results in two profiles: one reflecting external behavior (tone, style, delivery), and another capturing internal values and beliefs.

Trudy then compares this psychological-emotional fingerprint with similar data drawn from previous influencer campaigns that worked well for the brand. By matching profiles, Trudy predicts which new influencers are most likely to replicate that success.

Brands simply upload a high-performing video to Trudy, and the AI analyzes it to build a reference profile. Trudy then scans potential influencers and tells you how closely each one matches the emotional style and tone that drove results in the past.

And that’s not all: once Trudy understands the psychological makeup of an influencer, it can even recommend how to brief them for maximum effect. A competitive type? Frame the task as a challenge. A creative type? Give them freedom to innovate.

Of course, Trudy also provides standard metrics like reach, demographics, and engagement — but it’s the fusion of human and numerical data that gives brands an edge.

Launched just in April, Trudy has already raised its first £500,000 in funding.

What’s the Gist?

At first glance, it might sound like pseudoscience: does it really matter how an influencer says something, especially if the words come from the brand’s script?

But remember that old Stanislavsky line — “I don’t believe you.” Actors can speak the same words, but only some make you feel something.

That’s because words only account for 7% of what we communicate. Tone of voice carries 38%, and body language — facial expressions, gestures, eye movement — accounts for 55%. In short: 93% of persuasiveness comes from everything except the words.

Trudy analyzes exactly that — everything non-verbal that turns a brand message into something believable. It helps brands identify which influencers sound and look genuinely convincing — and which ones don’t, even if their script is spot-on.

Other startups are also tackling influencer ad effectiveness — but from different angles.

Other players like Stack Influence and Hummingbirds help brands ship free products to micro-influencers, who then post about them. Stack has raised $1.27M, while Hummingbirds has secured $4.4M.

Key Takeaways

Influencer marketing is massive — and still growing.

But the big shift underway is from reach to relevance. Brands are waking up to the fact that follower count doesn’t equal performance.

One growing trend is the rise of micro-influencers — creators with smaller but more engaged audiences. Stack Influence reports engagement rates 6.7x higher than those of big-name influencers.

Another trend: authenticity. Stack Influence encourage real users to post real opinions. The Desire Company — another innovator — gives products to experts without telling them whether the review is sponsored, encouraging unbiased feedback.

Trudy fits right into this movement. Its approach may be less about truth and more about effectiveness — but in advertising, results speak louder than good intentions.

The big picture? More and more platforms are emerging to help brands run smarter, more effective influencer campaigns.

Trudy’s approach — using emotion, psychology, and AI to predict performance — is unexpected, but promising. The market is big enough for many paths to success.

The only question is — which one will you take?

Company Info

Trudy

• Website: trudy.app

• Last round: £500K, 29.04.2024

• Total investment: £500K, across 1 round