Influencer marketing, UGC, and paid media are becoming one connected growth engine. So why are so many brands still managing them as separate channels?

In this episode of Field Notes, Lily Comba and Sarah Crow sit down with Cody Plofker, former CEO of Jones Road Beauty and host of the Marketing Operators Podcast, to unpack how leading brands are connecting creator partnerships, organic content, and paid social to drive performance.

Cody shares how Jones Road approaches influencer marketing and creative testing, why only a fraction of creators will become true performance drivers, and why bigger influencers can outperform micro creators when their content is used in Meta Partnership Ads. They also dig into creator whitelisting, paid usage rights, influencer briefs, attribution, and how to build a creator roster designed to compound over time.

They cover why influencer marketing should be treated as a long-term growth strategy rather than another paid acquisition channel, how brands can better connect influencer and performance marketing teams, and what changes when creator content is built for both organic and paid distribution from day one.

In this episode:

How Jones Road Beauty approaches influencer and creator marketing
Why UGC, influencer marketing, and paid media are converging
Meta Partnership Ads vs. traditional creator whitelisting
Why larger creators can outperform micro influencers in paid social
How to negotiate creator usage rights and build paid usage into briefs
Why even strong creator programs should expect most partnerships not to scale
Measuring influencer marketing when attribution is imperfect
How to build a long-term roster of high-performing creators

Field Notes is the operator’s playbook for brand, creator, and growth, hosted by Lily Comba, Founder + CEO of Superbloom and Sarah Crow, Head of Creator Strategy at Superfiliate.