Meet Permele Doyle, The Brains Behind Your Favorite Instagram Campaigns

Running an influencer marketing agency that's bent on making brilliantly innovative content across an ever-changing social media landscape is no easy feat, but Permele Doyle sure does make it look chic. For five years, Permele has been the founding force behind Billion Dollar Boy's US market, creating incredibly like-able ad campaigns for everyone from Estée Lauder to Samsung. The ultimate business inspiration, Permele's story is one of trusting your gut, taking a leap and putting in the work. Read below for our chat with our favorite influential influencer boss!

How did you find yourself launching the New York office of Billion Dollar Boy?
Ed and I were best friends at UVA. After graduation (and stints in Mongolia for him and London for me!) he was in LA working in the film business, and I was in New York doing PR for Tom Ford Beauty. He started marketing the production company’s films using bloggers and YouTubers and I ran the first influencer campaign (before the term “influencer”!) at Tom Ford Beauty and we both saw that this was the direction everything was heading in for brand marketing and wanted to be a part of it. 

Ed and our fantastic partner Thom Walters who worked with Ed in the film business opened an office in London and I came in a few months later to help figure out who we were as a brand and open us to fashion and beauty clients in the US. Then the Billion Dollar Boy we know today was born.

What makes someone a true influencer, in your professional opinion?
“Influencer” is a tricky word. Every month we discuss if we can abandon it. But it has become the industry standard and it is an industry we are proud of so we embrace it. 

A true influencer is either someone with a social audience or someone who creates engaging content specific to social. The best influencer is someone who does both!

What's your favorite thing about your office?
The people. Not to be immodest, but we’ve put together an amazing team in New York. I am genuinely excited to see them everyday and miss them when I am away. 

What's a campaign you produced that you're most proud of?
I’m really proud of the work we have done for Primark, a huge European brand about to take the US by a storm as well as Grand Marnier. I also adored a recent holiday campaign we did for a client partner using five creators on Instagram to produce unique holiday assets around spreading joy integrating the product. 

How do you keep up with everything going on across all of the many social channels? 
Having 23-24 year olds in your office is key! One of them taught me TikTok, which truly required a 23 year old tutor, and then I became the biggest proponent of it in the office and required everyone download it and start integrating it into our strategies. We’re currently activating campaigns on the platform. 

I genuinely love Instagram so it is no burden for me to keep up with it. One of the most enjoyable things for me is dedicating a nice long bath to catching up on Instagram that day.

What's one thing you couldn't work without?
Google Calendar. I tell my team that if it isn't on Google Calendar, it doesn’t exist. 

That, and my Smythson notebook and several cups of coffee. 

What's your tip for keeping work feeling fun?
Not taking things too seriously and allowing some room for humor. I think that is something underestimated and also feared in the workspace. I want to create an environment where it is celebrated. One of our Senior Account Manager’s @lizanair is truly one of the funniest people I have ever met. As expected, we send a lot of memes around the office. Most are about astrology (which drives the men on our team crazy) or high-maintenance women... 

Favorite perks to being a transatlantic company?
Trips to London and retreats in the UK. Our first was in Scotland and Ed rented us the most haunted house I’ve ever been in. I didn’t sleep or shower for 3 nights. We recently had our first Senior Management retreat out in Hampshire in the English countryside at The Pig and I was conveniently put in the the most remote room in the middle of the woods. There seems to be a trend with our retreats.

What are you most excited for next?
I’m excited to see how we push beyond static content to more dynamic and video over the next year which allows for so much more interesting creative (like the original content we’re doing for BMW in the U.K.). I’m also excited to see what can be done on TikTok as it evolves.

But, I am most excited about our new venture, which is opening an office in New Orleans in 2020!

[Photos by Yumi Matsuo]