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London-based social agency Coolr has appointed Mark Lainas as its first U.S. president, marking a major push into the American market. Coolr, founded in London in 2017, blends influencer marketing, content production and community engagement for brands. The move marks its first major step outside the U.K. after opening a U.S. office in 2023. Since then, Coolr has worked with American brands including Lyft, Dolby, and Netflix, and recently signed two new undisclosed clients. Based in New York, Lainas will focus on building Coolr’s presence in the U.S. by implementing a three-year growth plan. The agency received minority investment from private equity firm Growth Capital Partners last November to support international expansion. It says it grew revenues roughly 70% year-over-year in 2024. A seasoned agency vet, Lainas was chief innovation officer at BBDO and Ogilvy and president and CIO of Canvas United. He said he joined Coolr because of its focus on social and proven succesls in the U.K., where its reputation is “undisputed both in terms of our creativity, the speed of growth, and the performance of the work.” Lainas sees opportunity to help U.S. brands turn social into a growth driver, especially as spending creator surges: U.S. brands are expected to invest more than $10.5 billion on influencer marketing in 2025, up 23.7% year over year, and 80% of marketers say they’ve maintained or increased those budgets this year, according to eMarketer. Still, he said, many clients aren’t leveraging social to drive results for their business. “More brands are investing more money into social and influencer, and the traditional agencies are not doing a good job of managing it.” Coolr’s approach is to embed influencer and creator marketing directly into brands’ social mix and emphasize long-term, community-based creator relationships. “We don’t think about [influencer] as a separate work stream, but an integrated part of the full ecosystem,” he explained. New Frontiers Coolr is eyeing the U.S. as its next big growth frontier. Over the past year, Coolr has built a U.S. leadership team including chief operating officer Alex MacLaverty and client partner Sarah Hains. Lainas also highlighted the September appointment of Karmarama cofounder Ben Bilboul as Coolr’s first chairman. “The investments we are making in people and operations will allow us to push ahead with the next stage of our agency, while never compromising on quality, creativity, or our unique culture,” Lainas said. Coolr aims to establish credibility stateside through strong work. “We want to work with ambitious brands that want to win in this space,” Lainas said. He added that Coolr’s core focus on social and influencer is unique in the U.S., where the market is split into niche specialist agencies and big networks who “claim to do it all.” “We sit in the sweet spot between these two options, thanks to our deep understanding of culture, community and creativity,” he said.
