Perplexity was launching a new AI product in a market full of noise — and needed audiences who had never heard of it to actually try it. Content from creators who didn't understand the product would've been worse than nothing.
500K
Impressions across 26 creators
5.8%
Engagement rate
Campaign details
Brand
Brand
Type
Paid influencer
Platforms
Instagram; TikTok
Objective
Brand awareness for new AI product launch
Budget
26
The Challenge
Perplexity needed awareness for a product most people hadn't encountered.
Generic tech creators could generate impressions. What they actually needed was creators who could make a skeptical, unfamiliar audience curious enough to try something new — and who understood the product well enough to explain why it mattered.
That distinction — between reach and belief — is the hard part. And it's not solved by a keyword search.
—
Will Brooke, Head of Talent Partnerships, Perplexity
How beacons did it
The selection wasn't about tech category tags — it was about finding people who were genuinely curious storytellers, with audiences that trust their recommendations.
Beacons sourced 26 creators aligned with Perplexity's target audience: young, career-minded, U.S.-based. These weren't the obvious names in AI or tech media. They were identified through first-party audience data because their followers matched Perplexity's target — not because they'd already run AI product campaigns.
Every creator was verified for audience composition before any content was briefed, contracted, or posted. Beacons handled sourcing, briefing, and full campaign coordination. Perplexity didn't vet a single creator.
Pre-launch demographics.
85.8% U.S. audience across all 26 creators. 56.3% aged 18–24. Both nailed Perplexity's primary awareness target.
Fresh faces for AI.
Vetting creator choices via audience fit brought in new-to-Perplexity faces to give the campaign a fresh vibe.
The results
The case for the next campaign was already built before the first one finished.
Perplexity's team walked into the debrief with ~500K impressions, 5.8% engagement, and documented proof that 85.8% of the audience was U.S.-based and 56.3% was 18–24 — verified before the first post went live.
500K impressions from 26 creators across 29 posts
5.8% engagement rate — nearly 2x the benchmark for tech product campaigns
20K+ engagements — likes, comments, and saves from audiences encountering Perplexity for the first time