Jester CEO Vladimir Kaleniuk shared his perspective on why the strongest opportunities in influencer marketing often emerge not around already well-known influencers, but around those whose potential the market still overlooks – and how the 2026 FIFA World Cup proved this.
How undervalued influencers become media assets
During major sporting events, not only established media figures come into focus, but also new names that had previously gone largely unnoticed. Such tournaments reshape the attention landscape: audiences start following not only the favorites, but also unexpected creators, which creates new growth opportunities for brands.
In a short period of time, these figures attract audience attention, raise their profile, and turn into valuable influencer assets for brands. The 2026 World Cup once again showed that the most interesting growth points are often found among teams and players who were outside the spotlight before the tournament.
The story of Cabo Verde goalkeeper Josimar José Évora Dias (Vozinha), is one of the clearest examples. Before the tournament, he had around 50,000 followers, and after it his audience grew almost 600 times, to 29.5 million.
Josimar Dias' Instagram Followers
This case shows how a relatively small media asset can turn into one of the biggest football influencer channels in just one tournament. For brands, stories like this matter not only because of the numbers: they show how quickly the value of a partnership can change if a brand enters the conversation before the creator becomes widely known.
In that case, the brand gets not only better collaboration terms, but also the status of one of the first partners. That strengthens audience trust, makes the connection between the brand and the creator feel more natural, and creates a foundation for long-term cooperation that later becomes harder and more expensive for new advertisers to secure.
In an overheated market where the cost of access to the biggest influencers keeps rising, brands need to go beyond obvious choices and test less obvious hypotheses. These decisions may seem risky at first, but when they work, they pay off many times over
Why brands often miss them
Brands usually operate with predictability in mind: large campaigns require clear metrics, and internal processes are usually built around formats and channels that have already proven effective. As a result, attention naturally shifts toward creators with a stable audience and clear media weight.
Because of this, less visible influencers often stay out of focus, even when they already show signs of future growth. In the short term, that choice looks rational, but in the long term it leads to underusing creators who have not yet reached peak recognition but can deliver a much higher return potential.
Predicting the next star is genuinely difficult, but that does not mean these decisions are purely intuitive. Potential can be assessed by how a creator communicates, how deeply the audience engages with their content, whether they can hold attention during periods of heightened interest, and how naturally they integrate partnerships into their content.
Even with that approach, uncertainty remains: not every promising creator will grow into a major figure. But this is exactly what moves work with “dark horses” out of the intuition zone and into the zone of managed risk.
What this means for brands
Today, influencers should be viewed not only as a source of ready-made reach, but also as assets whose value can change quickly under the influence of major events. The earlier a brand spots that potential, the more opportunities it gains for building a strong, long-term partnership.
This does not mean brands should stop working with major media figures. The most resilient strategies are built on a combination of two approaches: partnering with established influencers and systematically looking for those who are only beginning to gain influence. This balance allows brands to get predictable results now while creating growth points for the future.
In an overheated market where the cost of access to the biggest influencers keeps rising, brands need to go beyond obvious choices and test less obvious hypotheses. These decisions may seem risky at first, but when they work, they pay off many times over.