What Enterprise Brands Like Soho House and Spotify Look for When Booking Talent
Working with enterprise brands changes the brief. When organisations like Soho House, Spotify, Barclays, and Google commission talent partnerships, they're not just looking for reach or cultural cache; they're looking for a set of specific commercial and reputational standards that smaller brand partnerships often don't require.
At Spoken For, we've worked with brands at this level and have seen firsthand what separates the partnerships that get commissioned from the ones that don't make it past the first conversation. Here's what enterprise brand talent partnerships actually look like from the inside, and what any brand looking to work at this level needs to understand.
Credibility Over Clout
The first thing enterprise brands tell us when they come with a brief is some version of: " We need someone credible. Not just popular. Not just relevant. Credible.”
What that means varies by category, but in health and wellness, it means qualifications, demonstrable expertise, and a track record of content that stands up to scrutiny. Enterprise brands, particularly in regulated sectors like financial services and healthcare, face reputational and sometimes regulatory exposure if they work with someone who makes claims they can't substantiate.
Spotify, for example, has worked with talent around the intersection of music and mental health. That's a sensitive space. The talent they choose needs to be able to speak with nuance, handle difficult subject matter appropriately, and represent the brand without creating risk. Reach is almost irrelevant if those boxes aren't checked first.
Professional Reliability Is Non-Negotiable
Enterprise brands run campaigns on timelines. They have legal sign-off processes. They have multiple internal stakeholders whose expectations have to be managed. What they cannot have is a talent partner who is difficult to brief, slow to deliver, or unreliable in their communications.
This is a more significant differentiator than many talent assume. We've seen exceptionally talented individuals, with large, engaged audiences and genuine expertise, lose enterprise opportunities because they couldn't operate professionally within a corporate campaign structure. Missed deadlines, unclear communication, and resistance to the brief process are deal-breakers at this level.
One of the reasons brands come to Spoken For rather than sourcing talent independently is that we manage this on their behalf. We brief talent thoroughly, set clear expectations, and handle the professional infrastructure so the brand's team isn't managing a relationship they didn't sign up for.
Alignment With Brand Values (Not Just Aesthetics)
Enterprise brands have spent years and significant budget building a set of values that their audiences recognise and associate with them. When they bring in a talent partner, that person temporarily becomes a representative of those values. If anything in the talent's public history, past partnerships, public statements, or content contradicts those values, the brand is exposed.
This is why enterprise talent vetting goes deeper than a quick Instagram scroll. It involves looking at brand history over 12–24 months, reviewing previous campaign partnerships, checking public statements, and in some cases, having conversations with talent representatives about how specific topics would be handled if they came up during a campaign.
Brands like Barclays have particularly rigorous standards around this, given their regulatory environment. Working with a financial services brand means any talent they commission needs to be able to operate within strict communications guidelines, no speculative financial claims, careful handling of money conversations, and clear separation of personal opinion from brand-aligned content.
The Brief Is a Partnership Document, Not a Directive
One thing that distinguishes how Soho House and organisations of that calibre approach talent partnerships is that they treat the brief as a starting point for collaboration, not a set of instructions. They want talent who will push back constructively, who will flag when something doesn't fit their audience, and who will bring creative ideas to the process, not just execute what they're told.
This requires a level of creative confidence and professional self-awareness that not all talent possesses. The best enterprise partnerships happen when the talent is given enough creative latitude to make the content feel native to their world, while working within the brand's strategic parameters. That balance is difficult to find and harder to maintain. It's also what produces the best work.
What This Means If You're Approaching Enterprise Brands
If your brand is looking to run partnerships at this level, or if you're talent looking to work with enterprise clients, the common thread through everything above is professionalism combined with genuine expertise.
You need a track record that can be scrutinised. You need a clear set of values that are visible and consistent. You need to be able to operate within a structured campaign process without losing the authenticity that makes you valuable in the first place. And you need an agency partner who understands both sides of that equation.
Looking to run an enterprise-level talent partnership? Spoken For Agency works with brands at every scale. Book a discovery call to discuss your brief and find out who we'd recommend.