How did Euromedia start managing dozens of data-driven barter collaborations?

Euromedia is one of the most influential publishers that shape the Czech book market and reading culture . Under their wings are brands such as Luxor , Pikola or Ikar. They have long maintained their position as a lovebrand on the Internet. For years, they have been building a community of creators who share their love for books online, helping Euromedia naturally reach new readers and authentically communicate new titles and interesting topics. Through reviews, recommendations and personal stories.

In 2025, Euromedia decided to change the way they work with their creators. The volume they work with on a monthly basis is not small at all. In barter collaborations alone, the internal team manages more than a dozen creators, and the smooth handling of all collaborations cost them dozens of hours of time and work every month.

In the case of Euromedia, cooperation with creators was built primarily on long-term relationships, not just formal contractual agreements. Trust and the creators' natural willingness to share information about book titles with their followers played a key role. The brand regularly sent out a list of book news , from which the creators chose the ones that appealed to them and then published about them on their networks. Due to this organic approach, the brand did not know in advance the number of outputs or the publication plan. The only thing left to do was to monitor the outputs retrospectively and manually, often with the help of screenshots of performance, without the possibility of evaluating the communication comprehensively. 

With the growing number of involved creators, the volume of content and demands, it became increasingly clear that the situation was not sustainable in the long term. And that even unpaid collaborations have their price - in the form of products but mainly the time and energy of the team. It was therefore necessary to start evaluating the return on this considerable investment .

Euromedia therefore decided to start cooperating with Carl for Social Business - a tool for convenient measurement of influencer marketing , which works great even where it seems that " it's not about money ".

When quality relationships are based on data and a system

The introduction of the tool into Euromedia's daily operations has not only simplified data collection. The brand has gained a clear and convenient system thanks to which it can evaluate barter cooperation from the perspective of real benefits and develop it further strategically and meaningfully. Barter cooperation, which is often perceived as an exchange without major demands, has now received a clear framework for the first time.

Thanks to Carl for Social Business, Euromedia now has clarity on what topics creators covered in a given month, what content they published, how their audience is enjoying it , and what visibility the brand is gaining in these outputs. It can track post performance across campaigns and formats and evaluate creators' long-term contribution – regardless of whether they paid for the collaboration with money or products.

How to implement a new system naturally?

The change in collaboration management brings one practical challenge: how to present it to creators in a way that they see it as a natural part of the collaboration and not as a barrier or administrative burden ? Many creators had years of working directly and without tools. They simply chose a book, created content, and shared it with their community. This personal approach was one of the reasons why they loved working with the brand so much.

Euromedia chose a natural path and personal contact to introduce the Carla platform. It first showed it to creators at one of the regular meetings it organizes for them. These aim to strengthen relationships, strengthen the community and at the same time pass on news — and it was there that the opportunity arose to introduce Carla as a new system for managing collaborations. The platform representative then showed the creators live how the new solution can make their work easier, simplify processes and why it makes sense even for unpaid collaborations .

After the introduction of the new system, creators gradually started to join the application, and within a few weeks, most of those with whom Euromedia has been cooperating for a long time had signed up. Some decided to continue their cooperation in the original way, but the vast majority quickly adopted the new system. They especially appreciated the time savings, less administration, and the fact that they had all the information about their collaborations clearly in one place.

"We have been using the Carl for Social application at Euromedia for barter creators for approximately half a year. During this time, we have connected more than 2/3 of all our barter creators to the application. The biggest benefit of using Carl is undoubtedly the time savings, lower administrative burden and clarity. Previously, we did not have the opportunity to evaluate individual outputs in real time and compare them with others. We also spent a lot of time managing the emails through which the outputs were previously sent. All of this led to the aforementioned time savings. We see that Carl for Social is constantly developing and we are very excited to see what else it will bring us."

Karolína Skácelová, Marketing Brand Manager – IKAR & Yoli, Influencer Specialist

Paid collaborations run in parallel – but in one system

But it's not just about barter! In addition to barter communication, Euromedia also carries out campaigns with paid creators every month. Whether it's specific book releases, thematic editions or seasonal selections. These are also part of the unified reporting.

This allows the brand to compare performance across collaboration types – regardless of whether it was barter output or paid content. This gives the brand a clear overview of not only who can deliver good numbers , but also which creators have a long-term benefit for the brand and are worth building a relationship with and transforming them into brand ambassadors.

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• 50+ creatorsconnected in the Carl for Social app
• 30%or more of the time savings in reporting and evaluation
• 8+ monthsWe are building a long-term partnership between Carl and Euromedia

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Unified system, better decision-making**

The implementation of the system has made collaboration clearer and simpler. The team has more accurate data on what is actually happening in campaigns – without manual tracking or reporting via screenshots.

Unified management allows:

• compare creators' performance across campaigns – from branded impressions to completed impressions or branded CPM or time spent on content (we explain more about these metrics in the article Make decisions based on data: how to find out which influencer campaigns really work )
• track their benefits over time,
• have a more thoughtful overview of collaborations – from the number of outputs to their performance on all networks. The current system remains in place: Euromedia sends an offer and creators choose and publish as they see fit.
• focus more on content and relationships , instead of operations and manual reporting .

Today, the brand works with clear data that helps it understand what really works in campaigns. It sees when a book or brand appeared in a video, what space the creators devote to it, and how the audience enjoys this content. But most importantly, the brand is clear about which creators can communicate the Euromedia brand best. That is, not only create beautiful content, but also naturally and effectively convey a message that has a real impact.

And that's the difference between collaboration that just looks good – and collaboration that actually works.