BENlabs, the Bill Gates-founded product placement and influencer marketing agency with clients including EA, Dyson and Chime, is shuttering after a 37-year run, according to anonymous former employees.
The agency’s last day working on clients’ product placement efforts will be April 6, and impacted employees will receive up to three months severance pay, one source said. The BENlabs influencer team was apparently laid off on March 6.
“In previous times, especially pre-COVID-19, things were absolutely amazing,” Justin Smith, BENlabs’ former VP of influencer marketing strategy and integrations, told Campaign. “We did amazing things to move the industry forward. Having been there for nine years, it feels like the end of an era.”
BENlabs has not released a statement on the matter and did not immediately respond to Campaign’s request for comment.
The closure follows a period of financial instability that began in 2024, when Gates provided a final investment for BENlabs to be independently profitable in Q3 of that year, an anonymous source said.
Gates initially launched BENlabs as Interactive Home Systems in 1989, later renaming it to Corbis.
According to another anonymous former employee, BENlabs ultimately faced “too many debt obligations after Gates pulled funding.” The agency explored multiple buyer options — including the sale of its product placement and creator divisions — but hit dead ends, the source explained.
In January, BENlabs CEO Ted Sheffield exited after a decade with the company, according to his LinkedIn profile. BENlabs has not addressed Sheffield’s exit publicly, nor has it announced a replacement.
“It was one of the best places I’ve worked for,” CEO of Creativ Company Wes Morton, who worked as a BENlabs marketing manager for three years, told Campaign. “It’s sad to see an agency and entertainment marketing firm like BENlabs go.”
BENlabs was an industry leader in TV product placement, managing LinkedIn’s placement in Emmy-winning HBO Max series Hacks, Spotify’s placement in Netflix’s Ginny & Georgia and Jameson Irish Whiskey’s placement in Hulu’s Adults.
The agency also specialized in music partnerships, working with Kate Spade New York to integrate Broadway songs and choreographed dance numbers into the fashion brand’s global spots. BENlabs also led Durex’s #LoveYourSex campaign with creators Matt Bernstein and Johnny Ross during a Pride Month LadyLand music festival in 2023.
Staff reductions and CEO swaps
In June 2024, BENlabs cut half of its staff and fired then-CEO Ricky Ray Butler when his efforts to transform BENlabs into an AI SaaS provider fell short. Since then, staff numbers plummeted.
In March 2024, BENlabs employed 434 people, according to LinkedIn data estimates. That number declined 48% to 225 by March 2025, and dropped another 29% to 160 employees by March of this year. The median employee tenure was four years.
A flurry of execs exited BENlabs in early 2026. For example, ex-SVP of finance and operations, Ben Funke, moved to a position with TubeBuddy — which was acquired from BENlabs by GameSquare in February. Chief marketing and insights officer Aaron Frank also recently departed the company, according to an automated email response, though the exact date of his exit is unknown.
Late creator payments, financial struggle
In off-the-record conversations for Campaign’s Creator Pay report last September, BENlabs was among the most frequently cited offenders for late creator payments, and has been publicly accused of late creator payments since 2025.
“If all three factors hit at the same time — a gap in payment terms, late payments from brands and non-payment from other brands — it can create major payment challenges for agencies that can snowball into a real issue,” former CEO Sheffield told Campaign in September.
“This isn’t a rare situation — it has impacted most agencies in the industry and is something we’ve all struggled with at some point,” he added. “Given we’re one of the larger agencies in the business, we’re actively working to resolve the often significant challenges it poses for us.”
In step with Sheffield’s perspective, sources predicted BENlabs’ financial struggle and shuttering is a marker of a larger industry trend.
“[The trend toward investing in] big tech companies makes it harder for smaller agencies to get access to capital. Interest rates continue to be high, so it’s hard to borrow money at effective rates,” Morton explained. “A lot more companies are going to have cashflow issues.”
