How independent agencies are staking their claim in the creator economy

Nowadays, that’s no longer the case.

Today, many of the same rival agencies are making similar moves — snapping up creator agencies and building bespoke tech to gain an edge. They’ve realized that to carve out their share of this lucrative market, they need to put serious skin in the game to stand out.

Take BrainLabs, for instance. The agency launched Bitesights Booster in October — its own tool that helps marketers identify the best creators on Meta’s platforms for their specific campaign or brand regardless of follower count. The agency plans to expand it to other platforms, those the specifics of this plan are still under wraps. But regardless of the platform, the tool’s functionality remains the same: to use AI technology to optimize campaigns, effectively enabling clients to get more bang for their buck.

“There is a full dashboard where clients can go in and see all the influencer posts that they have,” said Ofir Halfon, global vp of product at Brainlabs. “They can see what the organic exposure was, the paid exposure, and when we [Brainlabs] decided to turn it off and move on based on results.” 

Bytesights booster had been in testing since March across different regions and large scale clients, though Halfon did not give specific names.

The goal is to carve out a clearer path to ad dollars within the creator economy for BrainLabs by building proprietary tech that pulls into the slipstream of the platforms’ dominance of the space. 

In theory, this approach helps them avoid being sidelined or disintermediated. As Halfon pointed out, when Brainlabs develops tech, there’s no need for the team to replicate what platforms are already doing or any off-the-shelf solutions that already exist.

“Our approach is always to think ahead of the curve,” he added. “Think about what isn’t already available, what can actually make a difference and invest in that.”

The same rationale steered BrainLabs’s decision to buy TikTok agency FanBytes, which also came with its own proprietary data tool Bytesights, two years ago: securing a stake in a platform that’s becoming a central force in mainstream culture — and, naturally, a magnet for ad dollars over time.

Another example is Stagwell Group, which opts to grow its business via acquisitions. The company bought TikTok agency Movers+Shakers in November 2023, and more recently the influencer agency Leaders in July.

“A lot of the marketing spend that goes through the services side of Leaders, for example,  happens in Tel Aviv’s global brands. It gives us a foothold there, which is often part of a global remit for us to have access to a lot of local markets,” said Jason Reid, Stagwell’s chief investment officer. “Part of our acquisition strategy is to take our business from being 20% international to 40% international over time, so we can better service our clients.” 

But tech and acquisitions aren’t the only paths agencies are taking to make their mark. Some like Razorfish, are moving further upstream, building specialized teams dedicated to strategy, creative content and analytics focused on creators.

Back in March, Razorfish launched its Creator Colab, an in-house team which creates made-for-platform content.

“We saw a real need in the marketplace for a quick-turn solution where we could help our clients by giving them the ability to harness the power of authentic creator content quickly, because it’s all about speed in this [digital] world,” said Cristina Lawrence, evp of content and consumer experience at Razorfish.

The need Lawrence is referring to is having an internal team of creators and producers they could call on for the jobs. “Usually, you’re working with a third party, or you’re contracting a creator,” she said. “So this [launching Creator Colab] gave us incredible flexibility.” 

Lawrence explained the team consists of creators, strategists and producers that work in a studio-like fashion. “They take various requests from across the organization, and execute against those briefs,” she added. “We also have creators that are embedded within specific accounts.” And as the social landscape changes, the team intends to evolve the offering.

Having this capability in-house means Razorfish can cherry pick which partners or third parties they want to work with rather than be beholden to them because they rely on those additional skillsets. The revenue, then, gets to stay in-house rather than be distributed to a number of additional contractors.

These moves signal clear intent: to create solid propositions and build businesses around a corner of the ad market where they’ve historically struggled to gain a strong foothold.

For many, it was more “nice-to-have” than “must-have”. But as the space becomes richer and more multi-dimensional, the stakes are rising, such as the growing influence of YouTube creators and podcasters. They are becoming even more successful because of their ability to engage large audiences, as well as generating substantial revenue from brand deals.

“Creators and influencers are truly becoming their own media networks,” said Lawrence. “It’s a really powerful tool for creating new connections with new and even niche audiences and communities at large.”

The numbers back this up: venue from U.S. creators alone is set to continue rising. Last year, the total revenues generated by U.S.-based creators reached $11.76 billion, and is expected to rise by 16.5% to $13.70 billion at the end of 2024, according to eMarketer. That figure is expected to increase a further 15.9% to $15.87 billion at the end of next year, per eMarketer’s forecast.