Three signs the creator economy is at an inflection point for marketers

“It’s more money, more problems,” said Gabe Gordon, co-founder of social shop Reach Agency. Gordon later added, “Creator marketing has come from afterthought to mainstage.” 

And with the mainstage comes the spotlight. Here are three signs that the creator economy is at an inflection point for marketers. 

Creators as a media channel 

No doubt, marketers are spending more on influencer marketing — Emarketer’s latest influencer forecast predicts U.S. influencer marketing spending will surpass $10 billion this year. Part of that cash infusion is coming from Unilever, which announced plans to invest half of its ad budget on social media to work with 20 times more influencers. And where one of the world’s largest advertisers goes, others are likely to follow. 

Influencer marketing is becoming a full-fledged planned and measured media channel, accounting for performance and brand marketing, according to The Influencer Marketing Factory co-founder and CEO Alessandro Bogliari.

“Now, whenever we talk with the head of marketing or the CMOs, and people that are working on other marketing channels, they want to be sure that everything is interconnected,” Bogliari said. 

The challenge, he added, is calculating the ROI to determine if that influencer-led campaign led to a sale. It’s a familiar crossroads and seemingly, creators aren’t immune to measurement headaches. More on that later.

Building infrastructure 

Creators are breaking out of their role as content partners, showing up across live events, podcasts and more. There’s an ecosystem building around influencer marketing in which marketers are hiring creator agencies of record, retail media networks are building creator affiliate programs, and holding companies and private equity firms are snapping up influencer agencies. Plus, Blue Apron meal kit brand recently brought its influencer program in-house, thus reigniting the in-house versus external agency partner debate (but that’s another story.) 

Even in building out creator campaigns, there are more seats at the table. What was a deal between brands and influencers has become a negotiation process with influencers, talent managers, agencies and tech platforms. 

“There’s already this indication that that shift is happening, but those opportunities are putting creators on the inside of the brand rather than orbiting around it,” said Lucy Robertson, global head of brand marketing at influencer agency Buttermilk. 

Infrastructure signals maturation. And in that way, influencer marketing has become institutionalized in the same way as other media channels, like programmatic or streaming.

Growing pains 

The thing about a growth spurt is that it doesn’t come without growing pains.

As noted, spend is up. Creators themselves are taking notice and asking for a bigger piece of the pie. Or as Bogliari puts it, “Everyone is trying to get the bag and sometimes the prices are correct, sometimes [they] are crazy.” 

Creators have more bargaining power than they had before, forcing brands to negotiate things like usage rights, additional deliverables, and exclusivity to get the most bang for their buck.  

“As it becomes more of a real business, influencers are going to start to see more of that pushback on some of those costs. Because the outcome, from a client business standpoint, doesn’t warrant it,” said Megan Boveri, chief media officer at Pinnacle advertising and marketing group. Measurement and incrementality are still playing catchup. 

For a multi-billion dollar industry, questions still linger around creator content and its ability to move the business forward. Vanity metrics won’t cut it anymore as marketers seek granular level insights, especially clicks and sales. At the same time, marketers are grappling with a lack of standardization in costs given influencers aren’t paid via CPMs, said Gordon. 

All said, the next phase of growth for the creator economy hinges on whether the industry can solve its measurement and fragmentation woes to make it a full-fledged media channel.