Why retailers like Target and Aerie are moving beyond straight affiliate deals with creators

Club Target is more in line with the formats of programs recently launched by Urban Outfitters, American Eagle, and Aerie, which engage smaller creators at scale, while Target Ambassadors leverages creator-guided shopping platform LTK to activate bigger creators with more reach.

“We saw an opportunity to move beyond a one-size-fits-all creator model and build programs that better reflect how creators operate today,” said Travis. “One of the biggest learnings from our previous program was that creators have different needs and ways of engaging with brands…we saw how Target already shows up across social platforms through Target runs, product hauls and lifestyle content, giving us a strong foundation to make discovery more shoppable.”

Stephanie Sandbo, chief revenue officer at LTK, told Digiday its partnership with Target involved the retailer recognizing that different creator programs serve different roles. 

“Some programs are designed to amplify customer loyalty and generate consumer-led UGC,” Sandbo said. “Target Ambassadors is designed for creators who are already driving measurable business impact and consumer loyalty for Target – tapping into trusted creator communities to deliver authentic influence at scale.”

LTK’s platform helps drive more immediate results for Ambassadors, without Target having to build its own affiliate infrastructure.

“LTK provides the infrastructure for that more advanced creator relationship – including tiered commissions, bonus incentives, gifting opportunities, creator messaging, access to flat-fee campaigns, deeper brand engagement and a rewards structure tied to performance,” Sandbo said.

That solves a serious scaling and structural problem, which retailers are increasingly running into as they build out creator and affiliate programs. 

“Scaling affiliate programs effectively is incredibly difficult,” said Keith Bendes, chief strategy officer at influencer marketing agency Linqia. “Creators are influencing many times the number of purchases that affiliate links track, and so the most talented creators will not participate in a program that doesn’t properly reward their work and impact.”

Bendes said the rewards model lets brands add more benefits to their programs, which makes them more enticing for more creators and keeps them engaged for longer. 

Owning relationships, building community

Megan Vasquez, head of creator strategy at creator marketing platform GRIN, said retailers have realized they need to manage more of the creator relationship themselves, from recruitment to rewards, through in-house programs like Club Target or ME@UO. At the same time, they’re adding touch points across the broader creator ecosystem by partnering with platforms and meeting creators where they already are on social. 

“These gamified programs can activate all different types of people – it doesn’t necessarily have to be the ideal affiliate, someone that’s going to drive significantly high volume. It can be smaller creators who will flood the market with lots of content,” she said.

For Vasquez, these in-house programs have a dual purpose, acting as both a revenue engine and a content driver. 

There’s also a community angle at play with these newer creator programs: leveraging existing fans with much smaller followings to get involved, can help the UGC feel more authentic. These kinds of programs can also offer more consistent touch points, as brands can push out prompts to hundreds or thousands of micro- and mid- creators rather than having to reach out to larger creators to organize specific campaigns.

Me@UO leans heavily into nurturing existing Urban Outfitters customers, with its recently launched program promising smaller creators a chance to go on a coveted two-day brand trip to Joshua Tree which featured workshops, brand activations and surprise performances. Target’s gamified program is open to smaller creators, as well, encouraging existing brand fans to participate. 

Aerie’s Realmakers Creator Community launched late last month in partnership with brand advocacy platform Duel. Creators with 1,500 followers or more on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube or Pinterest could join, and the program offered tiered access based on follower count as well as a rewards program that included personalized product, experiences and special events.

“Creator marketing is becoming much more community-driven,” Aerie CMO Stacey McCormick told Digiday. “Creators are especially responding to the sense of access and community feeling like they’re genuinely part of the brand ecosystem rather than just participating in a campaign.”

McCormick said Aerie met its acquisition goal for Realmakers within the first seven days, with 78% of those who signed having already participated in some way, and that the program generated almost 20 million in reach within the first week through UGC. 

Retailers are increasingly realizing that creator programs require extensive infrastructure in order to scale on the affiliate side, and a much more community-focused, rewards-driven structure for the smaller, hyper-engaged creators who are already loyal customers. Even with partners like LTK, Duel and GRIN, retailers are trading simple, low-touch affiliate setups for more complex, resource-heavy creator ecosystems: a shift that not every retailer will have the budget or scale to justify. 

For retailers that can make the investment, that complexity also creates room for a more nuanced approach to managing different types of creators. 

“Target is not treating all creators the same. That is where I think the market is going,”  Vasquez said. “A creator with 2,000 followers who loves Target, posts organically, and can create authentic content is valuable, but they should not be managed the same way as a full-time creator with an LTK storefront and a proven ability to drive affiliate revenue.”

New programs and recent shifts reflect how quickly this part of the creator economy has evolved in the last year or so, and how much work goes into building, scaling, and maintaining these kinds of programs. 

“Even the world’s largest retailers and brands struggle to make straight affiliate programs work,” Bendes said. 

Bendes, Vasquez and Sandbo all said that the industry is heading towards brands investing in building infrastructure for creator programs and recognizing that creating lasting relationships with a large number of creators can be just as important as generating affiliate sales from a few.

“I think we’ll continue to see more brands move toward hybrid creator program models over the next year,” Vasquez said. “The old model was often one-size-fits-all: recruit creators, give them a link or code, and hope it drives sales. Brands are realizing that different creators play different roles in the funnel, and they need program structures that reflect that.”