Your Weekly Creator Marketing Update🚀
18.11.2024
Hello and welcome back to your weekly creator marketing update. The newsletter has taken a bit of a back-seat lately but we’re back & committed to sending out weekly updates. Have a great week and enjoy this week’s update!
💻Why the ad industry is redefining what it means to be a creator vs. influencer
TL;DR
The ad industry differentiates between creators and influencers, terms that are evolving with the rise of new technologies and marketing strategies. Creators focus on producing high-quality, platform-native, authentic content, often collaborating with brands on long-term projects. Influencers, on the other hand, leverage pre-built audiences to drive immediate impact, often in a more transactional manner.
HEADLINE QUOTE
“While [the term influencer] was once accurate to describe individuals sharing their personal lives and subtly influencing behavior, the landscape has significantly evolved,”
OUR TAKE
This topic is a personal favourite of mine, as I’ve seen the industry shift in front of my very own eyes over the past decade. I’ve seen many struggle with how to best utilise these online personalities and how to best match them against their often unique business use-cases, often kick-started by a mismatch in understanding the different types of creators out there, and how to partner with them in the most effective and efficient way. I’ve seen that when you’re unable to segment the different types of content-creators and the potential added value they bring, you’re already one step behind the curve. Maintaining awareness around this topic within the ad-space is extremely important as it helps set expectations and drives continuous clarity across the board for those working with creators.
On a personal level, I believe that both types of creator have an incredibly important role to play within the framework and ecosystem in which content-creators & influencers are utilised, and developing a multi-year sustainable framework that sets out a meaningful approach is key. I am convinced that no company should build their strategy or expect long-term success by utilising only creators or only influencers. Creators are not ad-buys, and individual success (or lack of) can often skew perception of success.
In the short term, influencers with their built-in ability to generate awareness can be extremely powerful, but if you’re unable to convey a more meaningful narrative in the long run; impact will reduce significantly. Counter that with a narrative-focused creator approach only and you’ll find you’re missing the reach to actually get your message across.
Verdict: build a meaningful long-term approach (that is refreshed frequently!) and find a balance between influencers and creators to maximise your impact.
🏭 This week’s must-reads
📷How influencer shops and agencies are adding content studios to boost production speed, revenue
In recent months, several influencer shops and agencies have built or expanded their content studios as they strive to keep pace with the speed and scale that a robust social media strategy requires.
Not only does this allow them to move more quickly on creative assets and meet client needs in real-time, but it can also be more economical to use their own space and hire in-house creators than outsourcing. The type of model, content and use of creators at these studios differs, depending on the company. For example, some shops want to tout cinematic production quality, whereas others want to stay true to a lo-fi, user-generated content (UGC) feel.
📈28 Important Influencer Marketing Statistics To Know in 2025
Explore the latest influencer marketing statistics and discover key trends, costs, ROI data, and demographic insights that shape effective influencer strategies.
✍️ Why Visa is right to back creators as small businesses
The payment giant’s bold initiatives, from real-time payouts to creator summits, signal a seismic shift in how brands embrace the growing power of the creator economy.
📲IZEA Research Finds People Trust Influencer Marketing Over Traditional Advertising
The report shows that 77% of respondents prefer content created by social media influencers over scripted advertising from marketing professionals, and 85% of social media users trust sponsored posts from influencers more than celebrities. Additionally, since 2022, TikTok and Instagram have grown tremendously as the go-to source for product research, while fewer people turn to friends and family for recommendations.
🎙️YouTube Calls on UK Government to Back the Creator Economy
YouTube is calling on the UK government to offer more resources and support for creators.
The social media platform is running a survey in conjunction with research consultancy Public First, asking UK creators to share their experiences in an attempt to raise awareness of the impact that creators have on the UK economy.
🕹️Quantifying the impact of creator programs
Most developers and publishers view the concept as a uniquely powerful tool in their arsenal for reaching new players, but determining the tangible potential an activation can provide is often nebulous. Sales may spike when a content creator's gameplay goes viral, but how can teams better understand the overall impact investing in an influencer activation can provide?