NEW YORK – Influencer marketing is here to remain. At least, that’s what brands have signaled through pledges to speculate more in creator-driven content and the appointment of specialised agencies of record (AORs). But as influencer marketing takes on a more significant role in brand strategies, expectations from marketing decision-makers are rising, with a bigger emphasis on performance and standardization.
Meanwhile, creator agencies have seen an uptick in mergers and acquisitions from large networks, an indication that ad-holding groups are seeking to strengthen their foothold within the space. Executives at an Advertising Week New York panel on Tuesday discussed how creator marketing has evolved lately, where the landscape is headed and the high expectations brands should hold for their creator AORs.
“The expectations that we now have as marketers and types today have absolutely moved on from where we were a 12 months or so ago, so our creator agencies have to be highly strategic, super insights driven — in addition they have to have account excellence in a way that they didn’t have before,” said Casey DePalma McCartney, chief brand communications officer at Unilever U.S.
The panel, titled “More than a Trend: The Rise of the Creator AOR,” was moderated by Gabe Gordon, co-founder and CEO of Reach Agency, and likewise included George Hammer, global head of luxury marketing for Marriott International, and Damon Berger, head of consumer digital engagement at Gap.
An evolving landscape
U.S. brands are expected to spend $13.7 billion on influencer marketing by 2027, up from $10.5 billion this 12 months, in line with forecasts from eMarketer. That level of growth has inspired an industry shift amongst marketing services providers, with over 60,000 agencies now making influencer marketing a part of their offerings, Gordon said. Creator marketing as a specialized service could also be comparatively young, but brands should still hold the identical standards for those agencies as they do for more traditional creative partners, McCartney said.
“Work with us to make sure that we’re optimizing that entire process from end-to-end,” McCartney said. “There’s a ton of legacy creative agencies that we work with, the Ogilvy’s of the world and the like, and that was the expectation from them for years, but that’s exactly what we expect from the creator agencies now too.”
In March, Unilever declared it would shift half of its ad spend to social media and multiply its work with influencers 20 fold. In 2024, the corporate increased its marketing investments by roughly $1 billion, its highest level in over a decade and a signal of what that spending hike could appear like for social media and the creator economy. The investment plans emphasize how far creator marketing has come, even over the span of 5 years.
“We were doing a whole lot of work within the space across all our brands at Unilever, even five years ago, nevertheless it was so tactical,” McCartney said. “It was like, we want content, we want to work with these folks, we have to be doing this — we’re not exactly sure what that’s getting us, but we have to be doing it anyway. If you concentrate on it now, we’ve moved to a rather more strategic place.”
Keys to a successful partnership
Creator agencies may also help brands tackle tasks like influencer management, contracts and strategy. However, for brands seeking to link with an agency, it’s critical to remember whether or not they’ll add value beyond what may very well be done internally, Berger said. Gap works with creator software platform CreatorIQ and has teamed with influencer marketing agencies including Buttermilk on campaigns.
“If we’re attempting to go [for] broad reach on a particular campaign or our daily, [it’s] much harder to succeed in that scale level internally, and I feel that’s the massive piece that we use our external agencies for is to get on the market and have that level of scale,” Berger said.
Berger also emphasized the importance of taking a more nuanced approach to creator strategy versus a blanket approach. For example, affiliates are different from micro influencers, and mid-tier influencers are different from macro influencers, with each having their unique audiences and approaches. Brands should tailor their approach based on each creator’s role.
“Each considered one of those levels can have its own strategy and its own AOR around it,” Berger said. “It’s really a really fragmented world that we’re living in without delay when it comes to: How do you, as brands, navigate that whole aspect of who’s doing what?”
For Marriott’s Hammer, it’s critical to link with a creator agency that’s willing to be on the bottom with the brand as a real collaborator and fill the gap in responsibilities.
“In this world of company efficiency, there’s not going to be a whole lot of hiring of staff at firms in the longer term. So it’s essential work out, as an agency, learn how to change into indispensable and almost be a part of the team,” Hammer said.
Brands even have a responsibility to the creator agencies they team with. Marketers who own the measurement side of the equation and are available prepared with a framework around strategy are more prone to have an empowering relationship with their creator AOR, Berger said.
“Owning that measurement, owning what the outcomes are, allows for a greater partnership inside the creator AOR space since it gives you a tighter framework to operate what they’re actually going after as opposed to only form of boiling the ocean and considering all the pieces is at play,” Berger said.
Where the industry is headed
The creator space isn’t without pain points, Berger explained. Many creator agencies are still required to correspond with other groups, like talent management firms. However, social media platforms have begun to remove a few of that friction, a trend the chief expects will result in some kind of evolution within the years to come back.
“We’re beginning to see the platforms begin to own a few of those relationships again,” Berger said. “There’s now, I feel, a unique world and environment that’s starting to look where the platforms understand how useful the space is, and the way frictional it’s to all of us.”
For example, YouTube recently announced a brand new feature called open call that helps brands discover and team with creators on a big scale. Meta earlier this month announced recent artificial intelligence-powered tools to assist with creator discovery.
These innovations and ongoing bets from brands emphasize that creator marketing isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. In turn, brands should view the tactic as essential in the event that they want to form deeper relationships with consumers, Berger said, with those not yet on board prone to falling behind.
“From my perspective, if anything has modified over the past five years it’s that [creator marketing] is totally indispensable, and for the businesses on the market that are still fascinated with it as a pleasant to have, that’s where I feel like possibly the relevance isn’t quite where those firms want it to be for their brands,” Berger said.
Read the total article here
