Every few years there’s a huge shift in media budgets; currently, that shift is toward influencers and creators.
This may not seem new, but the level of focus is significantly higher than in years past and worth a deeper dive. In the old days, the saying was, “software is eating the world”, but now it’s creators who are eating the world.
Influencers and creators have been an area of focus for the last six years as social media has grown to become a primary channel for advertisers. 2025 is a tipping point, though, with more advertisers exploring how to engage this channel in a way that scales and can be measured more accurately than in years past.
For advertisers engaging in this area prior to 2025, it was a ‘gut level’ feeling, with measurement of total engagement and sentiment toward a brand.
The ‘trust transfer’
Now, advertisers are getting more granular and finding ways to measure the results of these kinds of partnerships more clearly. It’s more than sentiment. It’s more than attention. Advertisers are seeing there’s a ‘trust transfer’ that takes place between a creator, a viewer and the brand.
The fact that other digital channels are sliding in terms of performance doesn’t hurt interest in creators, either.
Overall, open web traffic is starting to decline. Display ads have been low performers for quite some time (they have a role to play, but not the same role as they used to).
Video is still growing and expanding, but creator content, especially the high-quality content that I keep writing about, is filling a need for advertisers who want to put more of their budgets into this channel.
Lines are blurring
The lines are blurring between professional and creator content, as production quality is high, the formats are 30 minutes or longer, and distribution for this content is increasing across VOD, streaming and more.
What you watch on YouTube that comes from a creator is as good, if not better, than what you may see on most cable channels.
Even the more investigative or journalistic content that creators are making can rival what I see on shows like 60 Minutes.
Better quality, focus on more granular measurement, increased volume: This is what creator content is seeing. Surrounding that channel is decreased ‘competitive’ channels with lower performance, decreasing volume and a rapidly changing ecosystem where the future is focused on generative search results, more time spent with video, and evermore creator content.
Follow the money
It’s a simple recipe to follow, and this is why people like Terry Kawaja and LUMA Partners are out banging the drum for the ad-tech industry to service creators for marketers to spend their media budgets being on them. He’s right – the industry needs to follow the money.
Holding companies are buying up tools like Captiv8 and Influential. This is where things are headed. Creators are eating the world.
What’s your creator strategy looking like for 2025 and into (yes, I will say it) 2026?
Cory Treffiletti is chief marketing officer at generative AI-powered product placement platform, Rembrand. He was previously SVP at FIS. He has been a thought leader, executive and business driver in the digital media landscape since 1994. In addition to authoring a weekly column on digital media, advertising and marketing since 2000 for MediaPost‘s Online Spin, Treffiletti has been a successful executive, media expert and/or founding team member for a number of companies, and published a book, Internet Ad Pioneers, in 2012.
