In this guest post, Mindshare’s Liz Penton (main photo) shares the three trends marketers need to keep pace with the growth and evolution of creator marketing and how it can turn the growth dial for brands…
As we all bunkered down during the pandemic, the increase in demand for premium entertainment has accelerated. In recent years we’ve spent more time than ever before streaming content, and more active than ever before on social platforms with a significant growth in people connecting with creators, with over 50 million creators worldwide.
And it’s not just content we’re after; it’s connection too. Connected communities, built off social exchange, culture, shared passions; people are finding their tribe and getting behind it.
Creators have never played such a crucial role in bringing two of the most desirable online activities of content and community into one place. As a result, the creator marketing playbook is evolving with the power moving to creators and their communities. Here are three key trends to keep you at pace:
Creators are expanding their model to grow connected communities
Connected communities means more interaction, more intimate moments, more premium content, more time with their community, managing more platforms and well, overall, a lot ‘more’ of everything. So much so, creators are looking at how they can better monetise their content. In the past it’s been mostly focused on advertising revenue and sponsored posts. This has now evolved to include everything from subscription-based content, merchandise and NFTs, to selling interactions with fans. This comes with good intentions because it enables creators to have more control over their content, keep their communities connected, active and growing for the long term.
While monetising their content offering with mechanics like subscriptions/paywalls can appear as a barrier for brands, it’s a concept that is widely being developed, and offers an opportunity. Brands can forge strong relationships with a diverse range of creators and understand their strategy for the future, especially around the growth of communities. Brands can be part of that journey, which brings me to the next noticeable trend…
Brands are looking for ways to enhance community experience alongside the creator.
They are doing this by not only defining the role of creators in their marketing mix, but by understanding the role of their brand in the creator’s community and taking a more considered approach to understand where they have synergies to form longer term partnerships. Brands and agencies are applying more strategic rigour with increased insight on communities and using tools like INCA to make more informed decisions. More informed decisions result in greater confidence to open up their brand story with creators alongside their fans, which is a win/win for the creator, community and brand.
Our industry tools are evolving with more meaningful metrics to measure creator communities.
Engagement metrics to assess active communities are increasingly important. The number of followers a creator has alone is simply not enough anymore. There are many more nuanced variables at play such as the relationship between creator, community, and platform.
There’s been an explosion of tools to support creators and now it’s time for agencies and marketers to follow suit. INCA is a newly developed Creator Tool that allows marketers to input different variables like engagement, follower genuineness, audience profiles and content format and quality, among many others. What’s super appealing is that it then gives a recommended list of potential creators based on those variables to make an informed decision.
As we move into a new era of creator marketing, what’s really underpinning the success of these communities are the deep, ongoing relationships between creators and their fans and their relationships between creators and digital platforms, that in their own right are evolving too.
