Letting go to grow: How to work with creators effectively

Opinion

Marketers are pouring fresh investment into influencers and creators. That momentum will only translate into brand growth if we move from command and control to guardrails and trust, and measure both the quick win and the long haul, writes Kantar.

The creator economy is no side hustle story. A recent Oxford Economics impact study revealed that YouTube creators contributed £2.2bn to the UK economy in 2024, supporting 45,000 jobs. That’s more than the nation’s commercial fishing industry, and it’s only one platform. At the same time, Instagram has hit three billion users, growing its user base by a billion in just three years.

In another signal that the industry is growing up, the Government has just announced an all-party parliamentary group (APPG) to represent UK creators and influencers – in their words, “trailblazers of a new creative revolution.”

But while policy catches up, marketers are already propelling the industry forward. Some are going above and beyond – think Unilever, which made headlines by announcing that it would be investing half of its marketing budget into influencers.

So Unilever is upping social spend. But how much will make it to influencers?

Our 2025 Media Reactions study reveals that a net 61% of marketers globally plan to increase their spend on influencer content in 2026, more than on any other media channel. 

This shift makes a lot of sense. A Kantar and Whalar meta-analysis earlier this year found that 62% of creator content drives both long-term brand equity and short-term sales likelihood, significantly outperforming the Kantar benchmark for digital ads (27%). The study also found that effective creator content gains attention, creates emotional connections and brand memory, and crucially, that allowing creators more freedom in their content leads to better outcomes. 

Let’s not forget, creators come in many forms. Our research shows that three of consumers’ top five most preferred advertising platforms are mainstays of the creator economy. Mass-market appeal puts Snapchat in second place and TikTok in third, and the livestreaming platform Twitch is in fourth.  

And for the first time since we started the Media Reactions study six years ago, a majority of consumers (57%) say they’re generally receptive to advertising, up ten points on last year.

Given that ads are seven times more impactful among more receptive audiences, and people are more receptive than ever, that’s good news, and a tailwind for marketers looking to capitalise on the power of newer channels like creator content.

However, Kantar’s research has shown that only 27% of creator content clearly connects to a brand, despite evidence that a strong connection has a significantly greater impact on brand equity.

In a fragmented landscape, creator content has become a way to reach people more directly and authentically. We also know reach is not enough – creator content needs to connect to the brand it represents and to the culture they’re operating in (which often shifts faster than brands can move themselves).

Let it go…

That becomes challenging when you go from managing a handful of influencers to thousands of creators. The trick – hard as it might be to do – is to cede control. Not entirely, but creators aren’t actors taking direction; they’re partners translating brand meaning into the vernacular of their communities.

The most effective relationships pair flexibility with firm guardrails that define purpose, tone, safety, and legal red lines, codify distinctive brand assets (mnemonics, design codes, sonic cues), set disclosure standards, and establish fast escalation paths… and then let creators create. 

Move from one-offs to scaled consistency

To show up everywhere in a fragmented world, brands need to build consistency, not one-hit wonders. The good news is that consumers are noticing better campaign integration, particularly across online elements, with positive sentiment rising from 56% almost a decade ago to 70% now.

Synergy now accounts for about 45% of campaign impact (up from 18% pre-2014), so almost half your brand impact comes from touchpoints working together. 

Yet only 64% of marketers feel confident they integrate well across channels, down from 89% in 2017.

Guardrails become the mechanism through which you should brief creators and teams to interpret one idea differently, yet recognisably, for different formats and channels, so the impact of each channel compounds to become more than the sum of its parts. To do so confidently, marketers need to continue testing and learning.

The mindset shift

If creator marketing feels messy, that’s because culture is messy. The job isn’t to tidy it up. It’s to channel it.

With the Government now recognising creators’ economic and cultural weight, and marketers leaning in, the winners will set rails, pick the right partners, and let creators translate brand meaning into moments people want to spend time with.

The audience is more open to advertising than at any point in years. Let’s meet that openness with work that belongs where it appears.

Gonca Bubani is the global media director at Kantar.