Creators offer ‘more than reach’: What’s driving creator partnership growth?
Analysis | Future of Brands: Creator Economy Week in Focus
Last month, IAB UK forecast that creator partnerships would exceed £1bn for the first time, reaching £1.2bn in 2026. That represents 26% year-on-year growth, up from £966m in 2025 and £804m in 2024.
Announced at IAB UK’s Creator Marketing Summit in London, the figures mark a significant milestone for an industry whose rapid expansion has not always been matched by consistent measurement.
Commissioned by IAB UK and conducted by the Institute for Advertising and Media Statistics (IRM), the study claims to provide the first dedicated measurement of the size and growth of the UK creator partnership market. Its methodology follows the principles of IAB UK’s Digital Adspend study, drawing on an industry survey, interviews and desk research, with measurement focused on campaigns targeting UK customers.
The figures cover revenue generated from creator campaigns appearing on creators’ own digital platforms, including production and distribution revenues and digital rights. They exclude advertising placed alongside creator content, wider creator revenues such as subscriptions, events or product sales, and paid amplification of creator partnership campaigns.
Connie Hawker, TV+ and creators lead at IAB UK, said the decision to focus initially on creator partnerships was because it sits at the “core” of the creator ecosystem.
“It’s what most of us automatically think of when we talk about creator marketing and it’s where the magic lies: creators lending their expertise, trust and audiences to a brand partner,” she said. “There has never been a reliable ad spend figure for creator partnerships and, as the market has matured, it has become imperative that we can accurately size it.”
The distinction between creator partnerships and paid amplification is significant. The report notes that additional investment in promoting creator content could substantially increase the total amount advertisers spend on creator campaigns.
Industry experts interviewed for the study suggested that amplification spend could potentially amount to two to three times creator partnership revenues, although the report stresses that this estimate should be treated with caution.
Hawker said revenue from paid amplification is already captured within IAB UK’s overall measure of the digital advertising market, but current reporting does not distinguish it from other social and video advertising spend. Breaking out that investment remains an ambition for IAB UK, she added.
The figures nevertheless point to a market growing faster than digital advertising spend overall. In 2025, creator partnerships accounted for around 2.4% of the official £40.5bn Adspend figure. Their 20.1% year-on-year growth was more than double the 9.6% growth recorded for digital advertising investment, excluding creator partnerships.
Why are creator partnerships growing so fast?
For much of the industry’s development, creators have been treated as a separate channel within media plans. Increasingly, however, their role is being considered alongside wider brand-building, content and distribution strategies.
Paul Greenwood, head of cultural strategy and insight for EMEA at social-led creative agency We Are Social, said the latest figures indicated that the creator economy was “maturing from a standalone channel into a core part of how brands build relevance and growth”.
He added: “Brands increasingly value creators for more than reach: they are cultural translators, production partners, community connectors and part of the media mix.”
That shift reflects a broader understanding of what creators can offer advertisers. Beyond access to an audience, creators can bring specialist knowledge and a distinctive way of communicating with consumers.
Greenwood said the strongest brands were building what he described as an “influencer architecture”, using different creator roles across the marketing funnel, from brand-building and consideration to conversion and advocacy.
“That only works when creator content is connected to branded content, UGC, community and paid distribution,” he said. “The opportunity here is not more creator posts, but a joined-up content system where each element reinforces the others.”
The argument is that creator partnerships are becoming less about individual sponsored posts and more about how creator-led content works alongside other marketing activity.
Hawker also pointed to advertisers’ growing understanding of the relationships creators have with their audiences, and the value those relationships can offer brands. She cited Unilever as an example of a business tapping into micro-communities at scale.
Creators are also increasingly bringing their own expertise, strategy, and creative capabilities to brand partnerships, rather than simply providing access to an audience.
Hawker said creators were often “experts in their field and exceptionally good at making highly relevant content that can be seamlessly folded into brand campaigns”.
The infrastructure supporting these partnerships has developed too. Hawker said specialist creator agencies had expanded, with many becoming part of major media agency groups. Creator marketing technology has also made it easier for brands to work with creators at scale.
Together, these developments suggest that creator partnerships are becoming more integrated into established marketing operations, rather than remaining an experimental or peripheral activity.
However, integration also raises the bar for demonstrating their value. If creator investment is becoming a more established part of the media mix, advertisers will increasingly need to understand how it performs, how it compares with other channels and what it contributes to wider business objectives.
Hawker argued that shared standards for planning, buying and measuring creator partnerships would help the market mature, making it easier for advertisers to invest with confidence.
“Greater alignment will make it easier for advertisers to invest with confidence, reducing complexity and allowing creator partnerships to scale beyond individual campaigns or short bursts of activity,” she said.
The opportunity, then, is not simply to increase the number of creator partnerships, but to make them work harder within broader marketing strategies.
IAB UK’s forecast suggests that creator partnerships are becoming an increasingly significant component of advertising investment. But the next stage of growth will depend on how effectively brands can connect creators, content and distribution – and demonstrate the value that combination delivers.