Will creator marketing ever be measured on par with other media channels?

Future of Brands: Creator Economy Week in Focus

As brands continue to increase their investment in the creator economy, questions around measurement, commercialisation and effectiveness are becoming harder to ignore. How can creator marketing be evaluated alongside more established media channels without losing sight of what makes it valuable in the first place?

As part of The Media Leader‘s Creator Economy Week in Focus, we asked nine industry experts to weigh in on three key questions: whether the growing commercialisation of creator content risks undermining audience trust, what needs to change to make campaigns more measurable and comparable, and what brands still underestimate – and overestimate – about the opportunity creators present.

Contributors include:

• Scott Guthrie, director general, Influencer Marketing Trade Body (IMTB)
• Jess Morris, head of campaigns (UK), The Goat Agency, part of WPP Media
• Dani Roberts, campaign director, Purple Goat
• Thomas Walters, co-founder and chief innovation officer, Billion Dollar Boy
• Olivia Stephens, EMEA head of creative strategy and operations, Whalar, part of Accenture Song
• Georgia Kelly, head of content partnerships UK, Snapchat
• Milka Privodanova, VP, LinkedIn marketing solutions, large customers – international, LinkedIn
• Beatrice Mustocea, creator & public figures lead, TikTok
• Tim Mitchell, CEO, Nutcake

As more brands invest in creators, is there a risk that creator content becomes too commercialised and loses what makes it valuable to audiences?

Most creators are very protective over their content and community. They know that if they only post very obvious paid ads, their audience will start to lose trust and may even disappear completely.

 

Jess Morris, The Goat Agency: “This really comes down to the creators and brands at an individual level. Most creators are very protective over their content and community. They know that if they only post very obvious paid ads, their audience will start to lose trust and may even disappear completely.

“For that reason, many creators carefully balance organic and paid content, work only with brands and products they truly enjoy, and when they do make a paid ad, ensure it looks and feels in keeping with their usual style. Brands need to follow this lead too and ensure that they aren’t oversaturating the social landscape to the point that it starts to feel inauthentic.

“They also need to work with creators who are the right fit (even if that’s sometimes unexpected) and co-create entertaining content, not scripted ads.

“I believe there will always be a desire for creator (and brand!) content online. It just has to be good. It has to inspire, educate and/or entertain. As advertisers, we should always prioritise making something that is valuable for the audience; then it will never feel commercialised.”

Milka Privodanova, LinkedIn: “Brands need to remember why people follow creators in the first place. People increasingly rely on real people and trusted voices to help them make decisions, with 67% of UK B2B marketers saying buyers are turning to peers, trusted experts, and creators over brand content (LinkedIn’s Global B2B Marketing Outlook).

“The strongest partnerships pair creators who genuinely understand their industry with the freedom to bring their own perspective. Audiences value their knowledge, experience and personality, so while brands need to be clear about what they want to communicate, the content still needs to feel natural to the creator and useful to their audience.”

Dani Roberts, Purple Goat: “There is a risk, and that’s why working with creators and agencies that bring real lived experience is so important. A partnership makes much more sense when a creator genuinely uses a product or service, believes in it and can show the role it plays in their life.

“They then are adding value to that brand. Audiences don’t need every piece of content to be free from commercial partnerships. They need to understand why that partnership makes sense.

“When there’s a genuine connection, the value is much easier to see. As more brands invest in creators, we need to think more carefully about whether the brand, creator, and agency align on values and what they want to achieve together.

“Those are the foundations for campaigns that make a difference, build brand love and give audiences something valuable. The commercial results matter, of course, but the partnership needs a purpose beyond making a sale.”

Olivia Stephens, Whalar: “The global creator economy is surging toward $500bn by 2030, with over 200m creators worldwide and 30% of Gen Z viewing becoming a creator as a career path. With no shortage of diverse talent and a constant injection of new creative thinking, the real battle will be retaining audience trust and having a differentiated brand proposition.

“The risk of commercialisation isn’t simply brands spending more money, it’s templatised commercialisation – falling into the trap of using the same copy-paste formats, over optimising with low quality or synthetic content, aimlessly reacting to trends, or partnering with creators without having a clear strategic reason to.

“Audiences don’t need more passive content; they want to feel something and see their lifestyle reflected. The future of creator marketing is about entertainment, active participation, and multi-platform presence. There is a great compounding impact to working with creators in an integrated way and across multiple touchpoints, beyond social.”

Tim Mitchell, Nutcake: “I don’t think we’re anywhere close to that happening yet. A few things will happen as creator spend grows. First, many great, smaller creators aren’t attracting brand budgets and would start to benefit as the industry grows.

“Until now, the safest bet for brands has been larger, mainstream creators, and they get the lion’s share of budgets. Second, brands and creators will figure out the formula for more entertaining branded content, and viewers won’t feel like everything is being “commercialised”, which is often how it feels now. The third effect will be brands going into more niche interest areas and working with specialist creators.

“This means maintaining authenticity by working with creators who have specific knowledge, expertise, or interests. The fourth and final point is that it’s likely each platform will create specific places for people to shop, and viewers will separate a lot of branded content from their everyday feeds. I’d expect to see social commerce grow as the industry matures.”

What needs to change to make creator campaigns as measurable and comparable as other media channels?

We need to look beyond how many people creators reach and better understand the value of the relationships they’re building.

 

Scott Guthrie, IMTB: “Metrics standardisation. A “view” on YouTube is not the same as a “view” on TikTok or an “impression” on an Instagram Reel. The industry needs standardised, cross-platform metrics.

“Often, measurement and evaluation data remains siloed within separate departments and across creator, media, and creative agencies. A sure-fire way to unlock bigger budgets lies in the ability to tell a unified story of corporate success from creator work data as a single source of truth.”

Georgia Kelly, Snapchat: “Creator influence doesn’t just stop when someone finishes watching a video. Someone might screenshot a product they love, share a creator’s recommendation in their group chat or send a Snap to a friend asking what they think. These are all really powerful signals of influence, but they’re not always captured by traditional campaign metrics.

“And that’s where I think we need to get smarter about measurement. It’s not just about how many people saw a piece of content, but what they did next. Did it spark a conversation? Did someone recommend it to a friend? Did it influence a purchase decision later on?

“We need to get better at understanding those behaviours and connecting them to real business outcomes, while respecting the privacy of those conversations. Because sometimes the most valuable thing a creator inspires isn’t another view or like, but a conversation between friends that ultimately leads someone to choose a brand.

“I’m also really excited about what Creator Subscriptions could tell us. When someone is willing to pay for exclusive content and a closer relationship with a creator, that’s a pretty powerful signal of loyalty. It gives us another way to understand the strength of a creator’s community, alongside more traditional campaign metrics. Ultimately, we need to look beyond how many people creators reach and better understand the value of the relationships they’re building.”

Jess Morris, The Goat Agency: “To some extent, we need to stop trying to force creator marketing into the same box as other media channels. The reality is that we aren’t able to measure the results of a creator campaign in the same way that we would a display ad; they are fundamentally different with one relying on human beings to create content that resonates and sticks in people’s minds, while another measures an immediate numerical response.

“At the same time, we can of course still measure the impact of a creator campaign or long-term creator strategy much more effectively now than in the past. The first element is in ensuring we are measuring the right thing and on the same page regarding objectives – i.e. an awareness campaign is not necessarily going to lead to an  immediate sales uplift.

“Secondly, it’s about measuring wider impact as well as immediate. Yes, impressions, engagements, clicks and saves can tell us something about how well that piece of content performed. But we can also run brand uplift or perception change studies which look at impact overtime. Agencies should coordinate with other departments like Search to track contributions to search queries, website visits, or LLM discovery, and look at creator marketing as a key element of the full media ecosystem so measuring it as part of a whole, not just in silo.”

Thomas Walters, Billion Dollar Boy: “Impactful creator content delivers both short-term sales and lasting brand-building effects, but campaign measurement is rarely set up to capture both.

“Our survey of 2,000 senior marketers across the UK and US, exposed a major structural disconnect: 41% brief creator campaigns to drive brand awareness, yet 60% evaluate success against short-term ROI and acquisition. You can’t brief for upper-funnel growth and judge the work like a pure performance play.

“To level the playing field with traditional media, we need to adopt standard econometric modeling, brand lift studies and creative diagnostics, like emotional attention and eye-tracking. When we measure the full chain of effects to link emotional resonance with commercial outcomes, we give CMOs and CFOs the evidence they need to invest with confidence.”

Milka Privodanova, LinkedIn: “Better measurement starts with being clear about what a creator campaign is meant to achieve. If the goal is to build awareness, measurement will differ from a campaign designed to influence consideration or generate leads. Brands need to agree on those objectives upfront and assess performance against them.

“This is particularly important in B2B, where buying decisions take time. The average B2B buying cycle lasts 272 days and involves around 22 stakeholders, so clicks and immediate conversions won’t capture the full impact of a campaign. Creator content can help build familiarity and trust long before a buyer is ready to make a decision.”

What do brands still underestimate about what creators can bring to a campaign? And what do they overestimate?

You’re not just hiring ad space, you are showing up in front of an engaged audience where the relationship is based on trust, so trust the creator.

 

“In an algorithm-driven feed, relevance beats theoretical reach. Stop paying for conceptual clout and start investing in credible brand-creator fit. View 10 Instagram Reels, and only three of those 10 will be from an account you follow; the rest will be served to you based on algorithmic recommendations. Brands should focus on the appropriateness of the fit with potential creators, not the theoretical clout of follower count.

“Brands overestimate that better results lie in creative control. One of the biggest mistakes brands still make is over-engineering the brief. When you force corporate copy onto a creator, you strip away the exact relatability you’re paid for.

“Some brands still over-engineer the brief, forcing creators to read rigid, agency-written copy. This corporate jargon strips the content of the exact relatability and credibility that made the creator valuable in the first place, leading to audience rejection and poor campaign performance.

“On the flip side, insufficient guardrails can lead to sponsored content which is too loose to land. It’s likely to be ineffective as marketing content, lacking brand messaging or calls to action. The sweet spot lies somewhere between the two: guardrails that allow creators to translate a brand’s key messages while producing content that resonates with their community without stifling their voice or creativity.”

Georgia Kelly, Snapchat: “I think brands sometimes forget what makes creators so special in the first place: the relationships they’ve built with their communities. The best creators know their audiences inside out. They know what will make them laugh, what they’ll care about, what they’ll share with friends in the group chat and, just as importantly, what they’ll scroll straight past.

“That’s incredibly valuable for brands, particularly as AI makes it easier than ever to produce content. You can replicate a format, but you can’t replicate a genuine relationship with a community.

“On Snapchat, 63% of Snapchatters say they feel a personal connection with the creators they follow. That’s the real opportunity for brands. It’s not just about reaching an audience, but becoming part of the conversations and connections that matter to them.”