Creator marketing has evolved beyond a one-off “nice to have” addition to media plans into a more integrated, measurable part of brand building. Companies are investing in the creator economy and it’s often based on spotting cultural moments and joining the conversation at a human level,” said Bryce Adams, SVP of partnerships at the influencer marketing agency Open Influence. “You can’t afford to ignore this resource,” said Adams. He said he’s seen creator marketing evolve from “get me a Kardashian, I just want to trend on Twitter” to a must-have. Brands can’t be all things to all people and it’s often challenging for them to join cultural moments authentically. That’s where creators come in, he said.
“Creators are a great way to highlight those moments that should be important to all of us,” Adams. It’s hard to keep consumers’ attention, and creators have “become trusted advocates and allies on behalf of brands.”
This approach is important because riding a cultural moment, such as the annual South by Southwest festival, is about more than just showing up in Austin, said Adams.
“You need to participate in a way that’s not just ‘Hey I’m at South-by and I’m going to take a bunch of pictures of me looking cool in all my outfits,’” said Adams. “Show your audience that you know what’s going on beneath the surface.” This can mean creating content about an Austin food tour or a post about tourism in Austin, he said.
SXSW is also the perfect place to launch a product because you have thought leaders and people of influence on the ground including up-and-coming entrepreneurs and established business executives. There’s an opportunity to showcase your product’s value prop and efficacy. If it plays well here it will play anywhere.
“Cultural moments can’t always be planned, but it pays to know how to react. No one would have thought to record a skateboarder happily drinking juice while zooming down the road, said Adams. “If we as an agency had gone to that brand and said: ‘Hey look, we’re going to find a guy from LA and have him skateboard down the freeway drinking Ocean Spray.’ They would’ve been like: ‘Well, that’s not an ad,’” said Adams. “But it became a cultural phenomenon because it wasn’t overly scripted with a professional shoot. For whatever reason it resonated with millions of people. That’s a cultural moment we can’t plan but we can piggy back off of to take advantage of the tremendous earned media and brand love that came out of it for Ocean Spray.”
Aligning campaign goals around a cultural moment is critical, said Adams. Sometimes it’s not about winning the moment on that day, he said. He remembered working with a telecom company some years ago around its Super Bowl efforts. The company said it wanted to win Wednesday through Saturday, because on game day there would be too much happening to stand out.
“I think you have to be clear about what the goal is,” said Adams. “If you just say: ‘We’re going to be there,’ just for the sake of being there, it can hurt from an authenticity standpoint. It can come off as performative sometimes, and it can be counterproductive.”
An omnichannel approach
Creator marketing has increasingly shifted to a more omnichannel approach beyond merely a social media post, said Adams. Creators are making content for a number of formats, he said—everything from creating recipes for point-of-purchase displays, pre-roll ads for websites—and their content need not be siloed anymore. “I think a lot of people are starting to look at creators as content engines, and saying: ‘Great, It’s a less expensive way to make a high-quality piece of video content than it is to buy a Super Bowl spot,” said Adams.
Platforms need content, and creators build targeted audiences. Brands want access to those conversations; and they help creators in turn build their personal reputations and followings. This interdependence has made creators a critical part of the media mix, and with it, creators have become better-integrated into efforts, and their work more measurable. Thanks to affiliate programs and shopping functionalities, creators now can generate revenue that can be tracked and measured.
“It’s becoming more of a two-way street in terms of communication and collaboration among creators and brands,” said Adams. “It used to be more transactional: ‘I’ll send you something, and I hope you’ll post.’ Or: ‘I’m going to pay you and write your script, just put this in your caption and post it.’ Now people are leveraging their expertise and the result is stronger, more effective and engaging content.”
But the guiding principle remains the same: “being intentional about why you’re creating it, what the ask is, and who it is targeted towards,” says Adams. “I think that’s a big shift that we’re starting to see from advertisers, and creators are excited about it, too: It gets them more visibility, it gets them more reach. It gets them more touch points with an audience.”
