By Rachael Webb

The default answer to every brand’s existential crisis is now a creator brief. We’ve traded in long-term strategic thinking for the dopamine hit of a ‘hot’ partnership, acting as if simply activating the creator is a strategy in itself. 

‘How do we make it go viral?’ and ‘How can we get as many views as possible?’ are questions that haunt the boardroom, and when said content doesn’t go viral, creators are written off as a waste of time, effort and, of course, money.

Don’t get it twisted: creators are essential. They provide the credibility and culture that brands can’t manufacture. But influence alone is a volatile asset. If your growth depends on an individual’s posting cadence or an algorithm’s whim, you aren’t scaling – you’re just showing up.

Influencer marketing is now a US$24 billion industry, yet the question of commercial impact – and the volatility of its ROI (return on investment) is on everyone’s lips. Everyone wants a piece of the pie, but they don’t want to lay the groundwork for it to work.

Most brands only wake up once the dopamine hit of the influencer campaign launch wears off. The posts are shared, the Slack channel pops off for 48 hours, and then the numbers flatline. The next brief starts from a blank page. New faces, new assets and the same mistakes on a different timeline.

The cycle is predictable: launch, spike, flatten, repeat. They end up treating creator content as disposable rather than an asset.

Let’s zero in on the other end of the campaign spectrum. Look at Sephora globally – it operates a layered ambassador and affiliate model, underpinned by its owned social media channels, paid media, retail integration and a sophisticated data loop. Its creator content is utilised in ads, organically, across product pages, in-store screens and its loyalty program. 

Sure, it most certainly has some one-off campaigns here and there to announce major moments but, underneath that, an always-on system whirrs. Each individual voice creates connection, but the machine underpinning it drives sustainable growth.

With structure, a once single-use throwaway activity becomes an ROI-generating machine. And the machine is scalable, because it thinks first about the output and the versatility of the content, and not just simply the activity itself.

The brands winning right now have stopped wishing for ‘magic’ and started engineering it. They’ve moved past the era of briefing on trends and hoping for a viral miracle. Instead, they treat creators as valued collaborators working within a pre-designed system. 

They brief with intent, they lock down usage rights before the product’s even in their creators’ hands, and they plan the distribution before they even touch briefing talent. Most importantly? They ensure they share ownership of the output. That ownership is often the line between noise and growth.

When creator content is captured, organised and redeployed across channels, it becomes part of a living library rather than a fleeting hit. Meta’s own studies claim that partnership ads (ads from both the brand and creators’ handles) are the most performant and transparent way to run ads with creators – resulting in a 19 percent reduction in cost per purchase, and a 71 percent increase in brand lift, when incorporated into routine campaigns. Our own studies at Sticki show us that when compared to static and product-only ads, creator content can generate a whopping 116 percent increase in return on ad spend.

Building a creator system forces you to discern between what you want and what you need. You have to define what good looks like. You have to articulate your story in a way that can be told by many voices without losing coherence. You have to invest in building the infrastructure rather than just chasing the trend.

That upfront investment is where a lot of brands throw in the towel. The idea of a system just ‘feels’ slower. It requires upfront planning, buy-in from stakeholders and justification of additional budget. Systems don’t promise the quick win of a viral video that just looks good on-platform, but they do promise compounded growth. A framework for testing. An avenue for truly and deeply understanding how the wild west of the cultural zeitgeist works, and the role your brand plays in it, so you can stay relevant.

Creators are an essential part of brand strategy. They bring culture, context and credibility that brands will never be able to manufacture alone. But their commercial value shows up when they are plugged into something bigger than themselves.

Without a system, the burn is fast and unpredictable. With one, the same energy drives sustained movement forward.

The next evolution of creator marketing will not be defined by who brands partner with. It will be defined by what they build around those partnerships. The brands that continue to rely on individual creators to do the heavy lifting will keep chasing moments. 

The ones that invest in structure will build a reputation that lasts.

Rachael Webb is the head of Brand & Partnerships at Sticki & DataSauce

Read more: The creator era isn’t a trend, it’s an economic reality