Latest / Influencer Confidential / The Creator Economy Report 2026 & Beyond — What Creators Need to Know #280

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The Creator Economy Report 2026 & Beyond — What Creators Need to Know #280 · Influencer Confidential

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Influencer Confidential by Sidewalker Daily. My name is
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  Speaker 1: Nina Data and I will be your host. I love
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  Speaker 1: working with brands and influencers on all things business strategy.
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  Speaker 1: Are you ready to learn what it takes to work
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  Speaker 1: in this influencer industry and see behind the current Well,
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  Speaker 1: let's jump in. It's not every day that creators want
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  Speaker 1: to read reports about their industry and see what's happening.
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  Speaker 1: But as someone who truly believes that creators need to
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  Speaker 1: start thinking of themselves as entrepreneurs. You guys are business owners.
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  Speaker 1: You need to understand your industry, or at least let
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  Speaker 1: me help you understand it. I'm going to be going
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  Speaker 1: over a report that came out from Creator iq that
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  Speaker 1: is really really interesting in terms of data and facts
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  Speaker 1: to help give us indicators of where the creator economy
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  Speaker 1: is going and why this matters for us as creators.
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  Speaker 1: The report is really interesting because it not only is
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  Speaker 1: going to give us some really great data, the way
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  Speaker 1: that the data was picked was I believe over seventeen
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  Speaker 1: hundred respondents from both brand agency and creator side, so
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  Speaker 1: we're getting a good pool of participants there, but we're
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  Speaker 1: also getting an inside look at what brands are looking for,
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  Speaker 1: what are their roadblocks, And this information is so valuable
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  Speaker 1: for you as a creator to have to be able
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  Speaker 1: to understand. So whether you're pitching or negotiating or trying
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  Speaker 1: to land that paid partnership, you have a leg up
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  Speaker 1: on this information. Now, I will link this report for
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  Speaker 1: you guys. It's free if you want to download it
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  Speaker 1: yourselves and take a look and follow along with me,
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  Speaker 1: or if you just want to be a data nerd
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  Speaker 1: like me and go through it on your own time,
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  Speaker 1: that's fine. What I've done is I've gone through this
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  Speaker 1: report and kind of cherry picked the most important parts
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  Speaker 1: I think for creators that you guys have a good
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  Speaker 1: understanding for your own businesses. So the first thing that
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  Speaker 1: I think was really interesting when it comes to twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty five and the influencer a creator economy that pulled
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  Speaker 1: out here, it said, amid economic uncertainty, average influencer marketing
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  Speaker 1: investments increased one hundred and seventy one percent. So this
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  Speaker 1: was a huge skyrocket when we're thinking the type of
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  Speaker 1: growth we saw in just twenty twenty five alone, this
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  Speaker 1: is basically greater than the growth that they saw from
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty one to twenty twenty four, so just in
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  Speaker 1: one year it ballooned and these marketing budgets ballooned. And
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  Speaker 1: one of the things that really caught my eye here
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  Speaker 1: in this report was that nearly two thirds of influencer
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  Speaker 1: marketing investment was reallocated from digital and paid channel. So literally,
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  Speaker 1: all that means is that influencer marketing budgets they basically
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  Speaker 1: came from paid or digital advertising. So it's not like
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  Speaker 1: there was more money being spent, it just was getting
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  Speaker 1: taken away from other areas. And I think this just
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  Speaker 1: goes to show that influencer marketing is not going anywhere.
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  Speaker 1: You as a creator, should feel really good to know that,
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  Speaker 1: like our budgets are now being you know, higher than
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  Speaker 1: paid ad budgets, Like that's going towards influencer marketing. That
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  Speaker 1: is super exciting and a really good green flag for you.
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  Speaker 1: What's interesting is that this report basically also showed that
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  Speaker 1: bigger companies, which they call enterprise companies, because enterprise companies
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  Speaker 1: are spending more, they're more confident in the power of
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  Speaker 1: content creators, whereas mid market organizations. These numbers are also increasing,
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  Speaker 1: but they're just like a little slower to get ahead
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  Speaker 1: because they're maybe not as risky or you know, have
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  Speaker 1: the ability to spend as much to see those sort
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  Speaker 1: of results. So a key stat I want you guys
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  Speaker 1: to get pumped on is that brands plan to increase
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  Speaker 1: creator marketing they're spend in the next two years. So
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  Speaker 1: again there's a big booze happening when it comes to budgets.
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  Speaker 1: And this is important for you guys to stop doing
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  Speaker 1: those gifted collabs and understand that brands are getting smarter too,
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  Speaker 1: and they're allocating budget for you. It's on you to
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  Speaker 1: go advocate for yourself and ask for it. Now, this
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  Speaker 1: report really clearly identifies top roadblocks for brands. What are
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  Speaker 1: the brand struggles? I want you to know this so
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  Speaker 1: that you can come into negotiations stronger because you have
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  Speaker 1: this knowledge base. So one of the biggest road blocks
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  Speaker 1: around twenty six percent was difficulty measuring influencer performance. So
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  Speaker 1: brands had a hard time saying, hey, this went well
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  Speaker 1: or this didn't. How can you, as a creator be
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  Speaker 1: a part of that solution. How can you ask for
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  Speaker 1: you know, a tracking link or give that brand that
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  Speaker 1: confidence to say, hey, I'd love to set up some
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  Speaker 1: sort of system or tracking so that you guys feel
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  Speaker 1: a little bit better in measurement. That just is like
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  Speaker 1: so wild right for a creator to say that that
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  Speaker 1: to show such confidence, and it really helps them with
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  Speaker 1: that block that they're having. Another roadblock that a lot
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  Speaker 1: of brands had was navigating AI generated content and or creators.
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  Speaker 1: Brands don't want to pay content creators for AI content,
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  Speaker 1: They could just do that themselves. So again, you as
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  Speaker 1: a creator can take this and give that brand that
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  Speaker 1: comfort to let them know that everything that you produce
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  Speaker 1: is not AI, that everything is done in house on
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  Speaker 1: your team or with you or whatever, to again help
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  Speaker 1: ease them with that roadblock. Now, something else that I
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  Speaker 1: think is really interesting that should catch us our eyes.
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  Speaker 1: There was a question in this report that said, what
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  Speaker 1: this is current top priority for your organization's influencer marketing program,
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  Speaker 1: and the top priority was building brand awareness and audience
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  Speaker 1: affinity through creators brand awareness. That top piece of the
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  Speaker 1: funnel was the first and most important priority that creators
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  Speaker 1: are able to introduce their brands and keep brand awareness going.
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  Speaker 1: This is a really great thing for you to know why,
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  Speaker 1: as a creator you're going to basically be able to
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  Speaker 1: give brands that confidence and say, my content's going to
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  Speaker 1: help you with that brand awareness piece, because again now
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  Speaker 1: we know that this is such a top priority for them.
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  Speaker 1: And of course the data also shows that basically around
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  Speaker 1: ninety eight percent of a creator's content was repurpose. So you,
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  Speaker 1: as a content creator, maybe when you're putting your packages together,
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  Speaker 1: you're putting a proposal, you should include cross marketing and
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  Speaker 1: be like, I'll make this piece of content and we
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  Speaker 1: can distribute it or repurpose it on other platforms, and
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  Speaker 1: that price is already bundled in rather than nickel and
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  Speaker 1: diming the brand and charging because so many of them,
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  Speaker 1: ninety eight percent of them are all already wanting to repurpose.
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  Speaker 1: So knowing this is also key in your negotiations. You guys,
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  Speaker 1: so many of you know I come from the brand side,
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  Speaker 1: agency side specifically, so our job as an agency, we're
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  Speaker 1: like the middleman, the gatekeeper. We work with the brand
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  Speaker 1: they pay us, and then we would work with the creators.
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  Speaker 1: And the number one thing that agencies are struggling with
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  Speaker 1: is brand safety. This is by far their top top challenge.
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  Speaker 1: So when I say brand safety, it really means like
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  Speaker 1: creator suitability, making sure these creators are a good fit
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  Speaker 1: for their clients. They do not want to give them
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  Speaker 1: a creator that has a past or is not brand safe.
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  Speaker 1: They want to make sure that vetting is thorough because
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  Speaker 1: think about it like a creator's reputation if a brand
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  Speaker 1: is paying that agency to handle it, so that reputational
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  Speaker 1: risk that comes and falls on the agency side. So
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  Speaker 1: that's why these agencies are being paid the big bucks
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  Speaker 1: to make sure their vetting is done right now. Something
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  Speaker 1: that was exciting. So many creators ask me, Nina, like
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  Speaker 1: when I pitch a brand, do I want to pitch
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  Speaker 1: in house? Like? Do I pitch the brand directly? Do
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  Speaker 1: I pitch the agency? How does that work? And this
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  Speaker 1: report and data actually shared that about thirty seven percent
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  Speaker 1: have a hybrid model, which is in house and agency,
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  Speaker 1: so they have people in the company that are dedicated
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  Speaker 1: to influencer marketing efforts and they have an agency that
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  Speaker 1: they are working with. It also said that seventy two
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  Speaker 1: percent of brands managed creator of marketing in house in
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  Speaker 1: some capacity. So you know there are is people that
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  Speaker 1: are only working with an agency they don't want to
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  Speaker 1: deal with it. There's people that have hybrid. That just
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  Speaker 1: shows that when you are actively pitching you guys. Not
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  Speaker 1: only do you want to pitch the agency, you want
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  Speaker 1: to pitch the brand directly because these brands are doing
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  Speaker 1: this influencer marketing in house. Now, if you're a creator
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  Speaker 1: that wants to understand how to effectively pitch these brands,
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  Speaker 1: whether it's getting the contact information, what to say in
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  Speaker 1: the pitch, how to you know stand out amongst all
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  Speaker 1: the other creators. That is our specialty here at Sidewalker
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  Speaker 1: Daily is outbound pitching, getting you in the arena, getting
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  Speaker 1: you knocking on doors, and getting those brand deals. I
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  Speaker 1: have so many students that you usould just sit and
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  Speaker 1: wait for brands to come to them, and now they're
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  Speaker 1: out there reaching out talking to brands. So if you
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  Speaker 1: are someone who wants to actively pitch, I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: go ahead and leave a link below to our Pitching
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  Speaker 1: a Brand's master course. I'm also going to leave a
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  Speaker 1: little secret YouTube code for five hundred dollars off. It's
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: only going to be available for people who click that
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  Speaker 1: link below. I will include a secret secret code for
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  Speaker 1: you guys. So if you are actively interested in outbound
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  Speaker 1: pitching and you want to get into the arena, you
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  Speaker 1: want to pitch brands. You want to pitch them and
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  Speaker 1: get paid. This program is for you. Now, this is
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  Speaker 1: probably the top question that everyone wants to know. Does
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  Speaker 1: follower count matter? How important is it? When it came
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  Speaker 1: to this report in the data, So it is so
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  Speaker 1: interesting and so exciting to see the results of this
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  Speaker 1: report pulled in. The question was when you were selecting
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  Speaker 1: new creators who worked with which factor is the most
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  Speaker 1: important on a scale from one to ten. Let's start
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  Speaker 1: at the very top, creator suitability or fit, having that
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  Speaker 1: perfect creator fit, that was the number one priority. Then
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  Speaker 1: came content performance. Brands wanted to see that the content
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  Speaker 1: was going to perform well working with a diverse group
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  Speaker 1: of creators, having creators in different age ranges or races,
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  Speaker 1: or you know, you want to be able to show
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  Speaker 1: diversity in the creators that you're allocating your budget to.
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  Speaker 1: Creators who have a brand affinity or a history of
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  Speaker 1: posting that brand in the past. That showed up. Then
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  Speaker 1: it was the audience demographics. The audience demographics was fifth
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  Speaker 1: on the list. Here that came to be something that
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  Speaker 1: was fifth. Then there's a bunch of other things in
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  Speaker 1: terms of fit or whatever. But look what came eighth
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  Speaker 1: on the list eighth place follower count. Follower count fell
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  Speaker 1: all the way to eighth place. And when you just
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  Speaker 1: think about it, if you are a niche creator, think
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  Speaker 1: about it. You have that perfect audience for that brand
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  Speaker 1: that's going to make you more attractive for that brand
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  Speaker 1: than if you have a whole bunch of followers and
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  Speaker 1: a big old following that is not related. So this
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  Speaker 1: was really big news for smaller creators out there. This
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  Speaker 1: is a major win that this report showed us. Now
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  Speaker 1: another major win for creators, you guys, I feel like
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  Speaker 1: this report is just giving us so many hits right here.
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  Speaker 1: Another major win is the gifting products. Gifting seeding giving
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  Speaker 1: creators products for free has declined in favor of paid
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  Speaker 1: media strategies. It shows that gifting and seating have dropped continuously,
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  Speaker 1: especially when it comes to ROI. They are seeing moroi
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  Speaker 1: with boosting creator posts, branded sponsored posts, affiliate marketing, UGC,
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  Speaker 1: giveaway contests, events, influencer trips, all of that. It's so
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  Speaker 1: much better than gifting. So gifting doesn't bring the results.
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  Speaker 1: Why because creators are getting smarter and they know they
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  Speaker 1: don't have to post about it, even just from a
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  Speaker 1: tax implication they don't have to post about it, so
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  Speaker 1: they were saying The report says, yes, gifting, you know,
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  Speaker 1: is great for relationship building, but it basically is like
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  Speaker 1: hoping that creators post about you versus just paying the
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  Speaker 1: creator and being more direct. So that is a major
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  Speaker 1: win that we saw in this report. Also, for all
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  Speaker 1: the creators out there that are scared about AI influencers,
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  Speaker 1: you shouldn't be. No one really wants to use them.
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  Speaker 1: This report showed us that the average engagement rate on
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  Speaker 1: Instagram for AI generated creators was low at about one
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  Speaker 1: per cent, so that is really really low engagement, and
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  Speaker 1: brands do not want to work with lo loo engaged
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  Speaker 1: profiles or content, so that just kind of shows that
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  Speaker 1: AI creators are not the future here. Now, it comes
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  Speaker 1: as no surprise that Instagram is the most favored ecosystem.
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  Speaker 1: It's for our brand deals and partnerships around influencer campaigns.
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  Speaker 1: But obviously there's YouTube, there's Facebook, there's TikTok, there's ex LinkedIn, Snapchat, Pinterest,
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  Speaker 1: and then it goes down from there. Instagram is the one.
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  Speaker 1: But what we did see YouTube did overtake TikTok this year,
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  Speaker 1: so there was a swap there, imtam YouTube. I'm on YouTube.
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  Speaker 1: I love YouTube. I think their attention here is amazing,
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  Speaker 1: so this was exciting to see. Now I'm not sure
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  Speaker 1: if there's any brands listening in, but this report also
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  Speaker 1: spoke on the half of creators about what creators wanted
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  Speaker 1: what would make a partnership more successful From the creator side,
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  Speaker 1: and the creators ask for more communication, more creative input.
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  Speaker 1: They want consistent and long term partnerships. They don't want
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  Speaker 1: one off so they want to get paid fair for usage.
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  Speaker 1: They feel like there's a gap in the usage market here,
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  Speaker 1: timely feedback for approvals like come on, guys, move faster,
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  Speaker 1: don't just sit and wait forever. So these are things
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  Speaker 1: that I obviously know because of my creator community I
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  Speaker 1: hear all the time, but it was really interesting that
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  Speaker 1: this report also shared things around creators. Also, creators shared
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  Speaker 1: some of the barriers of their business, which I think
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  Speaker 1: you guys can all relate to the platform and algorithm changes.
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  Speaker 1: Lack of consistent brand deals will not my creators because
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  Speaker 1: they get consistent brand deals because they know how to pitch.
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  Speaker 1: Other creators are seeing a lack of consistent brand deals
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  Speaker 1: and just not getting paid their value getting paid under
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  Speaker 1: So that was definitely communicated, and I think that's good
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  Speaker 1: because there's a lot of people on the brand side
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  Speaker 1: reading this report and it shares that creator perspective of
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  Speaker 1: what create want, what creators are looking for. But all
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  Speaker 1: in all, this report had so much great data for us,
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  Speaker 1: so much that we're going to be using here at Sidewalker.
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  Speaker 1: I'm actually hoping to interview one of the team members
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  Speaker 1: over at creator iq to speak to her directly, to
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  Speaker 1: again tap into what a brands want, what do they need?
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  Speaker 1: So we ask creators can have this intel in our
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  Speaker 1: pitches and have it in our back pocket. And if
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: you're a creator that needs help, whether it's working with
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: me one on one in your pitching strategy, or working
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: with our design studio, or just getting us in your
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: business with you, I'm going to go ahead a link
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: below a link to a call with a member of
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: our team. They'll share with you different ways that we
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: can support you, how we can get in the trenches
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: with you. So go ahead and book a call. If
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: you're a serious creator, it's serious about monetization when it
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: comes to brand partnerships. I hope you enjoyed today's episode
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: If you did, make sure to rate, review, and subscribe
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: to our show, and visit Sidewalkerdaily dot com for more
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: resources on all things influencer, marketing and social media. Until
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: next time,