Creator Economy Operating Models: The Marketer’s Framework

Executive Summary

Creator marketing is no longer niche. It’s become an established part of the marketing mix with 86% of brands now working with creators.*

However, as it commands bigger budgets and boardroom attention, businesses are leaving growth opportunities on the table because they haven’t made critical decisions about ownership and responsibility.

Based on research conducted with ISBA members, this whitepaper gives you a framework to identify and embed the right operating model for your business and creator strategy using diagnostic questions to guide your thinking.

From measurement to securing stakeholder support, we share how to prove the value of creator marketing and secure the mandate to effectively operationalise it within your business. The right approach depends on size, role, investment and ambition. There is no one-size-fits-all model.

Bolt-on is a flexible, ad hoc solution that activates creator marketing around specific campaigns or moments.

Channel has a more established place in the marketing mix and can require retained agency support and raises questions around data ownership.

Finally, Core is a structural part of how the brand goes to market, and, with a high investment, can be built entirely in-house. Measurement here enables connected reporting and allows creator marketing to sit alongside every other channel and be evaluated on equal terms.

This isn’t a maturity model. The aim isn’t to reach Core, but to choose a model that best fits your brand and your ambitions for creator marketing.

Left unchecked, creator marketing splits across departments, duplicating effort and diluting its commercial impact. It also exposes your business to risk in the form of disclosure failures, brand safety incidents, reputational damage and regulatory action. We believe it’s better to choose one of our operating models and build it to suits your needs rather than settle for one that’s been allowed to evolve by default.