The UK advertisers' trade body sets out three ways to run creator marketing, bolt-on, channel and core, as research finds half of brands still manage it ad hoc.
ISBA, the trade body for UK advertisers, has published a Creator Economy Framework to help brands decide how to organise, fund and measure their work with creators. Developed with the consultancy Responsible Marketing Advisory, it sets out three operating models, from treating creators as an occasional add-on to building them into the core of the marketing plan, as Marketing Week reported.
The three models are labelled bolt-on, for campaign-by-campaign creator activity, channel, for an always-on creator presence usually run with an agency, and core, where creators are built into planning across every channel. The framework also covers who inside a business should own creator marketing, how to measure it and how to decide what to invest. Alice Brady, chief strategy officer at Responsible Marketing Advisory, said the aim is for brands to “create the right one for their needs, building in the flexibility to evolve”.
The money has outrun the management. UK creator advertising is forecast to reach £1.217bn this year, up 26 per cent, yet ISBA’s research found 48 per cent of brands still manage creator marketing ad hoc, only 9 per cent treat it as core strategy, and 59 per cent are only somewhat confident about the return they get. Bobi Carley, ISBA’s director of media and advertising relations, said creator marketing “now commands serious budgets” but that the “structures around it haven’t kept pace”.
When the advertisers’ own trade body publishes an operating manual for a channel, the channel has grown up. Creator spend has passed £1bn on the IAB’s figures and is the fastest-growing line in most industry forecasts, but most of it is still bought like a one-off sponsorship rather than planned like media. A shared framework gives marketers the language to argue for budget and, more importantly, to be held to account for it.
It also arrives in a week when the industry is rethinking how it pays for everything, from agency fees to measurement. The weak spot remains effectiveness. For what the evidence says about whether influencer work actually sells, see our piece on influencer effectiveness.
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