The creator economy is flourishing, and brands are eager to strike deals with influencers in an effort to better connect with millennial and Gen Z consumers. But navigating the influencer marketing landscape can be tricky, from figuring out how to diversify your creator base to understanding how to measure the effectiveness of these campaigns.

Influencer marketing spending is on track to exceed $4 billion by the end of this year and approach $5 billion in 2023, according to a report from market research agency eMarketer, and nearly 70% of U.S. marketers worked with influencers to some extent in 2021. Although brands are already flocking to platforms such as TikTok that are flush with creators, and may already realize the power of incorporating influencer marketing into their overall social media strategy, it can be daunting to take the first steps into the creator economy and begin building authentic brand partnerships. 

Last week, Ad Age hosted Ad Age Next: Social & Influencer Marketing, where brands, social media representatives and experts in influencer marketing, came together to offer insight into strategies brands can adopt to tap into the creator economy. Here are some of the biggest takeaways from their discussions.

Choosing the right creators

When deciding to partner with a creator, brands should take the time to research and fully understand that creator’s audience, interests and type of content, said Adrienne Lahens, TikTok’s global head of operations. Above all else, brands should focus on ensuring a given influencer aligns with the brand and its values to make the partnership more meaningful, instead of a cash-grab, she said. 

The creator economy has transformed in the last decade—flashy, aesthetic-oriented content and obsession with follower counts is out, and authentic content that engages with smaller audiences on a deeper level is in, according to Lahens. 

Brands can use tools such as the TikTok Creator Marketplace to search for creators, browse their profiles to learn about their audience and content and contact creators about potential partnerships. The marketplace also gives brands the option to post creative briefs for a campaign on a public forum and allow creators to apply, instead of the brand reaching out to them, Lahens said. 

When working with a creator, brands should also be comfortable relinquishing some level of creative freedom. For example, when Denny’s reached out to TikTok creator and DJ @djhabibeats about a potential partnership, they asked him to make a track inspired by an item on the Denny’s menu using breakfast-associated sounds, like eggs sizzling. The resulting video received over 25 million views, more than any other video the creator has produced, largely because it still resembled @djhabibeats’s other content, Lahens noted.

If a brand is struggling to find the right fit for a creator partnership, it can also consider working with a virtual influencer. These computer-generated, animated avatars can take the form of a brand mascot, like Mattel’s Barbie did in a series of YouTube vlogs beginning in 2015; or they can be an entirely new character. Several brands have turned to virtual avatars with the emergence of the metaverse, as these virtual characters can interact with users in metaverse spaces, said Cameron-James Wilson, CEO of The Diigitals. 

Virtual influencers can be a good choice for a brand when using one makes sense in the context of the overall campaign, such as the launch of a digital clothing collection or an NFT, Wilson said. Brands can also use their virtual avatar to communicate directly with consumers and flesh out a character belonging to the brand, said Nathan Baynard, Mattel’s VP of global brand marketing. 

“Back when we started the vlog series on our YouTube channel ... it gave [Barbie] a voice,” he said. “Parents and kids didn’t know who Barbie was; they didn’t know what made her tick; they didn’t understand her backstory. It gave us an opportunity to make her more human, ironically, and give her a point of view.”

Ensure creator partnerships reflect consumer diversity 

In addition to choosing influencers who align with brand values and campaign goals, brands should always opt to include creators with a range of identities and backgrounds. 

“From a demographic standpoint, every brand’s audience is changing,” said Zeny Shifferaw, creator inclusion lead at Pinterest. “Every brand’s audience and demo is becoming more and more diverse ... It is not enough to just perform [when] the spotlight is on us ... It’s consistent work that we have to do.” 

Brands can actively seek out creators of color, LGBTQ+ creators or those from other underrepresented communities by tapping into programs like Pinterest’s Creator Fund, which works to partner these creators with brand campaigns. Society 18, Pamela Zapata’s influencer management agency that works with creators of color, also helps brands find more diverse creators. Zapata founded Society 18 in 2019 in response to the lack of racial and ethnic diversity she was seeing in brand partnerships with creators. 

“From the bigger management companies to the smaller boutique agencies, I saw that there wasn’t really an agency or a management company that was focusing on diverse creators,” she said. “And not just diversity in terms of having a Black and a brown creator, but different types of creators as it pertains to skin tone, hair textures [and] diverse features.”

An example of a campaign that put diversity at the forefront is Degree’s 2021 “Breaking Limits” program, which involved the brand forming NIL deals with college athletes from a variety of sports—from women’s ice hockey to wheelchair basketball—united by their shared experience of overcoming adversity. When it came to finding athletes to partner with, Degree wasn’t focused on the athletes’ follower counts on social media, but their ability to reflect the campaign’s message of breaking barriers to achieve success, said Desi Okeke, Degree’s brand director. 

Along with selecting a diverse range of creators, brands must ensure pay equality. Recent reports show that pay disparity still exists among creators depending on their race, with Hispanic creators earning an average of $800 less per sponsored post than Asian creators. 

Consider hosting a creator class 

Several brands, including Chipotle and Disney Parks, have launched programs to develop content creators into skilled and reliable partners for brand campaigns on TikTok and other platforms. 

Chipotle was inspired to organize its Creator Class program in 2021 after realizing many TikTok creators were already producing videos that demonstrated a passion for the brand, said Candice Beck, the brand’s social, influencer and Web3 director. She and her team identified 14 creators, each with differently-sized audiences and unique types of content, and provided them with perks such as coupon codes they could share with their followers, opportunities to participate in brainstorming sessions with members of Chipotle’s social media team and custom metal forks designed to resemble the black plastic forks available at the brand’s restaurants. 

Similarly, Disney Parks started Disney Creators Labs last year to train 20 emerging influencers in storytelling, social strategy, audience engagement and other skills over the course of eight virtual workshops. These creators represented a variety of influencer categories, including fashion, travel and cooking, said Michael Ramirez, director of PR and influencer communications at Disney Parks. Because Ramirez’s team is fairly small, the company brought in an agency to help organize the program and develop its curriculum. 

Disney announced it will be doing a second creator class, this time with 21 creators and expanded into YouTube Shorts. The new creators will also go through eight virtual sessions, this time with macro-creators joining to help bridge teachings from industry experts into content creation. There will also be a chance to network with the inaugural class and an in-person trip to Walt Disney Studios.

Harness TikTok to tell your brand’s story 

Marketing on social media is both an art and a science, said TikTok’s Lahens. Although data about a brand’s performance on different social platforms is important, producing authentic and engaging content is equally crucial. And TikTok is the platform where many brand stories and identities are formed—whether a brand is conscious of it or not. 

“A lot of times I talk to senior marketing executives who say, ‘Well, I’m not ready to step into TikTok just yet.’ Or, ‘I’m not really sure how to do it,’” she said. “[But] your brand is already on TikTok, whether you know it or not.” 

Marketers should be especially aware of how their brand is showing up on the platform, such as the types of conversations users are having about the brand or any videos being made referencing it. 

Storytelling is at the heart of the content produced by one of the most successful brands on TikTok: the language-learning app Duolingo. Zaria Parvez, one half of the brand’s two-person TikTok team and the visionary behind the green owl, Duo’s, “unhinged” persona on the platform, views the brand’s TikTok presence as an overarching sitcom, with each video adding something to Duo’s personality or character. 

“Even with your own favorite sitcom or TV show, not every episode is the best episode ever, but they all add up to this general storyline that people keep coming back for and wanting to learn more about,” she said. “That’s how we’ve taken on planning and developing our TikTok strategy.” 

When Parvez joined Duolingo’s social media team—her first job after graduating from college—her request to start a TikTok account for the brand was initially denied, she said. She kept pushing, though, and soon she convinced the brand to make the jump to the platform. At first, she struggled to define Duolingo’s identity on TikTok, realizing that simply importing content that performed well on Instagram, like interviews with celebrities, wouldn’t necessarily succeed on TikTok. 

She quickly developed a “test and learn” mentality for managing Duolingo’s TikTok content, which involves taking some risks when trying new types of content and responding to audience feedback and comments. Consistently taking these risks when working to establish Duolingo’s TikTok identity is what has enabled it to achieve such unprecedented success on the platform, she said. 

“When you keep pushing the boundaries, I think there definitely are moments where ... you ask for forgiveness instead of permission,” she said. “And I think part of it is betting on yourself, but also making sure that you’re on a team that supports taking those bets.”