Welcome To Authentic

The latest news, trends, and insights in the business of the brand-creator economy – and what it means for your business.

A Note from Donnovan Andrews Founder & CEO, Aivanta

Welcome to the conversation that's been happening behind closed doors… and is now in your inbox.

Every issue of the Authentic creator economy briefing distills what the smartest executives, creators, platforms, and investors are actually doing: the partnerships worth studying, the shifts worth investigating, and the thinking that separates those setting the pace from those catching up. It's the insider view, delivered directly to you.

The better the company that’s in this space, the more valuable it becomes. So, if you know someone who belongs here, send it their way.

Glad you're in the room.

Despite the obvious growing power of the brand-creator economy to capture engagement and drive sales, top brands are still wary of making deals with digital talent, opting to pool resources around a small number of top stars.

The Big Pitch: Big brands that don’t figure out a robust brand-creator economy may be both leaving money on the table and risking irrelevance online — two things no company can afford in the modern economy.

The Fine Print: Spending by US advertisers on creator deals is sending some mixed messages to both brands and influencers.

Blue-chip companies’ hesitancy in opening up their budget to a broad-spectrum of creators is antithetical to market trends — Goldman Sachs projects that the creator economy will be a $480 billion industry by 2027. And broader estimates see the industry topping $750 by the end of the decade.

The Analysis: Despite brands wishy-washiness, the Interactive Advertising Bureau found that 48% of marketers report that creators are a “must buy” for their ad-media plans (behind only the tried-and-true paid search and traditional social-media ads), then why aren’t brands making more deals?

If there’s one company that refuses to be behind the creator-curve, it’s Unilever. The consumer-goods giant is taking a more-is-more approach, multiplying the creators it works with from 10,000 to 300,000 in the past two years. Selina Sykes, a VP for digital, social and AI transformation at the company told The Wall Street Journal: “You cannot talk about what engages people, where people find things, where people buy things without talking about the creator economy.”

No wonder Unilever’s sales grew 3.5% last year.

MrBeast Throws His Own Upfronts

MrBeast (real name Jimmy Donaldson) is proving that digital creators are both brands and media empires. During the annual TV upfronts this week, the North Carolina-based influencer is throwing a breakfast for top brand and ad executives in NYC, pitching them on Beast Industries’ network of assets and plans for growth. It’s a play to siphon off ad dollars from powerhouse media conglomerates like NBCUniversal and Disney… and he’ll likely pull it off.

Jack Dorsey Regrows Vine

Vine, the original short-form video platform, is being rebooted by the founder of Twitter and Block… but with a twist. Now called Divine, the platform doesn’t allow for any AI-generated content, is built on a decentralized protocol, and has no direct-revenue model. Instead, creators  are expected to make money via sponsorship deals. Let’s see which brands jump in first.

Snapchat Monetizes The Chat

Snapchat is doubling down on “Sponsored Snaps” as Gen Z moves off of public feeds and into personal chat spaces. A recent study the company conducted with Kantar found that Sponsored Snaps — videos from brands that appear in users’ Chat feed — delivered twice as many conversions than public full-screen ads. Who says people don’t want to hear directly from brands?

TikTok Becomes A Box Office

TikTok users can now buy movie tickets directly inside the app thanks to a new partnership with Fandango. First up was this past weekend’s Billie Eilish 3D concert film, Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour. The feature allows for US users to purchase a promo code through Fandango’s integration on TikTok Shop, which can then be redeemed on Fandango’s site. Considering that 6.5 million posts about movies and shows were shared daily on the app, this could drive serious attendance.

Meta is using AI to scan photos and videos to determine a user’s height and bone structure, verifying that they’re old enough to use Facebook and Instagram.

TikTok is launching “Campus Hub” — which features dedicated group chats for universities and personalized feeds for college communities.

YouTube’s new screen-time update contains a loophole for users to essentially turn off the Shorts feed.

X has shut down its Communities feed due to low engagement… so a new decentralized platform called Acorn is picking up the slack.

Snapchat is introducing a new feature called “AI Sponsored Snaps” that will allow users to chat with brands’ AI agents.

Patreon is introducing a feed of short-form videos called “Quips” that will bring some algorithmic discovery to the platform.

Roblox is building a way to measure how users interact with gamified ads on the platform.

You've just read the first issue of Authentic, and if you're here, you're exactly who this letter was built for.

We'll publish weekly, so you'll be sure to be up to speed on the latest news, trends, and insights in the business of the brand-creator economy.

One more thing: this fall, Authentic is taking things beyond your inbox. We're building toward an in-person event designed for the senior leaders, brand executives, creators, and investors shaping this space, and we think you're going to want to be in the room. More details to come.

Stay tuned.

— The Authentic Team