Five Trends Defining A New Era of Brand/Creator Collaboration

 

Social agency We Are Social is out with a new study documenting what it calls permanent shifts in the creator landscape due to technological advances as well as changing audience segments and expectations.   

The report details five trends defining a new era of brand and creator collaboration. It describes what’s driving them and the implications for brands, featuring examples from Booking.com, H&M and others.    

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Within each trend, the agency has identified groups of creators that have gained wide audiences that the agency says represent the next generation of influence. 

New trends include:    

  • The Right to Reinvention – creators planning their evolutions to attract new audiences.   

  • Relatable Realism – creators peddling "the good life" are having to reappraise what that life looks like to make it feel relevant for real people; this means lifestyle content that’s less about glamour and luxury, and more about calm and stability.  

  • Influential Allies – amid increasing concern that philanthropy is being used for the purpose of online clout and as audiences become skeptical of moral posturing, creators are swapping work that claims values for work that challenges the status quo.   

  • Credible Creativity – a new wave of culturally impactful creativity is thriving and is pushing the creative bar higher especially for brands, who have to be as entertaining as their human counterparts, but without the same license for imperfection or human charm attributed to real people.   

  • Extreme Influence – as the next generation of creators navigates the increasingly chaotic online creative space, they’re leaning into the unusual and extreme in an effort to stand out.  

One takeaway for brands: “As longer-term careers are normalized among creators, brands should think about how to partner with them through lifestyle transitions.”  

Also, the study urges brands who want to make themselves relevant to a new audience to consider partnering with influencers who are following a similar path.  

Aspirational lifestyle content is a harder sell in today’s economic climate, per the report, “meaning brands have to think carefully about how they position themselves and their products.”   

See more from the report here.  

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