""Investors as well as brands have had the realization that a somewhat tech enabled agency didn't enable a true level of scale that the brands needed," said Leopold. "If you look at like the 10-ish billion dollars of brand direct to creator spend, that's very constrained. It's less than 2% of the $800 billion of digital media spend running through platforms.""
"In September, content creators complained on social media about not receiving payments from The Corner for work done prior to the agency's communications business going into liquidation. Months earlier, News U.K. sold its creator shop The Fifth to Brave Bison. Around the same time Public Square Global filed a $50 million breach-of-contract suit against Revolve in April over unpaid fees tied to more than 80 influencer deals."
Acquisitions show value in the creator economy shifting toward software that standardizes how brands find and work with creators. Software platforms deliver scale, predictability and cleaner margins compared with influencer agencies and mobile-first boutiques. Brand direct-to-creator spend is estimated around $10 billion, which is under 2% of the $800 billion digital media market. Several creator intermediaries have experienced payment failures, liquidation, sales and litigation, signaling strain on agency models. Programmatic buying platforms and tools that operationalize creator campaigns are attracting investor capital, exemplified by a recent $40 million funding round for a platform focused on creator campaign buying.
Read at Digiday
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]