Brands continue to support the creator economy by seeing how productive these campaigns are in driving results and increasing brand awareness to a relevant buying audience. As social media platforms continue to grow, and TikTok continues to expand as a dominant platform, creators will continue to build their brands and audiences.
The patterns we’re seeing show the value in the creator economy. Brands spending on influencer marketing, directly supporting creators, and emerging new partnership types is a testament to the creator economy’s legitimacy and suspected growth.
In the end, buying into your brand works and the results speak for themselves.
Top Spenders on YouTube
NeoReach’s quarterly reports analyse in-depth brand spending statistics to show just how successful sponsored videos can be, specifically looking at YouTube. In 2020 alone, there were nearly 4,500 qualifying brand videos on the platform ranging from tech videos all the way to travel videos. If you’re looking for sponsored content, be sure to check out what you’re passionate about on YouTube. Another important distinction is that almost 100% of sponsored videos used a call to action of ‘click link in bio’ or direct purchase page – pointing to the strategies for success on the platform.
The top ten highest-spending brands for last week spent a total of $33,472,278 on YouTube sponsored content with the top four spenders – Keeps, Google, GFuel, and ExpressVPN– all spending over $400K in IMV for the week.
This means that on YouTube alone, the data is showing brands not only trust this medium of marketing, but they are willing and able to make substantial investments week after week. Why brands invest in creators on YouTube and other social platforms is no longer the question. Influencer marketing campaigns have proven results and the market has created a whole new creator economy!
Creator Earnings
Based on the findings from the Creator Earnings Benchmark Report, we learn that $800 million in venture capital has been invested into creator economy startups between October 2020 and April 2021. 43% of surveyed creators reported making $50k in annual income or higher from their content. That is an extremely impressive number of brands that are playing a substantial role in supporting full-time creators in the creator economy.
Monetisation of creator content is done through ways like brand deals, merch lines, sponsored posts, and ads with 77% of surveyed creator income coming directly from brand deals.
TikTok: A Category of Its Own
As the social media platform TikTok continues to rise in popularity, so do the ads that go on the app. For example, there are five major types of ads: in-feed ads, brand takeovers, top views, branded hashtags, and branded effects.
As you should have noticed, TikTok has been taking the world by storm with tons of different ads and influencers from all walks of life. Not to mention the overwhelming flux of screen time the platform garners from its audience.
What are the most popular industries on TikTok and which brands are investing in the economy? Our research shows that the current top three industries are food and drink, beauty, and travel. Some of the top brands include Instant Pot, Covergirl, and Hotwire.
Brands have recognised the asset that is TikTok to their marketing strategy – from its viral potential to its massive, engaged audience. New creators are able to capitalise on their content on TikTok quicker, and with more ease than ever before.
As the results show, the creator economy is extremely resourceful and continues to grow. Social media platforms continue to lead the conversation in terms of marketing and it’s just going to be uphill from here. It has never been a better time to build a brand for yourself.
