Here’s what TikTok and Logitech say about the future of creator marketing
With the creator economy projected to reach $500bn by 2027, brands and agencies alike are working hard to either adopt or optimize their influencer marketing strategies
But doing so requires navigating a constantly changing landscape, with new trends, best practices, and even pitfalls emerging almost daily.
Normally, this is where we’d tick off a list of tips or insights for how you can best stay on top of the shifting dynamics of the creator marketing space. But as a company that works not only all the social media platforms where creator marketing takes place, but also the brands and agencies using them, we thought it would be useful to ask them what they think instead.
In advance of the CreatorIQ Connect event on October 26 in Los Angeles, we sat down with a representative from each, getting their perspective on the trends and ideas shaping the future of digital influence.
Representing social platforms is TikTok's global head of operations, Adrienne Lahens, while the brand viewpoint is provided by Logitech's global lead of talent and content David Neyman.
Here’s what they had to say and about the current state of the creator economy, future prospects, and best practices shaping the future of digital influence.
Adrienne Lahens, global head of operations, TikTok
Q: What kinds of brands and activations have you seen perform best on TikTok?
A: The through line of impactful content on TikTok is storytelling. The TikTok community has a low threshold for content that feels forced, and it's up to brands to figure out how to show up in a way that humanizes them and tells their brand story. When it comes to the "how," we've actually analyzed top-performing branded content to understand what drives success in campaigns on the TikTok Creator Marketplace.
Among the videos we analyzed, those with the highest engagement rates tended to:
- Ditch the script: 71% of TikTok users say that it's a creator's authenticity that motivates them to buy from a brand
- Find a natural hook: 4 in 5 users say TikTok is very or extremely entertaining, and viewers spend 26% longer watching entertaining ads, when compared to ads with low entertainment value
- Use trends (strategically): 77% of viewers like brands better when they create or participate in trends on TikTok
- Pick the right community: 78% of users agree that the best brands on TikTok create videos on all sorts of topics and interest
Q: How can brands capitalize on the creator-driven culture happening on TikTok?
A: Creators don't need to try and understand culture because they are culture. It's important that brands think about creators as if they're in-house creative consultants, versus one-off entities that are transactional in nature. By bringing creators closer to your strategy, you'll see how quickly they can understand your brand's values and goals, and translate them in a way that will connect with their audience. Anywhere that there is creative, there should be a creator involved.
Q: Where do you think the overall creator economy is headed?
A: We're not only seeing an increase in investment in the creator economy, but also an expansion in scale of technological solutions. At TikTok, we're investing in an entire suite of solutions that supports the ecosystem that fuels the creator economy as it continues to scale. That means building for creators, brands, agencies, and talent managers.
David Neyman, global lead of talent and content, Logitech
Q: What social platforms do you focus your creator efforts on?
A: As a brand that works with many types of creators (from gaming to lifestyle), we activate partnerships across all platforms and are heavily influenced by where our creator partners have fostered strong communities. Twitch is certainly one of those platforms with our gaming partners but YouTube is also one that we focus on across categories and types. With the emergence of Shorts and the more traditional longer-form content, it’s still very much an important platform when it comes to reach, engagement, and ultimately conversion.
Q: How do you approach engaging creators for partnerships?
A: We take a hybrid approach, in some cases we’ll go directly to creators to begin the dialogue. In other cases, we’ll work with trusted agency partners to help discover and initiate the relationship. Either path is informed by the insights we gather through the data as well as the quality of their creative output. In all cases, including when a third party initiates the conversation, we always make sure to foster a relationship with the creator through direct engagement. From there, we aim to build partnerships that are mutually beneficial as our focus is to find natural alignment between our brand and the product with the creator and their community.
Q: What kind of creators overall have you found the most success with?
A: We have found most success with creators that have a specific area of focus or expertise, have built trust and authority in those respective areas with their community through frequent engagement and great storytelling, and are fans of the brand already or have shown a desire to be. We have built successful partners with creators who are early in their journey or more established. The common thread is that they are thoughtful about not just who they partner with but how the partnerships come to life and help guide us as a brand on how we can be successful together.
Clearly, this is just a peek into the perspectives of both the social platforms and brands shaping the future of creator marketing. This discussion is only going to get more intense, frequent, and impactful as creator marketing becomes more entrenched as a regular component of the marketing world.
To hear more and contribute to this discussion, attend the CreatorIQ Connect event, taking place Oct. 26 in Los Angeles. Details and a full agenda here.