For brands, working with influencers was once an experimental addition to their media plans, but growth in influencer marketing spend is now outpacing its digital and social counterparts, per our forecast. While influencer partnerships still account for a significantly smaller part of the media mix, their growth is a sign that the industry is maturing—and more legacy advertisers want in.
“We’re entering a new era as influencer marketing and the creator economy professionalize,” said our analyst Minda Smiley.
Ad hoc influencer partnerships that were previously tacked onto the end of a campaign are becoming essential to a 360-degree strategy. The subsequent increased competition and higher standards in the space will impact the marketing industry in 2025 and beyond.
Industry players will have to focus on talent retention, more advanced measurement, and activations beyond the social feed to stand out in a more crowded space.
The coming consolidation
A clear sign of industry professionalization is the number of smaller influencer shops who have been acquired by legacy ad agencies, said Smiley. In July 2024, Publicis Groupe acquired influencer marketing agency Influential, and Stagwell acquired influencer agency Leaders.
“[Brands] are going to their full-service creative agency, and they don’t need a specialized shop anymore,” said Smiley. “Marketers always want to trim their rosters, and they want to work with their main agency partners.”
Despite the agency consolidation to come, more opportunities for creators and niches have opened up in the space—creator specialities range from trainspotting to spotting misogyny— allowing specialized shops to shine.
“As the industry becomes bigger, it also becomes more nuanced,” said Smiley, emphasizing the relevance of shops that hone in on a niche like Linkedin or women college athlete deals.
Boosting talent bonds
As the industry matures and creators find more professional opportunities, the expectation for fair and timely payments will intensify. In recent years, platforms like F**k You Pay Me have gained traction, which allow creators to share their own partnership experiences in an effort to build transparency.
As more players enter the influencer marketing space, brands and agencies are chasing stronger talent relationships. In October, creator agency Whalar announced it was acquiring talent management company Sixteenth. These acquisitions allow agencies to form deeper and more long-term relationships with creators.
While agencies can benefit from building a roster of talent readily available for brands, these capabilities might make clients wary of their bias in promoting in-house talent over a wider pool of creators.
“Brands do want to separate church and state, but they know creators are vetted and you work with them well,” said Smiley.
Maturing measurements
The maturation of influencer marketing comes with higher standards for measurement and proven ROI among both creators and brands. This is an avenue for growth in the industry—A large majority (85%) of creators said they never hear feedback from brands about how their content is evaluated or what is thought of their work, per research conducted by The Harris Poll earlier this year.
Beyond taking up more space in budgets, influencer marketing shops are mirroring other longstanding practices in the traditional media landscape, like agency reviews and upfronts.
Kenvue, the health holding company that owns brands like Tylenol and Band-Aid,
launched a global influencer agency review in September, which Smiley said shows that the company is holding influencer marketing to the same standard as its other channels. Forbes also held a Creator Upfront with Walmart in November, where a roster of creators pitched to potential brand partners the same way TV networks have long-pitched upcoming content to advertisers.
Creators move to the living room
To break through the noise, brands and agencies will continue to test creator partnerships that span beyond an unpredictable algorithm on a social feed.
Actress and writer Natasha Rothwell is set to play creator Tareasa “Reesa Teesa” Johnson in a show based on Johnson's 50-part TikTok series “Who TF Did I Marry?” and Hulu reported that “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” its show based on a group of TikTok creators, was its most watched unscripted premiere of 2024.
Creators are now given opportunities to diversify their revenue and test their influence in new spaces, which opens up a slew of new opportunities for their partners. The legitimization of the creator economy is also reflected in retail—Alex Cooper just partnered with Nestlé to launch a beverage brand tied to her podcast network, signaling a legitimacy shift in the eyes of major distributors.
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