How Legacy Brands Can Adapt To The Creator Economy

Goldman Sachs recently predicted that the creator economy could approach a half of a trillion dollars by 2027. The creator economy is booming. While newer, smaller, and more resource-challenged companies more naturally turn to influencers as a marketing tool, larger sophisticated brands often struggle to find a way to leverage creators to build brands and businesses, while minimizing the risk. To better understand how legacy companies can maximize the potential while limiting the downside, I turned to Frank Cooper III, the CMO of Visa.

Since a lot of terms are floating around, I asked Cooper to provide a basic understanding of what the creator economy is — how he views it. “In the broadest sense,” Cooper suggested, “the creator economy consists of any person using their creative talents to make money. However, I believe it has a more specific definition at this stage of development. Now, the creator economy refers to the entire ecosystem that has emerged from people who create content online and who engage audiences around that content for communication, community and commerce. Creators cover a vast range – from artists, to video gamers, to influencers, to writers and others. However, they differ from ‘creators’ in general in that they communicate and build community and drive commerce online. If you are a musician who only performs live and has a website with your performances, you are not part of the “creator economy.” You are indeed a creator, but you are not communicating, building community and driving commerce through digital platforms such as social media or video gaming. Again, many more people belong to what Richard Florida has coined as the ‘Creative Class’ but only a sub-set are included, at this point in time, in the creator economy.”

Cooper explains that the creator economy has changed and will change marketing in a number of different of ways. “First, content creators are not only creating content… they are effectively the distribution channel as well. Successful content creators and influencers can produce content that audiences want to see, and they have developed an ongoing relationship with such audiences. So, marketers who are accustomed to ‘controlling the message’ will have to grant greater latitude to creators to gain authentic access to those creators’ audiences.

Second, marketers must build new muscle in working with creators. Generally, creators are not creative agencies. Developing effective partnerships with creators requires marketers to translate their goals into terms that fit the creator, not vice versa. Equally important, marketers have to hone their skill at identifying creators whose values and personality fit their brand, rather than focusing exclusively on creators with the most followers.

Finally, with the relatively recent changes in the algorithms of social media platforms, creators are now essentially in the business of producing ‘hits’ …. or breakthrough content that people demand. You cannot buy your way into a hit. You can maximize the potential for a hit primarily by producing great content that exceeds the needs and expectations of a specific audience. In short, in the world of the creator economy, brand marketers should think of themselves less as ‘brand stewards’ and more as ‘brand values creators’ working through others to promote the brand or products.”

Despite the high profile, business-impacting problem that Bud Light had last year with their influencer program, Cooper indicates that Visa has now established partnerships with hundreds of creators. When working with the creators, Cooper indicated it is paramount “to ensure that the creators are able to remain true to themselves while promoting the Visa brand values and products that they sincerely support.”

As important, Cooper suggests that more legacy brands should think of themselves as “creator brands.” “Rather than interrupting a user’s experience, a creator brand develops content that adds value to the creator experience. Like creators in general, creator brands can develop content that people want to see and drive community and commerce from that content.”

Cooper suggests more broadly that legacy brands like Visa can continue to evolve to leverage the potential of creators. For example, Cooper suggests “that many marketers of legacy brands will have to evolve their mindsets and behaviors to leverage the potential of creators. In terms of mindset, the primary change requires a shift from ‘command-and-control’ thinking to a highly decentralized approach focused on ‘serving-and-uplifting’ people. While it is not quite the leaderless revolution, it does require a greater appetite for allowing greater variation in approaches and greater inclusiveness in the voices of the brand.

In terms of behavior, marketers of legacy brands must adapt to the speed of the culture of online behavior. Similarly, they need to identify opportunities or respond to the actions of consumers at a pace that may feel uncomfortable. However, marketers no longer can control the pace at which content is consumed and shared – and with that, must adapt to this relatively new reality. Additionally, as the expiration date of online content has a shorter lifespan than traditional marketing content, marketers should significantly increase the volume of content they produce — whether themselves or in partnership with creators.

And, perhaps most important, marketers of legacy brands can translate social media into social commerce. At Visa, we have seen the proliferation of value exchange from creators in social media, video gaming, travel and more. Moreover, we have seen the evolving needs and expectations of sellers and buyers. Our role at Visa is to expand those opportunities for commerce or value exchange, by removing friction in transactions and building capability for buyers and sellers. The beauty of the creator economy is that anyone can be a part of it. So, the opportunity for social commerce extends to every brand.”

Lastly, I asked Cooper to share a case study on how Visa has leverage creators effectively. He indicated that Visa’s “support for the creator economy has taken shape in various ways since 2021, including the following campaigns that we have tested and learned from over the last several months: Visa NFT Creator Program, the Visa Ready Creator Commerce Program, and the GetP@id program.

In 2023, we focused more of our marketing efforts toward partnering with creators, and we currently have more than 500 creators partnering with us across our digital platforms. We also established a distinct category for creators within our content and product teams, leading to a 100% increase in our marketing efforts.

However, GetP@id, is a great example of how we’re successfully highlighting creator content in a meaningful way. Our goal was to give more creators the tools and systems they need to help grow beyond hobbies into real businesses. GetP@id is a social video program that pairs aspiring creators hoping to turn their passions into a career with established fashion, music, and food creators.

Those participating in the creator economy face similar challenges that small and medium-sized businesses do – including economic uncertainty, lack of timely access to capital, and getting paid on time. GetP@id helps younger creators find their footing and get paid for their content. Much like a mentor/mentee partnership, we worked with established creators to share their knowledge about what it takes to build a successful career as a creator, offering firsthand coaching to new creators in the same vertical. This program is one I’m proud of, and I’m looking forward to expanding the ways Visa can support emerging creators in the future.”

Join the Discussion: @KimWhitler