On October 10th, 1,111 people arrived at Los Angeles' historic Ebell Theater to shape the future of creator marketing.
CreatorIQ Connect was back and bigger than ever, and throughout a jam-packed day, a single message came through loud and clear: it's not just CreatorIQ Connect that's bigger and better than ever—so is the creator economy itself.
All images courtesy of Andrena Photography
In session after session, industry leaders traced the history of the creator marketing industry, detailing how the early days of social media have shifted toward a content-first, creator-led future. Attendees were treated to visions of a matured creator ecosystem—a world in which creator marketing is table stakes for brands looking to reach a wide, passionate, fully engaged audience. It’s a world in which, as reported in CreatorIQ CEO Chris Harrington’s keynote address, marketing industry leaders allocate 57% of their budgets to creator marketing— a 143% increase in creator marketing investment over the last four years alone.
CreatorIQ CSO, Conor Begley and CreatorIQ CMO, Brit Starr
More than ever, CreatorIQ Connect focused on the power of creators—after all, they sit at the heart of what we do. Time and again throughout the day, attendees saw proof of the power of creators to transform lives, industries, and even the world at large.
CreatorIQ CEO, Chris Harrington
Here are the key themes that emerged at CreatorIQ Connect, as told by leading voices in the creator economy.
CreatorIQ’s Product Vision: Content-First and Creator Led
To kick off the day, CreatorIQ executives laid out our vision for the future, culminating in a keynote address from CreatorIQ’s Chief Executive Officer Chris Harrington.
For more on the takeaways shared at CreatorIQ Connect, check out our vision page for the future of CreatorIQ.
CreatorIQ CEO, Chris Harrington
At his first CreatorIQ Connect as CEO, Chris explained that the creator economy is at an inflection point. With an estimated 207M creators worldwide, the industry is valued at $21.1B—a 105% surge from 2021. What’s more, thanks to the AI revolution, the creator economy is poised to expand to a $15.7 trillion market by 2035. However, despite its tremendous potential, the industry still faces threats from risk, complexity, and infrastructure constraints.
CreatorIQ CPO, Bhavin Desai
That risk is why CreatorIQ is betting big on brand safety. With our AI-backed creator discovery platform, enterprise organizations can enjoy safe, seamless, smart, and scalable community building. By building for a content-first, creator-led future, CreatorIQ is doing a lot more than solving today's problems: we're meeting our partners where they'll be in five years.
Selfie at CreatorIQ Connect During First Keynote
United behind our all-new, next-gen platform, our executive team took a victory lap (and a selfie!). Together, we’re building solutions to the questions that enterprise leaders will be asking tomorrow, and shaping the creator economy as it soars to new heights.
Treat Creator Marketing as a Desirability Metric
One key theme we heard repeated across multiple sessions was the increased focus and shifting priorities that go into brands’ internal measurements of their creator programs. According to a recent CreatorIQ survey, organizations reported that program measurement is now their top creator marketing-related challenge. At the same time, in such a rapidly evolving marketing ecosystem, standardized measurement across multi-brand global organizations is more essential to scale than ever.
Masterclass in Measurement Session
For creator marketing measurement solutions, brands turn to Doug Jensen, SVP GTM Analytics & Activation and Learning CoE, The Estée Lauder Companies. In his session Masterclass in Measurement, Doug spoke with Kelsey Chickering, Principal Analyst, Forrester about his 35 years of experience in the measurement space, and his strategy of Marketing-Mix Modeling (MMM). With this method, leading enterprise brands can evaluate creator marketing alongside other marketing channels, with an eye toward how creators impact desirability at the top of the marketing funnel.
As Doug noted, “if you’re only measuring sales, and the creator content is about fun and entertainment, then it won’t work. Be clear about your KPIs. Are you leveraging creator content to drive awareness, desirability, traffic, or sales?”
Enterprise Brands Excelling in the Age of Creators Session
These themes were echoed in Enterprise Brands Excelling in the Age of Creators. This session featured insights into enterprises’ approach to creator program measurement from Amanda Perelli, Senior Reporter, Business Insider, Toto HaBa, SVP, Marketing & Communications, Benefit Cosmetics, and Emanuel Macias, Lead Product, Creator Intelligence, AT&T. While our panelists noted that sometimes MMM is out of reach for brands due to various operational constraints, share of voice is a north-star metric for gauging desirability, and therefore the efficacy of enterprise brands’ holistic creator programs. Toto called out CreatorIQ’s share of voice metrics and suite of measurement tools as a key component of Benefit Cosmetics’ creator marketing program.
For more stats about program measurement, and the creator economy at large, check out our State of Creator Marketing: Trends and Trajectory 2024-2025 report here.
Video Content on the Rise as Creators Explore New Platforms
Another common refrain throughout the day? The sea change presently underway in how creators are building content: not only their favored platforms, but the increasingly broad and consequential contexts in which this content is being used.
Exploring the Creator Economy's Most Robust Ecosystem: YouTube Session
In Exploring the Creator Economy’s Most Robust Ecosystem: YouTube, a star-studded team walked us through the enduring power of everyone’s favorite video platform. Moderated by CreatorIQ’s very own Tim Sovay, Chief Business Development & Partnerships Officer, the session featured insights from Kim Larson, Global Managing Director & Head of YouTube Creators, Bridget Dolan, Global Managing Director, YouTube Shopping, and Erica Louie of Miss Louie, a YouTube creator boasting more than 529k followers. Our speakers walked through YouTube’s commitment to creators, as well as the platform’s increased investment in Shorts. With YouTube Shorts usage up 47% YoY amongst creators, and 65% of creators finding Shorts more effective than long-form videos, the medium is quickly gathering momentum.
Investing in Inclusiveness: Snap's Focus on Creator Diversity Session
Meanwhile, another popular video platform got a much-deserved shoutout during Investing in Inclusiveness: Snap’s Focus on Creator Diversity. Moderated by Quincy Kevan, Head of Americas, Creator Partnerships, Snap, this fun and wide-ranging session featured insights directly from a trio of creators: David Bullock (@alaska), Lala Milan (@lalamilan), and Zania Sesay (@zayxclusive). Our panel shared their experiences with 523, Snapchat's one-year creator program focused on growing and building diverse voices. David, Lala, and Zania discussed the partnership opportunities that Snap has brought to the table with program sponsors like Clinique and AT&T, and offered advice on how other brands can utilize Snap in their creator strategies. The key is recognizing Snap as a space for unpolished, quick, and authentic content creation—a behind-the-scenes complement to the more formal campaign content often favored on other channels.
Creators Are Small Businesses and Media Platforms, All in One
As is already clear from Erica, David, Lala, and Zania, this year’s Connect incorporated more creator voices than ever before. Nowhere was that intention more pronounced than from our amazing keynote speaker, Marianna Hewitt, Content Creator & Co-Founder, Summer Fridays.
Marianna Hewitt
In a session moderated by Conor Begley, Marianna walked a packed house through her journey from creator to brand founder. Marianna shared how these experiences have built upon and informed each other, offering stories and advice from her personal evolution.
The New Face of Affiliate Marketing: A Creator Transformation
We got even more fantastic creator testimony in The New Face of Affiliate Marketing: A Creator Transformation. Featuring Clair Sidman, VP of Marketing, Collective Voice and Kay Davenport (@ohheyykay), fashion content creator and assistant principal extraordinaire, the session offered a fascinating look into how creators monetize their content while staying true to their roots. As Kay noted, creators are both small businesses and media platforms unto themselves—learnings she’s refined after years in the game. Kay also discussed her approach for investigating the success of her content and iterating accordingly, and how the rise of affiliate strategy has leveled up not only her content game, but her life as a whole.
Creator Marketing Is All About Building a Community
Whether it’s creators carving out a name for themselves amongst social media users, brands building a team of dedicated creator champions, or creator marketers forming new connections and acquiring new skills as CreatorIQ Connect, the theme of the day boiled down to one word: community.
The Power of We: Building Community Online and IRL
Community was front-and-center in one of the day’s final sessions, The Power of We: Building Community Online and IRL. Moderated by Lia Haberman, Creator Economy Expert and the author of internet and creator newsletter ICYMI, the panel discussed all the ways that brands of various sizes in various industries are forging those all-important communities. Ava Donaldson, Senior Marketing Manager, Global Talent + Creators, Google, Ali Miller, Global Director, Influencer Marketing, Roblox, and Toral Patel, Vice President of Marketing & E-commerce, Kopari all highlighted the fundamental role of authenticity in consumer connections, collaborations, and campaigns. According to our panelists, these connections aren’t just about what we see online—it’s about the sustained, consistent offline work that goes into brands’ efforts to win over creators. With creators reporting that professional growth opportunity is their top reason for partnering with brands, winning organizations know that they have to foster their champions with resources to grow their careers. These themes were further explored by Lia in her latest edition of ICYMI, which also featured a shoutout to her time at Connect.
The Evolution of Creators, Content, and Entertainment
Multiple sessions reinforced the expanding scope of these communities across industries, as well as the deepening role that creator and fan communities play in the strategies guiding the world’s leading brands. One such session was The Evolution of Creators, Content, and Entertainment. With moderation from Andrew Wallenstein, Chief Media Analyst & President, Intelligence Platform, Variety, the conversation explored examples of community building from three amazing voices at three amazing brands: Lloyd D’Souza, SVP Global Head of Central Video, Condé Nast; RJ Larese, Vice President, Talent and Influencer Marketing, Paramount; and Isaac Ugay, VP of Premium Solutions, Fandom. All participants discussed how fan communities are changing the game in the creator economy, providing creators and brands with immediate feedback loops for inspiring new campaigns and content. They also noted how “short-sighted” it is to ignore small-to-medium creators, and the importance of “staying out of the way” and letting creators do their thing when it came to the content development process.
Jackie Aina and CreatorIQ Connect 2024 Attendees
But the importance of community wasn’t only on display atop the Ebell’s stages—it was all around us. Throughout CreatorIQ Connect, as old friends reunited and new friendships emerged, it became clear that the event itself functions as a community. And at the heart of this broader community was the CreatorIQ community: the employees who came from all across the world to make such a special day possible. Buoyed by the exhilaration of CreatorIQ Connect, we’re pressing forward to build a stronger creator economy for all of these communities—and, of course, an even bigger and better event next year.
CreatorIQ Team at the Ebell of Los Angeles
From everyone at CreatorIQ, thank you so much for being part of our community. We can’t wait to Connect with you again soon.
To catch all of this year’s amazing Connect content, please check out our session videos here. And to stay in the loop for CreatorIQ events, and to be the first to know about our next Connect series, sign up for our Events Newsletter here.