Content Creation Agency - The Relationship Between Brands and Creators

Creator promoting a product on social media to show content creation agency importance

Content creators and their influence have grown significantly over the past decade, with many of them taking the role on as their full-time job. With this dedication, it hasn’t taken long for creators to grow large audiences, and brands are starting to take notice. When done strategically, working with a content creator can lead to increased visibility, engagement, and sales for a business. This holds especially true for creator fanbases who are known to be fiercely loyal and hold a lot of trust in the influencer. As a content creation agency, we understand the importance of fostering a brand-content creator relationship and will break down the benefits in this blog post.

Why Creators Are Relevant Right Now

People that were posting on YouTube and Instagram as a fun side project are now making thousands and sometimes millions of dollars, which is partly due to brand deals. According to Sprout Social, the creator economy recorded $1.2 billion in funding in just the first half of 2021. Why are brands so willing to invest money into influencers you ask? These creators are setting the trends in the media which makes them very influential. Their audiences are quite devoted as creators are able to form a seemingly personal connection with them. When taking this into consideration, influencer product recommendations are an exceptionally powerful marketing tool.

Some creators have turned their followers into a consumer base for their own products. It’s not uncommon for a creator to release their own branded merchandise. One of the most common sites that produce creator merch is Fanjoy. This company makes merch for some of the most popular creators such as Addison Rae, David Dobrik, and the Merrell Twins.

Addison Rae Merch to show importance of content creation agency

In some specific cases, creators take on the endeavor of starting a new business. This is most commonly seen in the YouTube beauty community with a lot of the top YouTubers selling their own cosmetics. One of the biggest brands that was started by a creator is Huda Beauty. This company was started by Huda Kattan in 2013 and currently has 49 million followers on Instagram. The brand has grown exponentially since its founding with Forbes estimating at least $250 million in annual sales.

Fanjoy and Huda Beauty prove that there is a demand for products related to content creators and there have been many brands that directly take advantage of their influence. For example, the most followed person on TikTok is 17-year old Charli D’Amelio. With over 120 million followers, the coffee company Dunkin’ saw an opportunity. In September 2020 Dunkin’ launched “The Charli” which was a signature cold brew drink that anyone could order. This drink sold thousands of Dunkin’ cold brews and its success had many other businesses following their lead. Charli and her sister Dixie went on to collaborate with the clothing brand Hollister and are the lead models for Morphe 2, a sister brand to the highly successful Morphe cosmetics company.

Charli and Dixie D'Amelio modelling for Morphe 2 to show importance of content creation agency

Recapping the Benefits

The influence of these creators can help your business market to a targeted audience and is one of the many benefits of forming a relationship with a creator. Content creators also have very loyal fanbases which can give some guarantee for sales on any products or services made by or in collaboration with the influencer. Working with a creator is also a great way to seamlessly participate in social media trends which can increase brand awareness and visibility, which is perhaps one of the biggest goals when collaborating with someone with a significant following.

How Brands Can Utilize Content Creation Agencies

The next question you may ask yourself is how can my business start to form a bond with these creators? This is where a content creation agency comes in. Agencies have spent years in the social media space learning and understanding the dynamics of the business-creator relationship. They know that the key to a successful collaboration is making sure you pick the right content creator who lines up with your brand’s values and target audience. Contact Bright Age today to learn how we can create the community associations that are essential to benefit from content creators!