At Advertising Week New York, industry leader Tara Walpert Levy joined Beet.TV’s Mike Shields to discuss the future of the creator economy, the growing role of influencers in brand marketing, and how artificial intelligence is reshaping content creation and advertising.Walpert Levy begins by discussing the increasing importance of creators within modern marketing strategies. As brands allocate larger portions of their media budgets toward creator-led campaigns, she explains why authentic engagement and creator-driven storytelling have become increasingly valuable components of advertising efforts.A significant portion of the conversation focuses on the infrastructure needed to support continued growth in the creator economy. Walpert Levy outlines challenges that brands and agencies face when managing creator relationships at scale, including discovery, campaign execution, logistics, performance tracking, and measurement.The interview also explores the intersection of creators and marketing performance. Walpert Levy discusses how advertisers are working to better connect creator investments with broader business objectives and examines the importance of developing measurement frameworks that align with traditional marketing goals.Artificial intelligence is another major focus. Walpert Levy discusses how creators can utilize AI throughout the content development process, from ideation and editing to language localization and content optimization. She explains that while AI can unlock new creative opportunities, the industry continues to explore appropriate standards and best practices for its use.Another key theme is the development of the creator economy’s technology ecosystem. Walpert Levy highlights the growing number of companies building tools that help brands and agencies evaluate creators, manage campaigns, and measure results across platforms. She explains why cross-platform solutions will become increasingly important as creator marketing continues to evolve.The conversation further examines the relationship between creators, social platforms, streaming services, and traditional media organizations. Walpert Levy shares her perspective on how different content ecosystems are converging and discusses how media companies can adapt to changing consumer expectations and content consumption behaviors.Throughout the discussion, Walpert Levy provides perspectives on creator marketing, influencer strategy, digital advertising, artificial intelligence, measurement, media innovation, content creation, and the future growth of the creator economy.Disclaimer: Informational content only. NYSE does not endorse or recommend investments, strategies, companies, products, or services discussed.
Creator economy is expected to surpass $300 billion this year and top $1.3 trillion by 2033. That’s according to a study from Grand View Research. Comes as NYC listed Unilever announced earlier this year that it is reallocating half of its digital and media budgets directly into the creator economy. Industry expert Tara Walpert Levy recently sat down with BeetTV’s Mike Shields during advertising week New York to talk more about it.
So, I love seeing Unilever’s commitment. I think that was a major statement of recognition to the industry about where marketing and media are going and I think it’s the right one. Can they do it? They can. It’s a little bit challenging right now and it’s going to take some time. But we did see a lot of very big spenders making major moves on this. I I guess I’d say two things. One, in order for it to truly scale, there has to be a lot more automation and process throughout the operations, right? Everything from matchmaking to integration to contracting. A
All the logistics stuff that’s not ironed out yet. All the logistics stuff.
Right. And and some of the strategic stuff too, like measurement, right? But I think there are ways that you can do it that leverage what’s there. In particular, I think the industry has gotten much better at finding the creators who are already talking about them or should be and then using them essentially for ads. authentic ads that outperform and boosting that in a more traditional paid media way. And I suspect that counts too for the moment.
Do you think it’s interesting right now? There’s budgets kind of come from a lot of different places when you’re talking about creator brand deals. I I wonder if there can can or should be one way because I think there’s a there’s a school of thought that this is like TV, it’s going to be TV money. This is social video, it’s something else. Where where do you stand on that?
Well, I actually think it should be even broader in the sense that what I typically tell CEOs and CMOs is that creator should be a capability, not a channel. But if we’re going to call it a channel, um look, I think should it be one thing? Yes. Will it be anytime soon? No, right? We’ve lived this with digital video and television budgets. They’re still not fully together in most places. And so I think today, if you are a creator or a brand or a media platform, you have to be in all of them.
Who who do you think might be is there going to be one like, you know, in the display world we had ad tech companies kind of emerge and become the infrastructure layer and build the plumbing so to speak. I don’t know who who is going to do that? Do we do we have do we think that’s going to be the big platforms that might build all those tools we need? Someone else? How’s that going to work?
I I think all the platforms have tools, but as you know, what brands and agencies need is a way to look across platforms. So that’s got to be a third-party ecosystem. And so if you remember back, right, it started wild and fragmented and I think that’s what we see now. So, whether they’re folks like Creator IQ or the wide spending influencer marketing agency ecosystem that’s sprouting up. I see a lot of talent and skill in a lot of very tiny companies that I suspect will become big, and then we’ll get integrated into either agencies or or tech companies that can provide that third-party view.
Yeah, and you’re you’re seeing that already with with so many of the big big holding companies have acquired some of those companies, influential and those guys. And there seems to be a there seems to be a it’s it’s similar to patterns we’ve seen in the past where you there’s a mobile agency and then it comes inside and the and the capabilities become part of That’s exactly right. Okay, what about AI here? You got we got to bring that in the conversation, of course.
There is there’s definitely every every platform is dealing with slop or would you call it slop or call it a new form of creativity. And I think consumers are kind of in the middle, I’m not sure if they like they like the stuff or not. How what should the creator economy do about AI if anything?
Well, it is where it gets great, right? Especially because if you think even about what does using AI mean, like you use it entirely, you use it a little bit. Yeah. Exactly. Or or even is a portion of the video doing that because one of the things AI gives storytellers is the ability to create sets and expansive stories that they couldn’t otherwise.
Is it am I editing or is it the whole thing? All good things.
all good things. Um I think to your point, the the things that are going to be most valuable is looking across the typical creator production process, right? Whether that is from ideation to editing, to auto-dubbing, and to use it to get even better stories for more people. Um but that’s candidly I think where people are struggling is to figure out where that line is.
What do we think about you know, it’s it’s right now I think creator media call it, it almost gets a pass now from the the CFO, everyone’s worried about the CFO now every other aspect of digital advertising. Everything’s got to be performing. Creator marketing hasn’t really gotten that pressure yet, but it’s coming. Is there going to be a unique way to measure measure the power and the impact of this? Do we need one thing?
I actually think you need to fit into the overall goals, right? Which are typically sales, all of the typical marketing metrics and profit. and so eventually it will get there. It’s not there yet because it’s not um possible in quite the same way. And so people are being creative for what they need to do to execute at scale. But I think this is a new way to be effective in old goals and so that’s why we need to see the measurement be consistent.
Yeah. It’s interesting because some some brands are treating this as media expenditure and measuring it that way and others are looking at it as like a replacement for production or even part of the creative team, which is going to have totally different measurement, totally different systems and I wonder what how that looks.
I think that’s right. I mean, I tend to think at scale, it looks much more the way you market anything else in the end. Yeah, just like anything else. Are there specific tent poles or creator celebrities or things like that that can look like a production project? Sure. But in the end, for scale, this has to be about straight-up marketing and media.
You know, for a long time the the digital platforms especially the creatorcentric ones like a YouTube or a TikTok were trying to get in on the TV money. Now all the it’s funny because now all the TV guys want creators on their platforms. Uh do you think there’s it’s going to settle one way or and have they have they gotten to the place where where the TV they’re they’re entitled to the TV dollars or up for them like the way they wanted to or is it going to play out in a different way?
I think it’s an and not an or, right? Because on the one it all depends what place you’re starting from. because what people are seeing is that TikTok and meta, right? are just exploding in terms of vertical video. And so that’s going to come out of a social budget. So then you look at a company like YouTube, which wants to be both TV and social and it’s going to go after both of those. And then you step even further back and you see folks like Netflix and Disney trying to get into the creator game, but interestingly, doing it in a much more TV-like way, which is interesting given the way the trends are going.
Yeah. And I I wonder what those guys should do. Do you have any advice for the big big traditional media companies trying to figure out the space?
That is a big question. I guess the maxi. Not not an easy one. I I think the thing that is unique about the creator economy that runs right in the face of premium traditional TV in the old definition is that the biggest advantage is it’s a lot of content very fast and much less expensively. And so it’s been intriguing to me to watch some of the strategies which are treating it much more like they treated studios, which I get from a credibility stamp. I mean, YouTube has been out there saying like the creators are the new studios and that’s true, but the business model and the way I’d go after it is different. So I would be going after more creators, less money, more optimization real time in terms of what’s connecting with viewers.
