The expansion of the creator economy has increased opportunities for brands, but it has also made creator selection more complex. A report by Dentsu has found that many marketers have struggled to identify creators who align with their brand and audience.
The creator landscape has evolved into a highly diverse ecosystem, moving beyond traditional influencers to include storytellers, educators, entertainers, and niche community leaders. This shift has made it harder for brands to apply standardised selection frameworks.
According to the report, 60% of marketers have been unable to identify creators who genuinely fit their brand, resulting in mismatched partnerships and underperforming campaigns.
A key challenge has been the lack of role clarity. Many campaigns have treated creators as interchangeable, assigning uniform briefs regardless of their strengths, audience dynamics, or content style. This has reduced the effectiveness of creator-led initiatives.
To address this, the report has proposed a role-based approach to creator selection. Creators have been segmented into functions such as ambassadors for long-term brand building, curators for storytelling, amplifiers for reach, connectors for niche engagement, and experts for peer-level trust.
The findings have also highlighted the importance of alignment across creator, brand, and audience. Factors such as audience demographics, content quality, and reputation have become critical as consumers have become more adept at identifying inauthentic collaborations.
In addition, data-led decision-making has emerged as a priority. Brands have increasingly invested in tools and frameworks that enable them to evaluate creator performance, compare partnerships, and optimise their creator mix.
The report has suggested that as the ecosystem continues to expand, brands that shift from intuition-led decisions to structured, data-driven creator selection will be better positioned to drive both relevance and performance.
