Content created by brands has evolved across multiple platforms and formats. Throughout history communication and advertising have experienced massive transformations. From radio to TV. From Billboards to digital and social media. Technology has transformed the way people and brands communicate with each other. But nowadays users are constantly impacted daily by different messages while brands struggle to capture their attention, with (many times) ineffective advertising. This has become overwhelming for users, which, the majority of the time, have just become blind to ads. To overcome this blindness, advertisers struggle to find a way to communicate their brands in an engaging way.

Just a couple of years ago, TikTok, started a movement that would change the way users interact with social media and brands. It revolutionized the way users consume and create content on social platforms. Although TikTok was not the first video-based social media, it did stand out for its authentic, dynamic and short-form content.

In 2020 it became the fastest growing social platform in the world. By then, we were immersed in a world of content creators recreating trends, dances and lip-syncing. 20% of all videos published on the internet in 2020 were under 2 minutes long, according to video hosting software company Vidyard. And this creative wave extended far beyond wacky dances. People started using short-form videos to broadcast very diverse forms of content.What first appeared to be a temporary eruption of real, authentic creativity spurred by the pandemic and claustrophobic lockdowns, end-up on being the new way of creating and consuming content online.

Creators became  the new generation of storytellers, pushing the boundaries of creativity, entertainment and advertising. From teaching math and physics to showing inventions, reviewing e-commerce treasures and dropping finance tips, short-form videos soon became the most engaging form of telling stories.  And brands surfed this wave as well. Marketers discovered an attractive way to use user-generated-content (UGC) to communicate services and products. We were present on the very initial stage of the Short-form video Creator’s Economy. 

If you have been in the business of making advertising, you are now in the business of making entertainment, welcome!. 

In this new business, ads must be unique and authentic. 80% of TikTok users finds that advertising on TikTok is unique or different, and 70% of them agreed that it’s ok for brands to try different ways to create content, according to Nielsen’s study How creativity and authenticity on TikTok drive a positive experience for users and brands. And here is the most revealing fact:: 71% of TikTok users don’t mind advertisements  from content creators on the platform as long as they are entertained! This-is-massive! People want to hear about brands, if they are entertained by them! (and that is a big IF)

The creator wave reached the shore of other social media as well. Rapidly and successfully Meta surfed this wave with Reels in Instagram. As Adam Mosseri’s, head of Instagram, stated in June 2021: “We’re seeing a significant shift in power from organizations to individuals across industries.” Instagram’s consolidation of content placement around Reels, recognized the importance of creators based videos as a mainstream form of content.

Last April 2022, less than 12 months after Mosseri’s announcement, Meta stated that Reels made up over 20% of the time users spend on instagram. In case you didn’t get the magnitude of that statement, let’s put that into perspective: that’s 20% of the time in the social network with the most active users in the world!

In 2021 133B minutes were spent viewing creator content, according to an AdAge Study. That’s 13x more time than what people spent with brand videos. Both in TikTok and Instagram, more than half of consumers admit they have bought a new product in the past six months influenced by Social Media, according to the Social Shopping Survey by Bazaarvoice. This means that not only people were watching more branded content, but they were more convinced by it too.  Both experts at Meta and TikTok agreed that ~70% of the success of a campaign lies on the creatives.

TikTok and Instagram quickly became leaders in the Creator’s race. But the pole is never complete without a third driver. Lately, we have seen Google’s social media team pushing harder in this competition as well. A year ago YouTube Shorts was launched, full throttle. This full screen vertical video format within YouTube, reached 1 Trillion views in its first year. As of April 2022, Youtube Shorts  became another inventory for Google’s Ad Campaigns, a clear statement of how important short video formats are for advertising solutions.  

Whether advertising in TikTok, Instagram, YouTube or other social media platforms, as marketers we are encouraged to use creator-led content for this type of video placements. Simply because It is what users want to see there.

From demographics to communities

In addition to creator-based content, we are seeing a transformation in the way audiences are being targeted in advertising. Historically, we have talked about demographics, segmenting for ages, genre, geos etc. Today, we are talking about communities.  That is, segmenting people with the same interests, no matter how old they are, or where they are. As brand marketers we have to align our messages to these interests, the same way content creators do. We have to shape our message following the culture we see in TikTok, Reels and in Shorts, and other short video platforms. This means, we need to embrace the mindset  of how people talk about fashion and beauty, finance, gaming, food, traveling, news and entertainment, maternity, wellness, music, etc.

To sum up, the top 3 Social Media Companies in the world are embracing and pushing creators to the front. As marketers we MUST adapt our communications and define a cohesive creative strategy. A strategy centered on creators and community interests will yield the best results. This is how you start:

• 5 Steps to your Creator-led strategy:

For Brands, embracing a successful Creator-lead strategy is quite straightforward:

1. Align  brand objectives, KPIs and desired outcomes for our campaigns. 
2. Understand the platform mindset, look for the trends you want to jump in and identify creators you want to collaborate with.
3. Brief creators with your brand goals and the content you want to create.  Think both in organic and paid campaigns
4. Scale this process to more than a one-shot initiative. Prepare content for always-on  campaigns.
5. Measure, evaluate and iterate for future campaigns. Look for data insights to find out which type of content and creators correlates to better performance.

Saying is easier than doing, of course. And reading it is definitely easier than executing it.  But if you have come this far,  it’s a great first step.

Some challenges ahead

Brands may find it hard to get to know each channel’s nature channel and it may take time for their teams to adapt their communications for each specific platform. And finding the right creators, negotiating with them, briefing them correctly, executing quality content that performs, is a formidable process. This process may take a lot of time for some companies, and for others slower corporations it will just be… impossible. It is challenging, to say the least. But it is worth it.

Some solutions ahead

You need the right mindset of Thinking like a Marketer, and Acting like a Creator and this is exactly what Winclap Creative Studio does. Along with a team of  creative experts and  a platform of creators, we provide an end-to-end solution to help companies embrace, adopt and execute a creator-led strategy. We  deliver tailor-made creator-led ads to companies in less than 7 business days (because we believe that having fresh trends in your ads is possible), We assure that the right creators will participate in the ad for the right community.

Users are expecting companies to adapt their communications to the way they consume content. Working with Creators and Creative specialists we do exactly that. We unite brand messages with consumers. In the most creative and data-driven way possible.

The Winclap Way 🙂