The creator economy is estimated to be worth nearly half a trillion dollars by 2027.
When there’s that much money at the table, brands should pay attention.
The key to success? Understanding the creator economy, learning how it impacts brands, and following a few key tips as a brand navigating the creator marketing industry.
Table of Contents
What Is The Creator Economy?
The creator economy describes the economic activity resulting from individuals creating and sharing content online. This content can take many forms, including videos, blog posts, podcasts, and social media posts.
Creators may also work full-time or take part in the "gig economy", which focuses on flexible, temporary, or freelance jobs, as opposed to full-time, salaried work.
They can monetize their content through a variety of methods, such as advertising, sponsorships, and fan donations.
The Passion Economy vs. The Creator Economy
The passion economy refers to the economic activity that takes place when individuals pursue their passions and share their knowledge and expertise with others; it is a subset of the creator economy.
Creators participating in this economy build businesses around their passions, monetizing their channels through subscriber gifts, subscriptions, and more.
The Creator Economy And Influencer Marketing
Both the creator economy and the passion economy directly link to influencer marketing.
When someone shares their creations or passions, they can also build an audience and become content creators by default. Brands can work with creators in a variety of ways, like paid promotions or affiliate marketing, allowing them to take part in the creator economy.
Why The Creator Economy Matters To Brands
Knowing that your audience connects with online personalities can lead to some distinct benefits for your brand.
Connect with Creators’ Audiences
When a brand wants to reach new audiences, conduct market research, or any other business goal, creators and influencers can help you.
Billions of people use social media and other content creation platforms every day, creating so many new opportunities to expand your audience.
Plus, consumers trust influencers more than brands, making the creator economy more trustworthy than traditional forms of marketing.
Influencers and creators know this world well. Later’s research team surveyed a group of creators and found that 94% of creators take part in brand partnerships and 68% use affiliate marketing to make money.
Drive Brand Performance Using Content Creation Strategies
Your branded pages can drive your own audience growth using strategies you'll see content creators using.
Examples include:
Starting a podcast that’s relevant to your industry. For example, Later hosts the Beyond Influence podcast to interview top creators.
Sharing content about employees, such as “Day in the Life” posts that can be used for both social media growth and recruiting and employee features on LinkedIn.
Engaging in social selling, hiring in-house content creators to create and share educational information (e.g. talking about overall fitness if you sell gym clothing).
Collaborate with Creator-Driven Brands
As creators grow, they think about diversifying their income streams: 73% of full-time creators with more than 25k followers have more than three revenue streams, including selling their own products or services.
Fashion and lifestyle creator Carys Whittaker expanded her brand with Ambela Jeans, meant to fit and stay comfortable for all body types.
When creators have their own brands, it opens the door to unique and novel partnerships that go beyond traditional influencer marketing.
How The Creator Economy Will Grow And Change In 2025
Here are our top 5 predictions for the creator economy in 2025:
#1: An emphasis on original content
#2: The rise of the AI creator
#3: Creators will set more boundaries
#4: An increased focus on business
#5: The right tools will matter even more
Prediction #1: An Emphasis On Original Content
With millions of images and thousands of hours of video posted every day on social media, creators need originality to stand out.
After all, authenticity is a key to building relationships with anyone, let alone through social media.
As the world of social becomes ever-more crowded, we think unique, original content will still be the key to growing and maintaining a creator business.
Prediction #2: The Rise Of The AI Creator
With the explosion of generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology, it’s now possible to look, sound, and engage (almost!) like a human.
The “AI Creator” — meaning a persona that’s entirely AI-generated — is gaining ground in the world of social media and creator marketing.
AI-generated influencers seem to be carving out their own niche. While some find the content entertaining, many brands and social media users alike are skeptical of AI-generated influencers.
For all the humans reading this: you don’t need to worry!
Human creators can use AI tools to help them build out more content, save time, and scale. It doesn’t need to be humans or robots—you can use technology to grow and compete.
Prediction #3: Creators Will Set More Boundaries
Audiences on social media are 24/7, and at any point, there is likely someone who wants to see fresh content from you.
This can—and does—lead to creator burnout.
But an increasing number of creators, including top influencers like Marcel Cunningham (aka BasicallyIDoWrk) are setting boundaries, such as:
Not working certain times of the day or week.
Taking specific breaks from creating based on market ebbs and flows.
Being more selective about which brand deals to take on.
Brands working with influencers should have a conversation about boundaries and how it can impact the campaign. That’s not to say creators don’t work hard! But everyone needs to have realistic expectations.
Prediction #4: An Increased Focus On Business
Creators who want to turn their work into a full-time business will think more seriously about:
Their analytics.
Their audience (and what makes them listen!).
How they can work with brands.
One of the first things a creator needs to do is become discoverable to brands. Joining the Later Influencer Database can help with that, ensuring you’re searchable by the thousands of brands looking for creator partners.
Prediction #5: The Right Tools Will Matter Even More
With the demands of creating, posting, managing brand partnerships, and negotiating partnerships with creators, the right tools will be essential.
An influencer marketing platform like Later Influence can help you automate tasks, find creator partners, analyze performance, and distribute payment to creators.
Book a demo today to see how it works.
Different Types Of Creators in the Creator Economy
Being a creator is not all about social media; here are the different kinds of creators you may encounter.
Video Creators
With platforms like YouTube and TikTok making it easy to create and publish video content, more creators are leveraging it in some way.
They also monetize in multiple ways. Later’s in-house research team found that 67% of long-form video creators have 3+ revenue streams and the majority have been monetizing content for at least three years.
Learn more about video creators in this episode of Beyond Influence, featuring gaming streamer and YouTube creator Marcel Cunningham.
Writers And Authors
Perhaps the “original” creators, writers have been sharing their craft for centuries.
With the rise of blogging revenue through ads and newsletter monetization, for example through Substack, it’s now an incredibly lucrative career path once more.
It’s also one key element of a diversified creator business: 90% of long-form written content creators have 3+ revenue streams.
Artisans And Builders
Many in the passion economy make things with their hands or have a specific skill they use to help clients.
You may spot these “creators” at farmer’s markets, in office buildings, or online in places like Etsy or on their own Shopify store.
Sometimes, they use social media to connect their audiences with their craft. Creator Stephanie Chinn uses Instagram to promote her two passions: digital art and self-love empowerment retreats.
For this type of creator, social media might be a tool to reach new audiences, but it’s not necessarily their core business.
Teachers And Coaches
If you know how to do something, why not teach it?
Later’s Research team found the most under-utilized revenue streams are templates and guides, courses and workshops and exclusive content behind paid walls.
Content creator Taylor Loren uses her marketing expertise to teach people how to effectively market themselves on social using templates and courses.
Coaching and online education is a $180+ billion industry, and creators with their own audiences can build a thriving business in the space with explainers, workshops, and more in-depth courses.
How To Build Your Brand By Working With Creators
Here are a few tips to consider when navigating the creator economy.
Tip #1: Find The Right Creators
Working with the right creators is critical to success—you want individuals whose aesthetic, style, and content type aligns with your products and brand values.
The key is to use advanced filtering to find influencers so you can easily search by type of realtor.
This is also crucial to scale; if you don’t have a seamless approach to sourcing influencers, trying to grow will take up a lot more time.
Tip #2: Take A Collaborative Approach
When you work with creators, keep an open mind!
They are experts when it comes to their audience and content creation style; if you take a more collaborative approach, you might get better results.
For example, you might want to try a user-generated content (UGC) campaign with influencers. Or perhaps you can set out the goals in your campaign briefs but ask the creator for their perspective on how best to share the message.
Tip #3: Use Creator And Influencer Marketing Throughout The Funnel
When you measure creator performance, don’t just think about the top of the funnel.
Look at a variety of metrics that track to business goals, including:
Awareness, such as impressions and reach.
Engagement rate, indicating how content resonates with the people seeing it.
Overall influencer return on investment and earned media value, proving how working with the creator economy impacts your bottom line.
Tip: Use Later’s Influencer Instagram Engagement Rate Calculator to determine your creator’s engagement rate.
Tip #4: Automate Admin With The Right Tools
A big part of running a successful, scalable campaign is not doing everything manually.
Ideally, you want the right tool to help you automate administration, such as finding and paying influencers.
You also want a tool that keeps all data in a single platform, for example, contracts and communication, to save time on recall and ensure a smoother campaign management process.
Tip #5: Integrate Creator Marketing Into Overall Business Strategy
Creators don’t just publish on their platforms and call it a day.
These are smart solopreneurs who might:
Help with market research.
Attend your events in person (and post about it).
Speak at conferences to share their knowledge with other people on your team.
Think of creators as highly skilled freelancers with a specific niche—they can be valuable as individuals beyond their audiences and platforms.
Grow In The Creator Economy In 2025
The creator economy is a multi-billion dollar, multi-faceted industry that is going to continue to grow.
The key to brand success in 2025 with the creator economy is taking an approach that’s authentic to your brand identity and takes advantage of all the new ways to market yourself with creators.
But to get there, you need the right tools in place. That’s where Later can help, giving you access to premium tools across influencer marketing and social media management.
Book a demo of Later Influence today to learn more about how our tools can help your brand grow in 2025.
