Brands Shifting Strategy: Investing in Creator‐Produced Series Instead of Ads
A new report, the 2025 Creator Economy Report by Billion Dollar Boy, highlights a significant shift in the creator economy, as brands move away from one-off sponsored content and towards fully-fledged entertainment properties[1]. This transformation fundamentally alters brand marketing strategies, moving from one-off campaigns to sustained, episodic storytelling where brands act as executive producers building slates of content rather than isolated ads.
Adopting Producer Mindsets
This shift necessitates brands to engage with creators as co-producers. Brands must manage seasons, intellectual property (IP) ownership, editorial guidelines, and fast approval processes to enable ongoing serialized content rather than single-spot campaigns[1]. The report emphasizes the need for an operating system for creator shows, including story world documentation, IP clarity, approval flows, and multi-cut planning.
Balancing Entertainment with Brand Discipline
Marketers need clarity on what branding elements are non-negotiable to avoid over-branding that alienates audiences or brand invisibility that reduces impact. The report encourages brands to choose creators for their ability to carry a narrative, not just their follower count[1]. Entertainment thrives on a creator's persona and unpredictable banter, while brands need consistency, compliance, and clear linkage to positioning.
Measurement Shifts
Success is gauged by habit formation and brand lift, not just raw views or plays, emphasizing long-term audience engagement and preference building rather than immediate reach[1]. Completion rates, return viewers, subscriber growth, and "echo" (earned press, meme spins, fan edits) are important metrics to measure the success of episodic IP.
Social-First Format Evolution
Serialized creator content now rivals traditional TV, requiring brands to shift briefs, funding, and measurement towards entertainment metrics rather than standard campaign KPIs[1]. TikTok and YouTube are not just distribution pipes; they're development studios with built-in focus groups.
Brand as Executive Producer
Brands now participate deeply in the creation, financing, and safeguarding of entertainment IP, effectively becoming co-creators of digital franchises that live natively on platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and connected TV[1][3]. This shift allows brands to extend their presence into creator-owned IP, merchandising, and licensing opportunities, supporting recurring revenue streams and legacy building rather than fleeting sponsorships[3].
Strengthening Brand Authenticity and Storytelling
Brand marketing increasingly relies on authentic storytelling that resonates with audiences in these serialized formats, with public relations evolving into a strategic lever to maintain credibility and connection amid fragmented attention spans[2].
Long-term Brand Value through IP Ownership
The report also discusses the importance of looking past surface engagement to signals that indicate durable brand impact, rather than just focusing on impressions[1]. New funding and audience engagement models, such as CineBlock's fan-financed IP and tokenization, allow brands and creators to engage fans as investors, creating new monetization and marketing channels that amplify relationship-building and sustained interest in serialized content[5].
In essence, brand marketing strategies shift from transactional sponsorship to strategic partnerships with creators that focus on producing serialized entertainment IP, balancing creative freedom and brand control, fostering habitual audience engagement, and leveraging new monetization models to build enduring brand ecosystems within the creator economy[1][3][5].
The report asserts that 2025 is the "Creator Era" because creators own more IP, audiences, and formats, and brands should stop renting relevance one clip at a time and start co-producing stories that live inside the format's DNA[4]. Creator content can deliver three to five times better performance than traditional branded assets when ported into other channels[4]. The living room is now open territory for social-born shows, with brand dollars following fast.
- Brands, in the transformation of the creator economy, are differently positioning themselves, not just as advertisers but as executive producers, financing, safeguarding, and co-creating digital franchises on platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and connected TV.
- Effective brand marketing now requires a balance between entertainment and brand discipline, ensuring consistency, compliance, and clear linkage to positioning while still appreciating the value of a creator's persona and unpredictable banter.
- The success of episodic creator content is increasingly gauged by habit formation and brand lift, with key metrics like completion rates, return viewers, subscriber growth, and "echo" (earned press, meme spins, fan edits) indicating long-term audience engagement and preference building.
