Brand owners might be ploughing billions of pounds into creator content but there is still a huge gap between spend and commercial impact, according to a new Kantar study.
Based on an expert analysis of over 15,000 branded creator assets on TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram, the “Creator Game Plan” study reveals brands that rely on high engagement rates alone to measure influencer success are most likely missing the insight they need to make the right decisions.
In fact, it found that only 6% of creator content delivers both strong platform engagement and strong brand-building potential – highlighting the risk of over-reliance on engagement metrics. That figure rises to 27% for content that delivers medium-to-high engagement and medium-high brand impact.
Kantar global creative director Vera Sidlova said: “Our research is a wake-up call that high engagement and genuine brand effectiveness more often than not do not align. Marketers say they’re under pressure to prove their return on investment. To do this, they need better signals and more rigorous metrics for testing to understand if their creator partnerships are the right fit.
“Creative freedom isn’t a courtesy – it’s the reason why 61% of marketers say they will increase their investment in creator content. But for all the authenticity and personality that creators offer, there’s no gain to be found in a campaign that lacks strategy, genuine audience insight and fails to add value to a brand’s long-term game plan.”
To close this effectiveness gap, Kantar introduced creator content testing within its Link AI model to unearth platform-specific benchmarks. Kantar’s Link AI for Creator assesses the most important dimensions of creative effectiveness – including brand building, short-term sales potential and engagement – to give marketers a single, consistent measure of how creator content performs.
Benchmarked specifically against creator content rather than traditional digital ads, it gives CMOs the intelligence they need to move beyond platform engagement metrics alone to make more confident, data-driven decisions.
Heineken Company global marketing director Ligia Patrocinio commented: “Brands aren’t simply buying reach when they work with creators, but stepping into a trusted relationship between that influencer and their audience. The moment you treat a creator like an ad placement, you lose the very thing that makes the creator content a true success with audiences: authenticity, cultural fit and personality.
“The most impactful collaborations happen when creators are empowered to tell stories in their own voice, with clear guardrails around brand values and audience alignment. The brands that understand that distinction are the ones seeing genuine results.”
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