Something fundamental is shifting in the creator economy: influence is no longer just a distribution layer you buy. It’s becoming a ownership layer you share.
Recent signals all point to the same direction. The industry is moving from “hire creators to promote” toward “build with creators to own formats, revive assets, and unlock long-tail value.”
When ITV Studios launches a unit like Studio 55, explicitly designed to connect brands, agencies and creators with ITV’s franchises and catalogue. It’s not a branding play. It’s an IP play. Studio 55 positions itself as a hub that opens up major franchises (including The Voice and Love Island) for digital-first reinvention, led by Will Scougal (ex-Snap).
The signal is clear: the creator is no longer a guest star brought in to spike reach. The creator is being treated as a partner who can refresh a franchise through community, formats, and creator-native storytelling. Value shifts from linear distribution to the ability to repackage IP into something people actually choose.
The next signal is even more aggressive: creator businesses starting to behave like asset buyers. The “reverse branding” thesis acquire a legacy brand and rebuild it with creator culture and creator distribution, only makes sense if you believe creators can do two things faster than traditional brand teams: rebuild relevance and rebuild narrative.
Night (Reed Duchscher) raising capital to expand via acquisitions, plus its acquisition of Experiential Supply Co., fits that direction: moving beyond talent representation into a broader creator-first media and experience platform.
This is the playbook: instead of creating a brand from zero, you buy an asset with history, then plug it into a creator-led operating system : audience, culture, formats, distribution, and feedback loops.
The exclusivity trap: locking creators can kill what you’re buying
As creators become more valuable, the reflex from broadcasters and rights-holders is predictable: lock them down. But exclusivity is increasingly risky, because a creator’s core strength is multi-platform ubiquity.
Formula E’s Evo Sessions is a useful illustration of the new attention dynamic: it’s built around creators and structured for livestream distribution, precisely because the point is reach, conversation, and the ability for moments to travel.
The signal here isn’t “don’t do exclusives.” It’s: the negotiation unit is changing. The smartest deals will be about windows, first-release rights, time-limited holds, specific formats without cutting off the viral loops that make creators commercially powerful in the first place.
From influence to equity logic: creators are moving into product value
The last signal is the end of “cash-for-post” as the dominant model. Not overnight, but directionally. When brands start launching creator-led product lines designed around creator identity and distribution, it’s not a campaign. It’s a product strategy that treats creators as commercial partners.
PepsiCo Foods’ “Flavor Swap” being positioned as its first creator-led product line, paired with specific creators and launched through TikTok Shop before broader retail, shows the logic: creator partnership isn’t bolted onto the product; it’s part of the product’s go-to-market.
That’s not traditional influencer marketing. It’s creators participating in value creation, not just value amplification.
We’re watching influence evolve from media inventory into shared ownership of IP, of brands, of rights structures, and of products.
For brands, the implication is straightforward: the most valuable creator relationships in the next cycle won’t be the ones you “book.” They’ll be the ones you build with, where creators are treated less like placements and more like partners inside the asset itself.
