Big Brands Boost Creator Spending, but Smaller Firms Dominate the Deals

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The creator economy is earning a rising share of consumers’ attention, but its growth is making the terrain more complicated both for brands and for creators seeking sponsors.While some major marketers say they’re moving spending from television and digital advertising to social-media creators, the money is lagging behind both consumer trends and the population boom among creators themselves. That’s spreading budgets thin, discouraging potentially more effective long-term partnerships and leaving many out in the cold, creators say.“Every creator wants to work with the brands,” said Sam Beres, who goes by Sambucha to his millions of followers on YouTube and TikTok.

“Creators will have their hands out like, ‘Hey, we’re ready, we’d love to work with you. Pay me something close to what I think I should get.’ There’s just not enough volume of brands coming in.”Forty-eight percent of marketers call creators a “must buy” for their media plans, trailing only paid search and social-media ads, according to a survey last summer by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, an ad-industry trade group.And U.S.

advertisers are expected to spend as much as $43.9 billion this year on sponsored creator posts and related ads, up from $37.1 billion in 2025, according to the IAB.This year’s predicted 18% year-over-year growth would, however, trail last year’s 26% growth rate and the previous year’s 34% rate, according to IAB.Dove parent Unilever has led many other large companies in its embrace of creators. The company now has 300,000 people recommending its products, its CEO said last month, up from 10,000 two years earlier.“You cannot talk about what engages people, where people find things, where people buy