The WARC Podcast 2026 trends: The creator marketing gamble
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Dec 5, 2025 Becky Owen, CMO at Billion Dollar Boy and expert in creator marketing, joins Alex Brownsell, Head of Content for WARC Media, to dive into the evolving landscape of creator marketing. They discuss the $37 billion projected spending for 2026 and the challenges brands face in demonstrating ROI. The duo explains how creators can collapse the conversion funnel and the importance of distinctiveness in messaging. They also touch on authenticity, the impact of organizational silos, and the need for brands to embrace more collaborative partnerships with creators.
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Creators Rewrote Advertising
- Creator investment is surging because audience attention has shifted to social platforms where creators build long-term communities.
- This change redefines advertising from one-way broadcast to conversational, community-driven engagement.
Creators Collapse The Funnel
- Creators deliver reach into hard-to-reach younger audiences as linear channels decline.
- They compress the funnel by taking users from discovery to conversion much faster than traditional media.
Measure Creators For Sales Impact
- Pressure from CFOs forces creator teams to prove sales impact, so measure economic outcomes not only engagement.
- Invest in measurement tools like real-time sales tracking and econometrics to validate creator ROI.