Creators Will Soon Be Every Brand's Best Friend Or Biggest Competitor

Forbes

03-04-2025

As Chief Strategy Officer at Linqia and co-host of the Creator Economy Live podcast, Keith Bendes is a top voice in Influencer Marketing.
We all know the names Prime, Feastables and Chamberlain Coffee. But there are hundreds of other creator brands that are entering into and disrupting product categories that were traditionally dominated by a select few conglomerates.
If you don't believe me then just check out this image of the companies that own most of the products you buy at the grocery store.
The model for those companies was simple: If you own the shelf, then you own the consumer. I know because I used to work for one of those companies (Unilever). By having deeply ingrained relationships with every major retailer, large CPG companies could ensure their products hit the shelves. And if you aren't on the shelf, you can't make it into the consumer's basket.
But that has changed of late for several reasons. One of the biggest reasons comes down to the answer to a simple question: What's more difficult, building a following of millions of people who wait on your every video, or making a good-tasting chocolate bar? It's the former, and that's why Mr. Beast can generate more income from his chocolate brand Feastables than from his YouTube videos.
There are two themes that are accelerating the pace of these creator brands, which is why I believe we are going to see so many more enter the fold in the coming years:
• Creating products has never been easier. Setting up the supply chain and logistics infrastructure to manufacture and distribute goods is no simple task, but companies are popping up all over the place to help creators do just that. Quality is obviously still a question that every creator needs to deeply vet, but the options are there and they are getting better every day.
• Retailers are realizing that creator products are in high demand, and they are starting to open shelf space to those brands. One of my personal big predictions for this next year is that big retailers like Walmart and Target are going to introduce entire aisles for 'social made me buy it' types of products, and those aisles are going to be highly trafficked by younger consumers.
So what does all of this mean for those massive CPG conglomerates that are used to dominating grocery shelves? It means that they either gear up to compete with the storm of creator brands on the horizon or they partner with the top creators to be part of their family of brands.
We are already seeing this, and it comes in different shapes and sizes. Let's take a look at a handful of these:
• Limited edition releases: This can be packaging, actual product innovation or just fancy marketing.
• Entirely new brands: Unlike the above, which is under the existing brand equity, this involves creating entirely new brands with the creator.
The message in all of this is very clear for brands: Creators now have the power to drive significant purchase intent with consumers, and they are going to either do that under their own name or in partnership with you.
My advice to brands is to invest time and resources into building the necessary processes internally to be able to stand up these creator brands, either on a limited basis or as a big-bet stand-alone brand.
And it's worth noting that most creators don't actually want to go through the pains of building their own manufacturing system. If a brand is willing to take care of all the back-end logistics so the creator can focus on branding and promotion, many will gladly take that deal even if it means significantly less upside for them.
Take Corporate Natalie, she's been talking about doing her own line of clothes for some time now, and she decided to do it in partnership with 12th Tribe under its brand. It's significantly less of a headache for her in the design and manufacturing process, and a home run for 12th Tribe in gaining immediate awareness with Natalie's entire community.
The opposite was true for the brand 'Little Chonks,' which was started by the brains behind Maxine the Corgi dog account Bryan Reisberg. When asked on the Creator Economy Live podcast (which I co-host) if he would have started the brand had a larger company approached him to collaborate under their brand name, he said that he likely would have went the brand route instead of going out on his own.
It's certainly going to get easier for creators to start their own brands, but for most they would still rather focus on what they do best, and that's content.
At the end of every year, I post this video of David Friedberg on the All-In Podcast talking about how creators will either be a brand's best friend or biggest competitor. And that has never been more true than today. Now how brands respond is up to them.
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