The Tamesis
In 2026, influencer marketing budgets will grow for a year in a row. But best practices are evolving because one-time, pay-per-post influencer deals can’t cut through the noise. Instead, creators will take on an advisory role as brands develop more substantial partnerships with talent that now form a core part of their marketing strategies.
As creators continue to evolve their content strategies in response to a social media environment where video is king, aesthetic stills no longer generate the volume they once did, leaving many traditional brands far behind. Experts agree that brands need to consider how to partner with talent strategically, rather than simply using creators to promote their products through one-off posts and affiliate links.
This means breaking out of social media and looking for alternative discovery channels when consumers are tired of being pushed to. Here, community-focused initiatives will be key, whether online through platforms like Substack or in-person gatherings. While brands are still experimenting in 2025, creators are diversifying the platform by developing these spaces with the community.
Eve Lee, founder of marketing agency The Digital Fairy, said such engagement will become even more important as brands weigh when and how to use artificial intelligence in their marketing strategies. “Everyone is racing to automate cultural intelligence, but AI can’t read a room or eliminate the chaos of human desire,” she said. “It relies on past data sets to create more of the same, [and] It cannot draw inspiration from new things that have no reference value. “
By 2026, experts recommend brands tap into the human element by leveraging creators’ loyal audiences as a means of content distribution. “Until now, it has traditionally been self-produced, everyday content from the creator’s personal life. Audiences tune in to be informed and entertained,” said Benjamin Almeter, founder of brand and talent agency Dispatch. “Through this lens, we are exploring ways to create more produced and structured content across our talent platforms and how to integrate branding throughout.”
Lee is so convinced of this evolving brand-creator relationship that she launched Source Material, a business that connects brands with creators, deploying the latter as advisors rather than just faces. “We are moving from influencers as influencers to creators as advisors,” she said. The downside, she admits, is that this kind of investment from a creator perspective has no clear, measurable return on investment (ROI), which is why it’s still a nascent strategy. This year, however, brand founders are keen to bring creators and influencers on board early and develop feedback and consultation mechanisms to work more closely with the talent behind the scenes.
According to a survey of 204 marketing leaders by LTK and Northwestern University, creators are the marketing tool in recent years that CMOs plan to increase spending the most by 2026, beating out AI-driven search, paid search and paid social. 97% of CMOs surveyed said they plan to increase their creator marketing budgets in the coming year. Shana Davis, founder of influencer marketing agency Ponte Firm, said brands spend about a quarter of their marketing budgets on attracting influencer engagement. But, as every year, the way the budget is spent is changing.
As the role of creators changes, how can brands strategize for the year ahead and what should they add to their to-do lists?
new sales channels
Brands and creators are no longer limited to social media to reach consumers. Brands need to start showing up outside of the usual scrolling if they aren’t already.
