Ed East on how Billion Dollar Boy is redefining creator marketing at scale

Creator advertising has quickly shifted from an experimental channel to the beating coronary heart of name technique. With manufacturers like L’Oréal and Unilever restructuring their operations round creator-led approaches, the trade is experiencing a pivotal transformation. To higher perceive what this implies for entrepreneurs, ClickZ spoke with Ed East, World CEO and co-founder of Billion Dollar Boy, in regards to the findings of his firm’s newest analysis and what lies forward for creator advertising.

Ed East: We’re witnessing a elementary shift in how individuals have interaction with promoting – and creators are proper on the middle of that disruption. Put bluntly: nobody desires to take a seat by way of an unskippable advert displaying a automobile gliding by way of the streets of Johannesburg anymore. It’s not relatable. It’s not entertaining. And it’s actually not how audiences eat content material in 2025.

The outdated playbook – one huge blunt model message in a 60-second spot, minimize into a number of shorter variations – is ineffective. Audiences at present count on nuance. In the event that they’re going to interact with a model, they need one thing in return: leisure, training, cultural relevance. Worth.

That’s why creator advertising is attracting critical funding from manufacturers on either side of the Atlantic. It speaks to individuals the place they’re, in codecs they get pleasure from, with voices they belief. It gives the bespoke, platform-native, community-driven content material that conventional media struggles to ship.

And this isn’t simply one thing companies like ours are saying. It’s a wider trade realization. On the IPA’s Effectiveness Convention final yr, their “Effectiveness 3.0” examine made it clear: we’re not coming into a brand new period of bespoke, personalised promoting. We’re already in it.

The manufacturers which can be thriving proper now aren’t dabbling on this – they’re restructuring round it. Simply take a look at L’Oréal, who lately introduced structural adjustments to prioritize creator-led and content-first advertising, and Unilever, whose CEO introduced the model can be allocating 50% of advert spend to social.

Creator advertising isn’t an rising channel anymore. It’s the inspiration of how trendy manufacturers construct relevance, belief, and progress.

Ed East: As funding in creator advertising scales, so do the operational complexities – particularly round managing authenticity, model consistency, and relationships at quantity.

And so, manufacturers are introduced a false alternative between scale and authenticity, when the answer truly lies in constructing the fitting infrastructure: strategic, operational, and cultural.

Success requires aligning technique, programs, and groups to allow quick, assured execution with out sacrificing the authenticity that makes creator content material so efficient. It calls for a long-term mindset, specialist collaboration, and a dedication to creator-led model constructing at scale.

Ed East: Our research reveals 55% of creators have skilled burnout, and solely round half really feel they obtain satisfactory assist from manufacturers (48%). Against this, over 60% of entrepreneurs imagine they’re offering sufficient assist. There’s a transparent disconnect between notion and actuality – particularly round what significant assist truly appears like for creators.

For manufacturers, assist tends to imply clear briefs, well timed funds, and marketing campaign logistics. However for creators, it goes deeper. They should really feel creatively empowered, revered, and mentally secure inside a partnership.

That’s why we created FiveTwoNine – to offer peer assist, mentorship, and sensible instruments that assist creators construct sustainable careers. However assist can’t come simply from companies. Entrepreneurs additionally must reframe creator partnerships as long-term collaborations, not simply content material transactions.

If we would like creators to ship their greatest work, we have to construct a tradition the place they’ll thrive. That’s not simply ethically sound – it’s commercially good.

Ed East: Once we began out eleven years in the past, we had been seen as a distinct segment channel accomplice. Immediately, we’re strategic advisors.

Manufacturers now count on us to contribute throughout the advertising combine – artistic, media, information, even product innovation. They need perception into viewers habits, cultural tendencies, and platform shifts.

And importantly, they count on accountability. That’s why we spend money on measurement, artistic technique, and proprietary instruments like Billion Greenback Boy’s Companion.

We don’t see it by way of the lens of extra accountability; as an alternative, we see it as an even bigger alternative to drive model progress from the frontline of tradition.

Ed East: Creator advertising delivers on each brand-building and efficiency, however too usually it’s misjudged as a result of we’re measuring the incorrect issues.

We lately performed research which discovered a measurement disconnect: entrepreneurs’ commonest marketing campaign goals for creator advertising are rising model consciousness (41%) and reaching new audiences (37%). But, they’re sometimes measuring impression by way of ROI (60%) and buyer acquisition and retention (60%). This misalignment results in under-valued campaigns and missed alternatives.

The difficulty isn’t a scarcity of knowledge, it’s a scarcity of readability. As funding in creator advertising rises, so does the stress to show worth. However chasing platform metrics alone doesn’t present the complete image. Creators drive consciousness, sentiment, loyalty, and conversion – and when correctly measured, their content material constantly outperforms conventional media channels.

In a latest marketing campaign for a well being and wellness consumer, we moved past likes and attain to measure model elevate and matched-market gross sales. We discovered a 9% enhance in unaided consciousness and a 6:1 ROI – clear proof of influencer impression when tied to actual enterprise goals. That’s the form of final result CMOs and CFOs need to see.

The shift we’d like is easy however essential: begin with enterprise objectives, align creators accordingly, and spend money on frameworks that join content material to business impression. Taking this method, manufacturers don’t want to decide on between model or efficiency. They merely have to acknowledge that creators are able to each, and measure the channel as such.

Ed East: Algorithms transfer quick however this trade strikes sooner. In my eleven years working in creator advertising, I’ve seen platforms rise, codecs evolve, and algorithms fully reset the foundations of engagement.

For instance, TikTok disrupted the dominance of Instagram and YouTube by prioritizing uncooked, unfiltered content material and giving visibility to smaller creators – successfully democratizing affect. Equally, platforms like Substack have re-energized long-form content material, proving that substance nonetheless issues when it connects with the fitting viewers.

What’s remained constant is the trade’s resilience. Sure, algorithm shifts can impression efficiency, however in addition they reward creativity, agility, and audience-first considering. The perfect creators aren’t chasing tendencies for clicks, they’re constructing genuine engagement, which makes them naturally adaptable to alter.

Manufacturers must be equally agile. Meaning trusting creators to adapt in actual time, and leaving room in your technique for trend-led content material. It’s not a case of outsmarting the algorithm, however fairly staying aligned with what audiences genuinely care about at present.

Ed East: AI is reshaping the creator advertising panorama – dashing up manufacturing, fueling creativity, and serving to manufacturers scale concepts extra effectively. At Billion Greenback Boy, we’re utilizing AI throughout the board: instruments like Midjourney and Runway assist visualize marketing campaign ideas; ElevenLabs and Suno energy voiceovers and music; and platforms like ChatGPT assist ideation, analysis, and writing.

It’s already delivering outcomes. In a single marketing campaign for Versace, we partnered with digital creators to reimagine a purse launch by way of generative AI. The content material delivered a 5.7% engagement fee and a 1,456% larger play fee – displaying how AI can unlock artistic expression and efficiency when thoughtfully utilized.

However there’s a caveat: the guts of creator advertising continues to be human creativity. Audiences can inform when content material feels robotic or formulaic. AI ought to improve the craft, not change the private contact that makes content material resonate.

That precept underpins Muse, our innovation unit devoted to rising applied sciences. We discover AI’s potential however with one guiding rule: simply because you may, doesn’t imply it is best to. Each device we take a look at should serve the thought, not simply the method. And each marketing campaign should keep rooted in authenticity, artistry, and cultural relevance.

Used effectively, AI is a strong artistic co-pilot. However the perfect work nonetheless comes from actual individuals with authentic concepts, and that’s one thing no algorithm can replicate.

Ed East: It means creators are sometimes the primary – and most significant – touchpoint shoppers have with a model.

Take into consideration how our media consumption habits are altering: the common shopper is now generally discovering manufacturers by way of a creator on TikTok fairly than a TV advert. That second of discovery must really feel genuine, related, and emotionally resonant.

So manufacturers must suppose greater. As an alternative of siloing creator campaigns beneath social, deliver them into the core model technique. Contain creators early within the course of. Construct always-on packages that evolve together with your viewers. Use creators to check, be taught, and refine messaging in actual time.

Briefly: creators are now not the add-on. They’re the place to begin.

Ed East: We have to change transactional considering with clear, collaborative partnerships constructed on mutual respect and honest worth alternate.

Regardless of progress, too many creator-brand relationships nonetheless lack readability on expectations and inventive contribution. For the creator financial system to thrive, creators should be handled as strategic companions, not simply content material suppliers. Meaning clear communication, belief, and house to innovate.

Businesses have a accountability to champion this shift, bridging the hole between model objectives and creator realities. When all events work collectively transparently, everybody advantages and the ecosystem turns into stronger, extra artistic, and extra sustainable.