Author: Abby Mangold

Last week, WPP Media reported that brand investment in user-generated content made by content creators and influencers will overtake ad revenue from traditional media, with estimates of $376 billion globally by 2030.

With Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in full flow, it’s timely to consider the reputational risks for brands of working with smaller content creators.

Big brands are diverting budgets towards solo creators and nano/micro influencers.

Brands are increasingly putting their company’s reputation in the hands of people who:

• Lack experience managing challenging situations
• Don’t always prioritise the brand’s reputation
• Prioritise their audience and engagement above everything else

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

• Creators going off-message
• Creators turning against you due to audience pressure
• Creators publicly disagreeing with decisions your brand makes

There are basic mistakes we see brands making when entering this space or expanding their investment in smaller creators.

Here’s our top 3 tips for protecting your brand:

1. Do your due diligence – analyse creators, research their histories including previous content and partnerships and establish if they are the right fit for the brand.
2. Agree a clear process for if and when things turn sour, especially if there’s push back from the creator’s audience at the partnership.
3. Get a contract in place, even for the smallest of partnerships and be specific about how you expect the creator to work with you in different scenarios.

At Mangold Consultancy we help global brands ensure brand fit with creator partnerships. We’ve seen how basic (and avoidable) errors at the beginning of a relationship can damage reputations on both sides.