Observed Signal · Oct 8, 2026 · Insight Report · Source: The Drum · Impact: 2/5 · Sentiment: Neutral
Brands Must Create Entertainment in Creator Age
At the inaugural Jupiter Festival in Miami, industry experts outlined ten practical rules for brands navigating the creator age. Key takeaways include: brands must adopt mobile-first storytelling and understand vertical video's unique grammar, audiences follow attention across platforms, and building persistent brand worlds is more valuable than one-off placements. Successful content discovery requires significant marketing investment, and brands should integrate creator capability internally. Hiring individuals who have demonstrated audience-building skills is advised, and creators should be treated as infrastructure, not a campaign tactic. Unilever's expansion from 10,000 to 300,000 creator relationships exemplifies scalability. Ultimately, brands must create compelling content that audiences choose to watch, rather than interrupting them with overt commercial messages.
Provides strategic guidance for brands on adapting to creator culture and mobile-first content, relevant to marketer and advertiser strategies.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Jupiter Festival took place in Miami, focusing on creators and vertical TV.
- Unilever expanded from roughly 10,000 to 300,000 creator relationships.
- Experts advise brands to follow audience attention across platforms.
- Evan Shapiro recommends hiring individuals with proven audience-building experience.
- Brands are urged to treat creators as infrastructure, not a campaign tactic.
Connected Companies & Entities
2 Entities mapped“He said the company has expanded from roughly 10,000 creator relationships a few years ago to around 300,000....”
“Bilt and Crocs were among the examples discussed at Jupiter....”
Ontology Mapping & Concepts
Related Market Signals & Shifts
Recent verified developments and strategic activity across this market segment.
Evan Shapiro Urges Brands to Hire Creators Over MBAs
At the Jupiter Festival in Miami Beach, media analyst Evan Shapiro launched the second edition of his Creator Ecosphere Map, which introduces an 'affinity quotient' to measure creator-audience engagement beyond reach. Shapiro argues that brands should shift from hiring elite MBAs to hiring independent creators, citing Unilever's expansion to 300,000 creator relationships. He also unveiled plans to make his Media Universe Map interactive on October 14, allowing users to compare media landscapes over time. Shapiro advocates for reframing creator terminology, such as replacing 'micro-influencer' with 'indie creator', and emphasizes the importance of engagement over follower counts. He encourages companies to embed creators as employees to drive cultural change and to explore repurposing traditional TV content for vertical video platforms like TikTok.
Creators Are Driving Marketing’s Entertainment Era
At Cannes Lions 2026, creators moved from peripheral campaign talent to central partners in marketing, with talent agencies, brands and creative shops treating creators as media partners, production teams and IP owners. The festival highlighted a convergence between marketers and creators: brands increasingly hire creators or their representatives for longer, operational engagements (episodic/always-on content) rather than one-off posts. Agency and brand leaders — including figures from UTA, OpenAI, Bose, L’Oréal, Kraft Heinz and Unilever — argued creators supply authenticity, creative execution and audience relationships that traditional media and campaigns no longer reliably build on their own. Creators report mixed ROI for attending Cannes but see value in relationship-building and future commercial opportunities.
Unilever's Creator‑First Shift Still Needs a Big Idea
Jo Bromilow argues in The Drum that Unilever’s move to a creator-first approach and heavier reliance on influencer marketing is a correct challenge to legacy agency habits, but warns brands still need an overarching, flexible “big idea” to tie creator activity together. The piece notes The Drum’s interviews with Unilever executives showing the company no longer treats influencers as a pure distribution channel and is elevating creators into core creative conversations. Bromilow cites industry research (WPP Media, System1 and TikTok) showing influencer effectiveness requires consistent, phased storytelling and long-term partnerships, and contends agencies should help brands translate flexible big ideas into ongoing creator-led activations.
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