The Next Talent Signing Frontier

“There’s nobody good left to sign!”

I’ve heard this a million times in over a decade working directly with digital talent representatives.

Here’s a hint: there’s always a good book of business out there waiting for you.

But you have to seek blue waters if you want to catch the fish.

Since I’m on a family vacation in sunny Florida this week and therefore can’t write about current news, I’m breaking my usual format to discuss where I see the biggest opportunities for creator reps.

Five New Digital Talent Frontiers:

Loaded with game streaming talent, TalentX with TikTokkers, even my crew at Fullscreen with international music labels.

One of the fastest ways to go from zero-to-huge in this market is to know what new formats will emerge and then sign the talent that will lead them.

Nothing is guaranteed, but here are five types of undersigned talent that can have incredible short—and long-term value.

1. LinkedIn Influencers

Did you know B2B technology and software companies, on average, spend 30% of their total budget on marketing? B2B marketing globally is in the trillions of dollars, yet influencers in this space are greatly untapped. And now that we’ve seen LinkedIn lean into creator tools and B2B influencer marketing agencies like Brendan Gahan’s Creator Authority (transparency note: I’m an advisor) pop up, this could start to become a highly profitable space.

2. Affiliate-First Creators

Don’t sleep on LTK. Don’t sleep on TikTok Shop. Don’t sleep on established creator-facing affiliate link platforms like MagicLinks. Affiliate marketing spend is estimated to exceed $15b this year not including TikTok targeting $15.7b in sales in the US, and creators with a strong audience make powerful affiliates. And these creators need infrastructure, guidance, and most of all, someone to distill these stats into a story that can attract advertisers to their high-conversion talent. Creator Society is already doing a great job in this market, but there’s plenty of room for growth.

3. Pinterest Curators

After all of these years, the creator economy is still sleeping on Pinterest. They have 445m users worldwide, 60% of them are women, and viewers use Pinterest to help define their lifestyle and fashion choices. It’s FOMO in board-form. And when talking to a lot of Pinterest creators with large followings, I’ve found most of them to be unsigned unless they have large audiences on a video-first platform.

4. Snap Stars

Snapchat is huge, relevant, and monetizes exceptionally well. With over 400m daily users, over half in Gen Z, it’s one of the most powerful platforms to reach this up-and-coming generation. Although Snap is no longer focused on their ‘premium show’ offering in the Snap Discover tab, they’re pushing hard on Snap Stories monetization through Snap Stars, their ‘verified’ program. Creators who are great at creating slice-of-life content throughout their day can make millions per year, but that level of output takes a lot of focus. HG Media has emerged as a Snapchat-creator focused agency, but there’s plenty of room for more.

5. Conversation Curators

What does that even mean?! I use that as a catch-all for people with large followings on Reddit, large Discord servers, WhatsApp groups, or other direct communication, mostly highly verticalized creators on dark social. This is where you’ll find highly engaged (and wildly under-monetized) communities around TV shows that were canceled decades ago, niche brands, emerging technologies like blockchain start-ups, and other non-algo-friendly topics.

To be honest, I just as easily could have added a dozen more, from virtual influencers to AI creators to Snap lense creators to gif artists. There are more creatives moving culture than just the ones you see on YouTube and TikTok, and many need experts to help define their longterm vision and create sustainable businesses.

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this edition, give it a share and if you get someone to sign up, I’ll send you my ‘10 Rep-Friendly Ways to Monetize Today!’ deck!

Until next time, protect yo rep.