Sponsored by RockWater

The IAB is one of the most important data organizations in the creator economy.

But their reports are looooooooooooooooooooooong.

If you want a copy of the report you have two options: Google it or DM me and request it.

And if you want to skip it and just read my top ten takeaways, keep reading!

Also in this edition:

• Shadow-bans Aren’t Real

• Peacock Flocks to Creator Shows

• LinkedIn Gets Into the Creator Advertising Game

• Student Athletes Compete for Followers

• Job ops from OpusClip, SuperAwesome, and Creators Agency.

• …and a dank creator economy meme by yours truly!

Let’s get into it.

NEWS:

The Top Ten Takeaways from IAB’s ‘Measuring the Digital Economy’

This report took me eight hours to read cover-to-cover, so let me see if I can get you 90% of the value in 5 minutes:

1. The Digital Economy is worth $4.9 Trillion. Mind you, this doesn’t mean that the digital economy, say, makes $4.9 trillion per year, but that’s the value of the entire market. That’s 18% of total U.S. GDP and it’s grown 2.7x the rest of the economy. So maybe instead of telling your kids to get off their phones, you should tell them to just make sure what they’re watching is career-advancing.

2. The U.S. has 1.5 million full-time creators. That’s nuts. And I have to assume, based on stats I’ve seen, most are making poverty-level wages. But that’s 7.5x the amount in 2020 which shows how much COVID changed the creator story. By the way, that’s growing 5x faster than traditional media sectors.

3. Internet employment is growing 12x faster than the total job market. The internet economy is becoming the economy. It’s how we shop, date, make friends, and work.

4. Creator coverage outpaces traditional media coverage. The report says that 2024 is the year “creators took over” finally, but they said it on the basis of coverage for major events like the elections and the Super Bowl, and based on how Trump ran his successful campaign with Logan Paul, Aiden Ross, and Joe Rogan, it’s hard to argue.

5. Commerce media is exploding. Ads on retail sites like Amazon and Walmart went from $12B in 2019 to $52B in 2024. They projected this will top $100B in 2030, accounting for 1 in every 5 ad dollar. This fits my prediction that the future entertainment platforms will all be run by brands selling their own goods and services.

6. Connected TV has gone AVOD. Over half of new Netflix subscribers in 2024 chose the ad tier, and CTV ad spending hit $26.6B in 2024. And with YouTube taking over as the #1 video OTT platform by watch hours, it makes sense that all platforms are kind of becoming YouTube.

7. Digital advertising is still powering the creator economy. Brands and ads are still the vast majority of how creators make their money, and deal aggregator platforms and agencies are dominant for mid-tier and long-tail creator monetization.

8. Big brands are greatly increasing creator spend. The president of Unilever said they were expanding influencer marketing from 30% to 50% of their total ad spend, and going more longtail working with 20x more creators. Other major brands are following suit, with ad dollars continually pushing towards influencers.

9. Investment and M&A in the creator economy is heating up. They have plenty of examples: Publicis buying Influential for $500m, Amazon investing $1B in Spotter, PSG putting $150m into Uscreen, and Slow Ventures launching a $60m creator fund. But most importantly: Fixated raised $14m in the past year!

10. Every Congressional district has digital economy jobs. I thought this was a weird call-out at first, but the 28.4m jobs being spread across all 435 U.S. districts does show that the government will have to continually address digital issues as ‘kitchen table’ issues to stay in power, and currently the government seems to have an antagonistic relationship with creators, digital businesses, and Big Tech.

SPONSORED BY ROCKWATER

RockWater provides specialized M&A advisory for digital agency owners. TLDR: we find buyers to acquire your agency and negotiate the best deal possible fo ryou.

We're trusted by leading creator economy agencies including: Long Haul Mgmt (sold to Wasserman), Bottle Rocket Mgmt (sold to Night), Oxford Road (sold to Insignia), Fixated ($10M capital raise), Bounty (sold to gen.video), The Creator Society (merger between 2 Social and Ensemble), and many more names you'd recognize. 

If you're interested to learn more about what your agency is worth, reach out to [email protected] to set up an introductory call.

We also host premium exec networking events in NYC + LA. Fill out your details here to be included on the list.

GROW 1%:

Phil Ranta’s weekly social media growth newsletter with one actionable tip to grow.

This week’s ‘Grow 1%’ is titled Why Does the Algorithm Hate Me? and discusses what shadow-banning really is and how you can fight it.

Here’s an excerpt, and you can read the entire edition in the link above:

The balloons and confetti dropped this week as the one-millionth creator told me they were 'shadow-banned'!

Quick question: is anyone not shadow-banned?!

I kid, but this is a serious issue. Creators see a sudden and dramatic drop in views, engagement, or (*gasp!*) sales, and the only justification is "Mark Zuckerberg hates me."

Lucky for us, algorithms aren't personal.

They're just bits and boops, dumb machines doing dumb calculations based on data derived from your content and audience.

Don't let that scare you. Let that liberate.

Mark Zuckerberg doesn't care about you.

MrBeast is enormous, but YouTube got 5 TRILLION views in 2023. Jimmy has 67 billion views TOTAL on his main channel. If he disappeared tomorrow, it would suck to lose YouTube's golden boy, but the revenue hit would be a rounding error within a rounding error.

No platform can spend too much time thinking about one person unless it's a world leader or multi-billion dollar investor (wonder why you don't follow Elon, but he's at the top of your Twitter feed?)

Continue reading here.

FAME & FORTUNE:

Peacock went all-in on scripted creator shows, green lighting four that went through the NBCU Creator Accelerator Program. Most of these programs don’t bear much fruit, but given this announcement, make sure you or your creators know about this program.

LinkedIn has started match-making between brands and their 30 top business creators via their Brandlink program. Add this to their plan to do original shows and full-throated support by Gary Vee, and suddenly LinkedIn video seems like the right product at the right time.

There is no doubt that student athlete social followings make for great advertising for colleges. Now they’re doing something about it. Through firms like Article 41 at UNC, student athletes are getting social media training. Companies like Passes are also helping students monetize through a partnership with University of Michigan (Go Blue!).

Are you or someone you manage a creator that also wants to be a super hero? Andrew N. Green (former a16z partner) has a solution with Storygrounds, a company making manga, anime, and comics for creators. They have some huge creators and IP already signed up, so register to stay on top of the news!

INDUSTRY HIRING:

OpusClip needs a Business Development Manager, Creators and Media, and if your resume is too long just use their tech to cut it into 10 smaller resumes.

SuperAwesome is looking for a Influencer / Creators Strategist. Steve Buscemi in a backwards hat carrying a skateboard need not apply.

Creators Agency wants a Talent Agent - Brand Partnerships Manager who wants you to buy Gamestop when it hits $22.

MEME ZONE:

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.