THE CREATOR GAP

We’ve all sat through the same old panels telling us “just give creators creative freedom” for the fifth year running.

So for my Born Social Mandated Cannes Wrap-Up Post* I’m skipping the platitudes and digging into a few of the spicier threads that carried more nuance, more debate, more tension. The first one is the Creator Gap.

Cannes does a brilliant at surfacing lots of the conversations and debates that have happened in corners of the industry throughout the year. This year we saw lots of new research into creators dropping from the likes of WARC, Kantar, System1 & CreativeX and a clear tension bubbled to the surface: brands are pouring record money into creators while a huge proportion of that spend is doing relatively little for brand building.

Here’s my view on what’s happening and how we turn it into an opportunity.

(*You know I’m kidding Jess Barker)