Why American Eagle is joining the Creator Rewards party
It feels like every brand is starting a creator rewards program... but why?
I just got back from three days in Las Vegas for ANA’s Creator Marketing Conference, and it was a whirlwind!
Linqia hosted a dinner Monday night with an incredible group of marketers. Tuesday was the Sphere for The Wizard of Oz, and Wednesday we hosted a game show style panel with an amazing local Vegas creator (@Reneze), United’s influencer lead (Jasmine Brown), and Linqia’s show host (Finola Austin). I’ll share a link to the recording when its published.
The fact that the ANA has an event entirely dedicated to the industry says a lot. And the vibe was clearly
Influencer marketing is on every marketers radar from the top to the bottom across every industry imaginable (I met marketers from the Army and a Native American tribe!)
Influencer leads are still trying to find the right way to communicate performance to the top to justify seven and eight spends
Fandoms are the biggest opportunity, but that means betting on niche communities and not just speaking one message to the masses. 7 Eleven does an amazing job of this with the car community (that was a great presentation)
I could go on and on but let’s get to the topic of the day, which is creator rewards.
Creator Rewards Programs
We saw American Eagle become the latest brand to announce one, after this past year already brought similar headlines from Gap, Dicks, Macy’s, Lowe’s, Home Depot, Sephora and more.
So why are all of these brands launching and expanding what appears to be a loyalty program but designed for creators?
The answer is fairly simple. But it requires some set up…
The measurement challenge for brands
Influencer rates are higher than they’ve ever been, while organic reach is its lowest thanks to platform algorithm changes.
This means marketers are trying to justify rising creator costs, and showing direct sales is the best way to do that - hence the rise in demand for affiliate programs.
The attribution challenge for creators
Creators do not like affiliate programs because they only get paid when viewers buy using their links
And everyone knows that only a fraction of the people influenced by creators are going to buy using the actual link
So we seem to be at an impasse. Brands want affiliate, creator don’t.
Where do we go from here?
What if a program could provide affiliate revenue to creators, while also offering more perks like:
Free product and first looks at new innovation
Access to exclusive events around the world
A network of creators to collab with
An onramp to become a paid ambassador for the brand
That’s what these rewards program are. They are Affiliate+
Detractors will say that this is no better than affiliate, as creators can’t pay the bills with event invites and free product.
But I would counter with two points…
There are a lot of “creators” who do want these perks. Creators need to develop a ton of content, and having access to exclusive events, other creators to collab with, etc all feed that content engine. Not to mention the free product could sometimes be meaningful (Home Depot products for your kitchen renovation as an example).
The creator economy is exactly what it says… an economy. There is supply and demand and if these rewards programs have no supply of creators who want to participate then they will fail.
The incentives of both parties are aligned. Marketers are spending a good amount of time and resources setting up and launching these rewards programs. If they don’t make them attractive enough for creators to not just join but stay involved with then they are going to be desperately justifying their jobs soon.
Which means they want creators to get as much value out of the programs as the creators do. And none of these will be perfect out of the gates, but brands will have to find the value sweet spot for creators to stay involved.
American Eagle is not going to be the last, and there are already rumblings of other brands who will be making announcements soon. This is just the beginning!
👀 Stories to keep an eye on
Syracuse is expanding its Center for the Creator Economy program with the establishment of an academic minor track, the launch of an on-campus “Creator Crew” (which will “tell the story of Syracuse University” through social media content), and a web series called Inside the Creator Economy. We are likely going to see other schools follow their lead in the coming years.
In a historic creator economy move, a digital-first company has acquired a legacy cable network: Law&Crime Network—a YouTube channel with 7.4 million subscribers and ~80 million monthly views—has acquired legacy broadcast channel Court TV. This may be the beginning of a trend.
The ANA just release their Influencer Marketing Agency Compensation Report: For the first time, the ANA has conducted a comprehensive study on influencer marketing agency compensation — and it calls for more transparency with agency partners.
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