Creator marketing is moving fast. What once sat on the fringes of media plans is now a central part of how brands reach audiences, build relevance and drive results. That shift was front and center at MediaCat Live last week, where senior marketers gathered to explore how creators are reshaping the modern media landscape.
Co-hosted by MediaCat and dentsu X, the event offered an hour of insight-led discussion on influencer and creator marketing, followed by networking. The takeaway was clear: creators no longer make up an experimental channel and many brands are still figuring out how to work with them effectively.
Why creator marketing needs a rethink
As platforms become increasingly algorithm led, traditional levers like media spend and reach are no longer enough to guarantee attention. Content quality, cultural relevance and credibility now play a far bigger role in determining what people actually see and engage with.
Creators sit at a three-way intersection: they shape culture, they understand platform dynamics, and they connect with audiences in ways brands often can’t on their own. Yet despite increased investment, creator marketing is still frequently managed in silos, split across teams, platforms and objectives, making it harder to scale what works or prove impact.
Throughout the evening, speakers challenged some of the industry’s most familiar ideas, from how we think about influence and trust to why smaller creators can often outperform larger ones. The discussion pointed to a growing need for clearer frameworks that reflect how creators actually operate within today’s media environment.
dentsu X on bringing structure to creator strategy
Jimmy Diamond, Head of Strategy at dentsu X and Barry Christie, Global Creative Lead at Meta, shared an early look at The Creator Catalyst, an upcoming playbook designed to help brands navigate creator marketing with greater confidence and consistency.
Rather than treating creators as a bolt-on tactic, The Creator Catalyst positions them as a strategic driver across the full funnel. It focuses on three challenges we consistently see brands facing:
- Casting: how to identify the right mix of creators based on expertise, content style and cultural relevance, not just follower numbers
- Collaboration: how to balance creative freedom with brand and business objectives
- Commerce: how to better understand, measure and unlock the commercial value creators can deliver
The aim isn’t to over engineer creator partnerships, but to give brands a clearer, more joined-up way of working in a space that often feels fragmented.
Collaboration across the ecosystem
A key theme across MediaCat Live was the importance of collaboration, not just with creators themselves, but across the wider ecosystem.
The Creator Catalyst has been developed in collaboration with Meta, combining platform insight with dentsu X’s experience in influencer and media strategy. This partnership reflects a broader shift in how creator marketing should be approached: with shared signals, smarter tools and a deeper understanding of how culture, content and commerce intersect.
What’s next
The Creator Catalyst launches on 17 March, offering brands a practical framework for working with creators in a way that’s fit for today’s media landscape, and adaptable for what comes next.
If you’d like to be among the first to receive The Creator Catalyst, sign up here.
