Detch Singh.
The AdNews end of year Perspectives, looking back at 2025 and forward to next year.
Detch Singh, CEO and Co-Founder, Hypetap.
If 2025 proved anything, it’s that influencer marketing has well and truly grown up. The days of creators sitting on the “nice-to-have” side of the marketing plan are long gone. Today, creators aren’t just a channel, smart brand marketers recognise them as the creative supply chain, driving the content that fuels brand discoverability, credibility and performance.
As we head into 2026, the smartest marketers are thinking about creators in the same way they think about media investment or brand strategy - as a core business lever that’s powered by data.
One of the most profound shifts this year has been how consumers find brands. Discovery isn’t starting on Google anymore, it’s happening on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Shorts and Reddit. That’s where people are looking for recommendations and reviews. It’s no secret that creators dominate these platforms. Different demos do this uniquely on each platform. For example, Hypetap Intelligence data shows us that 90% of Gen Z’s top creators are seeking this through comedy and entertainment on TikTok, while 65% of top Millennial influencers on Instagram are in the "Parenting," "Food," and "Home & Garden" categories combined.
At the same time, search itself is changing exponentially. Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), essentially how AI and large language models (LLMs) surface brand information, is fast becoming the next search frontier. These models feed on authentic, detailed and trustworthy content, so if your brand doesn’t have a credible library of creator-led content, you risk being invisible in AI-summarised search results.
In other words, moving forward, a brand’s future SEO strategy might just depend on its influencer strategy. Just look at Unilever’s social-first strategy announced this year as an example.
For years, “authenticity” was an intuitive measure, now it’s measurable. And this year, the creator economy has finally matured to the point where trust can be quantified, and performance can prove it.
We’re seeing marketers move beyond vanity metrics like “likes” and “reach” to real indicators of business impact including brand lift, purchase intent and sales attribution. CFOs are no longer satisfied with good vibes; they want data showing a clear relationship to business outcomes.
AI isn’t replacing the human element in creator marketing, it’s enhancing it. We can now analyse which parts of a creator’s content i.e. the hook, the delivery, the product demo are driving conversions. That means brands can make better creative decisions, double down on what works and build authenticity backed by evidence.
The biggest mindset shift for Influencer Marketing in 2025 is that creator content is not a campaign expense but a long-term asset. The best brands are already doing this and taking high-performing creator content and amplifying it with precision targeting. It’s consistently outperforming generic brand creative in paid environments.
The brands doing it well are repurposing that content across the board including programmatic display, native video, even retail media making creator content the connective tissue of the entire media ecosystem. This extends the lifespan and value of the original partnership far beyond the initial social placement, treating the content as a scalable, media-agnostic asset.
So, looking ahead to 2026 and beyond it is obvious to the progressive brands that the creator economy is no longer an after-thought, it’s the foundation of how brands will grow in a world defined by fragmented discovery and AI-driven search.
The next phase isn’t about choosing between creators and media, or authenticity and data. It’s about managing both with intent. Brands that master that balance will be the ones still standing.
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