Creator marketing has moved far beyond one-off influencer campaigns. Brands are putting more money into creators, building longer relationships and using creator content across social media, advertising and wider marketing programmes. Yet the way companies organise that work internally has not always kept pace. The ISBA creator economy framework is designed to help address these challenges.
A new framework from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (ISBA) is designed to address that gap.
Developed with Responsible Marketing Advisory (RMA), The Creator Economy Operating Models: The Marketer’s Framework gives brands three ways to structure creator marketing: Bolt-on, Channel and Core.
The framework does not suggest that every company should eventually move toward one particular model. Instead, it gives marketers a way to assess how creator activity fits into their existing organisation and what structure makes sense for their level of investment.
Creator Marketing Is Growing Faster Than Brand Structures
The creator economy has become a significant part of modern marketing, but many companies are still running creator programmes through fragmented teams, campaign-by-campaign decisions and external partners. That creates a mismatch between the amount of money being spent and the organisational infrastructure supporting it.
Research carried out with members of ISBA’s Creator Marketing Forum and Media Leaders group found that 48% of businesses manage creator marketing on an ad hoc basis, while only 9% treat it as a core part of their marketing strategy.
Responsibility is also often spread across an organisation. In almost a quarter of businesses surveyed, creator marketing is managed by multiple teams rather than a clearly defined function.
The research covered ISBA members representing more than £1.75 billion in annual UK advertising spend, highlighting the scale of the issue among major advertisers.
For brands increasing their creator investment, the question is no longer simply which creators to work with. It is also who owns the relationships, who manages the budget and who is responsible for the results.
ISBA’s Three Creator Marketing Operating Models
ISBA’s framework divides creator marketing into three operating models based on how deeply creators are embedded within a company’s marketing structure. The distinction is useful because not every brand has the same level of creator activity, resources or organisational requirements.
The three models are Bolt-on, Channel and Core. They range from occasional creator activation attached to specific campaigns through to a structure where creator marketing becomes an established part of the wider marketing operation.
Bolt-on Model Puts Creators Around Individual Campaigns
The Bolt-on model is built for brands that use creators when a particular campaign, product launch or marketing moment calls for them. Creator activity sits alongside the main marketing programme rather than operating as a permanent channel.
That approach can work for businesses that have relatively limited creator activity. A marketing team can bring in specialist creators for a product launch or seasonal campaign without establishing a large permanent operation.
The challenge comes when creator activity becomes more frequent. Campaign-by-campaign management can make it harder to build long-term creator relationships, maintain consistent measurement and establish clear ownership.
Channel Model Treats Creator Marketing as an Ongoing Activity
The Channel model represents a more established approach. Instead of bringing creators into individual campaigns whenever an opportunity appears, the brand operates creator marketing as an ongoing activity with dedicated planning and management.
A retained agency or specialist internal team may manage relationships, campaigns and measurement across the year. That creates greater continuity and gives creators a more consistent role within the brand’s marketing programme.
This structure also requires more defined processes. Contracts, creator data, measurement, agency responsibilities and internal ownership all become more important when creator marketing is running continuously rather than appearing only during selected campaigns.
Core Model Places Creators Inside the Wider Marketing Strategy
The Core model goes further by making creator marketing an integral part of the brand’s overall marketing infrastructure. Instead of treating creators as an additional activation method, brands use them as a key channel for communicating with their audiences.
This approach also connects creator activity more closely with wider marketing objectives and performance measurement. Marketing teams can evaluate creator investment alongside other major channels instead of managing it through a separate specialist budget.
ISBA does not position Core as a universal endpoint for brands. The purpose of the framework is to help marketers choose an operating model based on their own circumstances rather than assuming that greater integration is automatically better.
Creator Marketing Measurement Still Has a Confidence Problem
As creator budgets increase, brands need stronger ways to understand what that investment actually delivers. Views and engagement remain useful campaign indicators, but marketers increasingly need to connect creator activity with wider commercial and marketing outcomes.
ISBA’s research found that 59% of respondents were only “somewhat confident” in their ability to assess creator marketing ROI.
That finding highlights one of the biggest challenges facing the creator economy. A campaign can generate millions of views and thousands of interactions, yet those numbers do not automatically explain its contribution to sales, brand growth or other business objectives.
The framework therefore places greater emphasis on developing measurement capabilities that can support investment decisions. For creator marketing to compete for larger budgets, measurement needs to move beyond campaign reporting and into broader business performance.
Governance Becomes More Important as Creator Spending Grows
The more deeply creators become embedded in marketing, the more complicated the operational side becomes. A company working with a handful of creators can often manage relationships informally. A large-scale creator programme requires much more structure.
Creator selection, contracts, payments, advertising disclosures, brand safety, data management and regulatory requirements can all fall between organisational teams when ownership is unclear.
ISBA has also been working on the wider question of responsible influencer marketing. Its collaboration with the Influencer Marketing Trade Body (IMTB) focuses on areas including effectiveness, transparency and measurement.
That work reflects a broader change in the industry. Creator marketing is increasingly being treated as a professional marketing discipline with its own governance and measurement requirements.
The Creator Economy Is Becoming an Operating Model Question
For years, much of the creator marketing conversation focused on finding the right personalities, producing engaging content and reaching audiences on social platforms. Those questions still matter, but they are now joined by a more organisational one: how should a brand actually run creator marketing?
ISBA’s framework puts that question into three clear structures. Bolt-on provides flexibility for campaign-based activity. Channel supports brands running creator marketing continuously. Core integrates creators more deeply into the wider marketing operation.
The right structure depends on the brand, its investment level, internal resources and marketing objectives.
What is changing is the expectation around creator marketing. As budgets grow, brands are being pushed to think about ownership, measurement, governance and long-term strategy rather than treating creators as another line on a campaign brief.
The creator economy may have started with individual influencers and sponsored posts. Inside major brands, it is becoming something much bigger: an operating question.
Sources
- ISBA: Creator Economy Operating Models: The Marketer’s Framework
- ISBA: New operating model framework released to help brands capitalise on creator marketing
- Marketing Week: ISBA creator economy framework
