From Media Gatekeepers to Cultural Curators
Traditional media still matters, but its monopoly on influence has been completely dismantled.

Audiences trust people more than institutions and consumers no longer wait for editors to tell them what is worth buying, wearing or listening to. Instead, a person’s taste is shaped by the networks of individuals they follow and admire. People who feel closer, more authentic and more relatable than traditional celebrities.

Crucially, influence has fragmented. Mass influence still exists, but niche influence is exploding.

We live in a creator world of can do. A footballer’s training routine can influence fashion. A fitness creator can make a recovery product mainstream overnight. A niche podcast host can influence purchasing decisions more effectively than a national advertising campaign. A specialist golf creator can shape purchasing behaviour more effectively than a globally famous athlete. A marathon runner with a small but deeply engaged community can carry more trust than a television advert. A stylist on TikTok can influence fashion purchases faster than editorial media ever could. A… well, I think you get the picture.

The result is a new of influence: Trust simply matters more than reach.

This is why micro-creators increasingly outperform celebrity endorsement. Their communities believe them and history has shown us time and again how powerful belief is. Belief moves people, and if enough people move, well, that’s culture.

The Shift From Influencer Marketing to Cultural Participation
If the term influencer increasingly feels outdated then the term influencer marketing certainly does. It implies transactional visibility: Here is the product. Here is the fee. Please post. Cheers.

But the brands winning today are doing something very different. They are not buying attention, they are participating in the cultural discourse, and this distinction matters.

The weakest creator partnerships feel extractive. When a brand appears in someone’s feed with little context, no credibility and no real connection to the creator’s world, consumers spot it a mile off.

On the flip side, the strongest partnerships feel additive and they deepen a creator’s story. They give communities something useful, entertaining or inspiring, and most importantly, they feel native to the culture that person lives within rather than interruptive to it. Successful creator partnerships look less sponsorship and more collaboration, and to take it even further, which countless brands are, they are a joint business venture.

Yes the big ones we can all reel off, Ye, Bae, Kim, Rhi Rhi and Hayley are just some of the more recent global celebrities that have followed the trail of JVs with global brands that was first blazed by MJ and Nike in the 80’s. But peel back the layers and from top to bottom of pretty much any sector you can now find conversations around equity for exposure.

Why Athletes Matter More Than Ever
Athletes at all levels are increasingly operating as creators in their own right. Not just because they may be celebrities, but because they represent credibility. The modern consumer increasingly seeks expertise, discipline and authenticity, and an athlete’s recommendation carries weight when it feels grounded in lived experience. The same applies to coaches, trainers, physios, nutritionists and pretty much any niche experts who can demonstrate credibility to their field.

In many sectors, expertise has become the new aspiration because consumers want to know: Who actually uses this? and: Who believes in it enough to stake their reputation on it?

This explains why creator ecosystems are broadening beyond entertainment into expertise. The future of influence looks less like celebrity endorsement and more like trusted recommendation networks.

The Danger of Renting Culture
The truth is that many brands still misunderstand creator partnerships. For every adidas, Gymshark, Rhode and On, who are all reaping the rewards of treating creators as cultural infrastructure rather than marketing inventory, there are umpteen that are yet to get that memo.

They may not set out with the intention, but somewhere along its journey out into the world this good intent morphs and ends up being something that treats culture as something to borrow.

Jumping onto trends. Chasing virality. Hiring whoever has the biggest following. But cultural resonance is increasingly difficult to fake and consumers can sense opportunism immediately. Brands that merely rent culture often disappear from relevance just as quickly as they arrived and the brands that endure usually stand for something deeper.

They have a genuine point of view built from a well crafted and authentic belief system for the role their identity or products play within people’s lives. This is powerful, because creators then become amplifiers of that belief, not substitutes for it. Creators should not define a brand’s identity, they should extend it.

So what?
It’s a case of slowly, slowly catchy…relevance.

The smartest brands are moving away from one-off creator activations toward long-term creator ecosystems. It’s not: Who can post about us this month? but: Who helps shape our world over time?

This means creators can’t just be a line on the marketing plan. They must be genuine collaborators. They have to be product testers, educators, community leaders and co-builders of a brand’s perspective on the world.

Ultimately, the creator economy is not simply changing marketing, it’s changing how culture itself moves, and the brands that win will likely be those that understand that you can’t force your way into relevance, you have to contribute something worth belonging to.