The Things I Didn’t Get to Say on Stage at SoCom (And a recap for anyone who couldn’t attend)

At SoCom, I got asked several variations of the same question:

How should brands operationally evolve to make creator marketing actually work at scale?

Here’s the blunt answer I didn’t have time to fully unpack on stage:

Most brands aren’t bad at creator marketing.
They’re structurally broken.

Below is the real shift brands need to make — operationally, financially, and mentally — to move from one-off influencer deals to an always-on, performance-driven creator engine.

Creators Are Not a “Channel” — They’re Infrastructure

The biggest operational mistake brands make is treating creators as a separate branch of marketing.

Creators are not:

• A bolt-on channel
• A brand-only initiative
• A side project to paid media

They are part of the root system of your growth engine.

There should be:

• No “brand vs performance”
• No “creator vs paid”
• No separate trees

There is one media team working toward one goal.

Consumers don’t see your internal org chart.
Your internal structure shouldn’t either.

The Budget Conversation Is Backwards

Creator budgets shouldn’t be debated in isolation.

They should:

• Live inside paid media
• Scale based on cash flow and operational readiness
• Be aligned to incentives across creators, paid media, and brand

Where budgets break down:

• Multiple agencies doing overlapping work
• Separate creator, UGC, TikTok, Meta, and paid teams
• No shared feedback loops

That’s not diversification.
That’s expensive duplication.

Creators don’t sit next to the performance engine.
They are inside it.

Stop Comparing Creator Ads to Brand Ads

This one needs to die immediately.

Creator content and brand content solve different problems.

They are tools — not competitors.

You don’t abandon a screwdriver because a hammer worked better.
You don’t fire the hammer because the screwdriver solved a problem.

Creators don’t win the click.
They win the argument before the click.

Creator content:

• Pre-sells
• Counters objections
• Builds trust brand ads physically can’t

So don’t measure creators against polished brand ads.

Measure system lift instead.

What to measure instead:

• Blended CAC
• Conversion rate improvement
• Time-to-purchase
• Which creators lower CPA after exposure
• Which creators unlock objections brand ads couldn’t

If creators improve the performance of your system, they’re working — even if last-click attribution doesn’t give them credit.

Scaling Creators Without Losing Intimacy

“Scaling intimacy” isn’t about more touchpoints.

It’s about better signals.

Creators don’t want scripts.
They aren’t actors.

They want context.

What actually scales creator performance:

• What’s converting right now
• What objections are showing up in comments
• What not to say (this is a massive unlock)
• Real reviews from real customers
• Proof of your best-performing hooks

Intimacy isn’t frequency.
It’s care, transparency, and foundation work.

Share the data.
Share the insights.
Let them do what they do best.

And don’t hide your most important creator relationships behind agencies.

The Biggest Lie Brands Tell Themselves

“It’s a volume game.”

It’s not.

It’s a strategy game.

I’ll take:

• 10 great creators
• Clear incentives
• Tight feedback loops
• Paid amplification

Over:

• 100 random sample sends
• Zero iteration
• No learning velocity

Every single time.

What Brands Should Stop Doing Immediately

Stop running separate agencies for:

• Paid social
• Creators
• UGC
• TikTok
• Meta

You’re not specialized.
You’re slow.

Fragmentation kills feedback loops — and feedback loops are where performance lives.

What Brands Should Start Doing Instead

Start paying for iteration, not posts.

Performance doesn’t come from one video.
It comes from learning velocity.

The brands winning right now aren’t posting more.
They’re learning faster.

If this made you uncomfortable, that’s probably a good sign.
That’s usually where growth lives.

If you’re restructuring how creators fit into your paid media engine, I’m curious — what’s been the hardest thing to unwind internally?

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