The creator economy is starting to look less like one market and more like two. At the top, major creators are being treated as creative partners. Further down, smaller creators are increasingly being bought for reach, scale and distribution.
That distinction comes through clearly in Digiday’s interview with Portal A president Zach Blume. He compares the emerging structure to traditional media, where advertisers make large, negotiated partnerships with major entertainment properties while using programmatic buying to reach audiences across a long tail of publishers.
Creators are becoming either partners or inventory
Blume points to creators such as MrBeast, Alix Earle and Druski as examples of the first path. Brands are not simply buying a post or a placement from these creators. They are asking for ideas, longer-term integrations and creative development, with the creator operating more like an agency or entertainment partner.
The second path is more transactional. Nano and micro creators can function like distributed media inventory, allowing advertisers to buy scale across many accounts and channels. The value is not necessarily one creator’s cultural influence. It is the combined reach, targeting and repeatability of the network.
That does not mean smaller creators are becoming less valuable. It means their value is being evaluated through a different buying model. Digiday’s source makes the point that the market is expanding rather than forcing an either-or choice.
The important shift is in how brands define the job
The same creator can be asked to do very different work depending on the campaign. One brief may require a recognizable personality to shape a brand idea over several months. Another may require hundreds of creators to deliver credible, targeted distribution at volume.
That split changes what marketers need to measure. Premium partnerships need stronger creative judgment, audience fit and brand-building logic. Scaled creator buys need clearer systems for selection, delivery, disclosure and performance measurement. Treating both as interchangeable is likely to produce weak creative at the top and inefficient media buying at the bottom.
It also explains why the creator economy is becoming more professionalized. WME’s move to build creator-owned media businesses reflects the same broader direction: the most valuable creators are being developed as businesses, not just booked as talent.
The strategic consequence is straightforward. Brands should stop asking whether creator marketing is a media buy or a creative partnership. It can be either. The better question is which job the creator is being hired to do, and whether the deal, briefing and measurement model match that job.