Agencies say creators must move upstream as B2B influencer marketing matures

Creators should be brought into campaign planning much earlier if brands want influencer marketing to drive real business impact, senior agency leaders have said.

Speaking on a panel* about the future of creator marketing, leaders from WPP, Omnicom, Dentsu and McCann said the industry is moving in that direction, but has yet to complete the shift.

Sydney Moore, director of strategy at Obviously, said that while creators are now being “brought in a lot earlier”, the structures around them have not fully caught up. Obviously, which was acquired by WPP in 2023, has experienced that tension directly.

“A lot of the way they work is not built for agility,” she said. “How much room do we leave for flexibility? Is there a moment happening in culture? Is there a creator going viral?”

Stevie Johnson, managing partne head of CREO at Omnicom, said the cost of not involving creators early in the process is higher than many brands realise.

Creators, he argued, are among the most current sources of consumer insight available.

“They know what people are speaking about within communities. They know what formats are landing, they know what language is being used,” he said.

That proximity to audience behaviour allows creators to spot shifts far earlier than traditional research or campaign reporting – an advantage already translating into performance. Campaigns that bring creators in earlier are delivering stronger intent and lower acquisition costs than traditional branded assets in some cases, he added.

At McCann, that shift has already been embedded into the agency’s process. Chief executive Mel Arrow said creators and social specialists are now briefed alongside brand strategists and creatives from the outset.

Even so, she noted that closing that gap requires brands to give something up.

“There’s a bit of giving over control that you really have to do,” she said. “That’s not always comfortable.”

The AI trust gap

That discomfort is being intensified by the growing role of artificial intelligence in B2B buying.

Jonathan Turner, managing partner at Dentsu B2B, said tools like ChatGPT are changing how buyers enter the market.

“People are longlisting and shortlisting brands before they’ve even engaged with them,” he said, describing how research is happening earlier in the process.

That shift is increasing the importance of validation later in the decision-making process.

In that environment, creator credibility becomes harder to replicate. Moore pointed to campaigns where specialists speak directly to their own professional communities – surgeons to surgeons, analysts to analysts, and technical experts to their peers at companies including Microsoft and Dell.

“There is no better direct channel to your audience than that,” she said.

*Creative Collision Series, Creator Edition – Who really owns the idea? How creators, agencies and brands are rewriting the rules of influence, LinkedIn HQ, London, 28 April