The message isn’t the message. The messenger is the message.
another sign of the ever-evolving creator ecosystem
The message isn’t the message. The messenger is the message!
I watched creators in Atlanta turn polling place information into something that actually felt useful. Watched a few of them get bullied in the comments for caring out loud and keep posting anyway.
Watched audiences who normally scroll past political content stop and engage because the person delivering it was somebody they already knew and already trusted.
That’s the thing brands keep missing when they think about creator partnerships in this space: The message isn’t the message. The messenger is the message.
A creator who’s spent two years building trust with their audience can deliver a piece of civic information that an entire ad campaign couldn’t get across with ten times the budget.
Going into next week, I’m thinking a lot about how to build infrastructure that supports that kind of work. How to find these creators before they’re “discovered,” how to compensate them fairly for the labor of caring, how to make sure they don’t burn out by year three.
That’s where the next chapter of this industry has to go.
Anybody pretending otherwise hasn’t been paying attention.
Have a real weekend. The work resumes Monday!