What is Creator Licensing?

Key Takeaways

• Creator Licensing is a specific influencer marketing strategy: creators give brands permission (license) to use their social media accounts for advertising.
• Benefits of Creator Licensing for brands include targeted audiences, authentic content, improved engagement, and stronger relationships with creators.
• Benefits of Creator Licensing for Influencers include a wider reach, less work, higher earning potential, and more effective content.

At the beginning of the “influencer marketing” era, no one really knew what he or she was doing, but a lot has happened since those first collaborations between influencers and brands. In the meantime, product placements are marked as ads or commercials, creators have become highly professionalized, leading to a cost explosion for influencer marketing, and consumers have become accustomed to ads and therefore often immediately continue scrolling or swiping.

Accordingly, the big challenge for this year is to find a new way to invest budgets in campaigns that still increase ROI or at least bring the desired revenue. Especially important is an authentic and honest relationship of the influencers with your brand,  and even more with your product. All the better, then, if brands can  adopt the identity of the creators and at the same time retain the creative power over the content: Creator Licensing.

What is Creator Licensing and how does it fit with Influencer Marketing?

Creator licensing, also known as whitelisting, is a process whereby brands gain access from influencers and publishers to their social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, for example, in order to directly upload branded posts and use them to promote products or services. This immediacy can increase ROI in the long run, as brands can show what they want in the posts (in consultation with influencers, of course, but with the final say over content).

Celebrities have long used creator licensing for sponsored posts, but smaller creators (nano-influencers) may be more effective at connecting with audiences and building trust. Ads created by creators tend to perform better than those created by brands and have a 20-50% higher success rate, according to Lumanu, when it comes to gaining attention and traction.

Consequently, organic meets paid content in the concept of creator licensing. In the first instance, this concept is also reminiscent of Dark Posting, which describes unpublished posts that are played out as ads but not as feed posts. Instead, Creator Licensing, allows brands to borrow the influencers’ name and promotional access to their audience. Content is not simply branded, but organically displayed as that of the creator.

Kolsquare-Insight: The concept of creator licensing was called whitelisting just a few months ago. However, in the ongoing discussion towards more inclusivity and intersectionality, it is crucial to remove vocabulary that further solidifies stereotypes (whitelisting for something positive, darklisting for something negative) from our common vocabulary and find new, inclusive terminology.

However, with the mass of influencers now competing for attention on platforms, it can be difficult for brands to find the right partners for their campaigns. This is where influencer marketing agencies like Kolsquare can help. With our complete solution based on the latest technology, we help brands execute campaigns from A to Z.

Benefits of Creator Licensing for Brands and Influencers

Overall, Creator Licensing has the potential to transform the influencer marketing industry by offering new ways of a structured and more efficient approach to partnerships between creators and brands.

Benefits of Creator Licensing for brands include:

• Targeted audience: creator licensing allows brands to directly reach their influencers’ followers, who are therefore more engaged and attentive, while also accessing influencer data to build similar audiences.
• Authentic content: When a product is promoted on a creator’s channel, it comes across as more organic, and proof that trusted creators endorse the product increases the value of the product.
• Improved engagement: moving posts into the influencers environment allows for honest discussions about a product or service and strengthens the human element needed for long-term relationships with consumers.
• Stronger relationships with creators: By collaborating through Creator Licensing, brands show that they trust their partners and see them as equals, rather than using them as mere transactions.

Benefits of Creator Licensing for influencers include:

• Wider reach: partnerships through Creator Licensing of Creators allow them to expand their audience by reaching new followers through brand-similar audiences.
• Less workload: since the technical side is taken care of by brands, creators can focus solely on producing high-quality content.
• Higher earning potential: Creator licensing is profitable for all influencers, even those who work on commission benefits from the extra attention.
• More effective content: Amplified posts provide more data that can be analyzed, allowing brands and creators to create the most effective content for their target audiences.

Challenges of Creator Licensing

Although creator licensing, as just proven, offers numerous benefits to both brands and creators in the influencer marketing industry, there are also some potential challenges and legal considerations to keep in mind. Here are some of the key issues  that both brands and creators face when using creator licensing:

One of the biggest challenges for brands using Creator Licensing is obtaining the necessary permissions. This requires each creator to grant the brand access to his or her  account, which can be time-consuming and difficult to automate. If creators are new to the concept, they may need assistance setting up a Business Manager account. Despite refining the onboarding process, the brand may still need to coordinate multiple calls and emails to get the necessary approvals.

Right now, Creator Licensing is all the rage in the industry, but with that boost comes the natural risk of audience’s oversaturation with repetitive content. For this reason, it’s important to choose the right partners whose followers match the brand’s ideal customer persona. Also, creatives should feel comfortable with the brand they are working with so as not to overwhelm their audience with too many promotions.

When brands run ads through their ad accounts, creatives may not have complete visibility into how their content and branding is being used. This lack of oversight underscores the need for trust and open communication between the brand and creatives. By fostering a healthy partnership, brands can ensure that influencers are comfortable with the use of their content and maintain a successful working relationship with creators.