Creator ad spend grows 4x faster than other media, yet two-thirds of campaigns don't beat average brand-ad memory lift.
StatCreative Strategy
US creator marketing spend grows 26% year on year - 4x the growth of other media channels - yet two in three creator campaigns fail to build brand memories better than the average brand ad, 44% of marketers don't measure creator at all, and 38% measure only short-term ROI.
Source
Cannes Lions 2026: The Creator Effectiveness Playbook - Andrew Tindall (System1) & Eugene Healey; System1 x WPP Media x TikTok research (2026)
Andrew Tindall (System1), Eugene Healey; research with Josh Cornell (WPP Media), TikTok
02:25, Andrew Tindall (System1 x WPP x TikTok, Cannes 2026)
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Quote"Shit that arrives at the speed of light is still shit." - David Abbott, revived by Andrew Tindall on AI-accelerated, efficiency-first creator content.StatCreators match other channels on short-term ROI but carry the highest long-term brand-building multiplier of any channel.WarningThere's no relationship between media price (CPM) and creator campaign outcomes - cheap buys can win, expensive buys can lose.PrincipleBrand Memory Lift weighs brand-awareness gains twice as heavily as ad-recall gains, replacing impressions as the creator success metric.PrincipleEmotional, distinctive opening seconds roughly double the brand memories built at any attention level.StatThe top 10% of creator campaigns generate 4x more brand memory lift than the other 90%, and only 29% of creator ads beat the average brand ad.StatEngagement rate has zero relationship with brand memory lift; creative quality explains 5x more of it than comment-to-like ratio does.PrincipleBrand fit between creator and brand matters twice as much as creator fame, and getting fit, fame, and creative quality right together quadruples brand lift.PrincipleShowing a visual brand asset early lifts recognition, saying the brand name lifts it more, and doing both lifts it most.PrincipleSocial devices - a creator's repeatable creative signatures - compound brand memory over time like distinctive brand assets do.CaseWhen Eugene Healey posts a video without his face in it, views drop by a factor of 10.PrincipleAudiences don't tire of repeated creative formats before creators do - entrained patterns are why people keep watching.