Beyond the DM: The Creatorverse Exchange Unlocked a Wide Breadth of Opportunities

Traditionally, creator and brand partnerships are formed via communications through brand comms teams, influencer agencies and/or direct messages on social platforms. Through The Creatorverse Exchange program, brands and creators were able to go beyond the traditional channels and have a direct line straight to each other.

Earlier this year, Meta and Adweek partnered together to create the community-driven program, designed to bring together leading minds in the industry from both the creator and brand marketing sectors. The Creatorverse Exchange paired 10 leading creators with 10 senior brand marketers from brands like Rare Beauty, BET, SiriusXM, Impossible Foods and more. The teams collaborated on creative for the brand marketer’s company using Meta’s Reels and other tools.

The success of the program went above and beyond the initial expectations, with some partnerships extending beyond the program timeline. But the common thread throughout all conversations? Valuable lessons were learned across the board.

Disrupting traditional processes unlocks more opportunities

The Reels debuted on Dec. 4 at the inaugural Adweek X event that included guest speakers across the wide realm of media, like actors Glenn Howerton and Rob McElhenney, to address ways of moving the industry forward. The program mission proved to be in direct alignment with the event, demonstrating the value of disrupting the norm and setting new standards.

“The creative outputs and learnings from this program showcase the magic that can happen when we disrupt the traditional ways of advertising and marketing and allow for honest, open communication between brand leaders and creators,” shared Meta head of global industry marketing Sylvia Zhou with Adweek.

There are ways to make room in the budget for a creator test-and-learn

For brands like telecoms provider AT&T, the program cast a spotlight on the breadth of skills and capabilities that creators hold today. Valerie Vargas, svp of AT&T Advertising and Retail Marketing, who worked with creator CJ Johnson, shared more at Adweek X.

“Our creator class today is very much like a renaissance class in that CJ is a multihyphenate … He has this power to reach into his bag of tricks and bring forward different ways to approach and that was super refreshing.”

However, a partnership of this nature can be tough to access due to corporate bureaucracy. Vargas shared advice on how to find ways to work around the formalities after working with Johnson.

“[For creators] to say, ‘let’s do a trial … that maybe has three parts.’ And we’re going to learn and iterate as we go … For the creators in the room, that is a powerful way in that a brand can say, ‘okay, I can find where to put that in the budgets that I have to manage.’”

Finally, trust the partnership

For creators like Robyn Delmonte, known as GirlBossTown who already uses her platform to encourage brands to look at creators as creatives, the program paved the way to a bigger partnership with Rare Beauty and CMO Katie Welch.

“Katie and I have been following each other since I started and always knew we wanted to do something together … This is the perfect example of how brands meeting creators face to face and approaching brand partnership from a different perspective can shift the industry,” shared the Adweek 2022 Business Insights Creator of the Year.

Delmonte explains the key to a strong partnership goes beyond product placement. “Figuring out each side’s strengths and weaknesses and how to properly communicate with their audience is key. Consumers are so trained to scroll past ads, so you need to remember that the ad doesn’t make them stop; it’s their relationship with the creator in the ad and the trust that comes with that.”

All reels can be viewed here.