Creators: The Next Gen

The creator economy is entering a new era but perhaps not in the way some many expected. Not because influence is disappearing, but because agencies and brands are rethinking where creators belong in the creative process.

Edelman’s Gen Z Maker Bench is one example of that shift. The initiative brings together a pool of ‘makers’ whose skills and cultural fluency can be matched with client briefs. Rather than treating creators as the final step, brought in to polish or amplify an already-made idea, Edelman is involving makers from the outset, using their understanding of audiences, platforms, and trends to shape the work itself.

“A creator is someone who might have 500,000 followers. They’ve built a personal brand, they have influence, and you use them to make noise, grab attention and publish content to their own audience,” explains Antonia Aveline, head of MakerBench, EMEA, at Edelman.

“A maker is different. They’re deeply ingrained in communities. They know what’s happening in culture, what sticks, what converts and what lands. They’re almost like art directors when you think about it; they shoot, edit and create content with strategy behind it.” 

It is a distinction Edelman explored at SXSW London, where the agency set out its case for giving makers a more central role in brand and social-first creativity.

Makers aren't replacing creators

For years, bringing a creator on board has often been one of the final pieces of a campaign. The rise of the maker is not about replacing that model, but widening it. 

“The intention of a maker is to create content that goes directly to the brand,” says Jo Burford, EMEA head of creator at Edelman. “It’s almost a remix of freelancing. We’re seeing an evolution in the way Gen Z want to work. Many young people don’t necessarily want traditional nine-to-five jobs.”

The Maker Bench is intended to bring brands closer to the instincts and behaviours of the audiences they want to reach. Unlike an influencer brief built primarily around reach, the emphasis is on platform fluency, community knowledge, and an ability to make work that feels native to the spaces in which it appears.

“Rather than focusing only on protecting the brand image and perception, brands need to think about what's actually going to land, what's going to resonate with different communities, and what's going to feel authentic,” explains Aveline. “That's why the Maker Bench is so important.

“Gone are the days when you could simply pay someone like Molly-Mae to promote a product. That still has a place, but there also needs to be a conversation about cultural relevance, impact and authenticity. Brands need content that genuinely resonates with their audience.” 

Within the Maker Bench process, makers can be involved from the beginning, working alongside production teams, creatives, and strategists.

“What makers are doing is coming into the brand almost as content strategists. Sometimes they're producers. Sometimes they're simply appearing on camera as paid talent,” continues Aveline. “One of the biggest advantages is speed. If a trend appears today and will be gone by tomorrow, we can call someone from the Bench to create something.”

Authenticity is strategy

For Zenya Angela and Ademide Grace, who are both full-time content creators and members of the Gen Z Bench, relatability is an important part of the distinction.

“Molly-Mae represents aspiration; you think of someone who's hugely successful, living in a beautiful house, wearing expensive jewellery, and driving nice cars. Most people don't live like that,” begins Grace. “I don't live in a house like hers. I don't wear Van Cleef – and for some audiences, it creates distance. A maker, on the other hand, feels relatable. You look like me. You sound like me. You're probably in a similar stage of life. That's where the connection starts.” 

The point is not that makers should become influencers themselves. Their role is to help brands produce social-native content quickly, for a specific audience, without necessarily carrying the status or polish associated with conventional influencer marketing.

Grace recalls one haircare brief that crystallised that difference. “A haircare brand completely changed the way I think about content. The client wanted something that would encourage people to try their products naturally, so I did what I thought was a perfect UGC video, but they came back and said, ‘No. It's too polished. It looks too much like an advert.’ I went and sat on the floor in my bedroom, held the product, and simply talked to the camera. And that’s what they were looking for.”

Burford points to the challenge facing advertising more broadly, claiming that only 2.5 per cent of ads are remembered by consumers. Against that backdrop, she argues that recognisable, less polished content is becoming increasingly valuable.

Angela, meanwhile, says the Maker Bench gives people like her opportunities to build careers and influence that are not measured purely by follower numbers.

“Someone scrolling through TikTok or YouTube is much more likely to stop for someone who feels like an ordinary person – someone they'd talk to on FaceTime or see on a livestream. That's very different from seeing someone with millions of followers doing another sponsored post.”

Influencers trade partly on their reach and status, she argues, while makers can work through familiarity and relatability.

Trust is currency

As with any form of creator marketing, the model ultimately depends on trust. With the Maker Bench, however, that relationship runs in several directions: between audiences and makers, but also between brands, agencies, talent, and managers.

“One thing that often slows me down in the creator world is having to work through talent managers,” explains Burford. “I love them – they do an important job – but it naturally adds more stages to the process; negotiations, contracts and approvals. With the Maker Bench you can just go directly to the maker.”

Influencer marketing was built, in part, on creators’ trusted relationships with their audiences. Burford believes the industry is now returning to that principle as brands question whether reach alone delivers the same value.

“Brands are now buying trust as much as they're buying reach. There's almost an argument that the bigger someone becomes, the more difficult it can be to maintain that trust. Some creators still spend time in their comments, still engage with the people who followed them from the beginning, but there is often a tipping point.”

Edelman is also trying to build trust into the Bench itself, both through the way it vets talent across EMEA and through the support offered to makers.

“We spend a lot of time asking whether brands can trust creators,” says Aveline. “But creators and makers also need to be able to trust brands.”

Grace and Angela both agree that relationship is improving, but they still encounter warning signs when working with large companies, from beginning work without a signed contract to requests for unlimited revisions and demanding emails outside working hours.

“Jo and I are working together on something that really reflects Edelman’s DNA around trust,” Aveline continues. “We want to explore giving makers access to training programmes and qualifications so they can continue developing their skills. Not because they don't already create amazing content, but because we want to help them enhance what they already do.”

This experiment points to a wider shift for creator marketing, which may depend less on treating social talent as media space and more as creative expertise. Reach will always matter, but having the right person communicating the campaign message is the final – but vital – piece of the puzzle.