EMARKETER published a graph showing the projected growth of US influencer marketing industry spend through 2027.

They estimate $10.5 billion spent on brand deals in the US this year and $13.7 billion in 2027, which is a nice bit of growth until you look at the red line indicating % change.

The year-over-year increase drops from 23.8% in 2023 to 12.9% in 2027, meaning they project industry growth to slow substantially.

What does that mean for you?

Hard to say, and anyway, I'm not sure I agree with this projection. There's still tens of billions of dollars being spent in dying media categories like SEO and television, and each year we hear about new major brands figuring out that they should be doubling down on influencer marketing.

I suspect that we're going to be looking at a way bigger number in two years. LINK

VidCon will always beat Cannes for 99% of Creators.

You may have noticed lots of Creators and execs were at Cannes Lions or VidCon last week.

I skipped Cannes, but this was my 10th VidCon (or something - I’ve lost count) and I have some high-level observations that are worth sharing.

What's the difference between a Creator and a media company?

Distribution.

The distribution opportunities for video content are multiplying:

A strong distribution strategy is a force multiplier on revenue.

As Creator distro gets more sophisticated, they will act more like media companies.

Major creator affiliate platforms like ShopMy and LTK were very visible with activations, events, and executives on site doing meetings and speaking on panels.

Even some of the OG affiliate tech providers that power these platforms, like Connexity, were there - a sign that Creators are becoming more important to the overall affiliate business.

It felt like the whole affiliate space was much more visible than in the past, which I take as a sign that they are crushing it.

And if they are crushing it, that means Creators are crushing it - the beauty of an aligned business model.

Cannes is good for a very small subset of Creators (big Creators who work with brands).

Most Creators aren't that.

VidCon is for a much bigger segment - anyone who makes or leverages content online. Those people - and the companies that work with them - turned out in force!

Using myself as an example - I have 50 new sponsor, referral, and partnership convos to follow up on - twice as many as last year!

We also had an even larger turnout for our 2nd Annual VIP Creator Party, which I co-host with SuperBam - check them out for help with protecting, monetizing, and amplifying your content across platforms!

Special thanks to our sponsors:

In-person relationship building is deeply underrated and always yields a meaningful ROI. I still 10/10 recommend VidCon for anyone who can get there.

It's the most valuable investment I make each year.

Creator Logic was founded by Avi Gandhi, award-winning former agent, producer, and executive at companies like WME and Patreon, with the mission of helping 1 million people find freedom in the Creator Economy.

If that aligns with your goals, check out today’s resources:

3 months ago, I was a huge AI skeptic.

I recently started to educate myself on how to engineer better prompts, and my productivity and output quality has improved 100x.

I am firmly convinced that people who think AI is overrated just don't prompt well, and the tactics in this video could literally transform how you operate.

Let me know what you think! LINK