Creator marketing is no longer a side project on Meta. It’s fast becoming the centre of how brands discover, peak interest and convert their audiences. As an agency planning and running paid social every day, we wanted to hear first-hand where Meta is taking creator marketing next, and what that means for the brands we work with.
Inside Meta Festival, from the creator talks to the big announcement
The day opened in the breathtaking Lightroom space, with creators, brands and agencies all in the same room. That alone set the tone. Having every part of the process together kept the thinking broad and open, and considerate of all the moving parts that take a campaign from brief to launch on Meta. It made the idea of a fully connected strategy between marketing segments feel real, not theoretical.
Hearing from key players in the digital creator sphere like Olivia Attwood and DJ AG gave the day real-world grounding. Both shared how they use Meta to play to the strengths and brand they have already crafted themselves, and how that translates into brand salience for the partners they work with. It was a useful reminder that the best brand partnerships build on what a creator already does well, rather than refiguring it.
The biggest announcement of the day was the premiere of Meta’s finalised Creator Marketing Hub. It brings three of the most time-consuming parts of creator work into one place: creator discovery, content discovery and permissions access. For brands and agencies, that means less admin between finding the right creator and getting their content running as ads.
What Meta’s creator-first push means for brands?
The wider message was clear. Meta sees creators as central to performance, not just awareness. To get there, Meta set out its 5 Cs for a creator-first future:
- Confront the shift: go where the market is.
- Convert with creators: use creator content to drive results, not just reach.
- Craft the creative: build it properly and thoughtfully.
- Connect organic and paid: unite your teams.
- Confirm the payback: prove it with data.
Meta’s guidance was specific: around 30% of ads in a business-as-usual strategy should be partnership ads. That moves creator content out of the “campaign moment” box and into the always-on mix. For brands, it is a clear benchmark to measure current activity against, and a signal of how much weight Meta places on creator-led creative. There was a strong focus on using creators to broaden creative, not just scale it. Different creators bring different angles, voices and reasons to buy, which means one brand message can speak to multiple customer motivators at once. More diverse concepts give the algorithm more to work with, and give audiences more ways to connect. Meta also delved into the latest update that lets brands pair creator content with catalogue items. This seamlessly links the platform-native humanity of creators with the purchase intent it drives. The result is a shorter, easier customer journey: someone sees a real person using the product and can move straight to buying it.
The tagline of the day was more than a slogan. Meta’s push to connect organic and paid, and to unite teams, was echoed in the breakout rooms. Our agency session zoomed in on what we can do in our part: listen closely to both creators and brands, and keep communication open through the whole campaign planning process. Case studies backed this up, showing that the strongest results come when brief, creative and media are joined up from day one.
Final thoughts
Meta Festival made one thing clear: the brands that win on Meta will be the ones that treat creators as a core part of strategy, and bring creators, brands and agencies together from brief to launch. Here is what we would recommend doing this quarter:
- Benchmark your partnership ads against Meta’s 30% BAU guidance.
- Diversify your creator roster so your concepts speak to more than one customer motivator.
- Test creator content alongside your catalogue to shorten the path from inspiration to purchase.
- Get set up in the Creator Marketing Hub to simplify discovery and permissions.
- Unite your organic and paid teams, and agree how you will confirm the payback with data.
And of course, a day like this had to be topped off properly: a cracking DJ AG set, Savano drinks and photobooth with a visit from Olivia herself, and lunch in the gorgeous Mare Street Market. Together really does create better.
Want to put creators at the heart of your Meta strategy? Get in touch with the Found team.
