The Global Creator Economy including Social Media Influencers are expected to be valued at up to $15 billion next year according to Business Insider Intelligence. Partnering with social media influencers is already familiar to many brands, but the market is undergoing constant change. Whilst change is healthy and necessary, opportunities in serving the expanding Creator economy is here. Chris Henien, Director of Virobel Wealth Management identifies monumental amount of wealth and opportunities at play that only few financial services companies will be able to serve.
Chris Henien is betting that financial services companies combined with technology, specifically tailored services with specialist investment and structuring knowledge will lead in this growing space. This will give those an edge over traditional institutions who may not understand the industry.
The Creator economy is changing the way people earn a living, whether you are an Instagram influencer or a Twitch gamer. Traditional financial services providers have not caught up yet, largely because of the hesitance of regulation. However, by the time technology savvy players jump into the arena and gain market share, there could be a major headway for larger financial institutions to explore the space.
The Creator economy remains a fast-growing sector with more than 2 million professional creators making over $100,000 per year according to VC firm SignalFire, over 46.7 million people have enough of a following to monetize their content part time. This is defined by the class of businesses built by over 50 million independent content creators, curators, and community builders including social media influencers, bloggers, and videographers plus the software and finance tools designed to help them with growth and monetization.
Chris Henien envisions there may be new providers emerging to service the growing Creator base with credit-card, bank accounts, tax preparation, investment management and more. Building a financial infrastructure for creators is the future of this industry. One of the ways that can help financial institutions in determining whether Creators can be great clients could be dependent on the number of followers they have and current revenue streams.
According to SignalFire there are other trends in the Creator economy arising such as:
Creators moving their fans off of social networks and on to their own websites, apps, and monetization tools
Creators becoming Founders building out teams and assembling tools to help them start businesses and or investing into alternative investments as part of their Family Office
Creators gaining power in the media ecosystem as fans seek to connect with individual personalities
Using platforms like Youtube, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitch, Tiktok, Substack, Patreon and OnlyFans, content Creators can earn money through advertising revenue shares, sponsored content, product placement, merchandise, shout-outs, fan clubs and more.
Henien is building a new age platform to help reach the Creator economy seeking tailored products and services to satisfy their business needs. The platform can be used by experienced client advisers that want to automate many of the complicated, costly and time strained products it takes to establish.
It is known that millennials do trust the recommendations of others, even if they do not know the person. In fact, 92% of people trust recommendations more than all other forms of advertisement.
The traditional methods of marketing that financial institutions used in the past make the newest generation of potential customers unsure about whether they can work with them. However, by working with people that they trust, such as bloggers, vloggers and Instagram, you can show them how your institution can help them.
Chris Henien states that this is a two-way street, working with influencers to help build a brand can be fruitful and also serving them through an experience they can relate to. As millennials are more interested in experiences over things, it is important to be able to appeal to that. Show how they can finance their travels or seek artistic pursuits over cars or clothes. What I see exciting in this space is the capability to take knowledge that is somewhat hard to communicate with text and transcribe into a video potential client prospects can relate to.
