The vast majority of today’s consumers (92%) say they trust the recommendations of individuals—even strangers—more than brand advertising. One recent study found that 61% trust influencer endorsements, while only 38% said the same of suggestions from brands.
That shouldn’t come as a surprise. After all, influencers are the digital-culture version of word of mouth, a tried-and-true marketing staple. Influencer content—aka creator content—on social channels ranges from niche to mainstream, but its collective impact sways opinions, behaviors, and purchasing decisions in significant ways. And influencer content has an impressive financial footprint: Forbes estimates the global creator economy will reach $480–$500 billion by 2027.
A creator community is an ecosystem of individuals gathered by a shared identity—and, increasingly, a set of brands that reflect the values and perspectives that those like-minded folks share. Today’s “unbound consumers”—people who curate their own ecosystem of brand relationships and want to be empowered by brands, not captured by them—find and energize creator communities.
While top creator communities often boast impressive follower counts, that’s just a side effect of the real goal: cementing lasting connections and relevance that transform passive consumers of content into engaged participants.
Ogilvy's research, the underpinning of Brand Devotion, identifies the bonds that build lasting consumer-brand relationships. Creator communities deliver on all four:
Emotional bonds: Skillful content creators cultivate genuine warmth and affection that audiences extend directly to the brands woven into their world. In a successful creator community, talking about products doesn’t feel like advertising; it comes across as a recommendation from a trusted friend.
Social bonds: Creator communities generate a powerful sense of belonging—being part of the community means feeling like part of the creator’s brand, creating peer-to-peer reinforcement that traditional marketing can’t replicate.
Structural bonds: Regular content cadences, platform ecosystems, community rituals, and inside references create habitual brand touchpoints that become deeply embedded in daily life.
Financial bonds: Creator-exclusive discounts, co-created product lines, community-only drops, and early access offers provide tangible, ongoing financial reasons for community members to stay loyal.
Creators are extraordinarily effective at articulating why a brand exists; they translate abstract brand values into lived, relatable stories that give audiences something meaningful to believe in. They deliver a sense of community—of shared identity, language, rituals—of an “us.” A sense of shared experience and mutual interaction helps keep a brand dynamic and relevant in ways that transcend traditional, usually static, marketing campaigns. Plus, creators are uniquely positioned to nurture anticipation by teasing new products and inviting community input in ways that keep audiences genuinely invested in what’s coming next.
(For more on the principles that underpin Brand Devotion, read our blog and watch a recent Ogilvy On Live on the topic.)
Today, influencer marketing and creator communities aren’t just potential media channels—they’re a dynamic layer of loyalty with a powerful potential to organically build Brand Devotion.
Embracing authenticity
Former Olympic rugby player and social media personality Ilona Maher's unfiltered take on body image—emphasizing strong over skinny—resonates with those exhausted by fitness culture’s narrow definitions of what women, athletes, and women athletes should look like. Maher’s devoted following (more than 9 million between Instagram and TikTok) attracted brands that wanted to expand their reach. Adidas created its first women's rugby boot with her; Maybelline signed her after she organically praised its lipstick on the field; and Paula's Choice Skincare named her its first brand ambassador. Each partnership emerged organically, conveying that these are more than traditional sponsorships—they’re evidence the brands understand Maher and, by extension, her community of followers.
Fueling active participation and authentic brand integration
The MrBeast community began with a mega popular YouTube channel centered on gaming, challenges, and philanthropic stunts. Reflecting that base, buyers of MrBeast Feastables, a line of chocolates and other sweets, don’t just buy candy—they vote on flavors and participate in challenges, becoming active brand participants.
Similarly, content creators Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal (aka Rhett & Link) fold sponsorships into entertainment in Good Mythical Morning (GMM), the YouTube series they created in 2012. GMM ads feature the show’s signature voice and humor, and often involve audience interaction. The GMM community doesn’t mute and tune out sponsorship segments; they keep watching because the ads are genuinely entertaining.
Bridging the trust gap
Social media personality and food critic Keith Lee built one of the internet’s most-trusted communities through simple, direct, unsponsored reviews of small and minority-owned restaurants. His credibility among his audience on TikTok is so high that a single video can transform a local restaurant's business overnight—a phenomenon his followers call the “Keith Lee effect.”
What’s the psychology behind the human pull to try the supplement that a favorite fitness creator swears by or the coffee brand favored by a beloved podcast host? Identity, belonging, and parasocial bonds.
Parasocial relationships—the emotional bonds we form with people we've never met—activate the same neural pathways as real social relationships. That’s why a creator’s product recommendation lands closer to a trusted friend’s endorsement than a brand advertisement ever will. And forward-looking brands are tapping into the revenue-driving potential of the parasocial relationships fostered in creator communities.
Engaging with creator communities can offer compelling opportunities to enter a brand’s loyalty ecosystem. For example, a well-timed sign-up offer delivered by an authentic internet personality might be the entry point that brings their community members into your loyalty program. To keep that audience over the long term, lean into benefits that echo what makes the creator community appealing to its participants. Co-creation opportunities and ambassador tiers can bridge the participants’ sense of belonging between the creator community and your brand’s loyalty ecosystem.
Get started by finding creators whose communities already live out your brand values. The next step is to find ways to move from transactional to relational partnerships. Be sure to build in feedback loops so the community members feel heard and seen.
Whether you’re a legacy brand looking to connect with a new generation or a challenger brand aiming for a broader reach, a thoughtful creator community strategy could really pay off.
Madison Fisher is a manager in The Lacek Group’s Strategic Services team. For more than 30 years, The Lacek Group has been perfecting the art and algorithms of brand devotion. We help world-class brands identify their highest-potential customers, engage them across channels throughout their lifecycles, personalize each relationship for optimal long-term results, and measure the true effectiveness of those efforts. The Lacek Group is an Ogilvy One company.