Ten years ago, brands were still asking why they should be on Instagram. Now creators are central to strategy from the first meeting. That is the shift Neil Waller, co-founder and co-CEO of Whalar Group, describes on the latest episode of The Speed of Culture with Matt Britton.
Whalar started as an influencer marketing agency in 2016 and has grown into a six-company creator ecosystem. But Waller’s argument is not a pitch deck. Before the agency, he and co-founder James built direct-to-consumer brands on Shopify and used creator partnerships to generate content and sales themselves.
Proof before the pitch
That hands-on period matters because the creator thesis was tested before it became a business. Waller says the early Shopify brands worked because the founders could test quickly, learn from the market, and push harder into what gained traction. For marketers, the lesson is not to wait for perfect planning; run a small creator-led experiment first and let results shape the next move.
Why respect beats authenticity
“Authenticity” has long been the default word in creator marketing. Waller makes a sharper case: mutual respect is the more useful standard. Brands need to understand why an audience trusts a creator, and creators need to understand what the brand stands for and what it needs to achieve. The strongest partnerships sit between total brand control and total creative freedom.
This is a practical reframing. Instead of asking “is this authentic?”, teams can ask whether both sides understand and value each other’s constraints, audience, and business goals.
Creators as partners, not placements
Waller also notes that creators are no longer dropped into a campaign after the strategy is already written. They increasingly contribute creative ideas, audience insight, and business value through deeper partnerships and ownership structures. As creators become media and entertainment companies in their own right, brands have a chance to build relationships that go beyond one-off sponsored posts.
The changes Waller describes fit into three operating shifts:
- Involve creators during strategy, not after the media plan is locked.
- Treat creative control as a spectrum, not a toggle between brand and creator.
- Back creator partnerships with professional teams, clear processes, and disciplined execution.
The AI barbell
Waller expects AI to dramatically increase the volume of personalized content. That abundance, he argues, will push audiences toward trusted people and brands that can help them decide what is worth their attention. His “barbell” view puts content abundance on one end and human taste and curation on the other. The middle — generic content without a clear point of view — becomes the hardest place to compete.
For marketing and media professionals, the implication is practical: if AI lowers the cost of producing average content, then preparation, taste, and trustworthy creator relationships become the durable assets.
Operational rigor is the final non-negotiable. Audience connection and strong ideas can create momentum, but Waller says neither can compensate for weak execution forever. As creator businesses become larger and more complex, infrastructure — not just influence — is what turns attention into a sustainable business.
Source: Adweek
