"Media plans look tidy on paper, but real audiences mute, scroll, and block. On ad-supported streaming, nearly two-thirds of viewers (64%) actively avoid ads. With the loss of third-party cookies, the data that once connected your targeting now arrives incomplete and delayed. The only messages people truly engage with are those they've chosen to receive from people they follow. Little wonder that industry trackers put influencer spending at about $32.55bn in 2025."
"But here's the catch. Most brand programs still run on hand-cranked ops: discovery in spreadsheets, contracts by email, approvals in chat, reporting from screenshots. That hidden tax shows up as fewer creators, slower cycles and thin proof when finance asks what the spend delivered. If you want your influencer channel to behave like a channel this year, don't change the idea - fix the workflow."
"Admin is the bottleneck. When campaigns underperform, teams often rewrite the brief or change channels. In many cases the drag is operational. You cannot learn at the right pace because each cycle burns hours on logistics. Fixing the workflow buys back feedback loops. Quality is a process outcome. There is a fear that automation makes the work generic. In practice it gives creative time to do its job."
Ad-supported audiences increasingly avoid ads and cookie deprecation leaves targeting data incomplete and delayed. Consumers engage primarily with messages they choose from creators they follow, and influencer spending is projected near $32.55bn in 2025. Gen Z deeply inhabits creator feeds and shows higher trust in creator recommendations than many paid formats. Many brand influencer programs remain manual—discovery in spreadsheets, contracts via email, approvals in chat, reporting from screenshots—causing fewer creators, slower cycles, and weak measurement. Operational improvements and automation restore feedback loops, free creative time, improve quality control, and provide the receipts and fraud-adjusted metrics larger budgets require.
Read at The Drum
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