Social media influencers are an increasingly potent and necessary part of the marketing mix for streamers in media and entertainment, finds a new report from creator marketing platform, CreatorIQ.
While password sharing crackdowns dented social engagement for streamers among creators, the average Earned Media Value (EMV) attributed for the top 15 streaming brands charted in the report grew 56% year over year in the first half of 2024, as the number of creators posting about streaming platforms grew 28% year over year since 2023.
In releasing the findings, CreatorIQ highlighted why this matters, stating, “despite constant changes to the streaming industry, creators have been an adaptable channel for streamers to drive tune in and continue brand growth.”
Per the firm’s definition, EMV measures engagement with social media content about a brand that is created by a third party, or promotional efforts that don’t include paid advertising. It’s an influencer marketing metric that’s used to quantify the value of social media content, typically through social creator posts, but can also gauge impact of posts from publications, retailers or other brands. It’s worth noting the study source, CreatorIQ, has stake in the EMV game – a proprietary metric - as the company’s business is predicated on linking content creators with brands.
Nonetheless, it notes EMV is “one of the most widely used KPIs for creator campaigns” and says EMV “can be used to evaluate the impact of influencer marketing campaigns and benchmark brands.”
Examining the performance of top 15 streaming brands (ranked by social engagements, impressions and EMV) between 2019 to 2023 it’s clear from the report that streamers are increasingly leaning into influencers to drive awareness of specific content and brand value.
Average engagements with those top streamers from creator marketing rose 61% over the five-year period, alongside to a 66% uplift in average total EMV.
Spotify marked the most success in using social creators, with CreatorIQ recording an increase in EMV from $1.2 billion in 2019 to $2.2 billion 2023 – handily surpassing the $1.4 billion 2023 EMV total of Netflix in second.
Nonetheless, Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video are also growing EMV through the use of influencers. Netflix grew EMV from $823.6 million to $1.4 billion between 2019 and 2023, and Prime Video’s EMV went from $110.1 million to $351.6 million in 2023.
The report reveals Netflix as particularly successful at getting influencers to talk about its original content. CreatorIQ measures this by recording the hashtags used by creators in their communications. Hashtags associated with Netflix original content collectively generated $39.4 million EMV in Q1 2023, accounting for 11% of the brand’s $314.7 million quarterly EMV total.
Powerhouse and micro-influencers
The report attributes Spotify’s success to partnerships with “powerhouse” creators and celebrities such as with Joe Rogan and Alex Cooper.
Also notable are gaming “micro-influencers” who played “a significant role in sustaining the brand’s digital presence.” Spotify managed to double its micro-influencer community to 15,600 in five years.
Powerhouse creators and micro-influencer deals are part of the playbook for other streamers too - 75% of Prime Video’s EMV in 2023 came from “powerhouse tier creators,” showcasing success from prioritizing high-impact creator partnerships.
CreatorIQ advises that such partnerships should be doubled down on for future growth.
“Streaming brands should prioritize the retention of Powerhouse tier creators to drive sustained growth,” it says, while micro-influencers deliver “authenticity, and can drive meaningful engagement [which] can be critical in niche markets or for specific campaigns.”
The report commends the leading streamers for continuing to work with influencers while the industry was buffeted by the fallout from Covid and subscription saturation.
Netflix and Prime Video received praised for managing to keep around 70% of their marketing creator partners on board during the tough five-year period, with CreatorIQ noting this high level of engagement paid off in returned EMV. Netflix for example grew total engagements with key creators from 724.9 million in 2019 to 1.2 billion in 2023.
According to the report, there’s a correlation between the rise in churn from 2022 due to general streaming fatigue and a dip in the overall number of influencers working directly for streamers of 4.6% from 157,000 to 149,800.
The introduction of password-sharing policies from early 2023, led by Netflix, also saw a marked decline in EMV. Netflix, for example, saw EMV drop off by 15% year on year in 2023 in the aftermath of its crackdown.
“This downturn coincided with a decrease in social conversation surrounding the controversial policy, and a 27% contraction in Netflix’s community when those unwilling to adopt the policy stopped watching Netflix content,” noted CreatorIQ in the report.
More recently there are strong signs of a bounce-back of the broader creator community for the streaming industry. In the first half of this year the average number of creators for each brand increased by 28% over 1H 2023, “a sign that the best for the streaming industry may be yet to come,” suggests the report. The retention rate (measuring how many repeating creators maintained between periods of time) was up 72% during the same period.
Netflix’s EMV averaged $110.7 million per month so far this year, per CreatorIQ —13% more than its $98.4 million monthly average in 2023. Still it, and leaders like Disney+ marked slight EMV declines in the first half of 2024.
NBCUniversal’s Peacock was a standout in the first six months of 2024, growing its EMV by 7% yoy to $128.6 million. Much of that is thanks to a bump in visibility from Olympics-related social media campaigns, with Olympics-related hashtags collectively generating $27.9 million EMV, accounting for the nearly one quarter of the platform's first-half total.
All in all, average engagements in H1 2024 were up by 245% year-over-year, in part facilitated by simply having more content to talk about as the impact of the strikes on production releases unwinds. On average for the first half of the year, CreatorIQ found streaming brands generated 56% EMV growth year-over-year.
“The industry’s growth trajectory, marked by a significant increase in digital engagement, underscores the pivotal role of creators in shaping brand success and consumer sentiment,” concludes CreatorIQ.