I’ve been interviewing for jobs in social media and influencer relations, and one company asked me what constitutes the ideal creator for brand deals. Somehow, I’d never deeply thought about this, as I prefer a more personal approach, but I answered without hesitation: either those with the best professionalism or with star-tier content. Ideally, a bit of both.
While I didn’t get that job, they liked my answer, so I now I’m using that as an excuse to write a post about the two types of creators companies love working with and want to sponsor!
Type 1: The Professional 🫡
The professional creator is one of the best assets a company can have in sponsorships, partnerships, and other brand deals. Professional creators are characterized by, well, their professionalism. Some in my industry joke that many full-time creators choose making content because they’re otherwise unemployable due to (seeming) disorganization and unprofessionalism.
The professional creator is the opposite—they’re organized, professional, and probably have a whole career aside from content or are successful in content creation because of their professional outlook.
I was going to call this section “pro creators” but that… sounds a lot like “procreators” 😐
In brand deals, professional creators (not procreators) are the people who not only do what they say they’ll do when they say they’ll do it, but either do more or do it early and keep you updated throughout. They tend to over-deliver and over-communicate in the best, most reassuring way. In other words, they’re extremely reliable, and you can always count on them when you need to feature something in a sponsored post, and at times they even post when it’s not sponsored (but you obviously can’t, in good faith, expect that without some incentive, financial, product, or otherwise).
Case Study: Mekel Kasanova
In my experience, one of the most professional creators I’ve worked with is Mekel Kasanova. He’s a podcaster, tech and game reviewer, and journalist in Hawaii, and I worked with him when I managed creator partnerships at AVerMedia.
While I obviously can’t get into any non-public specifics, he was always one of the most reliable people my team worked with. He was always extremely communicative and friendly, and he always went above and beyond with the content he made for us and his willingness to participate in company stuff.
He isn’t a small creator by any means—content is his full-time job. In fact, it’s his professionalism that built his career—if you look at his media deck on Twitter and see how many brands work with him and how many industry people end up on his podcast, you’ll completely understand why.
I was really lucky that many, many of the creators I worked with at my last role were like this, so if you’re one of these people, thank you for making my last job easier! It was always sincere to say the partners were the best part of that job.
Type 2: The Star ⭐️
The next type of creator companies adore is the star. These creators are often the best at what they do, experiencing rapid growth thanks to the amazing content they make and community they’ve built.
They might seem unprofessional or disorganized at times, but the inconsistency is made up by outrageous creativity, amazing content, and stellar results. The seeming unprofessionalism is often a result of them simply suffering from success—there’s too much to do and too many people wanting to contact them between fans wanting to talk to their favorite creator and companies hoping to strike gold with a deal. Stars often really should start delegating and building a team or working with an agency, but they often don’t, usually because building such systems takes time they don’t have.
In brand deals, the star might not be responsive all the time, but when you get a response and organize a deal, it is a huge positive for the company. Your inquiries for a brand deal might get lost in their inbox even if they’d love to do it because of how in-demand they are, so for the marketers, be patient and occasionally send follow-ups! Again, when you do manage to organize a good deal with a star creator, it usually goes amazingly, whether the goal is brand awareness, social media growth, product sales, or something else entirely.
Case Study: Girl_DM
An absolute star I worked with at my last job is the V-Tuber girl_dm_. She has been on an absurd growth trajectory, and we partnered with her well after she became well established thanks to a referral, but just before she absolutely exploded. Again, I can’t disclose anything private or NDA, but if you scroll through AVerMedia’s Twitter, you’ll see that anything mentioning her, shared by her, or posted by her dramatically out-performs just about everything else.
We also did an event, Create and Connect in October 2021, and we interviewed her on that. The Twitch viewership for that segment nearly tripled for that part thanks to her sharing it on Twitter once. She’s an amazing creator and an absolute star, and she was also one of my favorites to work with.
One Additional Note!
Being a professional and being a star aren’t mutually exclusive—Girl_DM was both highly professional and a star creator! In fact, creators who treat content creation with a professional perspective are frankly more likely to become stars. That said, small-medium professional creators are often easier for brands to work with than large professional-star creators, simply because the stars are often overwhelmed with inquiries even if they have a team and business-like systems.
How Can You Develop These Traits?
First off, anyone can be a professional at any point in their creative journey, but being a star comes often after years of hard work to develop your content and audience. That said, I did mention people who treat their content professionally often are more likely to grow into star creators. Therefore, no matter what size you are, focus on getting a bit more organized.
Just make a small change this week—maybe make a content calendar for yourself, maybe take the brand deals you already have a bit more seriously, or maybe spend some time learning skills to help your creative workflows like better brainstorming or editing.
On one hand, professional creators are often the favorites for companies to work with, but unless you’re making great content that people actually watch you won’t be getting inquiries in the first place. Great content is still the most important single factor in earning sponsorships, but professionalism will help improve both your content and business sense. Flip that switch, be more deliberate and professional with your content creation, and get creating!
…and if you’re down about not getting the brand deals you want yet, read my post on why some brand deals may not be for you.
Andy Cormier 