The Crisis Killing Your Creator Marketing ROI: Why Brand-Owned Content Is the New Frontier

Introduction

In today's digital landscape, traditional advertising is losing effectiveness as consumers increasingly ignore ads in favor of authentic content. Joseph Perello, founder and CEO of Props, joins the MarTech Podcast to explain how brands can transform creator marketing into a true performance cha el by focusing on owned media and strategic content distribution. With over 30 years of experience, including roles as New York City's first CMO under Mayor Bloomberg and executive positions at MBNA and The New York Yankees, Perello offers a fresh perspective on how marketers can drive measurable business outcomes through creator partnerships.

The B2B Creator Content Challenge

For B2B companies attempting to scale their creator marketing efforts, the primary breaking point occurs in the curation and management of creators. Finding specialized creators with genuine subject matter expertise presents a significant challenge, particularly for niche B2B industries where credibility is paramount. Many marketing teams mistakenly focus on increasing the quantity of creators rather than maximizing the value of their existing creator relationships. This approach often leads to diminishing returns and fragmented messaging across cha els.

Quality Over Quantity: The Strategic Shift

Perello challenges the conventional wisdom that successful creator marketing requires an extensive roster of influencers. "We're not in the business of getting 150 creators for a brand. We're in the business of getting maybe 10 and putting a million or two or $3 million media behind that," he explains. This approach emphasizes scaling individual creators rather than constantly expanding the creator pool, allowing brands to develop deeper relationships with fewer, more aligned partners who truly understand their value proposition.

Transforming Content Into Performance

The Props model treats creator content not as a loss leader but as a strategic asset that can drive measurable business outcomes. By allocating approximately 10% of client engagement costs to content creation and the remainder to strategic distribution, Props helps brands amplify creator stories across platforms. This approach recognizes that consumers respond more positively to authentic stories than traditional advertisements, creating opportunities for brands to engage audiences in more meaningful ways.

Cross-Cha el Content Optimization

Rather than finding new creators for each platform, marketers can achieve better results by helping successful creators expand their presence across cha els. This might involve supporting a podcast creator in developing a YouTube presence or adapting long-form content for social media platforms. This strategy maintains message consistency while leveraging the established credibility and audience trust of proven creator partners.

Implementing an Owned Media Strategy

For marketers looking to improve their creator marketing ROI, the key lies in treating creator partnerships as owned media assets rather than one-off influencer campaigns. This requires a fundamental shift in how brands structure creator relationships, content development processes, and distribution strategies. By taking greater ownership of creator content and applying performance marketing principles to its distribution, brands can transform creator marketing from an awareness play into a genuine performance cha el.

Conclusion

As traditional advertising continues to lose effectiveness, brand-owned creator content represents a powerful alternative for marketers seeking predictable business outcomes. By focusing on depth rather than breadth in creator relationships and applying strategic distribution tactics, brands can generate authentic content that resonates with audiences while driving measurable results. As Perello succinctly puts it, "People aren't responding to ads, they respond to stories" – and there's a way to leverage those stories for tangible business growth both on and off platform.