Navigating the Creator Economy

Africa’s biggest creative exit began with one phone call. In 2017, legendary Nigerian music producer Don Jazzy had a successful record label. But he knew something was missing. While Afrobeats was exploding globally, African labels were still operating like it was 2005 - no data analytics, no proper structure, no international distribution deals. Then came an unexpected call from Kupanda Capital, not your regular investor but a business-building platform focused on emerging markets. 🎯 Kupanda told Don Jazzy: "We see Afrobeats going global. Let's rebuild Mavin Records from the ground up to capture that opportunity." What happened next became the blueprint for scaling African creative businesses internationally. The transformation was radical: Kupanda moved two senior executives to Lagos to work alongside Don Jazzy's team (poke Mavin COO Peter Tega Oghenejobo). Together, they didn't just add capital - they rebuilt everything: 🎤 An artist development academy: Training talent for the digital age 📊 Data-driven A&R: Using analytics to predict hits before they happen 🌍 A global distribution network: International contracts from day one 🏢 A proper corporate structure: a 70-person team with defined roles and responsibilities Only THEN did Kupanda bring in TPG to invest $10M+ in Mavin. Then came the proof of concept... 🚀 Rema's "Calm Down" (featuring Selena Gomez) became the first song by an African artist to hit 1 billion Spotify streams. The numbers tell the rest of the story: - 60x growth in overall revenue over 5 years  - 100x growth in digital revenue 🔥 In 2024, Universal Music Group acquired a majority stake in Mavin at a $150-200M valuation, in the largest deal in African Creative Industries history. When I said that Mavin’s success had become the blueprint for scaling creative ventures in Africa, this is why: 1️⃣ Partnership beats pure capital. Creative companies often need a lot more than just cash. Operational expertise + local creative knowledge = magic 2️⃣ Structure unlocks creativity. You can’t grow on shaky foundations. Proper systems amplify business AND artistic potential. 3️⃣ Bet on data not gut feelings. Creative companies are yet to fully adopt digital tools, and that’s stifling their growth. Mavin shows how analytics can enable global success. Few investors are ready to be as hands-on as Kupanda, and few founders can be as collaborative as Don Jazzy and his team. EVEN THOUGH WE KNOW IT WORKS. Think about that. Mavin Records is one of the 12 African companies profiled in my latest study for Proparco's CREA Fund. Read the full case study here: https://lnkd.in/diAwWrXe ------ Want more business insights on the African Creative and Sports space? Join the 9,500+ other professionals who subscribe to my monthly newsletter HUSTLE & FLOW: https://lnkd.in/drBY8jnz

This viral creator is actually a brand. When a post from the account Olivia Unplugged shows up on your TikTok For You Page, it might not be immediately clear that a brand is behind it. The creator Olivia is often standing in front of a green whiteboard while outlining the downsides of scrolling. The profile photo on the account is of Olivia, not a logo. There’s no overt product messaging. In the last 30 days, the posts have garnered an impressive 8M views. As platforms continue to prioritize entertainment, brands are finding clever ways to break through—creating content that leads with conversation, not conversion. For Opal, a popular focus app, that meant spinning off an entirely new account that educates on screen time. For today's newsletter, I spoke with Olivia Yokubonis, Social Media Manager at Opal and the creator behind Olivia Unplugged. She told me: "Olivia Unplugged is really an incarnation of Opal. People don’t connect with logos, they connect with people and the stories they tell. That’s where the strategy differs. Opal’s social accounts position us as the leading voice in the screen time and focus space, and Olivia Unplugged is simply doing it by showing up as a real person, telling stories, and making the mission feel human and relatable."

I’ve had 4 legal battles since starting my business. Could I have avoided them? Probably. But to be honest, I didn't have the funds to pay a proper lawyer, or the network of founders to ask the right questions to. I don't want that to happen to you. Here are 5 clauses I put in my contracts that might help you protect your work, your business and most importantly.. your sanity ↓ #1 Non-cancellable, non-refundable contracts. This shouldn’t even be an issue if you qualify your clients properly. BUT if someone signs, onboards, and then ghosts? We still get paid. And so should you 🤗 #2 Immediate or short payment terms Most businesses accept 30-to 90-day payment terms. I don’t. You wouldn’t work for 3 months without pay—so why should your business? Cash flow is your business’s lifeline. Protect it. #3 While we’re on payment terms… Your contract should include: → Interest on late invoices. → A clause that stops work if invoices aren’t cleared. → A guarantee that if a client delays the project, you still get paid. Your time isn’t free! #4 Your IP stays YOURS. Anything we bring into the agreement at Klowt stays ours. Anything we create for you is yours. Simple. I once ran a training session, and the client recorded it—then tried to sell it behind a paywall. Now, our contract states a £10,000 fine per breach. (And for that particular case, per breach = per view. 😅) #5 Don't work with d*ckheads. This isn't a legal clause, more legal... advice? 🤣 If someone is giving you red flags in any way at the beginning of your relationship, do not work with them. This could include but not limited to: - Focusing on immediate ROI. - Cost or discounts being a primary concern. - Pushing for work to kick off before contracts or payments. - Reaching out at inappropriate times - or in inappropriate ways. - Delaying initial payments. Legally binding contracts are a good insurance policy, but they're lengthy and expensive to implement if you actually have to go to court. So the best LEGAL advice I can give you as a 2x founder is, don't work with d*ckheads. And learn from my mistakes. It's a lot cheaper than learning from your own... trust me 😂. Was this helpful? 💜 I write a 2x weekly newsletter for founders and freelancers on topics like this. Join us here: https://lnkd.in/ejDbD94R

Creators, be aware of this scam! Last month, a law student who also makes lifestyle content told me how she lost ₹1 lakh. A “brand” approached her for a collab, sent her a contract and even had a legit-looking website. She signed but never heard back. The brand didn’t even exist. And that’s not just one case. I’ve spoken to creators who shot entire campaigns and then waited months for payments that never came. Some even had their accounts hacked and repurposed into spam overnight. What scares me is that these scams usually target nano and micro creators who are just starting out, often from smaller towns, who don’t have networks to warn them. Being a creator is already tough since you’re hustling to grow, negotiating deals and building trust with your audience. Adding fraud to that list makes it even harder. That’s why creators need to think of themselves as professionals who must protect their work. Simple steps like verifying brand emails, avoiding upfront “fees” and enabling 2FA can save you from big losses. Share it with someone who has just started to create content! #contentcreation #creatoreconomy #scam

Your competitor isn't better at marketing. They're just faster. Trust me when I say this, URGENCY IS EVERYTHING. You might've seen Rahul Dua's latest stand-up set on skincare being a scam. My team at Monk-E saw it too and immediately thought - let's get him and a skincare brand on board and capitalize on this moment. The next day, Rahul and his wife, Nidhi are in our studio shooting a video for Pond's. One thing to remember - moving fast doesn't mean doing things for the sake of it. That's uninspiring and unintentional. The video picked up exactly where his rant left off - those impossible-to-pronounce ingredient names became the setup for Nidhi to school him and showcase Pond's latest innovation. It played off their chemistry and banter that audiences have always loved, and it turned a joke into genuine brand conversation. This is what urgency looks like: Planned, produced, and delivered within 24 hours. All in-house. Without it feeling random. The brands that win turn opportunity into execution before the moment passes. Timing over perfection. Always.

The New York Times just revealed everything wrong with how brands think about creators. Their headline yesterday: "How Brands Are Taking Back Social Media from Influencers" “Taking back?" As if social media was ever theirs to begin with. The Times covered Hasbro hiring a full-time creator for Nerf. Smart move. But they missed the bigger pattern. From my years at YouTube, Facebook, and Spotter, here's what the best brands are actually doing: 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆'𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆'𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗴𝗼 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝘁. The winners aren't picking one type of creator. They're building portfolios: USER-GENERATED CONTENT (UGC) The RealReal gave their superfan editorial control of their Substack. No brand guidelines. No approval process. Result: Authentic enthusiasm that converts. CREATOR-GENERATED CONTENT (CGC) Traditional influencer partnerships. But the smart brands aren't micromanaging scripts anymore. They're trusting creators to know their audiences better. EMPLOYEE-GENERATED CONTENT (EGC) The massive blindspot. Your team is already creating content — just not for you. Because you haven't given them permission to be themselves. The Times frames this as brands "taking back" their narrative. But the real winners are doing the opposite:  • Your barista with 50K on TikTok doesn't need your talking points  • Your designer's YouTube following trusts them, not your brand guidelines   • Your customers' real results beat any scripted testimonial I've watched this evolution from inside the platforms. The brands winning aren't choosing between UGC, CGC, or EGC. They're orchestrating all three by replacing control with trust: → Customers showing unfiltered results → Creators bringing their authentic voice → Employees sharing real insider perspectives While the NYT thinks this is about "taking back" social media, smart brands are asking: "How do we empower EVERY authentic voice in our ecosystem?" The best content strategies I've seen don't come from controlling the message. They come from trusting the messengers. In 2025, your brand voice isn't what you say. It's who you trust to speak for you. Your move. #CreatorEconomy #ContentStrategy #BrandContent

We just built the largest UGC program ever. We hit 500M views in 60 days and it was all built by a 19 y/o kid. In July, I saw Cluely dominate with UGC creators. 300M views in 90 days at sub-dollar CPM. The numbers seemed impossible. So I hired a 19-year-old student who'd been making content for three months to build out our UGC program. Two months later, he built the most successful UGC program in our space. 500M views. That's roughly 10% of people online seeing content about Wispr Flow. Here's the playbook he used: 1/ Give creators real autonomy (or they'll leave) Most companies kill UGC programs by micromanaging everything. We gave creators full creative freedom for half their content. Make whatever viral content you want about Wispr. Your account, your voice, your style. We had creators turn down Amazon and Notion because we let them stay creative. They didn't feel like they were selling out. They controlled their content and stayed authentic. 2/ Build a viral replication system We have 70 creators making content daily. We monitor everything in real-time. The moment we see a video hitting 1M+ views in the first day, we extract that exact script and send it to every creator. One viral video becomes 70 viral videos simultaneously. 3/ Get extremely specific with your hooks The part most companies fail at: they give vague guidance. We built a library of specific, tactical hooks. Not concepts - actual frameworks they can use. Example: "Use a really complicated name in your message. Something like Saoirse or Tchaikovsky. When Wispr gets it right, act genuinely shocked." This shows a specific feature, fits organically into any content format they're making, creates real emotion, and has just enough brand presence without feeling salesy. Creators pick what fits their style and the content they're already making. 4/ Be ruthlessly selective When we launched the program, 1,000 creators applied. We picked 60. Quality over quantity matters more than people think. One great creator who actually understands your product is worth ten mediocre ones who are just chasing a check. You're not building a contractor list - you're building a community. A 19-year-old beat companies spending millions on UGC. The difference wasn't budget. It was letting creators actually create. — Written with Wispr Flow

In retail, many chase the next big thing—a new style, a new way to reach consumers—triggering a frantic race to adopt. But most trends fade as fast as they appear. The real game-changers are curated habits that prove they can stand the test of time. I’ve championed social commerce as the future of retail for over a decade. In hindsight, that barely scratches the surface. It’s now a deeply ingrained consumer behavior. The imperative isn’t just to adopt it, but to evolve with it—constantly and intentionally. At HSN, social commerce was core to our strategy. We pioneered the blend of shopping and entertainment. That’s the essence: finding the sweet spot where entertainment, connection, and commerce converge. Soon after, platforms like Twitch began enabling users to both game and shop in real time, blending entertainment with commerce. Fanatics has successfully leaned into this model as well, immersing fans in live experiences while showcasing gear in action, often worn by their favorite athletes and community, turning fandom into a powerful trust signal. More recently, TikTok Shop collapsed the purchase funnel into a single scroll. It's no longer discover, then buy. Now, it’s see it, want it, buy it—seamlessly, in-platform. So, as we look ahead, how do I see this "social commerce habit" evolving? Here's what I expect: 🔹 Creator Integration is Non-Negotiable. For Gen Z, in particular, TikTok Shop has become a primary discovery engine. They trust their favorite creators to genuinely try products and offer honest feedback. The more brands lean into authentic partnerships with creators, the more trust they build in this integrated shopping experience. It’s about relationship-driven commerce. 🔹 Embrace a Zero-Click World. Speed and simplicity are paramount. Consumers need to be able to see, buy, and receive as fast as humanly possible. This means minimal clicks, minimal friction, and no moments for reconsideration. It's about instant gratification and removing all barriers between desire and ownership. 🔹 Elevate Live Shopping. This is a powerful return to the personal connection and real-time interaction that defined the best of traditional retail. Shoppable videos and live sessions transform social media into a personalized shopping aisle. Imagine experts demonstrating products, showing how they fit or can be styled, all in real-time, tailored to your interests. It brings humanity back to digital retail. 🔹 Unlock the Power of Virtual Try-Ons. A longstanding hurdle in e-commerce is "try before you buy." AI-enabled virtual try-on features solves that, making online shopping more immersive and convenient. This translates directly into higher conversion rates, deeper engagement, and customers spending more valuable time interacting with your brand digitally. It’s time to stop treating social commerce like a trend. This is commerce, full stop. It’s a fundamental consumer behavior that belongs at the center of every modern retail strategy.

Creator economy: What your beauty brand needs to know. The beauty industry has surpassed $600 billion globally and continues to grow. But the real engine of growth isn’t glossy ads or celebrity endorsements anymore. It’s digital-first creators. The creator economy was valued at $203.6 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $1.18 trillion by 2030. There are over 400 million creators worldwide as of 2024. →Today’s CONSUMER. Gen Z and Gen Alpha trust creators far more than brands or traditional celebrities. The “viral sellout effect” is real, one authentic video can empty global inventories, as seen with Dior Lip Oil or Rare Beauty blush. These generations are experimental buyers, willing to try new products based on creator recommendations. For you as managers, this means creators aren’t just marketing partners, they drive real demand. →Behind creation, STRATEGY. Building a creator strategy starts with defining your brand’s core values, target audience, and unique positioning, then selecting the right mix of creators, from nano to celebrity, to amplify your message. Focus on authentic, engaging content that resonates with your audience, and choose platforms that align with your market. Leading the strategy requires clear goals, consistent communication, and performance tracking through metrics like engagement, conversions, and earned media value. →Partnership MODELS: Treat creators as partners, nurture long-term relationships, and adapt campaigns strategy based on trends and feedback to ensure sustained impact and growth. +Sponsored content to boost awareness. +Affiliate programs and discount codes to drive measurable sales. +Co-branded or creator-led product lines, as seen with Fenty, Rare or Rhode. +Live shopping and social commerce: TikTok, Instagram, and Douyin. +User-generated content (UGC) that can be repurposed as high-performing advertising. →Metrics BUSINESS. +Conversion rate: Which creators actually drive purchases? +Earned Media Value (EMV): What is the dollar value of organic mentions? +Virality cycle: How long does a product remain relevant after hype? +Engagement rate: Are audiences interacting deeply through comments, shares, and saves? Bottom line. Creators are no longer a supplementary tactic, instead of top-down advertising, demand now comes from authentic, relatable voices at the grassroots level. For you as managers and founders, the is clear: build a creators strategy, track meaningful results, and long-term partnerships. This is how beauty brands win in a creator-driven market. Find my curated search and get inspired for your next successful launch. Featured brands: Rhode #beautybusiness #beautyprofessionals #luxurybusiness #luxuryprofessionals #genZ

BCG just dropped a new influencer marketing projection—if you’re a marketing head, you have to take notice. By 2030, India’s creators will influence $1 trillion in consumer spending. Today, they already shape over $350 billion—and the curve is steepening fast. But brands won’t win this wave with old playbooks. • Treating creators like billboards is a dead end. Consumers scroll past forced promos in seconds. What works now is integration—where the product fits naturally into the creator’s content, tone, and community. • The next frontier is regional creators. Most influencer strategies today still revolve around urban, English-speaking faces. But real growth lies in Tier 2 and 3—where trust, relatability, and language matter more than follower count. • Spray-and-pray influencer campaigns are losing relevance. Audiences are savvy. They can spot insincerity—and tire quickly of influencers who promote twenty five competitor brands in the same category. Brands need curated, long-term partnerships with creators who truly resonate with their ethos. Throw in product co-creation with influencers because that’s going to be a game changer. The new game is alignment, curation, and depth. Creators who live your brand, not just mention it. Integrations that feel native, not disruptive. Smart CMOs will treat creators not as media buys, but as long-term brand collaborators