New report highlights how creator retention, niche brand disruption, and platform-specific strategies are reshaping marketing success—Spotify, the Lakers, Fenty Hair, and Fashion Nova lead the way

CreatorIQ Launches Inaugural ‘Top 100 Brands of the Year’ Report: Top Brands, Global Benchmarks for Creator-Driven Success in 2024

Leah Spector
leah.spector@creatoriq.com

Coraima Sanchez
creatoriq@archetype.co

CreatorIQ, the leading enterprise creator marketing platform, today announced its inaugural CreatorIQ Top 100: Brands of the Year 2024 report, the first comprehensive ranking of the most impactful brands in creator marketing. Based on proprietary, global data across major social platforms, the report analyzes key measures of success for creator marketing, revealing that long-term creator retention and authentic, community-driven marketing outperform one-off creator executions or chance virality, redefining how brands drive influence.

The CreatorIQ Top 100 is the first-of-its-kind global ranking of the world's leading brands across industries, based on critical metrics that define success in creator marketing. Powered by unmatched proprietary metrics and first-party data, it analyzes key performance indicators—including Earned Media Value (EMV), engagement growth, and creator retention—across 16 global markets such as the U.S., U.K., France, Korea, Germany, and MENA. This ranking highlights a seismic shift in marketing: brands that focus on long-term creator relationships and platform-specific strategies are achieving exceptional returns, while disruptors rapidly scale by harnessing engaged communities. Backed by the industry's most comprehensive data set, this report serves as reliable standards and benchmarks for how brands can measure success in creator marketing efforts.

"Marketing is undergoing a significant shift, with creator partnerships emerging as a central component of effective strategies and potentially delivering greater impact than traditional advertising," said Brit Starr, Chief Marketing Officer of CreatorIQ. "The data shows that no matter the size, industry, or maturity of a brand, investing in long-term creator relationships drives deeper engagement, cultural relevance, and real impact. The brands that fully embrace creators as part of their business strategy will lead the next era of influence."

Key Findings from the Top 100: Brands of the Year 2024 Report

Creator Retention Drives Lasting Impact

Creator retention—the proportion of creators who posted about a brand in consecutive time periods—is a key driver of sustained brand impact. Brands that cultivate loyal creator communities benefit from stronger engagement and greater EMV than brands with low creator retention rates. The data cements that creator retention, not just reach, is shaping the future of brand influence. Sports teams dominated creator retention, with seven of the Top 10 Brands by retention rate from the NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL.

• The Los Angeles Lakers topped the retention leaderboard with an impressive 115% YoY creator retention rate, demonstrating the power of sustained fan engagement—even during challenging seasons. The New York Yankees also ranked second in creator retention with a 114.4% YoY rate, while the Minnesota Timberwolves ranked eighth with a 108.3% rate.
• With an impressive 83% creator retention rate, Spotify secured the top spot with $6.2B EMV Spotify, proving that long-term creator engagement pays off and is a major driver of brand visibility and loyalty.
• Despite having a smaller creator community on Instagram compared to competitors like Zara, Fashion Nova’s creators generated an average of $107K EMV each—4x the leaderboard average of $27K EMV per creator—reinforcing the power of creator loyalty over sheer volume.

Emerging & Niche Brands Are Disrupting the Market

Beauty brands continue to thrive in the creator economy, with the category’s EMV surging 4,700% YoY, fueled by a 7,300% increase in impressions and 6,700% jump in engagements.

• TIRTIR capitalized on the K-beauty craze, achieving 2,059% YoY impression growth, surpassing major brands like Dove and Fenty Skin.
• Polite Society Beauty benefitted from the fastest-growing creator community, increasing its creator count by 501% YoY through a strategic mix of micro and macro creators.
• Fenty Hair outpaced Beyoncé’s Cécred by EMV ($73.2M vs. $50M) within just seven months of launch, showing the power of hype-driven creator partnerships.

Platform-Specific Strategies Are Fueling Growth

TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube continue to be the biggest drivers of brand engagement and EMV. The report highlights how different platforms drive success for specific industries, from TikTok’s viral engagement to Instagram’s brand-building dominance and YouTube’s EMV-driving power.

• TikTok’s Top 100 brands by EMV saw 90% YoY engagement growth, far outpacing Instagram (14%) and YouTube (37%), with Netflix leading the way and generating $718.9M EMV and 15.2B impressions through creators’ authentic voice-over and green screen content strategies.
• Instagram’s Top 100 brands by EMV generated 149% more EMV on average than TikTok ($442.1M vs. $177.2M), making it the leading platform for brand-building, especially for fashion brands like Fashion Nova.
• YouTube led in EMV generation for streaming and music brands. Spotify secured $3.9B of its $6.2B EMV through YouTube from video podcasts and curated content.

The full Top 100: Brands of the Year 2024 report includes insights across industries, with brands like Nike, Adidas, Red Bull, Netflix, and Prime Video leading their categories.

Methodology

The CreatorIQ: Top 100 Brands rankings are based on first-party creator marketing data from Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, X, and Pinterest, covering 16 global markets, including the U.S., U.K., France, Korea, Germany, and MENA. This report is an extension of CreatorIQ's Top 10 Leaderboard, a dynamic monthly ranking tool that highlights top brands across industries based on key creator marketing metrics. The Top 100 compiles data from the year to recognize brands that have consistently excelled in creator marketing, offering real-time insights into brand performance across markets and verticals.

To ensure a fair and objective assessment, The CreatorIQ: Top 100 Brands are ranked based on specific qualification criteria that account for key performance indicators such as EMV, engagement growth, and retention. Key qualifications include:

• YoY EMV Growth, Engagement, and Impression Growth: Emerging brands launched in 2024 are excluded from these categories to avoid skewed comparisons, with new brands recognized separately in the Top Brand Launches of 2024.
• $10M EMV Minimum: Only brands with at least $10M in EMV for 2024 are considered, ensuring a focus on brands with sustained, substantial performance.

About CreatorIQ

CreatorIQ is the leading creator marketing platform brands and agencies rely on to maximize creator marketing programs. Its enterprise-grade workflows and industry-leading intelligence deliver AI-powered creator discovery, unified program management, and standardized measurement that is safe, seamless, smart, and built for scale. Thousands of global organizations use CreatorIQ, including Logitech, Movers+Shakers, Nestlé, RQ, Sephora, Unilever, and more.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250219450476/en/

"Investing in long-term creator relationships drives deeper engagement, cultural relevance, and real impact. The brands that fully embrace creators as part of their business strategy will lead the next era of influence." -Brit Starr, CreatorIQ