The New Era of Creator Chemistry: Why Brands Are Betting on Long-Term Partnerships

The creator economy has matured, but brands are still learning what makes a partnership deliver meaningful results. At Beauty Connect LA, leaders from SuperOrdinary, ONE/SIZE Beauty, e.l.f. Beauty, and Superfiliate shared how collaboration, data, and authenticity now shape growth.

Juliette Tang, President of ONE/SIZE Beauty, said creators have become integral to brand building. “Creators are some of the best brand marketers in the world. They’re audience-obsessed, constantly adapting based on feedback. That’s what great marketers do.”

Tang described ONE/SIZE as a business built on co-creation. More than 4,500 creators mentioned the brand this year, and her team reviews that activity daily. “We treat creator content as insight. They are an extension of our marketing team,” she explained. The company now plans to formalize creator input into its product and campaign strategy, a process Tang credits for helping scale a hundred-million-dollar business.

The Scale of Social Commerce

Julian Reis, CEO of SuperOrdinary, outlined how affiliate marketing is reshaping digital retail. He pointed to the rise of TikTok, now valued at around 600 billion dollars, and said similar growth patterns are emerging in the United States. “Affiliate partnerships are now a core growth tool for every brand,” he said.

SuperOrdinary works with about 1.5 million affiliates, a number that reflects the intensity of this new channel. Reis said that when brands release a thousand pieces of creator content, roughly five percent tend to gain viral traction. “That small percentage can transform performance. The challenge is identifying it early and amplifying it fast.”

He compared the current US market, where social commerce accounts for about two percent of retail, with China’s thirty percent benchmark. “There is a long runway ahead,” he said.

Creators as Sellers

Patrick O’Keefe, Chief Integrated Marketing Officer at e.l.f. Beauty, described the company’s model as one where creators drive both culture and sales. “Creators are becoming sellers. They have always influenced purchasing, but now they are taking a direct role in commerce.”

He explained that e.l.f. was the first beauty brand to launch a commerce-connected platform on Twitch linked to Amazon. “We are learning every day, but the one constant is the creator community. They remain the heart of our business.”

When Campaigns Miss the Mark

Not every collaboration succeeds. Beauty creator Raye Boyce said transparency prevents small problems from turning into lost opportunities. “Brands should ask early whether a campaign idea feels authentic to the creator. Sometimes you know a concept won’t work, but you still follow the brief. If it doesn’t feel natural, the audience will know.”

Tang agreed that feedback should flow both ways. “If something is underperforming, talk to the creator. They want it to work as much as you do.” She added that brands should share platform data to help creators adjust quickly.

Rethinking Metrics

Anders Bill, Co-founder of Superfiliate, said creator-led advertising is changing how performance is measured. He described how partnership ads and Spark ads have become central to Meta and TikTok’s business models. “These formats link a creator’s account to the brand’s ad account so that paid and organic reach reinforce each other. The brands using them are seeing creator-driven ads rise from a small test segment to nearly half of their media budgets.”

He called it the strongest signal of where digital advertising is heading. “Creator content has become the most native format on these platforms. It combines authenticity with measurable scale.”

Fragmentation and the Role of AI

Tang closed with a warning about the growing fragmentation of attention. “AI allows content to splinter into thousands of micro-niches. Brands that focus too broadly will struggle to grow.” She believes personalization will soon determine which content audiences even see. “Each user already has a unique algorithmic fingerprint. The brands that understand that will win.”

The panel ended with five words that summed up the direction of the industry: collaboration, advertising, subculture, adaptation, authenticity.