The creator economy has matured, and with it, creator marketing has evolved from a campaign add-on into a core part of how brands communicate, build trust, and grow.

Ryan Stern has had a front-row seat to that transformation. In 2013, she and her co-founder, Alexa Tonner, launched Collectively after recognizing that brands wanted more than traditional media buys. They saw growing demand for creator-led content and believed brands needed a better way to partner with creators.

"We're really good at bringing the right creators to the right brands. And if the brands want to work with the creators to make content, we thought maybe we should just try that as a business."

More than a decade later, Ryan believes the biggest shift isn't simply the growth of the creator economy. It's that creators have moved from supporting campaigns to shaping them. Today, creators influence everything from product planning and paid media to communications and brand strategy.

That shift also requires organizations to evolve. Ryan explains that the strongest brands are breaking down silos and embedding creator strategy across their marketing mix rather than treating it as a standalone channel.

She also challenges marketers to look beyond performance metrics. One of the most valuable sources of customer insight, she argues, is the comment section, where conversations reveal audience sentiment, unmet needs, and new creative opportunities.

Looking ahead, Ryan sees AI, new platforms, and changing consumer behavior continuing to reshape the industry. Rather than chasing every trend, she encourages brands to keep experimenting while staying grounded in authentic creator relationships.

What Ryan's experience makes clear is that creator marketing's next chapter will be about recognizing how creator thinking is reshaping the marketing organization itself, from content and media to consumer insight, community and brand strategy.

That's the shift worth paying attention to.

Episode 01: The Comment Feed is Talking. Is Your Brand Listening?