Creator vs Influencer
This conversation/distinction has been a long time coming. And… because we’ll have a few big announcements coming in 2021, I thought it’d be pertinent to put it down on paper, so moving forward, if you’re a marketer, a client, a brand, a creative, a creator, an influencer, an artiste — whatever you are, this question is something that can be easily and readily available now to be cleared up (through this post or any conversation you have with the Bloomr.SG team).
One of the biggest misconceptions as to why Bloomr.SG is a network of Creators vs an Influencer network is usually that distinction in itself = the difference between what constitutes a Creator vs Influencer for us at Bloomr.SG & at Mediacorp as a whole/business.
eMarketer has a definition I can vouch for, for being similar to the mindset behind what we do and foster at the Bloomr.SG network of Content Creators & Partners:
- Creators: People or entities that develop original video content for digital properties, and who consider creating that content to be their career or livelihood.
- Influencers: Individuals who sway the brand preferences, buying decisions and loyalty of the population because of their notoriety or fame.
A Bloomr.SG Creator can be an Influencer but at heart (and practice) they’re content Creators first, they produce content, they write, shoot, edit, optimize, distribute and commercialize their creativity according to their niche, topic, hobbies, genre, etc. As a whole, the network & brand focuses on bringing creatives into the fold that can at any point in time & in the production timeline, by themselves (if necessary), produce an end-to-end piece of content to be delivered to both their audience as well as any attached client (or campaign).
If myself, Diogo, or, anyone in the Bloomr.SG team, want to have a Creator talk to a client without them understanding the common production practices that go into advertising/content production, it’d make everyone’s life a living hell if they weren’t inherently capable to produce their own video content = as anyone that has had the pleasure to work as an interpreter/translator can attest, a lot of details are missed/misconstrued in the translation of details (even the most faithful translations are always a step down from the original language they’re written/spoken in), so to that, instead of creating the possibility of lack of understanding and errors in translation, the thinking behind looking for Creators to be a part of Bloomr.SG was always to “skip” this potential problem and have the creativity talk for itself, with the interpreters being the audience, rather than there being the necessity of having to translate conversations through the interpretation of middle parties (not just like us as the network builders, but agencies, managers, partners, bosses, etc).
Of course anyone can argue that an influencer can always produce content (or more commonly hire a production house or a creator — there you have it, to produce the content) but that’s not what I see as the biggest difference between the 2 and why we always recruit for Creators rather than just Influencers.
Let me try to get the most ridiculous analogy I can think of so I appease your mind or questions, with a deep dive into my city biased/untrained mind.
When you ask anyone if they’d prefer to drive a car in automatic or manual in a city, most (if not all) would admit, an automatic is a better option to drive. It’s simpler, it gets you to places without as much driving hassle & it’s ultimately easier to learn and drive in “auto-pilot” (we can go into the technicalities of how it’s an “amazing feeling to really drive a manual car”, “that a real car is to be driven in manual” and yada yada, I agree, on an open highway or even on a winding road like the Stelvio Pass, that makes sense, sure, but in a city, it’s a pain in the A**). So… in traffic, in the chaos that is happening around you, to park, everything basically, leaving a lot of the minutia of driving to an automatic machine — is a much better value proposition for the time spent using it (driving).
Similarly, in production, leaving certain things to a Creator, ultimately increases the speed in which “you’re driving through the chaotic city” that is any production.
So, if you’re looking for a content Creator, that produces videos & content regularly, that is either an aspiring, emerging or established account/team/producer in the industry, give us a nudge… or better yet — if you think there’s a fantastic Creator that you’d like seeing in our Bloomr.SG Creators roster, send them our way :)
Go check them out on our website www.bloomr.sg & our socials.
Happy LNY everyone!
