A new age of Talent Management
Chances are you’ve heard the terms “influencer” or “creator” in the last 5 years. It’s an industry that is growing at an incredible rate with seemingly no end in sight. With every industry, there are pieces of the business beyond what the industry is based off of. One of the parts that came to fruition, is the role and job of a talent manager.
Based on the traditional Hollywood agent, talent managers have been involved in the creator space before the creator economy boom. Helping creators source brand deals, manage contracts and deliverables, as well as work through a creators social growth. But as the creator space grows, I think there are some areas to innovate in the role as a talent manager.
Talent Managers are CEO’s
As the creator economy online presence grows, the deals are reaching all time highs, and the market is looking for unique avenues, the best person to lead a creator through this is their manager. Most agency groups position their manager in this almost sales like role that focuses heavily on generating leads for their client. This could be in paid content deals (posts on socials), event activations, or multi-partnerships (a combination of a few different deliverables).
Although it’s important that the creator is engaging in these deals as source of revenue, many times a managers job just ends there. There is very little in terms of “managing” beyond the deals themsevles. I think this is the first true area in need of innovation. Managers are in the driver seat of a creators brand and can lead the creator as if they were leading a business. This “CEO” role of sorts, could help the creator branch into new verticals, would assist the creator in business activity (regulations, accounting, operations, etc.), and be with the creator through their growth step by step. The way to achieve this is to transition talent managers to get closer to the Hollywood counterpart of managers. Where the role is more of right hand person as opposed to a deal finder (usually the job of the agent). I think in the creator world managers can really reinvent the system for needing both a good manager and good sales person, if there are more in management focusing on limited clients and really trying to be that “CEO”.
The brand is more than social
This might seem very simple but yet only a handful of creators really are stepping in this direction. The articles are all over the web that talk about “diversifying your brand”. There is always converstations to creators about what if a platform shuts down? What would they do? The thing is, it shouldn’t take these conversations to start an internal talks with a manager about “what’s next?” Like being that CEO, a part of any great business is the growth stage. Creators along with their managers should be thinking about what is the next vertical to take their brand too. Something to note about this, there is no “best time” for this strategizing. It doesn't matter what level of creator you are, converstations with a manager should always include a growth strategy. Should we do live content? What about this business I’ve always wanted to take a chance at? These are the types of questions managers should regularly be engaging in with their clients.
The creator is your customer not the companies
The last area that management groups and managers need to start innovating on is who their target customers are. As the creator econmony grows, many might think that brands are still the ones managment groups should be jumping at. Teaching them how to get involved, setting up hand picked lists of creators for campaigns, and blending non-enedmics into new spaces. Although this might still be important in some industries, most brands these days understand influencer marketing. Almost every startup specifically puts it into their Marketing Manager job descriptions. The real customer for managers right now is the creator, not the companies. Managers and talent companies need to find their value proposition as to why creators need them. Why would I want this person as my manager over this person, or no manager at all? This is an important question for creators and talent companies need to innovate on why they are better than the rest and talk about why managment for creators is valuable. The answer on how to do that? The first two points. Stand out by having managers who are the CEO’s that can lead creator brands into bigger and better things. Be that company that is searching for new opportunities and inspires your talent to think outside the box. That is how you innovate in talent management and that is how you make your clients excel.
Love talent management and creators as much as me? Let’s connect and tell me what else you think is important for managers going forward in this next stage of the creator economy. My Twitter!
