Follower count is the worst signal we have

Every brand asks for creators with a big following. It is the one number on a creator’s profile that is easy to read, so it ends up doing all the work. In our network it predicts almost nothing about the footage.

We look at three things instead: whether the first cut was accepted without changes, whether it arrived on the day it was due, and how far viewers watched it once it ran. Last quarter the three creators who did best on all three had 6,200, 8,900 and 9,400 followers.

Split the forty-one down the middle by following and the pattern holds. The half under 20,000 followers had 71 % of their pieces accepted at first cut. The half above it had 48 %. The bigger accounts are not worse people. They are busier, they are used to making content for their own audience, and a brief from us is one of eleven that week.

The smaller creators tend to be people who actually do the thing. Nadia has delivered sixty-eight pieces for us, all in her own kitchen, because she cooks there every night. You can see it in how she holds a pan.

This is also why following never decides the fee. Every creator is paid a flat £65 to £85 a piece, within fourteen days of delivery, whatever their numbers say. And nobody is offered to a brand until they have shot at least three pieces for us, so we know how they work before you do.

If reach matters for a launch, we say so in the brief and put spend behind the pieces that are already working. Paying for reach through the creator’s follower count is the most expensive way to buy it.