Creator Whitelisting At Scale: 36 Creator Economy Experts On What’s Breaking Behind The Scenes

Creator Whitelisting At Scale: 36 Creator Economy Experts On What’s Breaking Behind The Scenes

Whitelisting and creator-originated paid media are increasingly positioned as the performance layer of the Creator Economy. By allowing brands to run ads directly through a creator’s handle on platforms such as TikTok (Spark Ads) and Instagram (Partnership Ads), campaigns retain the native feel and trust of influencer content while unlocking the targeting, measurement, and scale of paid media.

The budget shift reflects that momentum. In 2026, more than half of brands plan to increase creator investment, with whitelisting emerging as a core tactic. Recent research found that 100% of surveyed enterprise marketers plan to use content beyond creators’ own handles, 81% said it outperforms brand-created assets, and paid social (94%) now leads distribution channels.

As this hybrid model moves from experimentation to operational priority, the focus is shifting from proving effectiveness to executing at scale.

To discover where operational strain may surface, we asked 36 agency leaders, talent managers, and technology operators a central question:

What’s the biggest operational or technical friction you’re encountering as brands shift spend toward creator-originated ads, and how are you solving it?

Check out the full roundtable here