Creator economy: how UTA builds lasting talent

The UTA case: a talent agency at the heart of the creator economy

In July 2026, during the Cannes Lions advertising festival, the Creators division of United Talent Agency (UTA) caught the industry's attention. Ali Berman and Raina Penchansky, who lead the division, shared their vision in an episode of The Verge's Decoder podcast. UTA's roster includes creators such as Charli D’Amelio, Markiplier, Alex Cooper and Alix Earle. That makes it a privileged vantage point on how the industry is evolving.

UTA didn't start out as a digital agency. It is one of the largest traditional talent agencies in the world. But it understood before many others that the creator economy called for a professional, structured approach. So it built a dedicated division, which is now a global benchmark.

Timeline of a winning model

UTA's Creators division didn't appear overnight. In 2025, the global influencer marketing market had already passed $24 billion, according to Statista estimates. Against that backdrop, UTA accelerated its expansion in the creator space. It also began treating creators with the same contractual and strategic tools reserved for film actors.

The turning point was recognizing that a creator is not just an advertising channel. A creator is a brand. As a result, an agent's work goes beyond negotiating sponsorships. It includes managing reputation, diversifying revenue streams and building proprietary assets such as podcasts, books and product lines.

The UTA model unfolds in three distinct phases: scouting, development and sustainable monetization. Each phase calls for different skills. The development phase, in particular, is the one Italian brands underestimate the most.

Winners and losers: who really gains from professionalization

The UTA model produces clear winners. The creators it represents get access to deals they couldn't negotiate on their own. UTA brings to the table relationships with global brands, publishers and streaming platforms. It also provides legal protection and tax advice. All of this turns a creator from a freelancer into a structured entrepreneur.

On the flip side, the ones losing ground are brands that keep treating influencers as simple media buys. They pay high fees for content that doesn't perform. Why? Because they don't understand the creator as an autonomous narrative entity. As a result, campaign ROI stays low and the relationship with the creator is occasional, not strategic.

Micro-agencies that can't offer an integrated service are losing ground too. The market is polarizing. On one side, large organizations like UTA with global resources and networks. On the other, fully independent creators with highly niche communities. The middle segment is the most at risk.

How UTA spots emerging talent: the operating criteria

One of the most interesting points to emerge from The Verge podcast is the scouting process. Berman and Penchansky don't just look for creators with a lot of followers. They look for creators with authentic engagement, narrative consistency and the ability to evolve. These three criteria predict long-term success better than subscriber count.

Narrative consistency, in particular, is the hardest factor to replicate. A creator who knows who they are, what they stand for and who they speak to builds a loyal community. That community can then be monetized repeatedly and sustainably. So authenticity is not an abstract ethical value: it is a measurable economic asset.

Beyond that, UTA assesses a creator's ability to operate across multiple platforms without losing their identity. A creator who only works on TikTok is vulnerable. By contrast, one who can adapt their format to YouTube, Instagram, podcasts and newsletters is a far more solid asset. This multi-platform approach is now a strategic priority, as Harvard Business Review's analyses of the creator economy also confirm.

The SHM Studio take: what it means for Italian marketing

At SHM Studio, we are watching this model with interest. The Italian influencer marketing market is mature among large companies, but still fragmented among SMEs and in the mid-market. So the lessons of the UTA model can be applied, with specific adaptations for the local context.

First of all, Italian marketing managers need to stop thinking of influencers as an advertising format. An influencer is an editorial channel with its own qualified audience. That means the collaboration calls for a co-production mindset, not an ad-space purchase. This radically changes the brief, the contract and how you measure results.

Also, choosing a creator should rest on qualitative criteria before quantitative ones. Engagement rate, comment quality and topical consistency are more reliable indicators than total followers. So investing in a creator with 50,000 highly focused followers can generate more value than one with 500,000 generalist followers.

For B2B brands in particular, the creator economy offers opportunities that are still largely unexplored. Industry thought leaders, professional podcasts and newsletter writers are creators in every sense. Bringing them into a structured LinkedIn strategy can significantly amplify qualified reach.

The work still in progress: the industry's unresolved issues

The UTA model is effective, but not free of tension. The first is fee transparency. Traditional agencies charge fees that can significantly erode creators' earnings. This creates an incentive to cut out the middleman, especially for more established creators.

The second tension is measuring value. There is still no shared standard for measuring the ROI of creator collaborations. Every platform uses different metrics. Every brand has different KPIs. As a result, contract negotiations are often based on rough estimates.

Finally, there is the issue of the sustainability of the creator as a person. Burnout is a real, well-documented problem in the industry. An exhausted creator produces lower-quality content. So brands and agencies that ignore creator well-being are sabotaging their own investment in the medium term. McKinsey has also analyzed this topic in the context of the influencer economy.

Next moves: operational implications for marketing managers

In light of this analysis, what are the operational priorities for those running marketing at an Italian company? We identify four.

• Map the creators relevant to your industry. Not just by followers, but by topical consistency and audience quality. Tools like Brandwatch or Talkwalker can support this analysis.
• Structure multi-year contracts. One-off collaborations generate less value than ongoing partnerships. They also let the creator weave the brand into their own narrative in an organic way.
• Integrate the creator into your overall content strategy. Content produced by creators can be reused in paid campaigns, in your SEO copywriting strategy and in B2B sales materials.
• Measure with stage-specific KPIs. Awareness, consideration and conversion call for different metrics. That's why a single aggregate KPI isn't enough to judge how well a collaboration is working.

If you want to dig deeper into how to fit these strategies into a structured digital marketing plan, the SHM Studio team is available for a dedicated consultation. Likewise, if you run paid campaigns, you'll find interesting synergies between creator content and Google Ads campaigns to amplify the reach of organic content.

In short, the creator economy has matured. Brands that still treat it as a tactical experiment are building a competitive gap that will be hard to close. By contrast, brands that build structured relationships with relevant creators today are investing in an asset that will grow in value in the years ahead.

Want to explore how artificial intelligence is changing the creator space too, or get an assessment of your current influencer marketing approach? Get in touch. You'll find more insights on the topic on our blog, where we regularly analyze how digital marketing is evolving for the Italian market.