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) has attracted the industry's attention. Ali Berman and Raina Penchansky, who lead this division, shared their vision in a Decoder podcast episode from The Verge. UTA's roster includes creators like Charli D'Amelio, Markiplier, Alex Cooper, and Alix Earle. Therefore, it's a privileged vantage point on the industry's evolution.

UTA was not born as a digital agency. It is one of the largest traditional talent agencies in the world. However, it understood before many others that the creator economy required a professional and structured approach. Thus, it built a dedicated division that today is a global benchmark.

Chronology of a Winning Model

UTA's Creators division didn't happen overnight. By 2025, the global influencer marketing market had already surpassed $24 billion, according to estimates from Statista. In that context, UTA accelerated its expansion into the creator space. Additionally, it began to treat creators with the same contractual and strategic tools reserved for film actors.

The turning point was recognizing that a creator isn't just an advertising channel. They are a brand. Consequently, an agent's work is not limited to negotiating sponsorships. It includes reputation management, diversifying revenue streams, and building proprietary assets like podcasts, books, and product lines.

So, the UTA model is divided into three distinct phases: Scouting, development e sustainable monetization. Each phase requires different skills. In particular, the development phase is the most underestimated by Italian brands.

Winners and losers: who really profits from professionalization

The UTA model produces clear winners. The creators represented gain access to deals they couldn't negotiate on their own. In fact, UTA brings relationships with global brands, publishing houses, and streaming platforms to the table. Additionally, it offers legal protection and tax advice. All of this transforms a creator from a freelancer into a structured entrepreneur.

Conversely, brands that continue to treat influencers as mere media buys are losing ground in this scenario. These brands pay high fees for content that doesn't perform. Why? Because they lack an understanding of creators as autonomous narrative entities. As a result, campaign ROI remains low, and the relationship with the creator is episodic, not strategic.

Similarly, micro-agencies that cannot offer integrated services are losing ground. The market is polarizing. On one side, large structures like UTA with global resources and networks. On the other, completely independent creators with highly vertical communities. The middle segment is the most at risk.

How UTA Identifies Emerging Talent: Operational Criteria

One of the most interesting aspects that emerged from The Verge's podcast concerns the scouting process. Berman and Penchansky don't simply look for creators with many followers. They look for creators with Authentic engagement, narrative coherence e ability to evolve. These three criteria are more predictive of long-term success than the number of subscribers.

In particular, narrative consistency is the most difficult factor to replicate. A creator who knows who they are, what they stand for, and who they are speaking to builds a loyal community. This community can then be monetized repeatedly and sustainably. Therefore, authenticity is not an abstract ethical value: it is a measurable economic asset.

In addition to this, UTA assesses a creator's ability to operate across multiple platforms without losing their identity. A creator who only functions on TikTok is vulnerable. Conversely, someone who knows how to adapt their format to YouTube, Instagram, podcasts, and newsletters is a much more solid asset. This multi-platform approach is a strategic priority today, as confirmed by analyses from Harvard Business Review on the creator economy.

Reading SHM Studio: What it Means for Italian Marketing

We of SHM Studio We observe this model with interest. The Italian influencer marketing market is mature in large companies, but still fragmented in SMEs and the mid-market. Therefore, the lessons from the UTA model are applicable with specific adaptations to the local context.

First of all, Italian marketing managers must stop thinking of influencers as an advertising format. Influencers are an editorial channel with their own qualified audience. Consequently, collaboration requires a co-production logic, not space purchase. This radically changes the briefing, contract, and measurement of results.

Furthermore, the selection of the creator should be based on qualitative rather than quantitative criteria. Engagement rate, comment quality, and thematic consistency are more reliable indicators than total followers. Therefore, investing in a creator with 50,000 highly engaged followers can generate more value than one with 500,000 general followers.

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

The construction site still open: the unresolved issues of the sector

The UTA model is effective, but not without its tensions. The first concerns fee transparency. Traditional agencies charge fees that can significantly erode creators' earnings. This creates an incentive to disintermediate, especially for more established creators.

The second tension concerns the value measurement. There isn't yet a shared standard for measuring the ROI of creator collaborations. Each platform uses different metrics. Each brand has different KPIs. As a result, contract negotiation is often based on rough estimates.

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

Next moves: operational implications for marketing managers

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

• Map relevant creators for your industry. Not just for followers, but for thematic consistency and audience quality. Tools like Brandwatch or Talkwalker can support this analysis.
• Structure multi-year contracts. Episodic collaborations generate less value than ongoing partnerships. Furthermore, they allow the creator to integrate the brand into their narrative organically.
• Integrate the creator into the overall content strategy. Content produced by creators can be reused in paid campaigns, in the SEO copywriting strategy and in B2B sales materials.
• Measure with specific KPIs per phase. Awareness, consideration, and conversion require different metrics. Therefore, a single aggregated KPI is not sufficient to evaluate the effectiveness of a collaboration.

For those who want to delve deeper into how to integrate these strategies into a plan digital marketing structured, the SHM Studio team is available for dedicated consulting. Likewise, those managing paid campaigns can find interesting synergies between content creators and Google Ads campaigns to amplify the reach of organic content.

In summary, the creator economy is mature. Brands that still treat it as a tactical experiment are accumulating a competitive disadvantage that will be difficult to recover. Conversely, those who build structured relationships with relevant creators today are investing in an asset that will appreciate in the coming years.

To explore how artificial intelligence the creator space is also changing, or for an evaluation of your current approach to influencer marketing, contact us. Find more in-depth information on the topic in our blog, where we regularly analyze digital marketing developments for the Italian market.