The Video Advertising Bureau today published survey data showing that half of consumers who follow digital creators pay closer attention to advertising inside television and streaming programmes when a creator they follow appears in them, with the effect carrying through search, purchase and word of mouth.

The trade body released the findings in a report titled Expanding the Creator-Verse: Why Digital Creators Are Embracing Premium Video Platforms, issued from New York on August 11, 2026. According to VAB, the underlying consumer survey was conducted with Hub Entertainment Research and fielded online in June 2026 among 1,600 respondents aged 16 to 74, forming part of Hub's 2026 How to Monetize Video study.

The questions that generate the report's headline numbers were asked of a subset: the 889 unweighted respondents who said they follow online content creators. Within that base, 198 were aged 16 to 24, 232 were aged 25 to 34, 355 were aged 35 to 54 and 104 were aged 55 to 74. The oldest cell is small enough that its readings carry a wider margin of error than the others, a caveat worth holding while reading the age-by-age splits.

Following is no longer a young person's habit

Fifty-five percent of people aged 16 and over follow at least one digital creator, according to the VAB research. The generational spread behind that figure is steep. Eighty-four percent of 16 to 24 year olds follow a creator, and 83% of 25 to 34 year olds do. The rate falls to 54% among 35 to 54 year olds and 23% among those aged 55 to 74.

Behaviour and classification diverge. Asked how they think of creators, 54% of the total sample described them as entertainers, the leading answer in every age band. Beyond that, definitions fracture. Thirty-four percent called creators celebrities, 29% called them media brands, 29% called them entrepreneurs or business owners, and 25% called them product recommenders.

Younger respondents are more willing to grant institutional status. Among 16 to 24 year olds, 37% described creators as media brands, against 28% of 35 to 54 year olds and 20% of those aged 55 to 74. Among 25 to 34 year olds, 40% used the word celebrity, the highest reading of any cohort.

Older audiences reverse the emphasis. Twenty-nine percent of 55 to 74 year olds classified creators as product recommenders, the highest share for that answer across the age bands, while just 8% of the same group called them trusted experts, against 16% of the total sample. Creators reach older viewers as a shopping input rather than as an authority.

The funnel readings

VAB asked respondents how a creator's appearance on a television or streaming show would change five behaviours toward brands advertising in or integrated into that programme. Responses were captured on a five point scale, with results reported as top two box against bottom two box.

Half of respondents said they would be more likely to pay attention to the brand, against 17% who said less likely, a ratio of three to one. Attention peaked among 25 to 34 year olds at 54% more likely against 16% less likely.

Consideration followed at 48% more likely against 17% less likely. Search intent produced the widest gap of the five measures: 52% said they would be more likely to look up the brand online, against 13% who said less likely, a four to one split. Among 16 to 24 year olds the intent ratio widened to 4.5 to one, with 54% more likely and 12% less likely.

Purchase and advocacy sit lower, as funnels normally dictate. Forty-three percent said a creator's involvement would make them more likely to buy the advertised brand, against 18% less likely. Forty-one percent said they would be more likely to tell a friend, against 19% less likely.

One cohort breaks the downward slope. Among 25 to 34 year olds, 50% said they would be more likely to purchase, against 16% less likely, a three to one ratio that holds nearly as strong as the attention reading for the same group. That is a spending age band, and the gap between it and the 40% purchase reading among 16 to 24 year olds is the single largest divergence in the sales data.

The oldest cohort behaves differently again. Among 55 to 74 year olds, consideration ran at 47% more likely against 13% less likely, the strongest consideration ratio in the study at 3.6 to one, even though only 23% of that age group follows a creator at all. The pool is narrow, but inside it the response is not weak.

What makes a creator look credible

Asked what makes a creator feel established, 40% of the total sample selected expertise or knowledge, 36% selected an authentic and active community presence, and 34% selected higher production quality. Consistent posting drew 28% and large audience size 23%.

Production quality rises with age. Thirty percent of 16 to 24 year olds cited it, compared with 38% of 25 to 34 year olds, 35% of 35 to 54 year olds and 32% of those aged 55 to 74. Expertise dominates at the top of the age range, selected by 51% of 55 to 74 year olds against 37% of 16 to 24 year olds, who instead put authentic community presence first at 44%.

Only among the youngest cohort did brand partnerships themselves register as a credibility signal, selected by 27% of 16 to 24 year olds. In no other age band did that answer reach the top five.

Creators want production, not more posting

Data VAB drew from the Influencer Marketing Factory's 2026 Creator Economy Report, published in February 2026, points the same direction. Asked which skill they most want to invest in, 22% of creators named video production and 20% named branding. Storytelling drew 14% and community building 13%. AI tools and automation drew 10%, sales and negotiation 9% and data analytics 7%.

The same research records what creators find hardest: time management at 15%, inconsistent income at 14% and burnout at 14%, followed by competition, algorithm changes and trend chasing at 13% each. Forty-five percent said they value stability, consistency and deeper brand alignment over one-off campaigns.

Those two datasets describe a supply side seeking exactly what television and streaming distribution supplies, which is production infrastructure, scheduled output and contracted revenue rather than variable platform payouts. France's competition authority documented the structural version of the same problem in February 2026, when it found that 80% of professional video creators hold weak or very weak bargaining power against the platforms distributing their work.

Marketers cannot prove the return

On the demand side, VAB cited Linqia's State of Influencer Marketing 2026, based on a survey of more than 200 enterprise marketers. Determining return on investment was the top challenge, named by 71%. The time it takes to run programmes followed at 50%, content quality at 48%, and selecting the right creators and working with less budget at 46% each.

Brand safety, the concern that dominated agency conversation about creator marketing for most of the past decade, was named by 10%. Choosing the right agencies came last at 8%.

Spending intent has not been slowed by the measurement gap. Fifty-nine percent of brands plan to invest more in influencer marketing this year than last. Forty-three percent expect budgets to rise by less than 25%, 16% expect increases of 25% to 50%, and 3% expect increases of 51% to 100%. Thirty-two percent expect flat budgets and 5% expect cuts.

The size distribution is heavier than the category's reputation suggests. Sixty-two percent of companies invest over $500,000 in influencer marketing, with 21% spending between $5 million and $10 million and 13% spending above $10 million. Ten percent spend under $100,000. VAB's chart labels omit a band between $1 million and $5 million, so the distribution reads as a set of discrete bands rather than as a continuous scale.

Where the viewing time actually sits

Media Dynamics data published on July 21, 2026 and cited in the report puts creator content at 26% of daily time spent with television and video, against 35% for linear television and 33% for streaming platforms. Other video accounts for 6%. Total daily viewing across all screens and devices runs to 6.7 hours, which places creator content at roughly 1.7 hours a day.

Read the other way, linear and streaming together hold 68% of video time. That is the argument VAB is making to its members, and the reason the trade body frames premium video as the environment that scales creator work rather than the environment creator work is displacing.

Revenue trails viewing. EMARKETER's February 2026 forecast, reproduced in the report, puts US social media creator revenue at $21.1 billion in 2026, up from $10.0 billion in 2022 and $15.4 billion in 2024, and projects $26.8 billion by 2028. That series excludes revenue generated on traditional media properties, which is precisely the revenue line the migration described in the report would create.

CreatorIQ research from 2024 and 2025, comparing creator posts about 39 of the top Fortune 100 brands against those brands' owned social channels, recorded 12 times the impressions, 17 times the engagement and 20 times the earned media value.

Consumers say they want it on the big screen

Survey work from Tubi published in March 2026, based on a Harris Poll of 2,500 US adults who stream at least an hour a week, found 37% of streamers want platforms to bring existing creator content onto streaming services. Sixty-three percent said watching creator content feels no different from streaming a television show, and 56% said they think of creators as celebrities comparable to Hollywood talent.

Demand skews toward the smaller end of the creator market. Seventy-six percent said they want more original content from independent or smaller creators, up six points year on year, and 73% said they like watching smaller creators because it feels like direct support, up ten points. PPC Land examined the wider Tubi dataset when it documented why streaming viewers are choosing ads over subscriptions in June.

The distribution build-out is already underway

The report catalogues placements that have already happened: the Pat McAfee Show simulcast on ESPN and ESPN+, Kevin Fredericks on Tubi's Safe Space, Alix Earle on Dancing With the Stars, Beast Games on Amazon, Katie Florence in The Kouncil on Peacock, Barstool inside Fox's Big Noon Kickoff pre-show, and Ryan Kaji's Ryan's Mystery Playdate on Nickelodeon.

Infrastructure has followed the programming. PubMatic opened a programmatic auction built specifically for independent creator media companies on June 18, 2026, with MeatEater as launch partner. Fubo built a permanent 24/7 linear channel around Jomboy Media on April 15, 2026, the first time a sports streaming platform had constructed an always-on channel around a creator company. Roku launched a dedicated creators destination in May 2026.

"With the launch of our new Creators destination, we're making it effortless to enjoy creator content the way it deserves to be watched: on the big screen, in stunning quality, without the hassle of searching across a dozen different apps," said Lisa Holme, head of content at Roku Media, in comments to StreamTV Insider on May 20, 2026 that VAB reproduced in the report.

The buy side has registered the shift. "The creators that we grew up with that felt very organic and independent, very rough and raw have become very refined and very sophisticated and very savvy and advanced as producers, as directors, as talent themselves, as just incredible storytellers," said Adam Shlachter, client president at WPP Media, speaking to Beet.TV on July 8, 2026.

Why this matters for marketing teams

The commercial claim inside the report is narrow and worth stating precisely. VAB is not arguing that creator content outperforms television advertising. It is arguing that a creator's presence inside a premium video programme raises the response to the advertising sold around and inside that programme. The unit being sold is unchanged; the lift is attributed to who appears on screen.

That framing sits inside a longer institutional argument. PPC Land has tracked VAB's 2026 output across a five-part measurement series covering viewership data collection, identity and engagement, alongside an expanded measurement solutions directory covering 20 vendors. Each entry pushes the same conclusion: that premium video environments can be measured against business outcomes in ways the trade body says social platforms cannot.

"Digital creator engagement spans generations and audiences are desiring more creator-type content on Premium Video Platforms, making creators a scaled media opportunity, not just a social media tactic," said Leah Pujalte, vice president of audience and behavioral insights at VAB, in the announcement. "Rising expectations around scale, quality, reliability, brand safety and performance are making deeper creator relationships more valuable. Premium video offers all the attributes that both marketers and creators increasingly seek, helping to elevate creator credibility and brand outcomes."

"The convergence of creators and Premium Video Platforms offers an opportunity to pair trusted creator voices with media environments built for scale, engagement and outcomes," Pujalte added.

The budget context makes the argument consequential rather than academic. US creator economy advertising spend reached $37 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $43.9 billion in 2026, a growth rate outpacing most other digital categories. Planning teams increasingly classify creator output as a paid media asset rather than as influencer marketing, which changes which measurement framework applies and which budget line pays for it.

Two structural facts limit how far the VAB findings travel. The first is source. VAB represents premium multiscreen television providers and distributors, and the report is distributed to members and what the organisation calls qualified marketers; the conclusion favours the sellers who fund the research. The second is method. The funnel numbers are stated intent captured on a five point scale in a survey, not observed behaviour or matched sales data, and stated intent consistently overstates action.

What the data does establish is a directional agreement between three independent sources. Consumers say they want creator content in streaming environments. Creators say they want production capability and contracted stability. Media companies, supply-side platforms and streaming services have spent 2026 building the distribution to connect the two. The measurement gap that 71% of enterprise marketers still report is the piece none of those three has closed.

Timeline

Summary

Who: The Video Advertising Bureau, a trade organisation representing premium multiscreen television providers and distributors, produced the research with Hub Entertainment Research. Leah Pujalte, vice president of audience and behavioral insights, is quoted in the announcement. Secondary data comes from EMARKETER, CreatorIQ, Linqia, the Influencer Marketing Factory, Media Dynamics and Tubi.

What: A report titled Expanding the Creator-Verse: Why Digital Creators Are Embracing Premium Video Platforms, built on a custom consumer survey. Among the 889 respondents who follow creators, 50% said a followed creator's appearance in a television or streaming programme makes them more likely to pay attention to brands advertised there, 48% more likely to consider, 52% more likely to search, 43% more likely to purchase and 41% more likely to recommend.

When: The survey was fielded online in June 2026. The report was released on August 11, 2026.

Where: The research covers United States consumers aged 16 to 74. The announcement was issued from New York.

Why: Creator content now accounts for 26% of daily video time while linear and streaming hold 68% between them, and 71% of enterprise marketers still cannot determine return on influencer investment. VAB is positioning premium video distribution as the environment where creator audiences and measurable brand outcomes meet.