Web3 Will Shift the Relationship Between Brands and Creators

Web3 is set to transform the way that brands collaborate with creators—and if marketers aren’t already planning for this, they’ll be left behind.

That was the consensus at Social Media Week Europe, where Lindsey McInerney, founder and CEO of Sixth Wall, and Tina Ziegler, art curator and brand consultant, sat down to discuss the evolution of Web3 and the creator economy.

The biggest misunderstanding among marketers about Web3—a space that is seen as the next iteration of the current internet—is that it’s just “a fad,” McInerney said. But these new technologies will fundamentally shift the balance of power in favor of creators and challenge how brands work with talent and fans, McInerney and Ziegler agreed.

“Social media was dismissed as a fad when it first began. People would go, ‘we don’t need Twitter, we’ve got press releases,’” McInerney said. “This era seems to be the next massive disruption. While we don’t have all the answers for how this unfolds over the next decade, it’s certainly here to stay and present this tremendous opportunity to learn, grow and interact with people and our communities a lot differently than we have in this previous era.”

Empowering creators

Web3 technologies such as NFTs and the blockchain are dissolving barriers to entry and paving the way for new artists and creators who previously may have struggled to break into the industry, according to the panelists. Ziegler, a contemporary art turned digital art curator who is also director of the Moniker Art Fair, explained that the art world has “seen so many artists emerge through this new space that didn’t really have a career previously.”

“In the traditional art market, there’s this ladder that you need to climb,” Ziegler said. “Artists have been able to enter this new space, build a following, have conversations directly with potential collectors and then mint their artworks on the blockchain and sell their work directly without galleries in the middle or anybody taking percentages in their sale.”

One of the biggest shifts for artists in Web3 has been in the royalty structure, she explained. NFTs allow artists to mint a digital collectible and then collect royalties on it every time the creation is sold on the marketplace.

Ultimately, Web3 will allow creators to “take ownership of their content and build a direct relationship with collectors and fans,” Ziegler added.

Fixing inequalities

The dissolution of these old structures means that brands will have to be more “transparent” in how they work with creators, particularly with monetary compensation, Ziegler said.

“[With the blockchain] everyone can see how much everyone made. There isn’t any of this, ‘oh I don’t know how much the galleries took, I don’t know how much my agency took,’ because it’s all transparent,” Ziegler continued. “We need to be a lot more aware of the power that the creator has at the end of the day. We have this opportunity to work in partnership and in a much more transparent way.”

Web3 offers marketers a chance to recognize the flaws in the current system of partnering with creative talent and to address long-standing inequalities, McInerney added.

“For a long time, the relationship between creator and brand has been completely broken. But creators, fans and community make every single brand what they are,” she said. “We have an opportunity in this new world to correct some of that relationship and allow your biggest fans, advocates or community members—the people who are driving the most value to your brand—to actually be compensated and allow them to share in your [success]… Some of the biggest brands from this era will be decentralized and co-owned by communities who, when given the right tool set, will build the brand together with you. It’s not going to be, ‘build my brand and here’s a $200 influencer voucher.’”

McInerney put it plainly when she concluded: “This new era is here because we abused our relationships in this past era. We have to course correct and fix this to make it more equitable.”