How to Use Creator Partnerships in Retail Media

TikTok Shop is not messing around. At Spree, we're building a shoppable video platform, but also a studio where we help brands and creators onboard, market, and sell through social platforms. Think of it like influencer marketing in a post-cookie world: full funnel from awareness to purchase, but all in one short-form video. Recently, our TikTok Shop partnership has been getting a lot of love. A few interesting learnings from this holiday season: 1. 'Viral' products are a shortcut. We uploaded one 'viral product' into the system and started getting sales before we posted our first video. Naturally, we ordered a few hundred more ASAP. 2. TikTok Shop success aligns closely with the rules of great influencer marketing. Get a creator with an engaged, lean-in audience. Find a product they actually like that their audience will actually like. Sell by telling a story, not by telling viewers to buy. 3. Most brands want to be on TikTok Shop but don't know how. It's complex. But once you've done it dozens of times (per day, in our case) it moves fast. I don't care if you're a mom and pop stationary shop, a creator merch brand, or a Fortune 500: you want to experiment here with a team who knows this market. 4. Live is great, but don't sleep on shoppable VOD. A perfect 30 second video of a product can do the work of a one hour live stream. Both are valuable, but too many people are talking about live shoppable and not enough are talking about shoppable shortform. 5. Trends + Product = Sales. Wednesday Addams' dance is popping? Sell the costume. King Bach flashlight dance is trending? Sell the flashlight. Spotify Wrapped is everywhere? Sell headphones. 6. Creators beware: not all audiences want this. If you make gold digger prank content, don't start selling The Feminine Mystique hardcover. If you are a creator and want to try it, make great content first and let a brand ride along. 7. Create like a creator. This is the rule for every brand on every social platform, but certainly pertains here. Don't do one tentpole shoppable live stream on TikTok and judge TT Shop on that. You need to habituate your audience, build a format, and keep it entertaining. In case you can't tell, this is addicting for a social media wonk like me. Smart influencer marketers are already testing this market understanding it will be a huge part of their ecommerce future. And those who haven't need to start today. #ecommerce #creatoreconomy #tiktok https://lnkd.in/e926z8zm

Your companies bureaucracy is limiting your creator communities performance and killing your bottom line. Most DTC brands only capture 1/3 of the value by only focusing on affiliate revenue. But creator communities drive full funnel performance, support brand goals, and performance goals. When you have 300+ pieces of content being posted monthly from your community: - New TOF channel that is getting your brand in front of new audiences at $2-$5 CPM - 50+ UGC/whitelisting ads you can test to scale paid media - Incremental revenue from affiliates - Halo effect, you'll see a 15% bump in amazon revenue + 70% more revenue thats captured on DTC outside of your last click attribution window. - Improved peak moments/ campaigns by having an army of creators posting about your biggest promos and marketing moments. Is your organizational structure killing your creator ROI? Creator initiatives often underperform when trapped in silos. Affiliate teams focus solely on revenue, brand teams on creative/awareness, and growth teams on conversion. This fragmented approach limits the true potential of creator partnerships. The solution? Reposition creator communities as a cross-functional asset that delivers value across multiple marketing objectives and departments. Our Process: 1. Map community benefits to key stakeholder objectives. Get everyone in a room and educate the team on the cross-functional value they are sitting on. Align creator activities with goals for brand, growth, and performance teams. 2. Establish clear measurement benchmarks. Do deep discovery on what metrics matter most to each team. Ex: New customer revenue, brand lift, CPM, impressions/engagement, and Meta CAC/ROAS. 3. Create cross-functional workflows Develop systems to leverage creator content across channels, from social media, and paid ads. This maximizes the impact of each piece of content. This can be as simple as a spreadsheet that's shared with media buying teams with links to organic creative that can be run as an ad. 4. Report on holistic ROI and share it with all teams. Make each department the hero by providing them a report on performance that supports their goals. By breaking down silos and repositioning creator communities as a value add for the entire business, brands can unlock significantly higher ROI from their partnerships. It's time to stop limiting creators to a single department and start leveraging their full potential across your organization.

We're going all-in on TikTok this year. But not to maximize TT Shop revenue. Instead, we're building a brand awareness engine that feeds Shopify, Amazon, and our retail channels. After speaking with brands doing 8 figs on TikTok Shop, here is what I've learned and the 7-step creator flywheel we're implementing: Step 1: Cast a Wide Net We source from TikTok's affiliate center with bots, Insense, AI-powered seeding, and Discord communities. Volume creates more testing opportunities. Step 2: Be Generous with Commissions 25-30% base commission + 10% on Spark Ad revenue. Creators earn 35-40% total without extra work. When competing for attention, compensation matters. Step 3: Simple Testing Process Send product → Brief → Creator posts → Boost → Track performance. Briefs include: problem we solve, compliance rules, 2-3 reference videos, Spark requirements. Detailed briefs reduce quality. Step 4: Filter for Performance We evaluate sample requests on posting consistency and actual GMV from previous partnerships. Reliable performers get approved, others decline. Step 5: Build Community Discord server with channels for winning videos, testing hooks, Spark submissions, and campaigns. Keeps creators engaged and learning from each other. Step 6: Run Monthly Campaigns $2K GMV = iPhone. $10K GMV = vacation. Creates excitement and competition that drives more posting and experimentation. Step 7: Amplify Everything We boost every video with GMV Max. Tests performance with real dollars, generates creator commission, provides conversion insights. The Flywheel: More content → Social proof → Sample requests → Better creators → Higher GMV → Bigger campaigns → Repeat Results so far: - Fresh UGC pipeline for all channels - Sustainable TikTok Shop CACs - Creator content adapted for Meta - Self-managing community 💡 Key Takeaway: Don't "control" TikTok's chaos. Build systems that harness it. Start with generous compensation, performance filtering, genuine community, and let the flywheel compound. 🚀 For brands lacking internal resources, I'm happy to connect you with partners who can implement this effectively (DM me). If you like this, save the post. And follow me for more of what's working for Obvi (and what's not). 😉

Most brands think they need creators for brand affinity, endorsements, and reach. That’s good and right. But when you treat creators as a utility, you unlock exponentially more value. Think of them as targeted amplifiers — distilling your broad message into hyper-specific content for niche audiences, locations, use cases, and retailers. So the WINNING strategy is: Pair macro-influencer activations (akin to celebrity endorsements) with UGC-powered ad creative. Why are creators the best tool for niche targeting at scale? Social proof works — even from strangers. When someone resembles your audience, their recommendation carries weight. Video delivers everything in 30 seconds: social proof, education, demonstration, and brand messaging tailored to an individuals. Whether that person shops Kroger vs. Walmart, lives in Santa Fe vs. Detroit, or are students vs. parents — creators are a tool you can use to speak their language. I've found that digitally native / DTC brands usually excel building a well oiled UGC machine. Retail brands struggle here. If you’re a retail brand looking to crack this code, let’s chat 💌