Prof. Dr. Andreas Lanz

Digital Marketing Analytics

Objectives
The creator economy could reach half a trillion dollars by 2027, with creators increasingly launching their own brands rather than just promoting third-party products. This shift creates a dual challenge for fi rms: creator brands emerge as competitors with low customer acquisition costs, while fi rms lose crucial marketing channels to reach engaged audiences. Micro-creators (10k-1M followers; 23% of creators) could help fi rms navigate this disruption through partnerships for launching creator brands, yet they face significant barriers compared to macro-creators (>1M followers; 0.16% of creators). As initially planned, our project addresses the research questions: (1) What micro-creator characteristics predict their readiness to launch a successful creator brand? and (2) What tradeoff s will micro-creators accept between customization, eff ort, and financial risks when cooperating with partners?

Realised Steps
Study 1, funded through this grant, is completed. The broader research program, including Study 2 (funded through FV-126), is expected to conclude by the end of 2026.

Results
Study 1 reveals that in a conjoint analysis with 248 micro-creators, participants systematically trade product customization—a key action for enhancing authenticity—for reduced personal eff ort and fi nancial risk when choosing partnership off ers. This revealed preference contradicts their explicit stated preferences from our qualitative pre-study (36 in-depth interviews), where creators emphasized authenticity as the most critical success factor. From this finding we develop the “Affordable Authenticity Hypothesis,” which we aim to validate in Study 2.

Publications
We intend to eventually publish the findings in a top (FT50 / UTD24) journal.

Presentations and Conferences
Swiss Academy of Marketing Science Conference 2025, Market-Oriented
Management Conference 2025