The Performance Playbook: 14 Ideas From IAB Global Creator Week 2026
The IAB spent a week saying creators are a core media channel. It also admitted, on its own stage, that nobody has agreed how to measure them.
We read all of it: the research and the stage talk from New York, London, Sydney and Johannesburg, filtered for one question. What changes how creator marketing gets briefed, bought and measured?
Fourteen ideas made the cut. They are in The Performance Playbook, a free 12-page PDF. No email needed, and every figure is traced to its source.
Download The Performance Playbook
Five moves that carry the week
Creator content is the creative asset. Paid is the distribution. Budget creators from the production line and run them as media.
Organic and paid creator work are two different jobs. One owner, two briefs, two measures.
Watch time and repeat viewing predict ad results. Engagement rate does not.
The IAB has no measurement standard and said so on stage. Whoever brings a clean model wins the CFO.
Creators are the answer layer for AI shopping. Structure content to be retrieved, then measure presence.
Three numbers to keep
2 to 3x: paid amplification versus partnership spend in the UK (IAB UK / IRM).
15%: marketers with an operating model that lets them use creators fully (BCG at CreatorFronts).
56%: AI shoppers who want creator reviews inside AI recommendations (IAB Creator Signal).
What’s inside
Fourteen ideas, each with the evidence, who said it and where, one number to remember, and one thing to do about it. Plus a numbers-to-keep sheet, the Tribeez take, and every source listed.
Get the full playbook here. Want this kind of thinking every week? Subscribe to The Performance Creator.
