Vendor reportKantar, 2026

For short-term sales goals, it’s especially important to brief the creator to reference the brand name verbally in their story

Briefing creators

Reader Note:: On short-term sales the levers sit close together — the report says most contribute 10 percentile points or fewer — so verbal brand mention stands out by ranking near the top of a narrow field, not by a wide margin. In the report's table of video elements it is also the one element whose sales figure beats its brand figure, +10% Sales Power against +9 Brand Power points. Only about half the content analysed had the creator say the brand name aloud, which is why the report treats it as the easiest win available. Both figures are predictions from Kantar's own model rather than measured sales.
Evidence:: Expert judgment
Vendor interest:: High — This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
Sample:: Analysis of 15,000+ pieces of sponsored creator content promoting products or brands across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube; selection method not clearly disclosed.

Good for

Hearing how someone who knows the field reads it, and deciding what to check yourself.

Not for

Anything that needs a measurement. Nobody counted or tested this.
This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
The source never says when this data was collected. It could be considerably older than the publication date suggests.
Nobody counted this directly — it's a calculation. The publisher worked it out itself, or took the ad platform's word for what its ads achieved.
The source says how much it looked at, but not how any of it was chosen.

U.S. AI shoppers 55+ penalize hidden sponsorship 20+ points more than labeled; 25–34s react slightly the other way

Extra trust lost from hidden vs labelled sponsorship disclosure, by age group
Age group	Extra trust lost (points)
All AI users	10.5
18 to 24	3.6
25 to 34	-5.2
35 to 44	12.7
45 to 54	15.6

Saying the brand name out loud in sponsored creator content lifts branding by an average of 22 points in Kantar’s model

Branding in sponsored creator content: lift in branding percentile — Creator x Brand interaction elements (points)
Element	Lift in branding percentile (points)	Share of sponsored creator content featuring this element (%)
Brand name in audio	22	49%
Interaction with product	17	77%
Shopping activities in action	15	29%
Using the product	11	58%

Keyword and search strategy for influencer content ranks dead last in self-reported team capability, with a mean rank of 7.14 out of 8

Team capability by area, self-ranked from strongest to weakest (mean rank, 1-8)
Capability	Mean
#1 Influencer discovery and vetting	2.28
#2 Creative briefing	2.97
#3 Content review and quality control	3.86
#4 Consumer research and tribe identification	4.21
#5 Social listening and trend analysis	4.93

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Fixing your influencer marketing campaign: How to get into the top 10% of advertisers

Influencer briefs only include structured keyword strategy for both social and AI/LLM discoverability 13% of the time; most either provide only social search keywords or just general hashtags

Keyword and search guidance included in influencer briefs (% of marketers)
Guidance type	Share (%)
Keyword strategy for social search (TikTok, Instagram)	34%
General hashtag guidance but no structured keyword strategy	34%
Keyword strategy for both social search and AI/LLM discoverability	13%
Leave keyword and caption decisions to the influencer	9%
Have not considered search optimisation in influencer briefs	9%

0.75x

the conversion odds remained when sponsorship disclosure was present

70%

of U.S. consumers feel negative if an influencer fails to disclose being paid or given free product for promotion in February 2025

For short-term sales goals, it’s especially important to brief the creator to reference the brand name verbally in their story

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