Key Takeaways
- Gen Z often experiences creators as people and communities rather than advertising channels.
- Relatability and shared interests can make creator recommendations more persuasive.
- Smaller, niche creators can be particularly valuable because of their closer community relationships.
- Brands that give creators authenticity and creative freedom may build stronger connections with younger audiences.
For Gen Z, creators can feel more relatable and authentic than traditional advertising, changing how younger consumers discover, evaluate, and buy products.
Gen Z has grown up in an environment where advertising is everywhere. Increasingly, they can tell when they are being marketed to. That has changed how younger consumers discover products and decide which recommendations to believe. Instead of relying exclusively on polished brand campaigns, many turn to creators who demonstrate products, explain their experiences, and build communities around shared interests.
Recent research from Deloitte illustrates the scale of this shift. It’s 2025 Digital Media Trends survey found that 56% of Gen Z respondents consider social media content more relevant to them than traditional television and film. Gen Z also spends significantly more time with social platforms and user-generated content than the average consumer, while roughly half of Gen Z and millennials surveyed report feeling a stronger personal connection to social media creators than to television personalities or actors.
The implication for brands is significant: earning Gen Z’s attention may no longer be enough. Brands increasingly need to earn the credibility that comes from being recommended by people their audiences already choose to follow.
Why Do Creators Feel More Authentic to Gen Z?
The difference starts with the relationship between the audience and the messenger.
Traditional advertising generally begins with the brand: the company decides what it wants consumers to know and then builds a campaign around that message. Creators operate differently. They typically build an audience around a particular interest, personality, expertise, or community before a brand enters the picture.
Deloitte’s Creator Economy in 3D research found that 77% of consumers follow creators because of a shared interest or because they want to learn something new. The research also found that consumers are more likely to respond to a creator recommendation when they identify with that creator’s socioeconomic background.
How Are Creators Changing the Way Gen Z Discovers Brands?
Creators are increasingly becoming part of the discovery process itself. Research into social media and entertainment found that 63% of Gen Z gamers surveyed discovered new games through livestreamers and content creators. More than half also said they were more likely to trust a game publisher when their favorite gaming creator had promoted one of its games.
The same principle extends beyond gaming. A creator can introduce a product, demonstrate it, compare it with alternatives, answer questions, and show how it fits into everyday life—all within content the audience has voluntarily chosen to watch.
Why Smaller Creators Can Matter More
Brands sometimes assume that the biggest creator automatically offers the greatest value. Research suggests otherwise. Social-first brands are increasingly prioritizing micro- and mid-tier creators, with 84% and 87% respectively prioritizing these groups. Deloitte notes that these creators can generate stronger consumer action within their communities than celebrity-style partnerships that can feel disconnected from audiences.
A creator with 50,000 highly engaged followers may have a more meaningful relationship with a particular community than a celebrity with several million passive followers.
What Does This Mean for Brands Trying to Reach Gen Z?
The answer is not to abandon traditional branding. It is to rethink how brands participate in culture and conversation.
Creators can help brands become more human, but only if brands allow creators to maintain some of what made their content attractive in the first place. Creators place considerable importance on creative freedom. Among high-ROI brands, 40% were more likely to prioritize creators’ creative vision when selecting partners. Deloitte also found that creators were much more likely to continue partnerships when brands supported their long-term growth.
Gen Z’s relationship with creators is not simply about preferring TikTok or Instagram to traditional advertising. It reflects a broader shift in how younger consumers decide who deserves their attention and whose opinions feel relevant. Creators can build trust because they often speak from within a community rather than to an anonymous target audience. They can demonstrate products in real situations, share personal experiences, and develop relationships with followers over time.
But brands should not interpret this as a competition between corporations and creators. The opportunity lies in combining the two. The brands most likely to connect with Gen Z will be those that understand that trust cannot simply be purchased through advertising spend. It has to be earned through relevance, transparency, consistency, and relationships.
In the creator economy, the question is no longer simply “How many people can we reach?” It is increasingly “Who will people believe when they hear from us?”
