The creator economy is undergoing a rapid transformation. While opportunities for creators to monetize and build audiences are greater than ever, platform-driven changes have fragmented the creator–fan relationship, reducing reach and engagement for long-standing communities. Creators now face unpredictable income streams, algorithmic barriers, and increasing difficulty sustaining meaningful audience connections. The creator economy has become more complex, opaque, and dependent on attention-driven algorithms that can amplify or suppress content without warning.
We saw a fundamental shift that no other creator company had been able to speak to with meaningful data for creators. Other reports targeted brands or advertisers—we wanted to focus on insights that help creators directly.
“State of Create” was a first-of-its-kind effort to provide a comprehensive, data-driven view of this evolving landscape. The campaign defined the challenges creators face while highlighting opportunities for sustainable engagement, monetization, and community building. By surveying thousands of creators and fans, the initiative captured a multi-dimensional perspective on media creation, audience dynamics, platform experiences, and monetization methods. The resulting insights informed messaging, creative activations, and social campaigns that translated complex data into actionable takeaways for creators—not advertisers.
Our objective was to position Patreon as a thought leader in the creator economy, delivering actionable insights while revealing the broader impact of an attention-driven landscape on creators’ ability to reach and sustain their communities. Beyond data alone, we aimed to give creators a sense of being seen, validate their experiences, and underscore the importance of connection and community in a shifting ecosystem.
Research and Insights:
The goal was to quantify and contextualize how platform-driven changes—algorithmic feeds, short-form video prioritization, and the devaluation of follower-based reach—impact creators’ ability to engage audiences, earn revenue, and sustain creative communities. The research also explored fan behaviors and content preferences, providing a comprehensive view of the creator-fan ecosystem.
The study surveyed 1,007 active creators and 2,002 digital content fans in partnership with NewtonX. The creator sample reflected platform diversity (YouTube 82%, TikTok 75%, Instagram 79%, plus Patreon 18% and Spotify 19%), audience sizes from 1K to 2M+, and a mix of full-time (35%), part-time (43%), and hobbyist (21%) creators across short- and long-form video, photography, writing, visual art, livestreaming, music, and more. Fans were randomly sampled to provide a representative perspective. All respondents were verified for authenticity, and results were collected anonymously and aggregated to reduce bias.
Key findings highlighted systemic challenges, including the “fall of the follow” (53% of creators say reaching followers is harder than five years ago), the importance of core fans (80% likely to financially support creators, representing 56% of creator economy value), and the editorial impact of algorithms (78% of creators said algorithms influence what they create).
Data informed every stage of the campaign: survey results guided messaging, content formats, collaborator selection, social media strategy, and activation planning, ensuring initiatives reflected creators’ experiences.
Execution and Tactics:
The report was published on a dedicated microsite, designed in partnership with agency Porto Rocha to feel relatable and visually compelling. This included an exclusive zine for 250 unique creators, with a QR-code linking back to the microsite, allowing creators to explore the report digitally.
Creator collaborations: 20 social creators were handpicked to translate insights into programming that reflected their own creator experiences. Examples: Alex Krokus highlighting day-one fans, Rem Archives exploring community, SchyGuyy visualizing creative cycles, Andy J. Pizza celebrating quality over quantity (made a video and a carousel), Erma Fiend reflecting on trend-driven creation, and Number Four Soft Taco creating a custom block print of a report stat.
These activations leveraged insights on core communities, driving a creator-first strategy that generated 7.6x more impressions than brand-only posts and maintained engagement over six weeks.
Community and public events:
On platform, there was a homepage takeover for logged-out users and in-app notifications for logged-in users, plus partner amplification through Newton X, Porto Rocha, and Kyra, drove additional reach and engagement.
The campaign exceeded all key objectives and delivered meaningful impact for creators, fans, and the broader ecosystem.
Campaign content consistently outperformed benchmarks: 50+ posts achieved an average engagement rate of 7.1% (goal: 5%), and owned channels averaged 6.4% engagement, surpassing industry standards. Our social campaign was primarily creator-first, based on findings from the report on the importance of core fans, and that proved impactful: Social media impressions totaled 24.5M, above the 20M goal, driven by creator-first content that generated 7.6x more impressions than brand-only posts.
Trust among creators increased from 62 → 67%, exceeding the 65% target, with even stronger impact among those whose perceptions shifted after reading the report (77% trust). Positive sentiment remained high, with 90% of creators resonating with the report, and nearly 20% of comments highlighting relationship-driven monetization as a solution to algorithmic volatility.
Homepage takeover for logged-out users and in-app notifications for logged-in creators (12.43% CTR; 10,155 clicks; 81.7K impressions) drove traffic to the microsite.
Press coverage surpassed the goal of 10, with 15+ placements in outlets including Variety, Marketplace Tech, CNBC, Inc., and TechCrunch.
Some creator feedback includes:
